WordPress Website Migration for News Publisher
Migrated a high-traffic publication to WordPress with clean URL structure, core web vitals optimization, and editorial workflow automation.
ClientHorizon Media Network
DateMarch 2025
IndustryMedia / Publishing
ServiceWordPress migration & performance
Publisher migration, redirects, and editorial at scale
The Challenge:
- Millions of legacy URLs, inconsistent taxonomies, and a CMS that blocked real-time newsrooms.
- Revenue and CLS issues from heavy ad stack and unoptimized above-the-fold assets.
- Editorial needed collaboration, fact-checking states, and syndication without duplicate SEO risk.
Our Approach:
- Content freeze windows, 301/410 strategy, and Search Console validation with staged traffic ramp.
- WordPress with block editor, custom article templates, and automated internal linking for topical authority.
- CWV: asset budgets, ad slot containment, and font loading strategy; edge caching and HTML tuning.
The Challenge:
URL & redirect plan:Crawl, mapping, and disambiguation of duplicate legacy paths.
News UX:Reader-first layouts, live blog patterns, and newsletter modules.
Engineering:WP stack, decoupled assets, and editorial automation (syndication, bylines).
Stabilize & observe:CWV RUM, error budget on deploys, and monitoring for 404/410 spikes.
Key Features Delivered:
- Automated bylines, tags, and topic pages with clear canonical rules for republished stories.
- Sitemaps and news sitemap patterns for fresh content, with lastmod aligned to true publish time.
- Sponsored and house ad layouts that do not break CLS; lazy below-fold ads.
- Back-office tools: scheduling, revisions, and breaking-news alerts to mobile PWA (optional).
The Results:
Organic sessions+58%
Hosting spend−29%
CLS p75 (field)0.05
Time-to-publish (median)−40%