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Smooth sailing for Streets with web migration success

Smooth sailing for Streets with web migration success

Maintaining continuity and uninterrupted service

Maintaining continuity and uninterrupted service

Laptop screen showing a homepage Articles section of the Streets Accountants website

The client

Streets Accountants are a leading full-service firm offering audit, tax advisory, corporate finance, and legal services. Founded in 1907, the firm has grown to 32 UK offices employing over 400 staff, and with their global reach through the SBC Global Alliance, Streets ensure seamless international support. Given their extensive client base and international operations, maintaining website continuity is crucial for providing uninterrupted service and support to their clients.

The opportunity

At Cursor, we thrive on turning complex digital challenges into seamless solutions. When Streets Accountants approached us with the task of modernising their website, we knew it was an opportunity to showcase our expertise in CMS migrations. 

Their existing website was built on an outdated and unsupported custom Content Management System. Given Streets' need for a secure, scalable and easily maintainable platform, we recommended migrating to Craft CMS. Its flexible content architecture, strong security model and intuitive admin interface made it ideally suited to support the firm’s multi-location presence and regular content updates, while also providing a future-proof foundation for digital growth.

Our mission was clear: to ensure a smooth migration that preserved the website's visual integrity and functionality while laying a robust foundation for future growth and enhancements.

The solution

Design replication

The first step in this transformation was to faithfully replicate the existing design elements of the Streets website within the new Craft CMS framework. This involved meticulously recreating key user interface components such as navigation menus, typography, headers, footers, and style sheets using the Bootstrap framework. By doing so, we ensured that the new Craft-powered site mirrored the aesthetics and user experience of the legacy platform, providing a familiar interface for returning users.

Community section landing page showing a photo banner and  six articles
Community section landing page showing a photo banner and  six articles
Community section landing page showing a photo banner and  six articles
Comminuty article showing relevant text and an image
Comminuty article showing relevant text and an image
Comminuty article showing relevant text and an image

Incremental migration via reverse proxy

To minimise disruption, the migration was approached in a phased manner, employing a ‘reverse proxy’ strategy to maintain continuous site availability.

Homepage: We began by deploying the new homepage on a staging server. Utilising a reverse proxy, public requests to the root of the old site were seamlessly routed to the new Craft homepage, whilst the rest of the site remained on the old CMS. This allowed us to retain the original header and footer navigation, preserving the site’s established user experience.

Homepage: We began by deploying the new homepage on a staging server. Utilising a reverse proxy, public requests to the root of the old site were seamlessly routed to the new Craft homepage, whilst the rest of the site remained on the old CMS. This allowed us to retain the original header and footer navigation, preserving the site’s established user experience.

Homepage: We began by deploying the new homepage on a staging server. Utilising a reverse proxy, public requests to the root of the old site were seamlessly routed to the new Craft homepage, whilst the rest of the site remained on the old CMS. This allowed us to retain the original header and footer navigation, preserving the site’s established user experience.

Section-by-section rollout: The website was divided into logical sections such as About, Services, and Contact. Each phase of work focused on rebuilding and deploying one section under the Craft domain, with the reverse proxy configured to direct traffic to the appropriate version (old or new). This strategic rollout ensured the entire site remained live and functional throughout the migration, with the dual-version deployment invisible to end users.

Section-by-section rollout: The website was divided into logical sections such as About, Services, and Contact. Each phase of work focused on rebuilding and deploying one section under the Craft domain, with the reverse proxy configured to direct traffic to the appropriate version (old or new). This strategic rollout ensured the entire site remained live and functional throughout the migration, with the dual-version deployment invisible to end users.

Section-by-section rollout: The website was divided into logical sections such as About, Services, and Contact. Each phase of work focused on rebuilding and deploying one section under the Craft domain, with the reverse proxy configured to direct traffic to the appropriate version (old or new). This strategic rollout ensured the entire site remained live and functional throughout the migration, with the dual-version deployment invisible to end users.

Membership options on mobile
Membership options on mobile
Membership options on mobile

Content administration

During the migration process, content administration was carefully managed. Until a section's content was fully transferred, administrators continued to update the old CMS. Once a section was migrated, all content updates shifted to the Craft CMS backend.

Spam form submissions had proved to be an escalating problem with the old version of the site. We resolved this as a priority by redeveloping Streets’ enquiry forms in Craft early in the migration process.

Final cut-over and cleanup

Once all sections were successfully live on Craft, the reverse proxy was disabled, and the old CMS server was decommissioned. A comprehensive site-wide audit was conducted to identify and resolve legacy issues, including broken links, redirect loops, and performance bottlenecks. Additionally, we optimised page load speeds and implemented best practices for redirects and link integrity.

The outcome

Zero downtime: Our reverse-proxy strategy allowed for uninterrupted site availability throughout a complex migration process.

Zero downtime: Our reverse-proxy strategy allowed for uninterrupted site availability throughout a complex migration process.

Zero downtime: Our reverse-proxy strategy allowed for uninterrupted site availability throughout a complex migration process.

Unified admin experience: Content editors now benefit from managing all aspects of the website through Craft’s modern, intuitive interface.

Unified admin experience: Content editors now benefit from managing all aspects of the website through Craft’s modern, intuitive interface.

Unified admin experience: Content editors now benefit from managing all aspects of the website through Craft’s modern, intuitive interface.

Improved security & performance: Transitioning from an old, unsupported CMS eliminated security vulnerabilities and enabled comprehensive speed optimisation for the website.

Improved security & performance: Transitioning from an old, unsupported CMS eliminated security vulnerabilities and enabled comprehensive speed optimisation for the website.

Improved security & performance: Transitioning from an old, unsupported CMS eliminated security vulnerabilities and enabled comprehensive speed optimisation for the website.

Increased traffic: The Ahrefs site score (which indicates a website’s ‘health’ based on the number of internal urls without errors) has been improved to 98/100, allowing increased organic and referral traffic to reach the website.

Increased traffic: The Ahrefs site score (which indicates a website’s ‘health’ based on the number of internal urls without errors) has been improved to 98/100, allowing increased organic and referral traffic to reach the website.

Increased traffic: The Ahrefs site score (which indicates a website’s ‘health’ based on the number of internal urls without errors) has been improved to 98/100, allowing increased organic and referral traffic to reach the website.

Scalable foundation: The new Craft CMS platform provides a scalable foundation, allowing new features and sections to be added seamlessly without the need for complex workarounds.

Scalable foundation: The new Craft CMS platform provides a scalable foundation, allowing new features and sections to be added seamlessly without the need for complex workarounds.

Scalable foundation: The new Craft CMS platform provides a scalable foundation, allowing new features and sections to be added seamlessly without the need for complex workarounds.

Our phased, proxy-driven migration process successfully delivered a fresh, fully supported CMS platform, ensuring a risk-free transition that preserved and enhanced the user experience for Streets’ customers and staff.

Phone screen showing the Streets app download page