Point11

Migration assessment checklist

A structured checklist for evaluating legacy CMS platforms and planning a migration to a modern AI-native stack.

Migrating an enterprise website from a legacy CMS to a modern stack is a high-stakes initiative. A thorough assessment phase prevents costly mid-migration pivots and ensures the project delivers measurable business outcomes. Point11's 90-day migration framework begins with a comprehensive audit that covers technical infrastructure, content architecture, SEO equity, and integration dependencies.

Platform Audit

Start by documenting the current state of the legacy platform:

  • CMS identification and version: Record the exact CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager) and its version, including all installed plugins, modules, and extensions.
  • Hosting environment: Document the current hosting provider, server configuration, CDN setup, and SSL certificate management. Note any vendor lock-in constraints.
  • Performance baseline: Capture Core Web Vitals scores across representative page templates using Google PageSpeed Insights and Chrome UX Report (CrUX) data. Record Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) at the 75th percentile. Google classifies "good" thresholds as LCP under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1, and INP under 200 milliseconds.
  • Traffic and analytics: Export 12 months of traffic data from Google Analytics, including top landing pages, conversion funnels, and user flow patterns. This data informs content prioritization during migration.

Content Inventory

A complete content inventory is the foundation of any migration:

  • Page count and taxonomy: Enumerate every URL, its content type, and its position in the site hierarchy. For large sites, use a crawler like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to automate this.
  • Content models: Map every content type, custom field, taxonomy, and relationship in the legacy CMS. Document which fields are required, which are computed, and which are deprecated.
  • Media assets: Catalog all images, videos, PDFs, and downloadable files. Record file sizes, formats, and whether assets use legacy URLs or a DAM integration.
  • Dynamic content: Identify personalization rules, A/B test variants, geo-targeted content, and user-specific content that must be preserved or rebuilt.

Integration Mapping

Enterprise sites depend on integrations that must survive the migration:

  • Third-party services: List every external integration including CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), e-commerce (Shopify, commercetools), marketing automation (Marketo, Pardot), analytics (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics), and search (Algolia, Elasticsearch).
  • Authentication systems: Document SSO configurations, OAuth providers, and user directory integrations (LDAP, Azure AD, Okta).
  • API dependencies: Catalog all inbound and outbound API calls, including webhook endpoints, scheduled jobs, and data synchronization pipelines.
  • Custom code: Inventory custom plugins, theme functions, server-side scripts, and middleware that implement business logic beyond the CMS core.

Risk Assessment

Score each dimension on a 1-5 risk scale:

  • Content complexity: Sites with deeply nested taxonomies, multilingual content, or heavy personalization score higher.
  • Integration density: Each third-party integration adds migration risk. Integrations without documented APIs score highest.
  • SEO dependency: Sites where organic search drives more than 40% of traffic require an aggressive SEO preservation strategy.
  • Compliance requirements: GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) requirements constrain migration timelines and technical choices.

Target Architecture Decision

Based on the audit, select the target stack:

  • Frontend: Next.js deployed on Vercel provides server-side rendering, static generation, incremental static regeneration, and edge middleware. Vercel's preview deployments enable parallel development and stakeholder review.
  • Headless CMS: Evaluate Contentful, Sanity, Hygraph, or Kontent.ai based on content model complexity, editorial workflow requirements, and API performance.
  • Infrastructure: Choose between AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or Cloudflare for backend services, CDN, and edge compute based on existing enterprise agreements and compliance needs.

Sources

Content extraction and mapping

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