Migrating Your Website To Webflow?
Our Step-By-Step Plan To Make Sure It's Successful.
Every website will face a migration at some point. It's inevitable. The thought of moving your website, daunting as it may be, isn't the issue. The bigger question is why you have to migrate it in the first place. That's where the headache begins. Because each situation is different and requires a unique approach and specific planning strategy to ensure the transition is successful without disrupting your online presence. Or worse, losing data and encountering SEO problems.
Yikes! It's a lot to think about.
Luckily, there are a few ways you can approach it without losing everything along the way, including your mind. It's all about having a good plan in place. You want a smooth transition. Most businesses can't afford to have their website offline for any reason. But before you jump into putting a migration plan in place, the first step is to identify why a move is necessary.
Here are the top reasons you may need to migrate your website.
Improved Performance: Slow loading times, frequent downtime, or limited resources on your current hosting provider can negatively impact user experience and SEO rankings. Migrating to a faster, more reliable hosting environment can significantly improve website performance.
Enhanced Security: Security breaches, vulnerabilities, or outdated software on your current hosting or CMS can jeopardize your website's data and users' information. Migrating to a more secure platform or infrastructure can bolster your website's defenses against threats.
Platform Upgrade: Upgrading to a newer version of your CMS or switching to a different CMS can provide access to advanced features, better security, and improved ease of use. This can help you stay competitive and maintain a modern website.
Rebranding and Redesign: When undergoing a rebranding effort or updating your website's design, migration is often necessary to align your online presence with your new brand identity or design standards.
Scalability: As your website grows in popularity and user traffic, your current hosting or infrastructure may need to be improved. Migrating to a more scalable platform ensures your website can handle increased demands and continue to perform well as it expands.
At KHULA™, we do many rebranding projects, and Webflow often fits their needs, which is why we recommend it every time. It's easy to use and provides flexibility that many platforms don't. But before we make the transition for them, we always ensure there's a solid plan in place to keep things running smoothly.
Moving a website isn't easy, but if you're up for the challenge, we recommend following this Webflow Migration Plan.
1. Assess Your Current Website:
Review your existing website to understand its structure, content, and functionality. Take note of all the pages, media assets, and features you want to migrate.
2. Create a Webflow Account:
If you don't already have one, sign up for a Webflow account at https://webflow.com/signup
"or chat to us and we'll help you get started ;)"
3. Plan Your New Webflow Website:
Create a sitemap (information architecture) to outline your website's pages and hierarchy. You can do this in excel or there are some nice fancy tools out there you can use to create this with.
4. Set Up Hosting:
Webflow offers hosting services. You can either host your website with Webflow. Choose the hosting option that suits your needs.
5. Design Your Website:
Use Webflow's visual designer to recreate your website's design. You can use a Webflow template and purchase development hours (a DIY approach) or we can help you with a custom website design approach in Figma by creating your UX/UI design for each page from scratch.
6. Build Pages:
Build the pages of your new website in Webflow. Use the Webflow Designer to add elements, text, images, and other content to each page. Our dev team can you build out the site according to your existing design files or ours.
7. Copy and Paste Content:
If you're only migrating a few pieces of content from the old site, you can manually copy and paste that across or you can export your data from your old site into a .csv file and easily import this data into Webflow's powerful CMS and map the fields accordingly. Then fix the formatting of the content.
8. Rebuild Features and Functionality:
If your old website had specific features or functionality (e.g., contact forms, e-commerce, animations), recreate them using Webflow's built-in tools or custom code.
9. Set Up SEO:
Configure SEO settings for your Webflow website, including meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags for images. This is crucial to maintain or improve your search engine rankings.
10. Test and Optimize:
Thoroughly test your website on different devices and browsers to ensure it looks and functions correctly. Optimize page load times and performance.
11. Set Up Redirects:
If you're changing URLs or restructuring your website, set up 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones in Webflow. This preserves SEO rankings and user experience.
12. Migrate Forms and Integrations:
If your old website used forms or integrated with third-party services (e.g. email marketing, CRM, Google Analytics, GTM scripts, etc), ensure these are integrated with your new Webflow site.
13. Backup Your Old Website:
Before making any changes, back up your old website files and databases, this is a precaution if you need to revert to your old site.
14. Launch Your Webflow Website:
Once you're satisfied with the new site and have thoroughly tested it, update your DNS records to point to Webflow's hosting servers. This makes your Webflow site live.
15. Monitor and Maintain:
After the migration, monitor your website for any issues, such as broken links or missing functionality. Continue to update and optimize your site as needed. "We also do a few post SEO adjustments that help your site get noticed on SERP — this forms part of our comprehensive go-live checklist."
16. Inform Stakeholders:
Notify your team, clients, and users about the migration and any potential downtime. Provide them with information on how to contact support if they encounter issues.
If you know you need to migrate your website but are still determining if you want to tackle the transition, we can guide you through the process. We love helping clients get the most out of their websites while enjoying the ease and functionality of Webflow.
Get in touch and let us know how we can help improve your website to ensure it does exactly what it should: reach the right people to grow your business.