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Benefits of Moving From Kentico To WordPress | Migrating From Kentico
Migrating from Kentico CMS to WordPress is a significant transition that necessitates meticulous preparation and strategic planning. At Web Experts, we specialize in guiding organizations through this intricate process, ensuring a smooth and effective transition. The journey from Kentico to WordPress involves a comprehensive evaluation of numerous aspects such as content, functionality, design, and technology. Our team is adept at analyzing your existing Kentico setup and crafting recommendations that align perfectly with your business objectives and requirements.
The migration process begins with a thorough audit of all custom code, modules, and functionalities that have been developed on Kentico CMS. This step is crucial as these elements will need to be replicated or reimagined in the WordPress environment, often necessitating the use of multiple plugins to achieve similar functionalities. This stage is an opportune moment to review the complexity of your current system and estimate the effort required for the transition. It also serves as the perfect time to retire any legacy custom features that are no longer necessary or relevant, thus streamlining your new WordPress setup.
A key aspect of the migration is managing your content effectively. This involves documenting all content types currently in use – including pages, blogs, events, and more – and understanding the intricacies of the associated content models, fields, and metadata. It’s essential to map out the existing relationships between different content types and their architecture. Tools like CMS2CMS can be instrumental in migrating content to WordPress, but thorough testing is imperative before full deployment. Additionally, it’s important to allocate time for training your content creators on the new editorial workflows in WordPress, ensuring a seamless transition for your team.
Minimizing downtime is a critical consideration when moving from Kentico to WordPress. Establishing clear timelines for testing and the final switch-over is essential. We recommend having the WordPress site hosted on new servers and ready for launch well in advance. Redirecting traffic from old Kentico URLs using 301 redirects is crucial to maintain web presence and search rankings. A phased launch, perhaps section by section, can be a prudent approach, and always have a rollback plan ready in case of unexpected issues.
SEO optimization should be a central focus during the migration to WordPress. This involves a careful analysis of your current content and metadata, with an emphasis on improving elements like titles, descriptions, and URL structures. Implementing sitemaps, integrating with Google Search Console, and other SEO tools are vital steps. Post-launch, it’s important to monitor traffic and rankings and continuously optimize based on the insights gathered.
Security considerations are paramount when transitioning from Kentico CMS to WordPress. It is essential to fully apply WordPress security best practices. This includes limiting the use of plugins to only those that are essential and ensuring constant software updates are applied. Regular security audits should be conducted, and any concerns should be addressed immediately to maintain the integrity of your site.
The design aspect of your website may require adjustments when migrating to WordPress and adopting a new theme. Allocate sufficient time to test your current design in a WordPress staging environment. This stage also presents an opportunity to potentially refresh the visual elements of your website as part of the transition process.
Although there are upfront costs involved in the migration, the long-term financial benefits are significant. Moving away from Kentico eliminates licensing fees, and leveraging WordPress’s open-source nature offers considerable savings. The WordPress ecosystem is rich with affordable talent and optimized hosting options, contributing to overall cost efficiency.
To facilitate this process, here is an internal checklist we use at Web Experts for migrating clients from Kentico to WordPress. This checklist ensures that every critical aspect of the migration is addressed, paving the way for a successful transition to a more flexible and dynamic WordPress platform.
Planning Phase
- [ ] Audit all custom functionality and estimate recreation effort
- [ ] Document all content types, models and fields
- [ ] Map legacy content architecture to new WordPress structure
- [ ] Select WordPress hosting provider and setup staging site
- [ ] Install CMS2CMS or similar migration tool
Migration Phase
- [ ] Migrate all website content to WordPress
- [ ] Validate content migration, fix any errors
- [ ] Recreate custom functions and integrate plugins
- [ ] Configure SEO settings like sitemaps
- [ ] Implement 301 redirects to preserve SEO
Launch Phase
- [ ] Perform security and performance testing
- [ ] Finalize launch protocol and rollback plan
- [ ] Migrate DNS and launch WordPress site!
- [ ] Monitor health post-launch and fix errors
Post Launch
- [ ] Iterate on design, content and features
- [ ] Expand SEO and marketing efforts
- [ ] Ongoing security audits and updates
- [ ] User training on WordPress workflow
Final thoughts on moving from Kentico to WordPress:
Moving from Kentico CMS to WordPress offers many benefits but requires careful planning and execution. If undertaken properly, organizations can gain more flexibility, lower costs and easier management.
When making this transition, it’s important to thoroughly audit current functionality, content, design and infrastructure. Follow proven practices to migrate legacy architecture, optimize SEO, boost security and minimize downtime. Leverage tools to streamline the data transfer process.
Our team at Web Experts has extensive experience successfully migrating websites from Kentico CMS to WordPress. We guide companies through the entire process from planning to launch and beyond. If you are looking to reduce website costs long-term by making the switch to WordPress, reach out to us today. Our experts can evaluate your current setup and provide a comprehensive plan tailored to your specific needs and goals.
With our strategic guidance and technical expertise, we ensure a smooth transition that maintains business continuity. Contact Web Experts to start leveraging the many benefits and cost savings of moving from Kentico to WordPress.
