The Great Content Migration Drive (part 1)

Posted by: Kyle Bondo, Director of Interactive Technology Sep 22, 2008 0 Comments

Regardless of what you hear about standards, governance, and best practices these days, the Internet in general—and website development in particular—is still the wild, wild west of the information age. Not unlike the era of western expansion across the United States in the 1800s, the Internet has its own version of small towns, dried-up watering holes, ranchers, outlaws, and an untamed wilderness as far as the twisted-pair and fiber lines can reach.

Over the past few years, business and association website owners have started to understand that the strict confines of a static website make managing thousands of pages of content nearly impossible. Most of these Internet pioneers all have similar problems: important content gets lost in the herd, sites are populated with content that should have been put out to pasture months (or years) ago, and their site has become harder to find among all the newer ones. It’s at this point that these Internet ranchers realize that it won’t be long before either their customers leave them or their content stampedes them. Either way, the end results will be the same—a confused online audience and a site ranked low on Google.

However, before all hope is lost, a salesman rides into town wielding the solution to every Internet rancher’s problem: a newfangled online solution called the content management system (CMS)! With buzzwords like “Web 2.0” and “dynamically driven,” it promises to put content in order, make everything easy to find, and allow for endless future expansion. Internet ranchers line up by the dozens to get their hands on their own CMS, expecting to see instant results after they apply it to their virtual acreage. Within weeks, the new fencing is up, the database barn is built, and the new paint on the ranch is dry. But when it comes to putting their content into new boundaries, the Internet ranchers quickly discover that not only does the cattle not fit, but they’re also not even sure what gate to start uploading it into.

With all the content still stuffed inside the old fence line and no clear way to move into the new CMS, the Internet rancher is now stuck with a whole new problem—how to migrate all that content into the new CMS and make it fit. This often-overlooked yet critical part of the CMS process is no small task. Usually it’s not until the new site is built and ready to go live that most organizations come to the sobering realization that their content (which has probably grown even more since starting the project) is far from ready to be added. How unfortunate that the main thing that brings customers and prospects to their Internet ranch—the content—is the one thing that’s forgotten during most website upgrades.

But have no fear, fellow Internet ranchers; there is a solution to your CMS woes. It’s called the Great Content Migration Drive! And it will save your ranch before your herd stampedes!

(To be continued…)