When is migration required?
Yesterday. According to the law you must ensure your website is compliant immediately. Your website on the retro 1.0 version of our platform is not compliant, but you can ask our team about adding a third party plugin to help improve compliance. However migrating to a platform that is natively more compliant is highly recommended (and there are $5000/yr in tax credits available to cover these costs).
The old 1.0 website will continue to function until at least June 2023, and after that we will keep the old platform working as long as is necessary/reasonable to prevent sites from going offline. So in the next year we would love to help everyone migrate to the new platform, because it's just better for you (new functionality, new designs, etc). And we are encouraging that transition sooner than later particularly because the legal ADA compliance requirements for disabled persons are urgent.
Is there a learning curve?
The new version of Gutensite is easy to use. We have a simple introductory training video and our proactive support can continue to assist you as usual. Most editing/management tasks are very simple, so after you learn the basics you'll have no problems.
Is migration free?
We will automatically create a website account on the new platform and migrate all your data/pages from 1.0 to 2.0 for free. But before you launch, it will be necessary to spend a few hours reviewing the website and making minor content/design/preference changes to ensure your new website looks good and takes advantage of the new platform features and designs. We recommend a small $500 project from our team to do this for you to make the transition easier.
Is migration automatic or do I need to cleanup the website after?
Because the new platform is much more powerful/dynamic and has new design options, it will require some intentional cleanup after the migration, particularly on landing pages (e.g. home page) that are so much more beautiful on 2.0. You can do this yourself, but we recommend letting our team do this for you so that the results are beautiful and it's a stress free transition. An average site will take about 3 hours ($500), this small fee will ensure a simple transition to the new platform that is ADA compliant, much more flexible and powerful to create dynamic pages, and you'll also benefit from a nice design refresh while you are at it.
Will my customizations transfer over to the new site?
Custom functionality or designs on the old platform will not automatically transition to the new platform. In most cases the new platform will already provide better functionality and design, but if you absolutely need features from the old site, you'll need to schedule a consultation to discuss your options. Also, it is recommended to keep your site fresh (at least every 2 years) so occasional technology maintenance is part of the cost of maintaining a modern website.
Custom Website Design and Communication Strategy
This migration is just a reproduction of what you have on the old site. But if you haven't upgraded your site in the last couple of years, it could also be a great opportunity to actually rethink your website strategy, ask some questions about how to improve the experience for visitors and members, how to communicate more clearly, how to make your pages look better, etc. If you want to engage in any consulting, custom design, etc. we are always available for custom projects.
