Recipe for a simple content migration

Biscuit mix by eddie welker on flickr,
used under creative commons

This short checklist and method gives an overview for web and intranet editors who've not planned a migration before. It's purely from the editorial point of view, and omits any technical jiggery-pokery.

You will need:

• User requirements. Who are your users? What do they want? How will they use this information?
• Knowledge of the information architecture (IA) of the new site.
• Contact details for the content owner.
• Editorial style guide and any guidance on new content formats.
• Support from a manager and/or policy if there is conflict and you need to escalate.

Method:

Pre-heat the content owners by letting them know in advance that you will be needing their input.

1. Audit existing content, working with the content owner and overall user requirements.
• Decide what is current information that needs to be migrated, and what can be archived. 
• Identify content that needs re-writing to fit into the new IA or templates, and anything that needs editing to style or is a bit out of date.
• Identify gaps where new content is needed.
2. Arrange any archiving procedures - ensure copies are saved elsewhere and can be accessed by the required audience.
3. Commission new content to fill the gaps.
4. Arrange for any updates to old content to be supplied.
5. Draft edited versions of the old content in new style and template.
6. Edit any new or updated content that has been supplied.
7. Send all the draft, edited pages to the content owner. (Either use Word with tracked changes, or a preview version of the website, depending which best shows the changes you have made.) Invite comment and set a deadline for approval.
8. Receive approval or negotiate the final version with the content owner (apply the 80:20 rule if necessary, to reach a compromise).
9. Publish.
10. Schedule for review.

Serving suggestion:

Garnish your freshly-prepared content with an email alert or a homepage news feature.

How to get content: 4 ways to avoid more meetings

Building relationships with content owners is really important. But one meeting can so often lead to another, and as a website manager you find yourself having the same conversation over and over again (sometimes with the same person).

Them: We need a website for our department.
You: Let’s start with some information about the services you provide and helping people to do useful things such as contacting you. We can put this on the organisation's website, where people are expecting to find it.
Them: That’s easy. I’ll have something for you next week.

In the majority of cases, the content never appears.

Rather than wasting your time repeating yourself, try to find out why the content is not being supplied, and if you can help.

1. Make it clear you don’t need a perfect polished product.

They may be great at their profession, but not everyone is confident in writing. Tell them that knocking off a few bullet points with the plain facts is fine, and that typos don’t matter. You’ll take care of the style and proofreading.

2. Offer to interview them.

You can do this over the phone or in person, with your lead contact and other members of their team. Then write up your notes into draft web pages, and send it to them for checking or filling in the gaps.

3. Find someone else.

Diplomatically ask if there is another person in the department who can take some of the burden. In a hospital context, consultants often want to take the lead, but may not have time. But junior doctors, nurses, administrators and even patients can do the job just as well. They just need time, knowledge, and enthusiasm.

4. Write it yourself.

As a last resort, if you really need some content and it is not forthcoming, gather what information you can from the internet and their publications, and draft something yourself. 

• Walk round to the ward or department, and take copies of their leaflets. 
• Use a person's (public) LinkedIn profile to draft a biography. 
• Look at similar services in other countries or towns, to get ideas for headings and the types of content that users may find useful.

Don’t worry that there will be gaps for specific details such as email addresses. Then send the draft to the service manager and ask them to fill in the gaps, assuring them it will not be published until they have checked it. Be prepared for their outrage at any errors – but you’ll definitely get a reaction, and hopefully some publishable pages.

Looking back to look forward

What have you achieved in the last week? What about the last month, or the last year? What did you achieve in your last job?

We’re a month into the New Year, and for me it’s also been a couple of months since I changed job. It’s a period of relative calm and, I think, a better time to reflect.

For a web manager, the days can feel like a blur of removing capital letters, running reports, meetings with content providers and battling to fix glitches. It’s really important to step back occasionally, to see the progress you’re making, and recognise each of these regular tasks as part of the bigger picture. So if you’ve done all these things today, you’ve also been implementing the editorial style guide, making yourself accountable, developing your content strategy and ensuring your site is reliable and usable.

Keep the evidence

Don’t wait till you’re buffing up your CV or preparing for your appraisal to look for the evidence. Keep a record of everything you’ve done as you go along. It’s easy to forget all those single new pages you’ve added or sections you’ve reviewed, when your website feels like a never-ending task. But it looks impressive for your boss – and is a great psychological boost. Look how far you’ve come and how much all those little changes add up.

It all adds up to a plan

The same applies to looking forward. Don’t wait till you’re asked to write a plan, then stare at a blank page until you pass out (or start writing “I am a fish” over and over). You have ideas and thoughts every day, and they might not be earth-shattering on their own, but they can add up to a great plan. And capture your subsconscious genius. 

• When you spot an out of date page but don’t have time to edit it immediately, write it down on your ‘review’ list. You WILL forget it.
•  When you’re on a competitor’s website and spot something interesting they’ve done but don’t have the resources or contacts to produce your own version immediately, write it down on your  ‘new content wish list’. 
•  When you wake up in the night because you just couldn’t get that menu structure to work, write it down on your list of items for user testing or to talk to colleagues about.
•  When your boss mentions her grand schemes that you don’t quite ‘get’ after she comes back from the latest board meeting, put them on your ‘blue sky thinking’ list and mull or research them when you get a chance.

An evolving picture

It’s not just about lists – visual cues help.

Take screengrabs for posterity, not just of things that have obvious or flashy design elements like your homepage, but of basic content pages and menus. The best websites evolve slowly over time rather than having massive redesigns every couple of years. As the web manager you’re so close to your site you barely even register the incremental differences that altering the size of the standard font makes, or making it grey rather than black. This quickly gets absorbed into ‘normal’. But in 2 years time when you compare, you’ll see a massive change.

Counting your successes

And while it can be tricky to measure some things, it’s obvious to keep a regular track of your web statistics – not just top level statistics, but examining growth or otherwise of new areas or parts you might want to get rid of. Record the number of pages added or edited or approved or rejected. Track the number of requests into your mailbox, and how quickly they were responded to.

So now the festive whirl has faded (and the pain of writing all those handover notes has eased), I’m enjoying looking back, putting my achievements into perspective, and learning how I can realise the potential of the new opportunities ahead.