What should migrate from a 20,000-page intranet? Current, trustworthy content that supports an employee task or an approved business obligation—and has an accountable owner and a suitable destination. The rest needs an explicit decision: improve, consolidate, preserve in an appropriate archive, or retire with approval. There is no defensible universal percentage to keep.
The page count describes the size of the review, not the migration target. A successful migration makes essential information easier to find and use while preserving obligations, permissions, and context. Moving every page can carry the old intranet’s confusion into a new platform.
The WhyteOps decision framework
Inventory → Ownership → Usage → ROT → Risk → Consolidation → Migration → Validation. Use these as decision checkpoints. Risk screening begins during inventory and can stop a removal decision at any stage; it is not a final cleanup exercise.
1. Inventory: establish what actually exists
Record each page’s URL, title, content type, business area, owner, last review date, attachments, and permissions. Capture dependencies such as forms, embedded tools, links, and linked documents. A page export alone can miss the application or document that makes a task work.
Output: A content register with one identifiable record per item and a way to connect duplicates and dependencies. Confirm what the inventory excludes before using its count as a planning baseline.
2. Ownership: name the person who can approve the decision
Ask the business owner whether the content is accurate, needed, and appropriate for the new destination. The last person who edited a page may not own its meaning. Give each decision an approver and a review deadline.
An unowned page is unresolved—not automatically disposable. Escalate it to the relevant business leader, especially when the content supports safety, employee benefits, or a controlled process.
3. Usage: investigate demand, not just traffic
Review page visits alongside search queries, support requests, interviews, and seasonal work. Choose an observation window that captures the task’s cycle: annual enrollment guidance may look unused outside enrollment season.
Low traffic can mean the page is hard to find, analytics are incomplete, or only a small group needs it. High traffic can reflect confusing instructions or repeated failed attempts. Neither number is a verdict.
4. ROT: identify redundant, outdated, and trivial content
Redundant content repeats an answer already maintained elsewhere. Outdated content contains superseded guidance. Trivial content no longer has a meaningful operational purpose. Treat these as review flags, not automated deletion rules.
Compare the substance of apparent duplicates. Two procedures may differ because of location, employee group, or equipment. Preserve legitimate differences and remove accidental repetition.
5. Risk: separate preservation from publication
A regulatory policy should not be removed simply because it receives little traffic. Ask the organization’s records, compliance, legal, security, or policy owners to confirm applicable retention, holds, access restrictions, and approval requirements. Do not invent a retention period from a web analytics report.
Keeping a record does not always mean publishing it as current employee guidance. A superseded document may belong in a controlled archive while the approved current version remains on the intranet. The archive must have an owner, an access method, and a retrieval path. These are operational planning principles, not a substitute for organization-specific legal advice.
6. Consolidation: design one dependable answer
Group pages around employee tasks. If six departments explain the same expense process, consider one authoritative procedure with clearly labeled local exceptions. Agree on the surviving owner, content, destination URL, and links before the build begins.
Consolidation is editorial work, not just copying sections together. Check that no approval step, exception, attachment, or audience restriction disappears.
7. Migration: move approved, ready content in controlled waves
Give each item a disposition: migrate unchanged, revise then migrate, consolidate, archive, retire, or hold for a decision. Record the approver, reason, destination, and dependencies. Only ready items enter a release wave.
Map templates, metadata, navigation, access groups, and old-to-new URLs. Test a representative pilot before scaling. Freeze or reconcile edits during cutover so the new page does not launch behind the old one.
8. Validation: prove the task still works
Check content accuracy, links, attachments, accessibility, mobile layout, search results, and permissions. Test both authorized access and denied access. Ask representative employees to complete real tasks, not merely confirm that pages open.
Reconcile the register: every in-scope item needs a recorded outcome, including held items and archives. Business owners should sign off on their content. Maintain an issue log, rollback approach, and post-launch review so launch day is not the end of validation.
What do those decisions look like?
The following are illustrative decisions—not a client case study:
- Current emergency procedure; few visits: Keep it readily accessible, verify the owner and instructions, and test findability. Its importance is not measured by routine traffic.
- Twelve copies of the same onboarding checklist: Consolidate the common guidance, preserve valid local differences, and update links to the approved destination.
- Superseded policy with preservation requirements: Route it to the appropriate controlled archive after owner review; make the current policy unambiguous.
- Old social announcement with no remaining purpose: Consider retirement after checking dependencies and applicable preservation requirements.
- Frequently visited instructions with an obsolete process: Correct and approve the content before migrating it. Popularity does not establish accuracy.
What should a leader ask before approving launch?
Can employees complete the critical tasks? Are high-risk items resolved or covered by an approved interim plan? Are owners, permissions, redirects, and archive retrieval confirmed? Can the team explain every disposition rather than only report a page count?
The takeaway: Success is not “20,000 pages moved.” It is the right information available to the right people, with a clear owner and evidence that the essential work still functions.
This is part of the WhyteOps Answer Library: practical guidance built around decisions, evidence, and important exceptions. For the editorial approach behind it, read Beyond SEO: Building Content That Becomes Part of the Answer.
Planning an intranet migration or content review? Contact WhyteOps to discuss the inventory, governance, and delivery decisions that come first.