Contentful to Webflow Migration

About Contentful

Contentful is a headless CMS that’s built for flexibility. It allows you to define your own content models, manage everything via API, and integrate with almost any frontend framework. For dev-heavy teams working on complex digital platforms, it’s a powerful option.

But as websites evolve—and marketing teams take more ownership—Contentful’s strengths can also become friction points:

• Developer-First Setup
  ‍Everything in Contentful starts with code: content models, display logic, integrations. That’s great if you’ve got a dev team on call, but tricky if your marketing team wants to move quickly.
• No Built-In Frontend
  ‍Since Contentful is headless, you’re responsible for building and maintaining the frontend separately. That also means more work when updating design or layout elements—especially for non-technical users.
• Complex Content Relationships
  ‍Contentful handles structured data well, but it can get complicated fast. Managing references, rich text blocks, and nested entries often requires schema changes, content migrations, or workarounds.
• Maintenance Overhead
  ‍Managing Contentful alongside a frontend codebase, hosting, deployments, and version control adds operational complexity—not to mention more room for disconnects between content and design.

Because of this, many teams—especially growing B2B brands—choose to move from Contentful to Webflow. With Webflow, you get a unified platform where design, content, and publishing all live in one place—without giving up structure or flexibility.

Want a full breakdown? See our Webflow vs Contentful comparison

‍

Step-by-Step Migration Process

Moving from Contentful to Webflow means you're not just changing platforms—you're switching how content and design are managed altogether. Here's how to handle the migration smoothly, without losing structure, SEO, or your sanity.

1. Audit Your Contentful Setup

Start by understanding exactly how your site is built and connected.

• List all content types (Blog posts, Authors, Categories, FAQs, etc.)
• Review each content model’s schema: field types, validations, relationships
• Identify rich text fields, reference fields (single + multi), and media assets
• If you're using localization, note which entries are language-specific
• Crawl your site (via frontend) using Screaming Frog to map your URLs and SEO data

Pro Tip: Export schema JSON from Contentful’s API or use the Contentful CLI to get a full picture of your models.

2. Export Your Content from Contentful

Contentful doesn’t offer a CSV export by default, so you’ll need to:

• Use the contentful-export CLI tool to pull data in JSON format
• Ensure the export includes linked entries, references, and assets
• For assets (images, PDFs, etc.), download the actual files via script or manual batch download from Contentful Media Library
• If you use localization, check how locales are handled (e.g., title: { en-US: "..." }) and plan accordingly

Note: Media assets in rich text fields are often embedded as nested references—you'll need to extract URLs and match them back manually or through a script.

3. Clean and Flatten Your Data for Webflow

Webflow only accepts flat CSVs for CMS import, so the JSON export needs work.

• Use tools like Make.com (formerly Integromat), Parabola, or custom Python scripts to:
  • Flatten nested content
  • Extract values from rich text and reference fields
  • Convert asset links into direct URLs
  • Output a clean CSV for each content type

Make sure to match your CSV headers to the fields you’ll create in Webflow CMS (e.g., Title, Slug, Body, Featured Image, Category, etc.)

4. Recreate CMS Structure in Webflow

Inside Webflow:

• Set up Collections to match each of your content types (Blog Posts, Categories, Authors, etc.)
• Use correct field types: plain text, rich text, image, reference, multi-reference
• For deeply nested or relational content, simplify where possible—Webflow supports references, but not infinitely nested ones
• Create Collection Templates for dynamic pages

5. Import Your Clean Data into Webflow

• Use Webflow’s CMS Import Tool to upload your CSV files
• Map each column to its corresponding CMS field
• Upload media assets separately via Webflow’s Asset Manager, then manually associate them with CMS items (or use Make.com for automation if needed)

Pro Tip: If importing fails, split large files into smaller batches or troubleshoot based on field mismatches.

6. Rebuild the Frontend in Webflow

Contentful doesn’t come with a frontend—you had to build it. Now’s your chance to simplify and improve it visually:

• Rebuild layouts, navs, and dynamic pages in Webflow Designer
• Use Collection Lists and Template Pages to generate dynamic views
• Recreate logic like “show only if X field exists” using Webflow’s conditional visibility
• Add CMS-driven filters (e.g., category or tag-based filtering) using tools like:
  • Jetboost for real-time filtering and search
  • Finsweet Attributes for advanced controls without custom code

Considering a design refresh? Migration is the perfect moment to update UX and modernize your brand visually. Checkout our guide on website redesign strategy to make sure you get everything right from day 1.

7. Rebuild SEO Settings + Add Redirects

This is where many migrations break. Don't let that happen.

• Manually add meta titles, descriptions, alt text, and OG tags to each page and CMS template
• Use Webflow’s 301 redirect manager to map old Contentful URLs to your new Webflow URLs
• Add canonical tags and structured data via Webflow’s <head> custom code blocks
• Generate a new sitemap in Webflow and submit it to Google Search Console

Use our Webflow SEO Checklist to ensure nothing gets missed.

8. QA Everything Before Launch

You’re almost there—now test everything.

What to check:

• Page structure and navigation
• CMS pages: blog detail, category, author, etc.
• Forms (test submissions and integrations)
• Image rendering across breakpoints
• Mobile responsiveness
• Metadata accuracy (use the SEO meta preview in Webflow settings)
• Accessibility (check alt text, color contrast, headings)
• Speed (run a Lighthouse audit in Chrome)

Use Webflow’s staging domain (yoursite.webflow.io) to soft launch before switching DNS.

9. Go Live and Monitor

• Setup your domain in Webflow to go live.
• Recheck all redirects after DNS switch
• Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors, traffic dips, or indexing issues
• Track site performance and core web vitals post-launch

Bonus: Schedule a follow-up audit 2–4 weeks post-launch to review performance, rankings, and team usage.

‍

Common Challenges in Contentful to Webflow Migration (And How to Overcome Them)

Even with a solid plan, migrating from Contentful to Webflow can bring up a few unexpected challenges. Here are the most common ones—and how to handle them without losing your structure, speed, or sanity.

1. Flattening Contentful’s Nested Data

The challenge:

Contentful often uses deeply nested references and rich text fields with embedded assets or entries. Webflow, on the other hand, supports a more simplified CMS structure.

How to overcome it:

• Use Make.com or a custom script to extract embedded fields
• Flatten nested content into spreadsheet-ready rows/columns
• Simplify relationships when necessary (e.g., avoid nesting references inside rich text)

2. Handling Media Files and Rich Text Fields

The challenge:

Contentful doesn’t export media as part of its content JSON. You’ll need to download and relink assets manually—and rich text blocks can be hard to parse.

How to overcome it:

• Use a script to extract media URLs from Contentful JSON
• Download assets into folders and upload them into Webflow
• Convert rich text into HTML or plain text, then map it into Webflow’s rich text fields

3. Rebuilding Conditional Logic or Dynamic Components

The challenge:

Contentful often powers logic-heavy frontends—like filtered views, dynamically rendered blocks, or localized content—through frontend code.

How to overcome it:

• Use Webflow’s conditional visibility rules for simple logic
• For filters/search, use tools like Jetboost or Finsweet Attributes
• For localization, consider third-party solutions like Weglot or custom CMS setups

4. Matching URL Structure + Redirects

The challenge:

Contentful sites often have dynamic or custom routing (e.g., /category/article-title/). Webflow’s URL structure is flatter by default.

How to overcome it:

• Create a redirect map using tools like Screaming Frog or by exporting your sitemap
• Set up 301 redirects inside Webflow’s Hosting Settings → Redirects tab
• Don’t forget to test them post-launch with tools like HTTPStatus.io

5. SEO Drop from Missed Metadata or Tagging

The challenge:

Contentful gives you flexibility with SEO fields—but they don’t migrate automatically. If you forget to recreate this data, rankings can slip.

How to overcome it:

• Rebuild all SEO metadata (titles, descriptions, OG tags) manually in Webflow
• Set up alt text for all images
• Rebuild schema if your site used structured data
• Follow Amply's Webflow SEO checklist to be sure you’ve covered everything

6. Redesigning During Migration (Without Losing Structure)

The challenge:

A migration is often the perfect time for a redesign. But rebuilding your CMS and refreshing your frontend at the same time can get messy—especially if you don’t have clear ownership over structure, content, and design direction. It’s easy to misalign fields, lose important content types, or end up with a beautiful site that’s hard to manage.

How to overcome it:

• Start with an updated sitemap and design system before you begin importing anything
• Review each CMS Collection and make sure it aligns with your new layouts
• Validate your CMS templates before importing content into them
• Work with a specialised agency that can handle both the redesign and migration together—it saves time and avoids costly rework

‍

How Amply Helps with Contentful to Webflow Migration

Contentful to Webflow migrations often involve more than just exporting and importing content. From complex schemas and reference-heavy data to frontend rebuilds and SEO protection—we handle it all, end to end.

Here’s what working with Amply looks like:

Deep Experience With Headless CMS Migrations

We’ve migrated structured sites from Contentful, Sanity, Prismic, and other headless platforms. We understand how schema-based content systems work—and how to reframe them for Webflow’s visual CMS without losing flexibility.

Schema Mapping + CMS Architecture Planning

We don’t just migrate your models—we re-architect them to make sense inside Webflow. That includes flattening nested references, maintaining key content relationships, and building scalable CMS Collections that your team can actually use.

Structured Imports, Transformed the Right Way

We extract your JSON data from Contentful, clean it up, and convert it into Webflow-friendly CSVs. Rich text, slugs, images, references—we make sure it all lands in the right place, formatted for Webflow’s import tools and structure.

Frontend Rebuilds That Match—or Improve

Since Contentful is headless, your frontend was likely custom-coded. We recreate that in Webflow with clean, responsive layouts—and if you want to take the opportunity to refresh the design, we can do that too.

Learn more about our Webflow migrations and B2B Web Design services

SEO, Redirects & Launch Support

We handle everything from 301 redirects to metadata, canonical URLs, and Open Graph tags—so you don’t lose rankings in the move. We’ll also walk you through launch day (DNS, domains, QA) to make sure everything goes live smoothly.

Post-Migration Support & QA

After launch, we stay on to fix any lingering issues, help your team learn the Webflow CMS, and make sure everything’s working as expected—front to back.

Need help migrating your website to Webflow? Book a Free Migration Call