Migrating an Existing Site

To minimize disruption of your existing website services, your new ShoutCMS site is built on an internal sub-domain (e.g. mydomain .shoutcms.net). When ready to “go-live” you will initiate the publish website process that points your site to the URL you provide. This process typically takes 24 - 48 hours to complete. You should decommission any existing site content located at this URL before initiating the publish process. Migration of existing email accounts is discussed later in this document.

You should create a migration plan that outlines how existing content will be transferred from the existing site. This generally involves migrating HTML content through a cut-and-copy process – some reformatting may be required. If the content requires updating, you should review the existing site’s navigation structure and assess changes to the site’s layout prior to updating and transferring existing content.

Content migration plans should also consider using ShoutCMS’s powerful features including Featured Content navigation, automated menus, articles, products, page templates, web forms, and contacts. Implementing these features should be planned prior to migrating existing content to the new site. Migrating an existing site to ShoutCMS may involve the following major steps:
 

•     Defining menus, core navigation, and header footer content
•     Migrating images and other graphic assets
•     Migrating page content including embedded hyperlinks
•     Updating SEO content
•     Configuring Google Analytics
•     Configuring social media settings
•     Defining site security zones, user groups and access permissions
•     Defining online registration processes (optional)
•     Defining web forms (optional)
•     Defining Contact Groups and Identifiers and Alternate Contact Titles (optional)
•     Importing contacts and alternative contacts (optional)
•     Importing and Configuring products and pricing options (store)

Other Aspects of Site Migration

 

•     Acquiring a new URL or changing host account settings of existing URLs
•     Migrating existing email accounts
•     Decommissioning old internet services (may require changes to URL host account settings)