CMS migration checklist

Moving a website off WordPress, Drupal, HubSpot, Sitecore or Shopify is 31 distinct jobs, not one. This checklist covers the whole move — content and media, brand and design, translations, forms and integrations, the rebuild itself and launch day — in the order a web developer or agency actually works through them.

Every table reads the same way. On the left, the step done manually, with the real tools it needs and an honest time estimate for a 250-page multi-language site. On the right, the same step produced automatically by Sitejump and written into your Lovable project. Manual total across the seven phases: 100–224 h of specialist time, plus tool licences.

Rankings are a separate list. This page is about moving the website. URL inventory, 301 mapping, metadata, structured data and search visibility — for both search engines and the AI assistants that quote you — live in the SEO and GEO migration checklist. Run both.

PhaseSitejump— automated
1. InventoryPages, CMS, dependencies, forms and embeds inventoried in the package
2. Content and mediaFull text, assets, alt text and a screenshot for every page
3. Brand and designPalette, fonts, logo and navigation extracted as tokens and components
4. TranslationsEvery locale detected, translations kept paired with their source page
5. Forms and integrationsForms, embeds, tracking IDs and consent scripts captured and rebuilt
6. RebuildThe Lovable agent builds from your package, via the Sitejump MCP
7. LaunchHost config generated, every old URL verified, sitemap submitted from your project
TotalOne payment, one MCP connection, then the agent builds

How it is set up

The automation above runs through a short, one-time sequence you do yourself, in this order.

  1. 1. Paste your website address. The free audit samples five pages plus your sitemap and reports your CMS, page and language count, palette, fonts and an SEO preview.
  2. 2. Pay for the migration. The full crawl runs and builds your package: pages and copy, assets, locales, design tokens, forms and embeds, screenshots, the redirect map and the SEO and GEO report.
  3. 3. Connect the Sitejump MCP to your Lovable project. One paste of a connector URL inside Lovable — the connection steps are here.
  4. 4. Ask Lovable to rebuild. The agent works page by page from the package, writing content, components, assets, metadata and redirect config into your project's code.
  5. 5. Connect the integrations you need. Google Search Console, Google Analytics, your CRM — all connected inside your own Lovable project, under your own accounts. Do the Search Console step while the old site is still live, so your ranking baseline is captured before the switch.

1Before you move: inventory the whole site

A CMS migration fails on the things nobody wrote down: the plugin that renders the pricing table, the form that emails sales, the third language nobody maintains. This phase is a full inventory of pages, templates, dependencies and integrations while the old site is still live.

Manual effort for this phase: 12–20 hours for a 250-page site.

Before you move: inventory the whole site
  • Manually

    Complete page and URL inventory

    Crawl the live site, then reconcile the export against the CMS page tree and the sitemap for anything the crawler never reached.

    Tools: Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Sitebulb, CMS page export, sitemap.xml

    Time: 3–5 h

    With Sitejump

    Every page crawled, counted and listed

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Content audit: what to keep, merge or retire

    Reading each page with the content owner and recording a decision per row in a spreadsheet.

    Tools: Spreadsheet, analytics traffic data

    Time: 3–5 h

    With Sitejump

    Page list with traffic and metadata to decide from

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Template and component inventory

    Working out how many distinct layouts exist behind the page count, and which components repeat across them.

    Tools: Manual review of the theme or template files

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Repeating layouts and components detected per page

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    CMS plugin, module and dependency list

    Listing every WordPress plugin, Drupal module or HubSpot module the front end actually depends on, and what replaces it.

    Tools: CMS admin, page source review

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    CMS and its front-end dependencies identified in the extraction report

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Forms, integrations and third-party embeds

    Clicking through the site to find every form, widget, embed and script tag.

    Tools: Browser dev tools, tag manager container, CMS form list

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Forms, embeds and scripts recorded page by page

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

2Content and media

The largest and dullest part of any replatform: getting every word, image, PDF and download out of the old CMS in a shape the new site can use. Copy-paste is where deadlines go to die.

Manual effort for this phase: 14–24 hours for a 250-page site.

Content and media
  • Manually

    Page copy extracted with its structure intact

    Copying body content page by page out of the editor, then repairing lost formatting, lists and tables.

    Tools: CMS export or copy-paste, Markdown cleanup

    Time: 6–10 h

    With Sitejump

    Full text of every page, structured, ready for the rebuild

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Images, PDFs and downloads collected

    Exporting the media library, then chasing files hosted outside it and de-duplicating the rest.

    Tools: CMS media export, second crawl pass in asset mode

    Time: 3–5 h

    With Sitejump

    Every asset downloaded and listed with the page that uses it

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Alt text and captions kept with the media

    Retyping alt attributes and captions after every re-upload.

    Tools: Crawler alt-text report, spreadsheet

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Alt text and captions carried with each image

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Embedded video, maps and iframes re-created

    Finding each embed, noting its provider and re-inserting it in the new build.

    Tools: Page source review, provider embed codes

    Time: 1–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Embeds recorded per page and rebuilt in your project

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    A visual reference of each old page

    Capturing full-page screenshots one URL at a time so the rebuild has something to match.

    Tools: Browser capture extension or a paid capture API

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Full-page screenshot per page in the package

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

3Brand and design

Clients notice a wrong blue faster than a missing redirect. Colours, type, spacing and the shape of the navigation have to survive the move even when the code underneath is entirely new.

Manual effort for this phase: 10–16 hours for a 250-page site.

Brand and design
  • Manually

    Colour palette captured as design tokens

    Eyedropping the live site or digging values out of the theme stylesheet.

    Tools: Browser dev tools, colour picker, brand guidelines

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Palette extracted from the live stylesheet as tokens

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Typography: families, weights and scale

    Reading computed styles per heading level and re-licensing or re-linking the fonts.

    Tools: Browser dev tools, Google Fonts or the font vendor

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Font families, weights and type scale detected

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Logo, favicon and social share images

    Hunting down source files at the right sizes and regenerating the icon set.

    Tools: Asset archive, favicon generator

    Time: 1–2 h

    With Sitejump

    Logo, favicon and Open Graph images pulled with the assets

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Navigation, header and footer rebuilt

    Re-creating menus, mega-menus and footer link groups from the old markup.

    Tools: Old page source, new component library

    Time: 3–5 h

    With Sitejump

    Navigation structure written into your project by the agent

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Responsive behaviour checked on real breakpoints

    Testing every template at phone, tablet and desktop widths after each change.

    Tools: Browser device emulation, real devices

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Responsive components generated from the start

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

4Translations and locales

Multi-language sites are where hand migrations quietly double in cost. Every locale multiplies the pages, the URLs and the chances of shipping an English page under a Finnish address.

Manual effort for this phase: 6–12 hours for a 250-page site.

Translations and locales
  • Manually

    Every language and region version found

    Walking the language switcher and the CMS translation tables locale by locale.

    Tools: CMS translation admin, hreflang report

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    All locales detected and listed automatically

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    URL structure per locale decided and applied

    Agreeing on prefixes or subdomains, then rewriting the map for each language.

    Tools: Spreadsheet, new platform routing

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Per-locale routes proposed in the rebuild plan

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Translated content moved with the page it belongs to

    Exporting per locale and re-pairing translations with their source page by hand.

    Tools: CMS export per locale, spreadsheet

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Translations kept paired with their source page

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

5Forms, integrations and tracking

Content is only half a website. If the contact form stops emailing sales or the consent banner disappears, the migration is a failure no matter how good the pages look.

Manual effort for this phase: 10–18 hours for a 250-page site.

Forms, integrations and tracking
  • Manually

    Contact and lead forms rebuilt and tested end to end

    Re-creating each field, wiring delivery, then submitting real tests per form.

    Tools: New form handler or backend, email inbox, CRM

    Time: 3–6 h

    With Sitejump

    Every form's fields captured; the agent rebuilds them in your project

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Newsletter, CRM and marketing automation reconnected

    Re-authenticating each integration and re-pointing the endpoints.

    Tools: HubSpot, Mailchimp or your CRM admin

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Integrations listed; reconnected once inside your Lovable project

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Site search, gated content and logins

    Choosing a replacement for the CMS feature and rebuilding the flow.

    Tools: Search provider, auth provider

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Existing behaviour documented so the agent can rebuild it

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Analytics, tag manager and pixels re-applied

    Digging GA4, Tag Manager and pixel IDs out of the old templates and re-adding them.

    Tools: Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel

    Time: 1–2 h

    With Sitejump

    GA4, Tag Manager and pixel IDs re-applied automatically

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Cookie consent and privacy notices carried over

    Re-installing the consent tool and re-checking which scripts it must gate.

    Tools: Consent management platform, legal review

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Consent scripts detected on the old site and flagged for the rebuild

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

6Rebuild in Lovable

This is where a hand migration turns into weeks of implementation. With Sitejump the package is already in the project: you connect the MCP once, then ask the agent to build, page by page, with progress tracked.

Manual effort for this phase: 40–120 hours for a 250-page site.

Rebuild in Lovable
  • Manually

    Set up the new project and component system

    Scaffolding the stack, the design tokens and a base component library.

    Tools: Your framework of choice, design system work

    Time: 8–16 h

    With Sitejump

    Design tokens and component patterns delivered with the package

    Delivered in your crawl package

    Tools: Sitejump crawl agent

    Automated

  • Manually

    Build every page against the old one

    Implementing each template and page, checking it against a screenshot.

    Tools: Code editor, old site side by side

    Time: 30–100 h

    With Sitejump

    The Lovable agent writes the pages from your package

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

  • Manually

    Keep track of what is done and what is left

    A status column in a spreadsheet that goes stale within a week.

    Tools: Spreadsheet or project board

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Page-by-page rebuild progress tracked through the MCP

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

7Launch and the first weeks

The cutover itself is short. What protects you is having the redirects deployed, the old URLs tested and a way back if something is wrong at 5pm on a Friday.

Manual effort for this phase: 8–14 hours for a 250-page site.

Launch and the first weeks
  • Manually

    Redirect rules deployed in the format your host reads

    Translating the map into _redirects, vercel.json, nginx or .htaccess and deploying it.

    Tools: Host documentation, deploy pipeline

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    Config file generated for your host

    One generated file to deploy with your site

    Tools: Sitejump redirect writer

    Automated

  • Manually

    DNS and hosting cutover, one canonical host

    Lowering TTLs ahead of time, switching records, re-testing every host variant.

    Tools: DNS panel, host settings, curl

    Time: 1–2 h

    With Sitejump

    Exact setting to apply, and where

    One generated file to deploy with your site

    Tools: Sitejump redirect writer

    Automated

  • Manually

    Every old URL tested against the live domain

    Spot-checking a sample and hoping the sample is representative.

    Tools: httpstatus.io, Screaming Frog list mode

    Time: 2–3 h

    With Sitejump

    All old URLs tested; free to re-run

    Tested against your live domain, free to re-run

    Tools: Sitejump launch verifier

    Automated

  • Manually

    Sitemap submitted and coverage watched

    Submitting by hand, then checking the coverage report weekly.

    Tools: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster

    Time: 2–4 h

    With Sitejump

    Submitted and monitored from your Lovable project

    Handled in Google Search Console, from your Lovable project

    Tools: Google Search Console integration

    Automated

  • Manually

    A rollback plan you can actually use

    Keeping the old CMS running and documenting how to point DNS back.

    Tools: Old hosting kept alive, runbook

    Time: 1–2 h

    With Sitejump

    Your package and rebuild are versioned in the project; the old site stays untouched

    Written into your Lovable project during the rebuild

    Tools: Lovable agent, via the Sitejump MCP

    Automated

Common questions

How long does a CMS migration take?
Done by hand, a 250-page multi-language site is roughly 100–224 h of specialist time across inventory, content, design, translations, integrations, rebuild and launch. With Sitejump the extraction and the package are automated and the rebuild is written by the Lovable agent, so the human work is reviewing, refining design and the launch cutover.
What breaks most often in a website migration?
Forms that stop delivering, missing 301 redirects, images that never made it out of the media library, tracking and consent scripts left behind in the old templates, and untranslated pages published under a translated URL. All five come from an incomplete inventory, which is why phase one matters more than it looks.
Do I lose search rankings when I change CMS?
Not if every old URL has a 301 destination and the on-page signals move with it. That side of the move has its own list: the SEO and GEO migration checklist at https://sitejump.dev/knowledge/seo-migration-checklist.
Can I keep my translations when moving off WordPress or Drupal?
Yes. Sitejump detects every language version on the live site and keeps each translation paired with its source page, so the rebuild can publish the same locale structure instead of re-translating.

Start with the inventory

Phase one is knowing what you already have. The free audit is a five-page sample plus your sitemap — enough to decide whether to move, before you pay anything. The complete page-by-page crawl behind these 31 steps runs once the migration starts.

Tool prices are indicative and change; hours assume a roughly 250-page, multi-language site handled by an experienced developer.

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Sitejump is built and operated by miPlug, a Helsinki-based AI-native Lovable Studio.