Moving your content to a new website?
By: Megan Freedman
Tags: Website, Website Redesign, Content, Content Migration, Content Strategy

These tips can save you time — and lead to happy users.

I’ve recently had the privilege of working with several city and county governments that are upgrading their websites. As a content strategist, I love these projects because they provide an opportunity to improve the user experience.

Website upgrades often involve moving content from an old website to a new one — a process called content migration. It can be a daunting undertaking that requires inter-department collaboration and a willingness to change — two things that don’t always come naturally to government institutions. And even a logistically flawless content migration (assuming such a thing existed!) could still result in a confusing website.

Luckily, there are things you can do early on that will help you coordinate efforts across departments and — best of all — lead to a more consistent and engaging user experience.

Develop criteria for content worth moving

Planning a content migration means deciding the fate of every existing page on the current website. Will it make the move, or will it get retired? Each department will need to review its web pages and decide their fates.

Before asking departments to flag content for migration, develop clear, written criteria to guide their decision-making. While content has probably been developed in silos — and realistically may be maintained that way in the future — this is the time to take a holistic look at the site.

Should this page be archived?

When in doubt, throw it out. Seriously. If you’re not sure who would read it, why they’d read it, or who would notice if it disappeared, archive it. (You can always save a “just in case” version somewhere if it’ll help you sleep at night.)

Some teams use the “ROT” framework to decide what to archive. If content is redundant, obsolete, or trivial, get rid of it. But it’s a good idea to provide your team with specific examples that meet these criteria, since they can be open to interpretation.

Is this page critical for launching the site?

A spot on the new site needs to be earned — migration shouldn’t be the default action for any content. Content is migration-worthy if:

It has a clear purpose that meets a user need — it helps them complete a task or provides information they can only get from your site

You’re legally required to post it

You can add to this criteria to meet the needs of your site and community. But be choosy. And avoid the temptation to migrate content now and deal with decision-making later.

Tip: The less you migrate now, the less you’ll have to maintain.

Could you wait and see?

If content needs an overhaul and it’s not launch-critical, make a couple of notes on what you’d like to change. Then set it aside for later. If you don’t go looking for it in the first 6 months after launch, it’s likely time to let it go (just like those boxes you’ve yet to unpack…).

Organize content to benefit users

When we work in government, we adapt to bureaucracy out of necessity. The unwieldy workarounds start to make sense to us, and we often need to know who does what in order to get our jobs done.

So it’s pretty understandable that governments historically organize their web content based on the department that oversees it. However, users shouldn’t need an org chart to find what they’re looking for. Instead, put information and services in context of who’ll need them and when.

For example, one community I worked with had a number of services for older adults — from fitness classes to social events to transportation. These services were provided by different departments, so users had to visit separate pages to gather information. For the new site, we created a category called “For Older Adults,” to allow users to see all of the city’s related content in one spot.