MIGRATING FROM DRUPAL TO WORDPRESS

1. MI MIGR GRA ATI TING NG FR FROM OM D DR RU UPA PAL L T TO WO O WOR RD DPR PRESS ESS

2.  Both WordPress and Drupal are robust content management systems (CMS). At present, WordPress has a much larger worldwide CMS market share than Drupal.  Drupal is considered to be a developer-friendly CMS, whereas WordPress is popular as a user-friendly CMS. Also, WordPress allows developers to choose from more themes and plugins than Drupal.  Here is an important comparison between WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. Hence, you can always consider migrating from Drupal to WordPress to run your website without putting extra time and effort, while availing additional themes and plugins.  You even have option to move an existing Drupal website to WordPress in a number of ways. But you must focus on a number of factors to keep the process of migrating from Drupal to WordPress smooth and accurate.

3. 5 Points you must focus on while migrating from Drupal to WordPress 1 1) ) P Pre  You must remember that Drupal to WordPress migration is a complex process. If you do not plan the migration process in advance, there are chances that you have to work on rectifying errors in future.  WordPress Developers can easily streamline the migration process by making and implementing a comprehensive plan.  The migration plan must clearly identify the essential features/functionality of the website, the content to be migrated, the content to be left behind, and the custom post types must be included in the new website. rep pa arin ring g an an El Ela ab borate orate Mi Mig gra ration tion P Pl la an n

4. 2 2) ) Ac You can move an existing website from Drupal to WordPress both manually and automatically. In addition to being simple, manual migration option also enables you to control the website resources fully. But the option will require you to manage the files and databases through FTP panel.  Also, you have to copy users, modules and similar website content manually to WordPress. Hence, you have to invest additional time and effort to move the website from Drupal to WordPress. It may even take several days to migrate your website from Drupal to WordPress manually. You must consider using robust tools and frameworks to automate and accelerate the entire migration process. You may plan to hire the help of a custom software development company which specializes in custom migration services. Acc ce el le erat rating ing t th he e Mi Mig gra ration tion P Pro roc ce ess ss

5. 3 3) ) C Co omp  Website developers can always consider using Drupal to WordPress migration plugins to speed up the migration process and avoid writing additional code.  You even have option to choose from a number of Drupal to WordPress migration plugins – CMS2CMS and FG Drupal to WordPress.  You can download and use both plugins as open source technologies.  FG Drupal to WordPress will enable you to migrate pages, images, articles, stories, categories, and tags from Drupal to WordPress.  On the other hand, CMS2CMS enables you to migrate nodes, content images, content relation, comments, menus, users, passwords, custom fields, and meta data from Drupal to WordPress.  You must opt for CMS2CMS if your existing Drupal website has a lot of data. mpari aring ng V Va ari rious ous Mi Mig gra ration tion P Pl lu ug gi in ns s

6. 4 4) ) Pr  Your Drupal to WordPress migration plan must focus extensively on protecting both content and data during migration. While migrating data, you also need to address a major challenge – finding the right WordPress alternative to certain Drupal elements.  It is also important to choose the best way to clone the core data from Drupal to WordPress.  Before initiating the migration process, you must backup all content and data in Drupal.  Also, you need to copy a specific type of data from one CMS to another. For instance, when you copy data from comments Drupal table the same must be moved to comments WordPress table.  However, you can easily address these challenges by automating the data and content migration process. Pre ev ve enti ntin ng g D Da at ta a a an nd d Co Con nten tent t L Lo os ss s

7. 5 5) ) K Ke ee ep pi in ng g t th he e W  There are always chances that you might have invested in expensive search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns to make your website rank higher on various search engine results pages (SERPs).  Your Drupal to WordPress migration plan must define the measures required to keep your website’s search engine ranking and visibility. You must focus on two important things to keep your website’s search engine ranking intact – retaining the domain name and preserving the URL structure.  Before migrating the website, you must configure the URL structure in WordPress.  Also, you need to ensure that the URL structure appears identical across the two CMS.  You must use 301 permanent redirects to send visitors to the new URLs when they click on the previous URLs. We eb bs si it te e’ ’s s S Se ea ar rc ch h E En ng gi in ne e R Ra an nk ki in ng g I In nt ta ac ct t

8. On the whole, you can migrate an existing website from WordPress to Drupal in a number of ways. But it is always important to choose the right tool or plugin to keep the migration process smooth and error-free. At the same time, it is also important to evaluate various aspects of the website after migrating from Drupal to WordPress to ensure that it delivers richer user experience across browsers, platforms, and devices.

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