Moving a large site to WordPress Self Hosted

  • newbie76

    (@newbie76)


    12 years, 9 months ago

    Hi all,

    This seems like a good place to ask this question so here goes. I am currently evaluating options for a new website using wordpress. Whilst I am no stranger to the platform already having a blog on a self install.

    My question is this the website in question has over 400 pages, and has a decent enough page rank. However I believe WordPress would allow us to edit and arrange content a hell of a lot easier than the CMS we have now.

    My main concern is the transition from our current CMS to WordPress and loss of links etc etc and potentially page rank etc.

    I can see the benefit of using WordPress from an SEO view and ease of use not only for us but for end users (current system is clunky and looks junk from an aesthetic POV!)

    Has anyone had any experience of moving reasonable sized sites over to WordPress and the processes they went through, just want to rule anything out just in case it is too problematic.

    Look forward to your feedback (if any!)

    Cheers

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Rev. Voodoo

    (@rvoodoo)

    12 years, 9 months ago

    Well, the obvious initial issue is the physical transfer. What sort of site are you coming from? What process will you use to do the transfer?

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Importing_Content
    Is some info, google may help you further

    The next issue is permalinks. Will the old/new sites be the same domain?

    If so, are you able to replicate your existing permalink structure?
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

    If not, you may have some serious redirecting to consider. Again, google will probably be useful here

    GRAQ

    (@graq)

    12 years, 9 months ago

    If you cannot get a good permalink match, you may need to build your own redirection plugin.

    Briefly; note all the old urls, match them up with all the new urls. If an incoming link matches an old url, then 301 to the new one.

    Thread Starter newbie76

    (@newbie76)

    12 years, 9 months ago

    Hi people,

    did not expect a response at all, so firstly wanted to thank you all for bothering to answer my query.

    I have just checked and there is 1285 urls to redirect! So quite a lot of work to be done!!!!

    Was thinking of building the site on WAMP naming the folder of the site the same as the website performing all URL redirects then swapping the sites over.

    That way theoretically the process should be relatively smooth, may well rewrite a lot of the content as it is outdated and quite frankly junk.

    Rev. Voodoo

    (@rvoodoo)

    12 years, 9 months ago

    remember the virtual domain process, and it’ll help you a lot!

    That way you can install a WAMP WP and have the same domain as your live site…. no need to change URLs later

    http://devpress.com/blog/a-really-sweet-wordpress-development-environment/

    Has some good info

    Thread Starter newbie76

    (@newbie76)

    12 years, 9 months ago

    Thanks Rev.Voodo will look into it, really appreciate everyones help!

    Cheers

    TimeHealer

    (@timehealer)

    12 years, 9 months ago

    One thing you can do is see what’s building your page rank. If all the external links are just to the main home-page, then obviously not having perfect redirection won’t be too big of a deal.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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