Five practical steps to prepare for your headless CMS migration

A CMS migration is rarely just about switching platforms. It’s usually a reaction to deeper issues – workflows that don’t work, websites that are hard to update, and content that’s grown arms and legs with no one quite sure who owns what. Moving to a headless CMS is your chance to fix all that. But only if you lay the right foundations.

In our first post, we looked at what a headless CMS migration involves and why it’s worth doing. In this one, we’re focusing on preparation – the things you can (and should) do before you start moving content or building new front ends.

It’s easy to underestimate just how much content your organisation has – and how much of it you don’t actually need. A migration is the perfect opportunity to step back, take stock, and make deliberate choices about what stays and what goes.

Start by creating a content inventory. You don’t need fancy tools; an export from your CMS or a spreadsheet is enough to get going. Aim to answer:

• What content types do we have?
• Which pages are getting traffic or generating conversions?
• What’s still accurate and up to date?
• What’s duplicated, poorly written, or completely redundant?

Group content into categories like:

• Keep as-is
• Update or consolidate
• Archive or remove

Where possible, involve the people closest to the content. Editors and comms teams will have a better feel for what gets used and what’s just clutter.

Be honest: if a page hasn’t been touched in five years and no one can explain what it’s for, it probably doesn’t need to make the move. Focus on quality over quantity.

Once you’ve grouped and assessed your content, look for patterns. Are there types of content that follow a repeatable structure? Could a more modular setup make this content easier to manage and reuse in the future?

You can also use this phase to spot accessibility issues, tagging inconsistencies, or content locked away in PDFs. Flag those for remediation during the migration.

A thorough audit doesn’t just reduce the volume of content you have to migrate. It helps you step back and start thinking about your content differently – less like a collection of pages, and more like a set of building blocks that can be reused, remixed, and delivered wherever your users need them.

A headless CMS migration touches more than just the content and development teams. Decisions about structure, workflows, integrations, and governance will affect people across your organisation, so it’s important to bring them in early.

Start by identifying your core stakeholder groups. This will usually include:

• Content editors and owners – the people who use the CMS day-to-day and know where the pain points are
• Marketing and communications – responsible for messaging, tone, campaign landing pages, and brand compliance
• Developers and IT leads – responsible for integrations, deployments, and long-term maintainability
• Governance, legal, or accessibility teams – making sure your content meets regulatory standards, brand guidelines, and accessibility requirements

Beyond this core group, consider peripheral contributors like service owners, SEO specialists, or data and analytics teams that rely on structured content.

Get these groups involved early – before any decisions are made about structure, tooling, or migration timelines. Run discovery sessions or workshops to find out what works well today, what causes frustration, and what each team needs from the new system. These conversations will surface valuable insights – and help you avoid nasty surprises halfway through the project.

As well as helping to uncover risks and opportunities you might otherwise miss, getting stakeholders involved early in the process also helps with alignment. When people feel like they’ve been consulted, they’re much more likely to support the project and adopt the new system without resistance.

Remember, a successful migration isn’t just about launching new tech; it’s about making sure the people who use it every day are set up to succeed.

One of the biggest shifts when moving to a headless CMS is thinking in terms of structured, modular content rather than static pages. That mindset shift starts early – and even a rough sketch of your content structure can save you time and rework later.

Begin by identifying your core content types. These might include things like courses, events, staff profiles, service listings, or news articles. For each type, ask:

• What fields does this content need?
• How is it currently structured?
• Where else might we want to reuse this content?

Instead of designing layouts, focus on content relationships and reuse. For example, an event might not be a single block of content, but a structured entry with:

• Event title
• Date and time
• Location (physical or online)
• Description
• Audience type (e.g. staff, students, residents)
• Organising department or team (linked)
• Tags or categories
• Related documents or assets (e.g. PDFs, images)

From there, think about how these types connect. Can an event have multiple organising departments? Should a news article be tagged to a specific department or audience type? Mapping these relationships is part of what’s known as domain modelling – and it helps you build a system that reflects how your organisation actually operates.

At this stage, you don’t need to get everything perfect. But investing time now to sketch out a sensible, scalable content structure will help you spot content relationships you’ll want to preserve, avoid page-centric thinking, and set the foundation for personalised experiences, filtered views, and dynamic publishing.

Involve both developers and content editors in this process. Developers will consider the API and front-end implications. Editors will spot the practical pitfalls, like when content needs to be duplicated because the current model doesn’t support it.

If you're new to content modelling, check out my colleague Joe’s excellent introduction for more information.

Most publishing workflows grow over time, and not always in a good way. They’re often based on legacy systems, informal approvals, or staff availability. The result? Delays, missed steps, and content that never quite gets finished.

A CMS migration gives you the chance to hit reset. Start by mapping your current publishing process in as much detail as possible. This isn’t about defining what the process should be – it’s about detailing what actually happens today.

Ask questions like:

• Who creates content? Are they working in Word, Google Docs, or directly in the CMS?
• Who reviews it? Is there a formal approval process or does it vary by team?
• Who is responsible for publishing? Do they have everything they need?
• What tools are involved – spreadsheets, shared drives, emails, side chats?

Visualising this process – on a whiteboard, in a diagram, or even a simple flowchart – can highlight friction points you’ve come to accept as normal. Long email chains. Manual formatting. Content going live without the right approvals.

Once you understand the current picture, you can begin designing a better one. Use your new CMS to build workflows that:

• Reflect your actual publishing process
• Include built-in checks and approvals
• Assign responsibilities clearly
• Notify the right people at the right time

If you're migrating to Contensis, check out this article on setting up workflows that help you
produce content more efficiently.

Headless CMS platforms often give you much more flexibility around workflow configuration. But that means you need to be intentional about how you set it up.

If a piece of content needs legal sign-off, build that into the workflow. If something needs two sets of eyes before it goes live, make sure the right people are notified. If editors need a visual cue when a page is incomplete, set up validation rules. Involve both editors and approvers in this phase. You’ll get a clearer understanding of what people need – and what’s been holding them back.

By designing publishing workflows that support your team, rather than complicating their work, you’ll reduce delays, improve quality, and make the most of your new CMS from day one.

“We launched the new site” is a milestone. But it’s not the reason you’re migrating.

A successful headless CMS migration should leave your organisation in a better place – not just with a new platform, but with better processes, more control, and a clearer sense of what good looks like.

Start by defining what success means for you. That might include:

• Reducing the amount of duplicated or inconsistent content
• Giving content editors more autonomy and better tools
• Shortening the time from draft to publish
• Improving governance, accessibility, or tagging compliance
• Being able to manage multiple sites, services, or audiences from one central place

It’s also worth thinking about how you’ll measure success. Are there specific KPIs or benchmarks you can track before and after migration – like page load times, content engagement, or time spent on content reviews?

The point isn’t to chase arbitrary metrics – it’s to keep your team focused on solving real problems. And to ensure your migration doesn’t just deliver a new CMS, but provides better outcomes for your users and your organisation.

You can’t improve what you don’t define. So set those success criteria now, and use them to keep your migration focused and accountable.

Laying the groundwork for your CMS migration doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be deliberate. The decisions you make now will shape how your new CMS works, how your team feels about using it, and how much value you get from it over time.

In the final post in this series, we’ll show how Contensis supports every step of the migration journey, from planning and modelling to content delivery and beyond.

In the meantime, if you want to get a head start on your content audit, download our free content inventory template – a practical tool to help you assess your current content and make informed decisions about what’s worth migrating.