Replatforming your website: Everything you need to know before you start

Replatforming: Much more than a redesign

One common misconception is that replatforming and redesigns are the same. The truth is while they often go hand-in-hand, they’re completely different.

A redesign often occurs during a replatform, replatforming is the process of migrating your website from one platform to another. In theory, you could replatform and retain the UI/UX of your site’s current build. But you likely shouldn’t.

It makes sense to consider your UX, UI, and design during your replatforming considering improving those is likely a big driver for your replatforming in the first place.

This is especially true if you’re moving from a monolithic CMS to a headless one — you’ll likely want to redesign your site to take advantage of the increased freedom and flexibility that a headless CMS provides.

It’s not you, it’s your infrastructure: The benefits of replatforming

Regarding your website, you shouldn’t focus on the short term. Always look 5 years ahead to stay relevant and on top of emerging trends. If you keep doing this, it often becomes clear when it’s time to replatform.

So once you’ve made the all-important decision to replatform, what improvements can it bring?

More modernization opportunities
There’s nothing worse than coming across a modern tool or integration you’d like to use that your platform doesn’t support. Replatforming blasts the opportunity for new integrations wide open. The world is your oyster!

Lower maintenance costs
If you spend more time and money keeping things running than you have in the past, that’s an indicator it’s time to replatform. Moving to a modern platform should drive those costs down.

Improved performance
You may notice that your site is loading more slowly or crashing more frequently than before. This can frustrate users, impact SEO, and lead to lower conversions. Replatforming can address this issue and get things moving fast again.

Ability to scale
High traffic and larger inventories are both good things, but only if your site can handle it. If you notice it struggling as traffic and inventory levels increase, you can fix that by replatforming.

Enhanced customization
If you cannot tailor your UX to your customer’s needs or implement your ideas effectively, it’s time to replatform and execute your vision. Don’t let your creativity be stifled!

Empower your marketing team (and yourself)
It’s not uncommon to have simple copy or page structure updates locked behind requiring developers, especially with a monolithic CMS. Give your marketing team and yourself the ability to make simple changes on the fly by replatforming to a headless CMS.

Tie all that in with stronger security, easier scalability, stronger SEO rankings, and an overall better user experience, and you can see why replatforming is on everyone’s minds lately. It’s your gateway to the next 5+ years of your business.

Plan accordingly: Why migrations fail (and how we ensure they don’t)

Replatforming is a huge undertaking.

There’s a lot at stake, including losing your search rankings, content, or data during the transition. It can also be costly and time-consuming. Everything must be done properly to avoid dealing with last-minute headaches that could impact your business and your site staying online.

Unfortunately, failure is easier than you’d think—a successful replatforming isn’t something many can DIY. Common reasons for failure include:

• A lack of awareness of the risks involved in website migrations
• Poor planning
• A shaky migration checklist (or no checklist at all)
• A lack of knowledge by the parties involved
  
  At LeadPulse we’ve done 50+ successful migrations over the last 5 years, so we’re happy to be your trusted partner through the process.

Choice paralysis: What to consider when choosing a new platform

Once you make the decision to move to a new platform, you need to ensure your new platform is the perfect fit for you and your business.

Considering the 5-year lens mentioned earlier, you’ll want to pick the best platform not just for right now, but for your future as well.

Here are the questions to ask yourself when making your choice:

• Scalability and flexibility - Can the platform grow with your business?
• Integration capabilities - Will the platform work seamlessly with your current tools, such as CRM, analytics, and payment gateways?
• Ease of use - Is the platform user-friendly for both your team and your customers?
• Customization option - Does the platform provide the level of control you need?
• SEO and performance - Will this platform support fast load times and not compromise your search engine rankings during the migration?

Final preparations: The pre-replatforming checklist (say that 5 times fast)

It’s not fun when things go wrong. It’s especially not fun when they go wrong during a replatforming. Be careful and methodical throughout the process to facilitate a smooth transition.

We created a 6-step checklist to use before you begin the process to keep your ducks (and web pages) in a row:

Define clear goals
Ask yourself what you want to achieve with the new platform. This could include improved speed, better/more integrations, and a stronger overall UX.

Audit your current site
Analyze what works, what doesn’t, and what features & data you’ll need to migrate. Tools like Hotjar or LuckyOrange are great for heatmapping.

In your heatmaps, look for areas on your site with high engagement, areas users avoid, and general trends in user behavior while navigating your site. This will help you identify what’s essential, what can be fixed, and what you can cut during migration.

Understand your audience
Consider the preferences and behaviors of your audience. Every audience is different, and the new platform needs to meet your needs. Don’t rely on blogs like this one for catch-all rules. Reach out and we can help you get this part right!

Understand your budget
It’s easy for costs to sneak up due to a lack of planning, so take time to do a thorough analysis. Account for development, migration, and ongoing maintenance costs.

Stakeholder buy-in
Everyone on your team should understand and support the replatforming project. Take time to explain it and why it’s necessary.

Assess your technical SEO
Identify potential risks to your SEO rankings. This includes URL changes, legacy issues, and plan mitigations.

Technical considerations: The checklist (or techlist)

Replatforming is a bit like Jenga.

Indexability issues especially require careful consideration. Avoid any problems with your site being indexed by search engines so it can continue to rank/appear on the SERP. Otherwise nobody will be able to find your new site!

There are a number of other items to consider from a technical perspective as well. Other key technical considerations include:

• Data Migration – Ensuring all customer, product, and order data transfers without loss or corruption.
• SEO & URL Structure – Maintaining redirects and preserving link equity to prevent drops in rankings.
• Performance – Optimizing load speeds and page experience to meet modern user expectations.
• Security & Compliance – Ensuring your new platform meets industry security standards and regulatory requirements.
• Third-party Integrations – Seamlessly reconnecting essential tools like payment processors, CRMs, and analytics.
• Testing – Running thorough QA to catch broken links, formatting issues, and unexpected errors before launch.
• Mobile Optimization – Ensuring responsiveness and usability on all devices to avoid conversion loss.
  
  Managing all of this in-house can be overwhelming, which is why businesses don’t tackle migrations alone. They work with agencies that specialize in these technical components—And P.S., that’s us.
  

Truthfully, it all comes down to the brief
Developers make mistakes because of bad briefs.

The technical brief shouldn’t be overlooked during replatforming. A half-hearted brief can lead to mistakes and delays.

This doesn’t mean you need to become fluent in coding and web infrastructure overnight, but you must provide devs with enough context so they can understand what you’re asking for.

This extends beyond the brief — your processes for communicating with developers can have a significant impact. Whether that impact is positive or negative is up to you.

Streamlined communication should be the goal - avoid too many stakeholders getting involved.

Some companies have such archaic and elongated processes with layers of approvals from individuals not involved in development. This leads to a game of telephone, with crucial information being lost in the process and work not getting done.

Tools like Jira are a strong choice to communicate seamlessly with developers, provided you reduce the middlemen as much as possible.

Day 0: Launch and post-launch

All the preparation and strategy involved in a replatforming leads to one integral moment: launch.

During launch and post-launch you need to have all hands on deck (or tech in this case!) to keep things moving.

Here are the all-important tasks to focus on during launch and post-launch to make replatforming go off without a hitch:

During launch

• Remove restrictions - Ensure the new platform is accessible by removing temporary no-index tags, robots.txt blocks, or staging environment barriers.
• Redirect verification - Double-check that all planned 301 redirects are functioning correctly.
• Live testing - Test critical functionalities like checkout processes, forms, and navigation in real-time to catch and address any last-minute issues.
• Monitor performance - Watch for downtime or errors during the transition period.

Post-launch

• Monitor KPIs: Keep an eye on key metrics such as traffic, conversion rates and bounce rates to assess performance. Look for sharp declines that may signify issues.
• Indexing check: Ensure search engines are crawling and indexing your new platform correctly by reviewing Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Resolve issues quickly: Promptly address any broken links, 404 errors or unexpected user feedback.
• Update external assets: Update links in paid ads, social media profiles, email templates and other marketing materials to reflect new URLs.
• Optimize continuously: Use post-launch data to fine-tune the platform and improve UX.

Replatforming is hard. We’ll make it easy.

We get it. Replatforming is hard. But it doesn’t need to be.

Migration is 60% planning and 40% execution. From the initial research all the way to launch, LeadPulse can handle the full 100% with a strategy entirely unique to you. We’ll work with you every step of the way to make the most important thing you can do for your website as easy as possible.

Ready to migrate to a better UX, more sales, better integrations and an overall stronger web presence? Contact us to get started.