Top 5 Points For Migrating Website To WordPress

The rise of website development platforms proves, beyond doubt, to be a great revolution in the discipline of web development. The most commonly used website development platform is WordPress as compared to other platforms. A multitude of websites are either planning to migrate to WordPress or they already did. Website migration is a multistep process. But, there are some important points that we really need to focus on when migrating a website to WordPress.

According to W3Techs, WordPress powers 43% of all the websites on the Internet, including those without a content management system (CMS) or with a custom-coded CMS.

Migrating a website to WordPress comes in many flavors; some are tiny and others are massive. The most common ones are:

• Change of website URL’s
• Content migration
• Redesign of website or setting up complete new theme
• Switching hosting providers
• At last it can be combination of all above mentioned points

Furthermore, there are some major benefits of moving a website to WordPress as shown below in the image.

In this blog, we will specifically be elaborating on the top 5 points to focus on when migrating a website to WordPress and how the project of website migration was carried out by the team of expert WordPress developers at THE BRIHASPATI INFOTECH.

Project Scope : Migrating Website To WordPress From Perch CMS

Our client had a basic website built in Perch CMS. But the website was having various issues such as:

• Low loading speed of pages
• Outdated visual design
• Several security issues
• Coding errors and plugins problems

Therefore client reached out to us and planned to migrate the website to WordPress. In addition to this client also looked forward to re-launch the website coupled with some new key features.

The Challenges When Migrating Website To New Platform

Firstly, let’s see what challenges are involved when a website is migrated to the new platform. As the entire website will be moving to another platform and the whole setup will be new. This configuration of new setup often comes with various challenges such as :

• Losing SEO
• Loss of website content
• Setting up custom designs for website pages
• Proper pages speed optimization
• Configuring custom features similar to old website

Top 5 Points To Focus On When Migrating Website To WordPress

1. Maintaining The Correct URL Structure:

Firstly, let’s see why maintaining the correct URL structure is necessary during a website migration. Proper URL structuring assures that :

• Search engine ranking is appropriate
• Visitors on the website are stable
• No 404 error code
• Every pages of the website is available

Our team of WordPress Migration Experts implemented 301 redirect while working on the project of website migration to WordPress. In order to implement 301 redirect our team used some WordPress plugins as well as also edited the .htaccess web server configuration file.

2. Adopting Reliable Way For Content migration :

Proper migration of content from the old website to the new website is important to realize factor. A well-managed content will help :

• Attracting the right audience to the new migrated website
• Improve website overall performance in SERP’s
• Eventually helps in generating more sales OR increasing traffic on the website

Our in-house team of WordPress developers created a custom script for migrating content to WordPress from perch CMS. In addition to this our team also has a rich experience in using various WordPress off-the-shelf plugins available for data and content migration.

3. Setting up elegant design for website :

A good user interface facilitates interactions between the user and the website. In fact, it plays a vital role in :

• Makes website navigation easy to use
• Increases website usability and customer satisfaction
• Aids in SEO and website conversion

Old Perch CMS based website was having complex design and no WordPress theme was offering a similar layout. Hence, to design a layout identical to the old Perch CMS website our team at THE BRIHASPATI INFOTECH designed a custom theme. The overall layout of the website was made responsive i.e. mobile compatible. In addition to this, we also performed some work related to graphics design.

4. Including Custom Features And Their Importance:

Every website has different functionality. Sometimes to address the specific needs of business and to provide an exceptional user experience for customers it becomes important to include the custom features on the website. However, custom functionality also aids in :

• Delivering a better user experience
• Offering more scalable control over website features
• A best way to offer diverse features on website

While configuring the old website in WordPress client was planning for including the demo booking feature on the website. In order to include custom booking features on the website, our team of WordPress developers developed a custom plugin. The working flow of our custom demo booking plugin can be seen as demonstrated below in the image.

5. Retaining good loading speed of website after migration process :

47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Even a second of delay spells a loss of traffic, revenue, and credibility. So, by all means, it becomes very necessary to have a proper loading speed of the website because :

• Well optimized speed of website is first strong impression on the user
• Website speed affects its search engine ranking
• Low loading of website page decreases conversions rates

For migrating the website to WordPress and maintaining accurate loading speed we performed several tasks. For instance, our team was monitoring server performance regularly, images were well optimized, removed unwanted plugins followed the latest coding standards. Aside from this we also installed the latest stable version of WordPress.

Final Words

Proper content, a good search engine ranking, fast loading speed, elegant user interface, and at last custom features altogether make a superior website and eventually helps in boosting the business.

Do you have any existing website that doesn’t perform optimally? OR Are you looking to get a new custom website set up on WordPress?

If your answer to the above-mentioned questions is YES! Then without delay get in touch with us. Our experienced team of WordPress developers will offer you reliable and out-of-the-box solutions according to your needs.