Migrating a government website platforms is not primarily a technical challenge—it's a product and process challenge. With nearly 2,000 web pages, 30GB of files, countless inbound links from external websites, bookmarks saved by users, and links embedded in thousands of documents the organization had distributed over years, the risk of breaking the user experience was enormous. A poorly managed migration would mean residents hitting dead ends when trying to access city services, staff documents with broken links, and years of SEO value lost overnight.
The standard approach: migrate the content and handle broken links reactively, was not acceptable.
As a returning resident, I want saved links to city service pages to remain stable, so that I can access what I need directly without re-searching each visit.
As an executive, I want the city website to meet defined uptime and performance standards, so that residents and regional partners experience us as a reliable, professional organization.
The technical redirect strategy was the visible part of this migration. The harder work was the content decision framework that preceded it.
I developed the content decision framework and criteria, then applied it systematically across nearly 2,000 pages, determining what would be migrated, consolidated, retired, or converted. Rather than distributing this decision-making across dozens of departments where inconsistency would have been inevitable, I centralized the framework and made the calls.
In parallel I worked with developers on a comprehensive .htaccess redirect architecture, mapping every significant URL pattern from the old site with layered fallback logic. Specific redirects first, section-level fallbacks second, ensuring no user landed on a dead end regardless of how obscure their bookmarked URL was.
Post-launch I monitored 404 error rates through analytics daily to validate the approach and close any gaps.
A process-first migration strategy combining a comprehensive URL redirect architecture, a content decision framework, and post-launch analytics monitoring—ensuring continuity of the user experience across an enterprise platform transition.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/index\.html$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^UserFiles/Servers/Server_18095/File/(.*)$ /sites/default/files/$1 [R=301,L]
Less than 1% page-not-found error rate post-migration across nearly 2,000 pages and 30GB of files
$180,000+ in organizational savings through process improvements during migration
29% improvement in visitor satisfaction post-launch
First-place CAPIO award for website redesign
Zero significant user experience disruption during transition
A scalable, staff-facing document review platform built in SharePoint that enabled informed, financially contextualized decision-making across 24,000+ documents and dozens of divisions, delivered in one month with no dedicated development resources.
