Case Study — Digital Transformation

SPINTELLIGENT

Leading the end-to-end migration of three industry news platforms from Drupal to WordPress; modernising the experience, protecting search rankings and handing editorial teams a system they could actually run.

3

Platforms Migrated

10

Stage Delivery Process

100%

Editorial Teams Trained For Handover

0

Major Disruptions

THE BRIEF

Move three live news sites without losing a beat.

Three established industry news platforms were running on an ageing Drupal setup; heavy custom architecture, years of legacy content and editorial teams working around a CMS that had become a liability rather than a tool.

The brief wasn’t just “migrate to WordPress.” It was migrate without losing search rankings, without meaningful downtime and without losing the editorial teams’ trust; all on platforms with active readers and paying advertisers watching in real time.

Challenge & Objectives

What was actually on the line.

  • The Challenge
  • Large volumes of legacy content: articles, media, taxonomies
  • A complex Drupal build layered with custom modules
  • Real risk of losing organic search rankings mid-migration
  • Editorial workflows slowed by an outdated CMS
  • Site speed and mobile performance both lagging
  • Zero tolerance for downtime as live readership and advertiser revenue at stake
  • Key Objectives
  • Migrate all three platforms to WordPress successfully
  • Preserve and improve organic search performance
  • Simplify editorial workflows and publishing
  • Modernise UX/UI and mobile responsiveness
  • Reduce ongoing maintenance and development cost
  • Leave behind a stable platform built to scale

The Platforms

Three sites. One co-ordinated rollout.

Each title had its own audience and editorial rhythm. The migration had to respect all three at once.

ESI AFRICA

Energy sector news platform migrated with full content and SEO continuity.

MINING REVIEW AFRICA

Mining sector title moved onto the same scalable WordPress foundation.

METERING INTERNATIONAL

Metering publication migrated in parallel, sharing infrastructure and workflow gains.

My Role & The Approach

Ten stages. One project lead throughout.

I owned this project end-to-end including stakeholder alignment, agency selection, timeline and budget control, risk mitigation and go-live; rather than handing pieces off along the way.

1. Discovery & Audit

Full audit of content structures, custom Drupal functionality, existing SEO performance and editorial workflows; surfacing where the real migration risk sat.

2. Strategy & Planning

Built the migration roadmap: content mapping from Drupal to WordPress, an SEO-safe URL and redirect strategy, and KPIs for traffic retention, performance and usability.

3. Agency Selection

Ran the RFP process, evaluated agencies on migration and publishing expertise, and onboarded the partner best aligned to both the technical and editorial needs.

4. UX/UI & Front-End

Introduced a mobile-first design approach, improved navigation and content discoverability and balanced editorial readability against commercial ad placements.

5. Development & Build

Oversaw the WordPress environment build and theme development, and managed integration of analytics, advertising and newsletter tooling.

6. Content Migration

Automated migration for bulk content, manual handling for complex or high-value editorial pieces, with validation to keep articles, media, authors and tags mapped correctly.

7. SEO Protection

Full 301 redirect strategy, migrated metadata, preserved URL structures wherever possible and updated sitemaps to keep indexing continuous through the switch..

8. TESTING & QA

Functional and performance testing across devices and browsers, stakeholder UAT and structured bug tracking through to resolution.

9. Go-Live Execution

Co-ordinated the final content sync, DNS cutover and launch sequencing while monitoring live performance and traffic in real time as each platform went over.

10. Post-Launch & Handover

Rapid-response fixes post-launch, ongoing SEO and traffic monitoring, CMS training for editorial teams and full documentation handed over for a clean internal transition.

Key Takeaways

Where the risk sat & how it was handled.

SEO Loss

Redirect mapping, done properly

Comprehensive 301 redirects and full metadata migration meant search visibility carried over instead of resetting to zero.

Content Complexity

Hybrid migration approach

Bulk content moved automatically; high-value editorial pieces were migrated by hand, with validation to catch what automation would have missed.

Downtime

A go-live plan with a way back

Structured launch sequencing with rollback contingencies meant three live, revenue-generating platforms moved without a major outage.

Change Management

Editorial teams brought in early

Early stakeholder involvement and hands-on CMS training meant the teams who'd use the new system daily helped shape it first.

Results & Impact

Three platforms. No major disruption.

All three platforms migrated successfully with no major disruption to readers or advertisers. Organic traffic was preserved post-migration, page load speed and mobile performance both improved, and editorial teams came out the other side with faster, simpler publishing workflows.

Beyond the migration itself, the project proved something broader: the ability to lead complex, multi-site digital transformation; balancing technical execution, stakeholder management and business continuity while delivering measurable gains in performance, usability and scalability.

Three live platforms. One migration. Zero major disruption to the readers and advertisers who depended on them.