Case Study: Migrating 10 Years of WordPress Redirects to Statamic

When a long-established content website approached us to migrate from WordPress to Statamic, their biggest concern was preserving a decade of accumulated redirects. Like many mature WordPress sites, they had accumulated extensive redirect entries scattered across various plugins and configurations, with no clear understanding of which ones were still valuable.

The Challenge

Our analysis revealed the typical issues: many redirects pointed to non-existent pages, others used invalid patterns or absolute URLs, and numerous redirect chains created unnecessary performance overhead. Rather than migrating everything blindly, we needed a systematic approach to preserve SEO value while cleaning up the redirect structure.

Our Solution

We developed a custom console command to handle the migration automatically. The tool parsed the WordPress redirect database, transformed the data for Statamic compatibility, and applied intelligent filtering based on actual usage patterns. Using the client's analytics data, we filtered out redirects that hadn't been accessed in the last year, significantly reducing the total count.

The validation process eliminated redirects with broken destinations, invalid regex patterns, and circular references. For the remaining redirect chains, we traced each path to its final destination and updated the source redirects to point directly there, removing unnecessary intermediate hops.

Testing and Results

After importing the cleaned data into Statamic, we tested each redirect on the staging environment to ensure proper functionality. The final migration substantially reduced the redirect count while maintaining all active, valuable redirects and improving site performance.

The client launched their new Statamic site without any SEO impact. Search rankings were maintained throughout the transition, and the streamlined redirect structure made ongoing maintenance much simpler. Post-migration monitoring confirmed sustained organic traffic levels with improved user engagement metrics.

Key Takeaway

This project demonstrated that successful redirect migration isn't about preserving everything, but about intelligently identifying what provides value. By combining automated processing with data-driven decision making, we helped the client modernize their platform while maintaining their hard-earned search visibility.

Need help with your WordPress to Statamic migration? Our systematic approach ensures you preserve SEO value while improving site performance. Contact us to discuss your project.