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CMS Migration Agency NZ

Move to a CMS that fits your content, team and next stage


Flight Digital is a New Zealand CMS migration and replatforming agency. We help organisations move from ageing, restrictive or difficult-to-manage platforms to a digital foundation that is easier to publish, integrate and improve.


We plan and deliver CMS migrations, website migrations and digital platform replatforming. From the first content inventory to post-launch monitoring, we account for content, URLs, integrations, analytics and organic search.
If a migration is not the right answer, we will say so. An upgrade, restructure, rebuild or phased programme may be the better path.

Whether you are planning a new digital platform or moving beyond an existing CMS, we can help you understand the options, define the right architecture and turn it into a platform that works well after launch.

Plan your CMS migration

Signs your current CMS may be holding you back

A CMS that worked well when your website was smaller can become a constraint as your organisation grows.


A migration may be worth exploring when:


  • Publishing requires too many manual steps or workarounds
  • The CMS is unsupported, outdated or difficult to maintain
  • Content is duplicated, inconsistent or hard to reuse
  • The information architecture no longer matches how people find information
  • Integrations, search, forms or analytics are difficult to maintain
  • Website performance or front-end flexibility is limiting growth
  • Hosting and maintenance costs are rising without improving the experience
  • Managing multiple brands, markets or languages creates unnecessary effort
  • Your team cannot make routine content changes without developer support

A CMS migration is not automatically the answer. We assess whether to improve the current platform, rebuild it, migrate to a new CMS or phase the work over time.


What a good CMS migration should achieve

A successful migration is more than moving pages from one system to another. It should leave your organisation with:


  • A content model that reflects what you publish and how it is reused
  • Publishing workflows that are clear for editors and practical for governance
  • A platform that supports the required front-end, integrations and markets
  • A mapped plan for valuable URLs, redirects and search signals
  • Reliable forms, analytics, search and other connected systems
  • A measured launch with clear post-launch ownership

The right outcome depends on your current platform, content, team and business priorities.


Upgrade, migrate, replatform or redesign?

These terms describe different types of change.


Table defining Upgrade, Migration, Replatforming, and Redesign for platforms and CMS, outlining their suitability and typical scope. A note clarifies that migration doesn't necessarily include redesign.Table defining Upgrade, Migration, Replatforming, and Redesign for platforms and CMS, outlining their suitability and typical scope. A note clarifies that migration doesn't necessarily include redesign.

Who we help

Our CMS migration services are suited to:


  • Marketing and digital leaders planning a platform change
  • Technology, product and engineering teams managing technical risk
  • Ecommerce and growth teams dealing with catalogue, checkout or market complexity
  • Organisations with large, structured or editorially complex content
  • Businesses managing several brands, regions or markets
  • Teams working with an ageing, restrictive or difficult-to-govern CMS

Flight Digital is based in Auckland and works with organisations across New Zealand, Australia and the UK. The projects below show the range of migration and replatforming work we support.

What Flight Digital can help with

Our role is to connect the decisions that are often split between strategy, content, UX, development, analytics and SEO.


1. CMS discovery and migration strategy

We make the current platform, content and dependencies visible before recommending a solution.


The discovery can cover:


  • Current CMS, hosting and technical architecture
  • Content types, templates, media and URL structures
  • Publishing workflows, permissions and governance
  • Integrations, APIs, search, forms and analytics
  • Organic traffic, rankings and other search performance baselines
  • Platform risks, dependencies and operational constraints

We then define the practical path: improve, migrate, replatform, redesign or phase the work.


2. Content modelling and information architecture

A new CMS should make content easier to manage, find and reuse. We can help define:


  • Structured content types
  • Reusable components and relationships
  • Navigation and information architecture
  • Taxonomies, categories and tagging
  • Editorial workflows and governance
  • Content rules for multiple brands, markets or channels

This prevents the new platform from simply reproducing the structural problems of the old one.


3. CMS, front-end and platform development

We can configure or build the new digital platform, including:

  • Traditional CMS implementations
  • Headless CMS implementations
  • Front-end applications
  • Search and filtering
  • Forms and lead journeys
  • API and third-party integrations
  • Multi-market content delivery
  • Ecommerce connections

We do not recommend a platform because it is fashionable. We start with the content, technical, commercial and operational requirements.


Related pages: Headless CMS development · Website development


4. Content and data migration

We can plan and deliver the transfer of:


  • Pages and other content
  • Media files and asset relationships
  • Metadata, categories and tags
  • Content relationships and references
  • Redirect information
  • Structured data where it remains relevant
  • Forms, integrations and supporting data where required

For larger websites, repeatable migration processes can handle volume while manual review covers exceptions, high-value pages and content that needs rewriting or restructuring.


5. SEO and discoverability protection

SEO planning starts during discovery, not immediately before launch.


We can support:


  • Important URL inventories and crawl baselines
  • Old-to-new URL mapping
  • 301 redirect rules and redirect-chain checks
  • Metadata and heading migration
  • Canonical URLs and internal links
  • XML sitemaps and robots directives
  • Structured data and breadcrumbs
  • JavaScript rendering and indexability checks
  • Image assets and alt text
  • Google Search Console, GA4 and Google Tag Manager checks
  • Post-launch crawling and monitoring

Related pages: SEO services · Headless CMS and SEO checklist


6. Testing, launch and ongoing optimisation

Before launch, we test the parts that can create user, operational or search problems:


  • Forms, search and key journeys
  • Content, templates and responsive layouts
  • Redirects, canonicals and indexability
  • Analytics, events and conversion tracking
  • APIs, CRM connections and other integrations
  • Website performance and mobile behaviour
  • Staging controls and launch settings

After launch, we monitor the agreed baselines and help your team resolve issues and prioritise improvements.

Our CMS migration process

Step 1: Audit and understand the current state

We review the CMS, content, URLs, templates, integrations, analytics, hosting, workflows and performance.

The output is a shared view of what exists, what matters, what is risky and what should change.


Step 2: Define the future platform

We agree the business goals, content requirements, technical needs, governance model and migration scope.

We compare the platform options against those requirements rather than assuming that a particular architecture is right.


Step 3: Model and map the content

We create a content inventory and decide what each item should do next:

  • Keep
  • Improve
  • Merge
  • Redirect
  • Remove
  • Rebuild

We also define the new content model, URL map, redirect rules, metadata requirements and integration dependencies.


Step 4: Build and prove the approach with a sample

We build the new platform and migrate a representative sample before committing to the full transfer.

This gives the team a chance to test:


  • Content models and relationships
  • Templates and components
  • Media and internal links
  • Editorial workflows
  • Integrations and forms
  • URL mapping and redirect behaviour

We use what we learn to refine the migration process before scaling it.


Step 5: Test and launch carefully

We complete content, technical SEO, redirect, analytics, integration, performance and stakeholder checks.

The launch plan reflects the risk of the project, the operating needs of your team and any requirement for staged releases or a contingency plan.


Step 6: Measure and improve

After launch, we monitor:

  • Indexation and crawl behaviour
  • Rankings and organic traffic
  • Conversions and key journeys
  • Redirects and technical errors
  • Website performance
  • Content quality and publishing workflows

The post-launch data helps separate migration issues from longer-term opportunities.


Protecting SEO during a CMS migration

A website migration can affect organic performance when important URLs, content, internal links, technical signals or user journeys change.


The aim is to make those changes deliberate, testable and measurable. No agency can guarantee rankings because search performance depends on many factors outside the migration itself.


Before launch

We can establish:


  • A complete inventory of important URLs and content
  • Organic traffic, rankings, conversions and crawl baselines
  • Old-to-new URL mappings and redirect requirements
  • Canonical, metadata, heading and structured-data requirements
  • Internal-link, sitemap and robots.txt requirements
  • Staging controls and analytics measurement plans

At launch

We check:


  • Redirect responses, chains and missing destinations
  • Canonical URLs, meta directives and indexability
  • XML sitemaps and robots.txt
  • JavaScript rendering and page accessibility to crawlers
  • Internal links, images and structured data
  • GA4, Google Tag Manager and Google Search Console
  • Forms, search, APIs and other conversion-critical integrations

After launch

We crawl and monitor the new site for:

  • Unexpected status codes or redirect failures
  • Indexation changes and crawl anomalies
  • Organic traffic, rankings and conversions
  • Technical errors and performance issues
  • Content or workflow problems reported by editors

Related page: Headless CMS and SEO checklist


Choosing the right platform

There is no universal best CMS. The right choice depends on your content, team, integrations, markets, budget and long-term operating model.


Table outlining different platform approaches from Traditional CMS to phased migration, showing who they suit and important questions.Table outlining different platform approaches from Traditional CMS to phased migration, showing who they suit and important questions.


Headless is not automatically the right answer. A well-supported traditional CMS can be a better fit when integrated editing, simplicity and internal capability matter most.


If Sanity suits your requirements, explore our Sanity migration services and Sanity CMS development. For a Silverstripe-specific project, see our Silverstripe developers in New Zealand.


Why Flight Digital?

Flight Digital is an Auckland-based digital agency that designs, builds, migrates and grows digital platforms.


Our migration approach brings together:


  • Strategy and platform decision-making
  • UX and UI design
  • Content modelling and information architecture
  • CMS and front-end development
  • Technical SEO and analytics
  • Conversion optimisation
  • Testing, launch and post-launch support

The difference is how these disciplines connect. We can review URLs and organic search before development, model content before bulk migration, test a representative sample before scaling, and validate analytics and conversion journeys at launch.


We can support a phased migration programme or a larger platform change. The goal is a platform that is easier to manage, easier to improve and better aligned with how your organisation operates.


Plan your CMS migration

Need a clearer path from your current CMS to your next platform?


Talk to Flight Digital about your migration goals, content, technical requirements, markets and next steps. You do not need to have chosen the target platform before starting the conversation.


Talk to our customer service team


CMS Migration FAQs



01

A CMS migration moves content, media, structures and supporting functionality from one content management system to another.


It may also include URL changes, SEO planning, analytics, integrations, templates and editorial workflows.

02

CMS migration focuses on transferring content and functionality.

Replatforming means moving to a new technical platform or architecture. It often includes a CMS migration, but may also involve a new front end, hosting model, ecommerce system or integration layer.

03

There is no reliable single price without understanding the scope.


The main factors are content volume, content complexity, number of templates, platform choice, integrations, design work, number of markets, manual migration effort, SEO requirements and internal review capacity.

A discovery phase can clarify the scope and provide a more useful estimate.



04

The timeline depends on the website, platform, content volume, integrations, markets and project scope.


A staged approach can reduce risk and allow larger organisations to manage the work alongside day-to-day operations.


05

Yes. A CMS migration can preserve the current design while changing the underlying platform.


A redesign can happen during the same programme or in a later phase.


06

We can assess migrations from Silverstripe and other content management systems. The right approach depends on the current content structure, templates, integrations, hosting, editorial workflows and future requirements.



07

We create an inventory and assess content by value, accuracy, performance, user need, duplication, ownership and future usefulness.


Each item can be marked to keep, improve, merge, redirect, remove or rebuild. This avoids carrying unnecessary content and structural problems into the new CMS.




08

Any major website change can affect organic performance.


We reduce avoidable risk through URL mapping, redirects, metadata and canonical checks, technical SEO testing, analytics validation and post-launch monitoring. Rankings cannot be guaranteed because search performance also depends on competition, content quality, technical factors and search-engine changes.


09

Not always.


A headless CMS may suit organisations that need multiple front ends, flexible content delivery or complex integrations. A traditional CMS may be better when integrated authoring, simplicity and internal capability are more important.


010

We inventory the content and media first, then map the old structure to the new one.


High-volume content can be transferred through repeatable processes. Pages that need rewriting, restructuring, relationship fixes or manual review are handled as exceptions.


11

We document the existing integrations and confirm what needs to be retained, rebuilt or replaced.


We test forms, APIs, search, analytics, CRM connections, ecommerce services and other systems before launch.


12

Yes. A phased approach can reduce risk, support business continuity and let a larger organisation address the highest-priority content or platform constraints first.


The plan must define how content, URLs, analytics, ownership and integrations work during the transition.


13

We monitor indexation, redirects, technical errors, organic performance, conversions, website performance and content workflows.


We can then prioritise fixes and support ongoing SEO, content and platform improvements.