How to Migrate from WordPress to a Headless CMS (Sanity + Next.js) Without Losing SEO

Migrating from WordPress to a headless stack can improve speed, developer velocity, and content flexibility. The risk is SEO regression if URL structure, metadata, and indexing signals are not handled correctly.

This guide explains a production-safe way to migrate from WordPress to Sanity + Next.js while preserving organic traffic.

Why WordPress Slows Down Scaling

WordPress works well early, but scaling usually introduces operational and product constraints:

• Plugin dependency chains increase maintenance risk.
• Theme-level rendering limits frontend flexibility.
• Performance optimizations become plugin-heavy and fragile.
• Structured content modeling is harder for multi-channel publishing.
• CI/CD and preview workflows are often less predictable than modern app pipelines.

At higher traffic and content volume, teams typically spend more effort controlling regressions than shipping features.

Benefits of a Headless CMS (Sanity + Next.js)

A headless architecture separates content management from frontend delivery:

• Sanity handles structured content, editorial workflows, and reusable schemas.
• Next.js handles page rendering, caching, SEO, and performance optimization.

Key advantages:

• Better Core Web Vitals through optimized rendering and assets.
• Flexible UI systems without CMS theme constraints.
• Strong content modeling for blogs, case studies, docs, and landing pages.
• Easier integrations with analytics, CRM, and internal APIs.
• Cleaner deployment workflow with Git-based changes and preview environments.

Airtable Integration for Content Teams

If your non-technical team already uses Airtable, keep it as an editorial operations layer:

• Airtable stores planning fields: status, owner, publish target date, campaign tags.
• Sanity stores canonical publish content.
• Next.js reads only from Sanity for production rendering.

Recommended flow:

1. Content planning in Airtable.
2. Approved rows synced into Sanity documents.
3. Editors finalize content in Sanity Studio.
4. Next.js rebuilds or revalidates affected pages.

This keeps operations simple for content teams without coupling production delivery to Airtable runtime availability.

Migration Steps

1. Content and URL Audit

Export and map:

• All existing WordPress URLs.
• Post/page metadata (title, description, canonical, OG fields).
• Categories, tags, authors, publish dates.
• Media references and image alt text.

Create a migration sheet with:

• old_url
• new_url
• redirect_type (usually 301)
• status (planned/migrated/verified)

2. Define Sanity Schemas

Model content types before import:

• post
• author
• category
• faq
• caseStudy (if applicable)

Add explicit SEO fields in schema:

• seoTitle
• seoDescription
• canonicalUrl
• ogImage
• noIndex flag

3. Import WordPress Content to Sanity

Use a scripted pipeline:

1. Export WordPress XML/JSON.
2. Transform to Sanity document format.
3. Upload media assets and remap references.
4. Import with stable IDs to avoid duplicates.

Validate imported documents before launch:

• Slugs are unique.
• Categories/tags linked correctly.
• Published dates preserved.

4. Build Next.js Routes Matching Existing Slugs

Preserve URL paths where possible. Ranking stability improves when legacy URLs remain unchanged.

If paths change, implement strict 301 redirects in next.config or edge routing.

5. Implement SEO and Structured Data

Before launch ensure:

• Canonical tags on every indexable page.
• Open Graph and Twitter metadata.
• sitemap.xml includes all new URLs.
• robots.txt references sitemap.
• JSON-LD for relevant types (WebSite, Person, BlogPosting, FAQPage).

6. Pre-Launch QA Checklist

• Crawl staging for broken links and redirect loops.
• Compare old vs new metadata coverage.
• Validate structured data.
• Test mobile performance and CLS/LCP.
• Verify analytics and conversion events.

7. Launch and Monitor

After DNS cutover:

• Submit sitemap in Google Search Console.
• Monitor crawl stats and indexing coverage.
• Track 404 errors and patch redirects quickly.
• Compare daily organic landing page traffic vs baseline.

SEO Considerations (Do Not Skip)

These are the highest impact controls during migration:

URL Preservation

Keep slug parity with WordPress whenever possible. URL changes multiply SEO risk.

Redirect Strategy

Use 301 for permanent moves. Avoid chain redirects (A -> B -> C).

Metadata Parity

Ensure the new stack does not lose:

• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Canonicals
• OG/Twitter images

Internal Linking

Rebuild content relationships:

• Blog -> related services
• Blog -> related case studies
• Category pages -> relevant posts

Technical Indexing

Confirm:

• robots.txt allows target paths
• no accidental noindex
• correct canonical for each page variant
• no duplicate language/path variants without clear canonical/hreflang strategy

Performance Comparison (Typical Outcomes)

Actual results depend on infra and implementation quality, but this pattern is common:

For many teams, the biggest gains are not only speed but operational reliability and faster feature delivery.

Final Recommendation

Do not treat migration as only a CMS switch. Treat it as an SEO-sensitive replatform:

1. Audit and map every URL.
2. Preserve metadata and internal links.
3. Launch with validated redirects and schema.
4. Monitor Search Console and logs for 2-4 weeks post-launch.

If you execute the migration this way, you can move to a modern headless architecture without sacrificing organic performance.