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Content Migration vs. Site Building March 1st, 2009
No Comments Content migration is easy. You take an old page, copy it, and then paste it into a new page. It’s a one to one relationship, no real changes happen, and a couple hundred pages can be done with minimal effort. Most sites designed today could even be done without a CMS, simply using straight HTML.
If those words are ever said to you, run. The truth is that “Content Migration” is no longer a reality. The old days of building sites using straight HTML with few content relationships are gone, much like the “Site Under Construction” signs and animated bouncy-ball bullet images. With modern, user-centric Web sites, the term “Content Migration” should be outlawed – you are building a Web site, not helping flocks of content cross international digital boundaries.
Before someone can begin the process of a site build in today’s world of complex content relationships, you have to understand the reality of those relationships, the amount of content you currently have, and the likelihood that content providers will create the new content you need. Often sites are designed with an assumption that the ideal content can be created and maintained past initial launch without making any major changes. This is rarely true and can seriously delay the initial launch of a site.
Content Inventory
The first step in designing your site is to know what you already have. Without that, and in the absence of complete institutional content change, your old content will not fit the new architecture. Shoehorning content into a new structure doesn’t tend to work. It normally needs to be rewritten, manipulated, separated, and catalogued in any number of different ways to accurately reflect some new web of relationships.
Content Governance
Unless there is institutional buy-in, and a content governance model to ensure this set of desired content is created, the content will not materialize. It certainly won’t continue to be created once the consultants have come and gone. You are the expert on your content: if you can’t write it, don’t own it, and can’t see the value of it – you won’t produce it on an ongoing basis.
The relationships between areas of content, the reason for having them, and the business rules behind them must be fully explained and documented. Without these rules and explanations, decisions will be made during the site build “on the fly” and without the benefit of the months of preparation that created this rich tapestry of content overlay. In other words, usually content will be created or altered in a way that fits the most expedient need and those decisions will be wrong.
Implications of the CMS and Platform Choice
Beyond the content tasks, you must also consider the complexity of the system that this content will be put into. Things like license count for content editors, user levels (admin or simple “web edit” level access), publishing rights, server capacity, and additional personnel who may also be working on the system at the same time. Load test the server – can it handle what you plan on putting it through? Do you have licenses for the number of content editors you’ll need? Do you have the appropriate user level license so that the job can be done in the most efficient manner possible? Do the content editors you have in place have the appropriate technical skills (if any are to be had) in order to input the content in a time efficient manner? Do you have a technical point of contact that can (and will) be able to help solve technical problems on a real time basis? Do you have a point of contact who can make content decisions?
What prebuilt pieces must be done technically before you can “tag” content with specific relationship building meta-data? Are these already approved and built into the system ? – they should be. Do all of the third party interfaces that your site will interact with already have the technical connection worked out? There is nothing worse than building a hundred pages with links to a video stream source only to find that the links were incorrectly pointing at the wrong streaming server. The technical issues vary greatly from CMS to CMS, platform to platform, and must be taken into account prior to this exercise. Consult with the vendor and your technical resources as much as possible to make sure your assumptions are validated and locked down, prior to moving any content.
Once you understand all of the content and technical issues, you will need to use most of the following steps to build your site. This is assuming the prior phases have been completed, signed off on, and that you have a working shell of a Web site, ready to build. The two most important things at this point are to stay on plan and communicate with your team members.
Basic Content Migration Process
- Step 1: Document Current Content Inventory and Site Map
- Step 2: Create New Site Map
- Step 3: Create Migration Map
- Step 4: Create Content Style Guide
- Step 5: Receive and Review New Content
- Step 6: Test Build Examples
- Step 7: Plan Build Schedule
- Step 8: Build Site and Evaluate Milestones
- Step 9: Conduct a "QA" (Quality Assurance) Check
- Step 10: Prepare to Launch Built Site
Conclusion
If the steps above look like they are overkill and just too much investment, then you need to rethink doing a site build. Every one of them is vital, even in their abbreviated form, to the success of your site building exercise. If a step is skipped, ignored, or neglected, the process will falter and perhaps fail during the site build step. Not to mention the costs associated with an overrun of that scope, the frustration and anxiety will dishearten all involved. Thus turning what should be an exciting success for all involved into a miserable experience fraught with disappointment and harmed reputations.
One thing you’ll note in this process is that very little “content migration” has actually happened. You’ve had a large amount of content transformation, content alterations, and content creation – but in general, copying and pasting is the least of the work involved. The Pareto principle looms here, as with most things, 80% of your time will be dealing with 20% of your content. But, having taken the time to do this process correctly, the end result should be a rather polished and usable web site that all sides: client, consultant, and of course the client’s customers, can be happy with.
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