How do I migrate content to the Mediumish theme

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Table of contents

Why migrate to Mediumish

Choosing the Mediumish theme is often about clean typography, reader focus, and a layout that favors long-form content. If your goal is to present posts that are easy to read on mobile and desktop, and you want a minimalist aesthetic with modern UI patterns, Mediumish fits well. Migrating content is not only a visual change — it is a chance to improve structure, clean up legacy SEO problems, and standardize metadata for future growth.

While a migration can be technical, it is primarily a content exercise: you move words, images, and links, and then verify that search engines and readers still find your articles valuable. A good migration keeps or improves search visibility, preserves social shares where possible, and avoids broken links. Throughout the process you should plan to back up everything and work incrementally.

Prepare and audit your existing content

Start with a complete inventory. Export a list of all published URLs, titles, publish dates, categories, tags, and authors. Many platforms let you export CSV or XML sitemaps. If a direct export is not available, crawl your site with a crawler to produce a URL list. This inventory becomes your migration map and ensures you don't forget pages, images, or attachments.

Next, assess content quality and relevance. Migration is the perfect time to prune outdated posts, consolidate duplicate articles, and improve thin pages. For each URL decide: migrate as-is, update before migrating, merge with another page, or retire with a redirect. Reducing the number of low-value pages will make the new site cleaner and improve crawl efficiency.

Finally, note SEO-critical elements: meta titles, meta descriptions, canonical tags, structured data, and high-value internal links. Record any posts that receive regular traffic or backlinks — these need careful permalink handling so you don't lose ranking or referral traffic.

Exporting from common platforms

WordPress

WordPress gives the most straightforward export options. Use the native Tools → Export to generate an XML file containing posts, pages, comments, categories, and authors. Many migrations use the WordPress WXR (XML) file to import content into another system or to convert posts to Markdown or HTML for Mediumish.

If your Mediumish setup uses Jekyll, Hugo, or a static generator, consider plugins or tools that convert WXR to Markdown with front matter. Tools like wxr2md, exitwp, or custom scripts can transform the XML into a series of Markdown files with YAML front matter that the Mediumish layout can read.

Blogger

Blogger can export an XML file from Settings → Other → Back up content. The Blogger XML includes posts and comments. Converting this XML to Markdown or HTML files often requires a parser. Simple scripts or online converters can help, but pay attention to inline styles and embedded widgets — these may not translate well and often need manual cleanup.

Images hosted on Blogger typically live on Google's servers with long URLs. Decide whether to keep serving images from those URLs or download and rehost them under your new domain (recommended for long-term stability and analytics).

Ghost

Ghost has a JSON export that includes posts, tags, authors, and images (image URLs point to Ghost storage). Ghost’s JSON structure is modern and rich, but you will likely need a conversion step to produce Markdown or HTML files with appropriate front matter fields. Ghost images can be bulk-downloaded or preserved via their existing URLs if they are stable.

Medium

Medium allows you to export posts as a ZIP containing HTML files and images. The HTML is clean but may include Medium-specific markup for embeds or references. Each exported post is an HTML file you can adapt to the Mediumish structure. Medium does not provide an easy way to export comments or all metadata (like claps) — preserve what matters for SEO and content continuity (title, body, publish date, canonical link).

Custom or static sites

If your site is already static, migration is often the simplest: copy the Markdown or HTML files and adjust front matter to the Mediumish schema. If pages were hand-crafted with unique classes, you will need to standardize markup so Mediumish styling works properly. Keep an eye on inline CSS and custom scripts that may conflict with the theme.

Map your structure and front matter

Mediumish themes expect a consistent set of metadata so templates can render author, date, tags, cover image, and reading time. Create a front matter template and decide field names. A typical front matter block might include:

---
title: "Your post title"
date: "2024-04-01"
author: "Author Name"
tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]
categories: ["category"]
cover: "/assets/images/cover.jpg"
excerpt: "Short summary for meta description"
canonical: "https://oldsite.com/original-url"
---

When converting exported content, populate these fields for every post. If your export lacks an excerpt or canonical URL, generate a sensible excerpt and set canonical where necessary to avoid duplicate content penalties.

Also plan URL structure and permalink templates. Decide whether Mediumish will adopt your old permalink pattern or use a new one. Keeping the same pattern reduces redirect complexity, but changing can be OK if you implement robust redirects.

Images and media handling

Images are one of the most commonly overlooked migration details. Options for each image include:

  1. Keep the original host URL (fast, minimal work, but external dependency).
  2. Download all images and rehost under your new domain (recommended for control and future-proofing).
  3. Use a CDN or cloud storage bucket and serve images from there.

If you choose to rehost, download images at their highest reasonable resolution and create a consistent path (for example, /assets/images/posts/yyyy/mm/slug-image.jpg). Update post references so all <img> tags point to the new paths. If you use a static generator, add an images folder per post or a single assets folder depending on your organization preference.

Don’t forget to preserve alt attributes for accessibility and SEO. If alt text is missing, create brief descriptive alt text during the migration. Also consider adding srcset attributes or using responsive image helpers that Mediumish might support to optimize loading on different devices.

Preserving link equity is critical. Before you switch DNS or publish the new site, prepare a redirect plan. Common redirect strategies:

  • Server-level redirects (Apache .htaccess or Nginx rules) — ideal if you control the original host.
  • Hosting provider redirects — many managed hosts offer redirect rules or UI for mapping old to new URLs.
  • Static redirect files — for static hosts you can create a set of HTML files at old paths with meta refresh or JavaScript redirects, though server redirects are preferable for SEO.

Export your old URL list and map it to new URLs. Keep the redirects in place at least 6–12 months, and monitor traffic to catch any residual broken links. For large sites, consider automating redirect generation using scripts that match slugs and dates.

SEO, metadata and schema

Mediumish pages should include clear meta titles and descriptions. During migration, ensure each page has a unique meta title (60–70 characters best practice) and meta description (up to 150 characters to match your request). If you create new or improved excerpts, add them to the front matter and use them as meta descriptions.

Structured data matters. Add schema for articles and FAQs where relevant. Below is an example JSON-LD for an article. Insert it into the template so each post generates accurate structured data with headline, author, datePublished, and image fields:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Example headline",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Author Name"
  },
  "datePublished": "2024-04-01",
  "image": [
    "https://example.com/assets/images/cover.jpg"
  ],
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Your Site",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://example.com/assets/images/logo.png"
    }
  }
}

Include canonical links that point to the primary version of the content. If you migrate and change the canonical domain, ensure the canonical points to the new domain after the migration, or temporarily point to the old canonical during content transition if you are preserving old pages while testing.

Comments and analytics

Comments may live on third-party systems (Disqus, native, or platform-specific). For Disqus, export comment threads if you want to import them into a new Disqus shortname or link them to new URLs. Disqus supports migration guides that map old URLs to new posts. For native comments in WordPress or other platforms, use export tools to preserve comment metadata.

Analytics tracking must be added to the new theme. If you used Google Analytics or another provider, place the tracking snippet in Mediumish’s template or through your site’s tag manager. Verify tracking after launch by checking real-time reports. Consider setting up Search Console and submitting a new sitemap after migration to speed re-indexing.

Testing and go-live checklist

Before switching DNS or making the site public, test the new theme in a staging environment. Key tests include:

  • Rendering: ensure headings, images, code blocks and blockquotes look correct across posts.
  • Permalink matching: verify the mapping of old URLs to new ones and test redirects.
  • Mobile responsiveness: check pages on several device widths.
  • Schema and meta tags: validate with Rich Results Test or schema validators.
  • Performance: measure page load times and optimize images and CSS where needed.

When you are ready, switch over during a low-traffic time if possible, and monitor server logs, Search Console, and analytics closely for 72 hours. Expect search engines to re-crawl — keep redirects active and be patient; ranking changes may fluctuate briefly.

Common issues and solutions

Broken images: If images break after migration, check file paths and case-sensitivity. On some hosts, filenames are case-sensitive; a mismatch in capitalization will cause errors. Fix by correcting the URLs or re-uploading images with normalized names.

Missing metadata: Old exports sometimes lack meta descriptions or canonical tags. Fix by updating front matter in bulk (scripts or find-and-replace) to include generated excerpts or canonical values.

Loss of social previews: If social cards show broken or wrong images, verify Open Graph metadata and ensure your social images meet recommended sizes. Clear caches for Facebook or Twitter Card validator to refresh previews.

Redirect loops: Misconfigured redirects can create loops. Test a few URLs manually and use online redirect checkers. Keep a clean one-to-one mapping where possible and avoid redirecting old URLs to pages that then redirect again.

Quick migration checklist

Step Description
Inventory Export URL list, titles, dates, and SEO metadata
Decide Keep, update, merge, or retire each post
Export Run platform export (XML, JSON, ZIP) and collect media
Convert Transform to HTML/Markdown with Mediumish front matter
Images Download, optimize and rehost images; update references
Redirects Prepare server-level or hosting redirects from old to new URLs
Test Validate rendering, SEO, analytics, and mobile
Go live Push DNS or publish and monitor traffic and errors

FAQ

How long will migration take

Migration time depends on site size, media volume, and custom features. Small blogs (under 200 posts) can often be migrated within a few days with careful testing. Larger sites may take weeks. Plan for extra time to fix redirects and SEO issues.

Will I lose SEO rankings after switching to Mediumish

If you keep permalinks or implement correct redirects and preserve metadata and structured data, you can avoid major ranking losses. Expect short-term fluctuations as search engines re-crawl; monitor Search Console and adjust as needed.

Can I import comments and social shares

Comments can often be exported and reattached (Disqus has import tools; WordPress comments can be exported). Share counts are harder—social platforms usually use URL-based counts, so if URLs change you may lose counts unless you use tools that aggregate counts for old and new URLs.

Should I change URLs to a cleaner structure

Changing to a cleaner URL format is tempting, but only do so if you can implement reliable redirects. The benefits to UX and long-term maintainability can outweigh the short-term effort, but always map old to new and keep redirects live for months.

Follow this guide step by step and treat the migration as both a technical and editorial project. Mediumish gives you a clean canvas — use the opportunity to tidy content, strengthen metadata, and improve the reading experience. If you want, I can generate a custom migration script for a specific export file (WordPress XML, Blogger XML, Ghost JSON, or Medium ZIP) and a matching front matter template for Mediumish. Tell me which platform you are migrating from and share a sample export file or a short list of URLs, and I will prepare an actionable conversion plan.

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