Your Drupal to WordPress migration is complete – what’s next?

Now that your Drupal to WordPress migration is complete, it’s time to focus on the next steps.

Training your team after successful Drupal to WordPress migration

Now that your Drupal to WordPress migration is complete, it’s time to familiarize your team with your new WordPress CMS. Remember, moving from Drupal to WordPress is a significant change, so providing adequate WordPress training is essential for a smooth transition.

While WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface, proper training will help your team maximize their efficiency and productivity. By understanding WordPress’s dashboard and its different features and tools, the team can quickly adapt to the new environment and continue their work seamlessly.

Here’s how you could structure your training.

1. WordPress basics:

• Logging into the WordPress dashboard: Show your users how to access the WordPress dashboard.
• Navigating the dashboard: Familiarize your team with the WordPress dashboard, the main control center for your website.
• Understanding user roles: Explain the different roles and permissions to your teams and ensure appropriate access control.

2. Essential WordPress concepts:

• Understanding your page builders: For starters know the various terminologies like Block, Pattern and Templates. 
• Using plugins: Explain how the different plugins you’ve used in your WordPress stack work and what features they bring to your website.
• Improving your search engine rankings: Provide guidance on optimizing your content for search engines.
• Protecting your website: Discuss security best practices with your team for keeping your WordPress site secure—security is always a joint responsibility.

3. Editorial workflow:

• Content creation and editing: Train your editorial team to use the WordPress editor to create and edit content effectively
• Review and approval processes: Establish clear guidelines for content reviews and approvals to maintain quality standards.
• Publishing content: Teach your team how to publish content using the WordPress publishing workflow.

By providing comprehensive training on these topics, you’ll empower your team to navigate the WordPress environment confidently. 

As part of our Drupal to WordPress migration services, we also develop training modules to show your team their way around your new WordPress setup.

Ensuring content accuracy after migrating from Drupal to WordPress

It’s important to validate your content after completing the Drupal to WordPress migration. This step ensures that all posts, pages, images, media, and metadata have transferred correctly to WordPress, helping you avoid broken links and missing content that could impact user experience and SEO.

Steps for successful content accuracy

1. Create a content inventory
   List all the content on your Drupal site, including pages, posts, custom content types, and taxonomies (categories and tags). Use a spreadsheet to track each item, noting its URL, type, and special fields.
2. Conduct a comprehensive review
   After migration, review your new WordPress site. Compare the original Drupal content with the migrated content, focusing on text, formatting, and links to catch any errors.
3. Address custom content types
   Ensure that custom fields in Drupal are mapped to their WordPress counterparts. Check that internal links redirect properly to maintain navigation.

Security and user administration

Security and user administration are vital aspects of maintaining a robust and reliable WordPress site.

1. Prioritize security
   Use strong passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and keep security plugins updated. Assign appropriate roles and permissions to users to protect your site.
2. Review user roles
   Adjust user roles to fit your site’s needs. While WordPress has default roles like Administrator and Editor, you can customize them using plugins like “User Role Editor.”
3. Encourage password resets
   Ask all users to reset their passwords after migration to enhance security. Consider implementing two-factor authentication for extra protection.

Plugin and theme management

Effective plugin and theme management is essential for optimizing your WordPress site.

1. Update plugins and themes
   Ensure all plugins and themes are up to date to prevent compatibility issues and improve performance.
2. Keep WordPress core updated
   Regularly update the WordPress core for security and stability. Enable auto-updates to stay current with new features.
3. Implement auto-updates
   Test major updates for compatibility before applying them. Minor updates can generally be set to auto-update, as they include important security fixes.

Additional considerations

There are also some additional considerations to keep in mind after migrating to WordPress.

1. Set up analytics
   After migration, set up Google Analytics or your preferred tool to track website traffic. Confirm that the analytics code is properly installed.
2. Review third-party tool integrations
   Test all third-party integrations, like SEO plugins and email marketing tools, to ensure they function correctly on WordPress.
3. Implement caching techniques
   Use caching to boost your site’s performance and speed, reducing server load.
4. Maintain SEO rankings
   Ensure your SEO plugins are updated and set up 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones to preserve traffic.
5. Update the robots.txt file
   Modify your robots.txt file to help search engines navigate your site effectively.
6. Check on-site SEO elements
   Review meta tags, headings, and internal links to improve search visibility.
7. Monitor search rankings
   Regularly check search rankings using Google Search Console and analyze engagement metrics.

Final testing and post-launch monitoring

After migration, it’s important to conduct final testing and monitor the site’s performance to ensure a smooth launch

1. Conduct thorough testing
   Test all the features of your site, including forms, links, content display, search functionality, performance, and mobile responsiveness to ensure a smooth user experience.
2. Engage in post-launch monitoring
   Continuously monitor your site’s speed and loading times to avoid frustrating users.
3. Review error logs
   Check server and WordPress error logs regularly for any suspicious activity or recurring issues.
4. Gather user feedback
   Encourage users to provide feedback through comments or surveys to identify areas for improvement.

By following these steps, you can achieve a successful migration from Drupal to WordPress, enhancing both site security and functionality.