MIGRATION AND REPLATFORMING
PHP website migration
Moving off a platform that no longer fits, or a host that no longer answers. We move content, users, URLs and integrations onto a PHP stack you can maintain — without losing your search rankings on the way.
What we migrate from
The platform you are leaving shapes the whole job. These are the six we are asked about most.
Magento
Magento 1 is years past end of life, and Magento 2 is expensive to run for a mid-size catalogue. WooCommerce or a custom PHP storefront is usually cheaper to own.
Wix and Squarespace
Fine until you need a real integration, a second language, or control of your own markup. Export is the hard part: we rebuild the content model rather than scraping pages.
Umbraco and .NET
Where the licensing, the hosting or the availability of .NET people has become the constraint, rather than anything wrong with the platform.
Shopify
When platform fees, hard limits or a checkout you are not allowed to touch start costing more than the convenience is worth.
A legacy bespoke system
The application somebody built in 2011 and nobody documented. This is where the audit earns its money before a single file moves.
Hand-edited static HTML
Pages only one person can update, usually with the FTP details in a spreadsheet. Anything is an improvement, but the content still has to be modelled.
What actually goes wrong in a migration
Almost never the content itself. It is the things attached to the content that get lost.
What goes wrong
- ✗ URLs change, and the rankings you spent years earning go with them
- ✗ Content models do not map one to one, so fields are silently dropped in the export
- ✗ Media libraries full of duplicates, missing files and images hot-linked from somewhere else
- ✗ User accounts whose password hashes cannot be carried across
- ✗ Integrations pointing at endpoints nobody still has the credentials for
- ✗ Redirect chains left over from the last migration, inherited and never cleaned up
How we prevent it
- ✓ A full URL inventory and redirect map, built before the move and tested crawl-by-crawl after it
- ✓ Content modelled first and migrated second, with a field-by-field mapping you sign off
- ✓ Media audited, de-duplicated and re-linked, with the orphans reported rather than quietly copied
- ✓ Accounts migrated where the hashes allow it, and a controlled reset flow where they do not
- ✓ Every integration inventoried, re-pointed and tested in staging before cutover
- ✓ Old redirect chains flattened to a single hop instead of carried forward
How a migration runs
Nothing points at the new site until you have seen it working on the old content.
01
Audit and inventory
Every URL, template, content type, integration and media file catalogued from the live site, not from what the documentation claims.
02
Model and map
The new content model, agreed field by field, plus the redirect map. Signed off before anything is built.
03
Migrate to staging
Content, users and media moved into a staging site you can browse, search and edit against real data.
04
Cutover
A planned switch with DNS, redirects and monitoring in place, and a rollback ready if the numbers move the wrong way.
Our recent clients
Organisations of all sectors and sizes draw on our PHP development expertise.
Migration questions
Will we lose our search rankings?
That is the main risk, and it is manageable. We build a URL inventory and a redirect map before the move, test it with a crawl after cutover, and watch Search Console for the first few weeks. Rankings usually dip briefly and recover; they are only lost when redirects are an afterthought.
How long does a migration take?
A brochure site is weeks. A catalogue or a membership site with integrations is months, and most of that is the content model and the testing, not the moving. The audit gives you a firm number before you commit.
Can you migrate our users and passwords?
Users and their data, yes. Passwords depend on how the old platform hashed them: where the hashes can be carried across we do, and where they cannot we set up a controlled reset so nobody is locked out.
Do we have to redesign at the same time?
No, and often you should not. Migrating and redesigning at once makes it impossible to tell which change caused a drop in traffic. We usually move first, then redesign on a stable base.
What happens to our old site?
It stays up and untouched until you are satisfied with the new one, and we keep it available read-only afterwards for as long as you want it.
Can you migrate from a platform not listed here?
Almost certainly. If the content can be exported, scraped or read from the database, it can be migrated. The audit tells you which of those three it is.
Contact us!
Do you have a question about our PHP development services?
Looking for a bespoke solution for your website?
We’re here to help!
What happens next
We reply within one working day. The first call is 30 minutes, with a developer on it, and there is no charge for it.
Phone:
0203 507 1728