Last year, we did a huge content migration for a client. It involved thousands of sites, pages and documents. We helped them inventory everything. We helped them establish a consistent process and toolkit for their migration. We created training for the content developers. We even reworked a pile of content for them.
At the moment, we’re working with several companies on similar assignments. Everyone always says, garbage in, garbage out. But how do you keep the garbage from entering your lovely new platform during a migration?
Here is my 10-step guide to migrating great, usable content:
- Understand what you have – how much do you have, how is it segmented or grouped, when was the last time individual pieces were viewed, who owns what
- Archive items that haven’t been viewed in a long while, say 18-24 months
- Look at what’s left – is it in a proper format to facilitate consumption (not delivery), is it written for online consumption, is there feedback from users about the content
- Make decisions about what will move over and what will join the previously archived pile of content
- Make decisions about what format the content should be in once moved to its new home
- Make decisions about what clean up is required: a light edit, a really hard edit, or a complete rewrite
- Teach content developers to improve their own content
- Do the clean up work, incorporating metadata and taxonomy picks along the way
- Move the content!
- Conduct quality assurance checks and perhaps a little usability testing to make sure you’ve hit the mark
It’s not easy. It’s actually really challenging to do migration well. It demands time, commitment and persistence. In the end, your users will thank you and be more productive.
Look for more on this topic as I share what we learn in current projects and prepare to speak on the topic at the 2012 IABC World Conference in Chicago.
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