In an earlier part of the series on migrating a website to WordPress, we discussed the content migration process. Once it has been migrated, it is also worth considering how to design the site’s user ecosystem so that it is scalable and manageable.

If the Joomla site had user registrations or a team of content editors, migrating those users and their permissions is important. WordPress and Joomla handle roles differently, so we’ll address both migrating user accounts and aligning their roles:

Migrating User Accounts

• Automated (FG Premium): The premium FG Joomla to WP will import all Joomla users into WordPress, preserving their usernames and even passwords. If you used that, check Users in WP admin to see if they’re present. It will assign a default role (likely Subscriber or something) unless it mapped Joomla groups to WP roles (not sure if FG does automatic mapping – you may have to adjust roles after).

• Manual CSV Import: Without an automated tool, the process is:

1. Export Joomla users to CSV (use an extension like ARRA User Export or via a direct database query from #__userstable).
2. Ensure the CSV has columns for at least: username, email, display name, and password. Since passwords are hashed in Joomla, one strategy from a known tutorial is to use a special header “joomlapass” for the password field and include the hashed password from Joomla. Then use the WordPress plugin Import Users from CSV to handle the import. This plugin can recognize the Joomla hash and convert it so the user can log in with the same password on WordPress.
3. If the above method is too complex, alternatively, you can import users and assign a random password or a known default which users reset later. However, preserving passwords is a better user experience.
4. Run the importer, then verify users are created in Users list in WP. You might spot-check by logging in as a test user.

Mapping Roles and Permissions

Joomla’s default groups include: Public, Registered, Author, Editor, Publisher, Manager, Administrator, Super User. WordPress default roles: Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor, Administrator. They don’t match 1:1, but approximate:

• Registered (Joomla) – basic registered user. In WordPress, Subscriber is closest (can read and manage own profile).
• Author (Joomla) – can create own articles (but in Joomla cannot publish them without approval). This is similar to Contributor in WordPress (can draft own posts, but cannot publish) or if you want them to publish, map to WP Author(who can publish their posts).
• Editor (Joomla) – can edit any content (and maybe publish). This is closest to WP Editor role (can edit and publish any posts).
• Publisher (Joomla) – can publish any content. Also maps to WP Editor (since WP Editor can publish any content).
• Manager/Admin/Super User (Joomla) – these are backend roles with increasing privileges. Likely you’d map all higher-tier Joomla admins to Administrator in WP (full admin access). Joomla Super User would definitely be an Administrator in WP.

You can set each imported user’s role in the CSV (the import plugin usually lets you set a default role or use a column in CSV for role). Alternatively, after import, bulk-select users in WP admin and assign roles.

Preserve Author attributions: When posts were imported, ensure that the original author name is preserved. FG plugin will attempt to map Joomla authors to WP users if it imported users (or else it might assign all posts to the importing admin by default). If using WP All Import, you can include an “author” field in the import; one approach is to import all users first, then during post import map the “created_by” (Joomla author ID) to a username. WP All Import has options to import to post_author by either username or email. For example, if the Joomla export listed the author’s email for each article, WP All Import can assign the post to the user with that email (provided you’ve imported users beforehand). This way, your migrated posts will show the original author in WordPress.

Reassign/Adjust Capabilities: After migration, review the user list and roles. You might need to adjust some user roles or create custom roles if Joomla had a unique permission setup. For example, Joomla’s Manager might only manage certain components – in WP you might not need an equivalent, so maybe that user can just be an Editor or Admin. Use the principle of least privilege (e.g., don’t make everyone an Administrator if they only need to edit content). If needed, use a role management plugin (like Members or User Role Editor) to fine-tune capabilities. But usually default roles suffice.

Password Resets and Notifications: It might be wise to trigger a password reset email for all users (if passwords weren’t carried over) or at least inform users of the new site and encourage them to log in and check their account. WordPress can send password reset emails in bulk via a plugin, or you can do it via a script.

In summary, migrating users is partly about data (accounts) and partly about policy (roles). Once done, test a couple of user logins (one in each role) to ensure they have appropriate access (e.g., an Author can add a post in WP admin, an Editor can edit others’ posts, etc.). This ensures the editorial workflow remains smooth on the new platform.

Handling Joomla Modules & Components

Joomla’s modules and components often provide the extra features or layout blocks on a site (think of modules as widgets or blocks that can appear in sidebars, footers, etc., and components as larger applications or pages like contact forms, forums, etc.). Migrating these requires case-by-case solutions:

• Menus (Joomla Module: Main Menu): Joomla’s navigation menus were likely displayed via a menu module. In WordPress, menus are built-in. Recreate the site’s navigation in Appearance > Menus. Create a new menu, add the appropriate pages, categories, or custom links to mirror the Joomla menu structure. For instance, if the Joomla main menu had “Home, About, Blog, Contact”, you’ll create those in the WP menu, linking to the WordPress pages or category (for Blog) or perhaps a Contact page. If you have submenus, use the drag-and-indent interface to create dropdowns. Finally, assign the menu to the proper theme location (e.g., Primary Menu). This replaces Joomla’s menu module functionality. (If you imported menus via FG premium, you should see menus created automatically – still double-check and assign to theme locations.
• Sidebar Modules -> WordPress Widgets/Blocks: Joomla modules that showed up in the sidebar or footer (like “Latest Articles”, “Popular Articles”, “Custom HTML”, etc.) can be recreated using WordPress Widgets or Block Widgets. Go to Appearance > Widgets (or Appearance > Customize > Widgets) and see the available widget areas. Common replacements:
  • Custom HTML module: Use a Custom HTML widget in WordPress to place the same snippet of HTML/JS. Or if using Gutenberg widgets, add a Custom HTML block in the widget area.
  • Text module: Use a Text widget (or just a Paragraph block in widget area)
  • Image module: Use an Image widget/block to show an image.
  • Menu module (for secondary menus): Use the Navigation Menu widget to display a WordPress menu in a sidebar.
  • Latest Articles module: WordPress has a Recent Posts widget which can show recent posts.
  • Search module: There’s a Search widget for a search form.
  • Login module: WordPress by default doesn’t have a frontend login module (unless you install one). If the Joomla site had a login form on the front, decide if your WP site needs one. Possibly not, if only admins login. If needed, use a plugin like Sidebar Login or a simple custom HTML widget linking to the WP login page.
• Components (Functional Extensions): Each Joomla component may need a WordPress solution:
  • Contact Form (com_contact): Joomla’s contact component provides a contact page. In WordPress, create a Contact page and use a plugin like Contact Form 7 or WPForms to embed a contact form. That replaces the Joomla contact functionality with a possibly better one.
  • Gallery/Slideshow: If Joomla used a gallery component (e.g., Phoca Gallery) or a slideshow, find a WordPress plugin that offers similar layout. Import images into that plugin if needed. For example, install a gallery plugin and create galleries with the imported images.
  • News or Article Extensions: Some Joomla sites use K2 (a popular CCK) for content. If that’s the case, you must export K2 items as well (K2 has its own tables) and import them, perhaps as a custom post type in WP. This can be complex – possibly using FG Joomla K2 add-on or doing a separate import. Similarly, other components like events calendars would need either data migration or at least manually setting up events in a WP events plugin.
  • Custom Code in Template: Sometimes Joomla templates have custom code (like dynamic modules) for features. When building the WordPress theme, incorporate necessary custom code. For example, if the Joomla template had a module position that showed a banner based on the page, do similar in WP via conditional tags in theme or using a plugin for targeted content.
  • Embedded Joomla Plugins: Joomla content may contain plugin shortcodes like {loadposition xyz} to load a module in an article, or {someplugin param} for galleries, etc. These will appear as literal text in WordPress posts after import, because WP doesn’t know what to do with them. You’ll need to clean these up. Remove those placeholders or replace them with appropriate content. For instance, if {loadposition sidebar-ads} was in an article to show an ad module, you might decide to place that ad differently in WP (maybe via a widget), so you’d remove the code from the content. This can be done via a search & replace if there are many instances.
• Multilingual Modules: If the site was multilingual and Joomla had language-specific modules, in WordPress you will handle that with the multilingual plugin (like WPML) by assigning widgets to specific languages or creating separate menus per language. This might be beyond the core migration, but keep it in mind.

General Strategy: For each Joomla module or component, ask “What is the WordPress way to achieve this feature?”. In many cases, WordPress’s core and plugins have you covered:

• Site Search, Menus, Breadcrumbs, RSS – built into WP or available via plugin.
• Custom HTML – can do via widget or even a Gutenberg reusable block.
• User login/registration – WP has a built-in system (you might not need a front-end module unless the site requires it).
• Advertising banners – use a plugin or text widget with the ad code.
• Social links or share buttons – install a plugin for social sharing, rather than manually carried over code.
• SEO features – handled by the SEO plugin rather than separate Joomla modules.

It’s possible some Joomla-specific features have no exact parallel. In those cases, decide if that feature is truly needed. If yes, be prepared to custom-develop a small plugin or find a similar plugin. For example, if Joomla had a directory listing component, you might use a WordPress directory plugin and manually input the data (if automating isn’t feasible).

After handling modules and components, the WordPress site should have all the equivalent functionality of the old site, albeit achieved the “WordPress way”. Document what replacements were made, so the client/team knows how to maintain these going forward (since WP might have different workflow, e.g., updating a sidebar text now means editing a widget instead of a Joomla module in the admin).

Testing & QA

With content, media, and functionality in place on the WordPress staging site, thorough testing is crucial before going live

• Content Verification: Go through the main pages and a representative sample of posts. Check that all expected text is present and properly formatted. Joomla’s content editor might have allowed certain HTML that WordPress handles differently; look for any weird HTML artifacts or shortcodes as mentioned. Ensure headings, lists, and links in content came through correctly. Verify that any special characters (like accented letters, symbols) are not garbled (encoding issues can happen with CSV exports, for instance).
• Images and Media: Scroll through pages to confirm images are loading from the new site. If an image is broken, fix the URL or upload. Also check image alignment and captions. Joomla might have had classes like alignleft on images; WordPress might or might not retain those. Add appropriate classes or use the block editor to set alignment as needed on key pages.
• Internal Links: Click on links within pages to make sure they go to the correct new WordPress URL, not a 404. The FG importer has a feature to modify internal links automatically to the new WP format – ensure you did that (there’s a button “Modify internal links” in FG after import). If you migrated manually, hopefully internal links were already pointing to the correct slugs. If some links are wrong, use the Redirection plugin’s 404 log or a crawling tool (like Screaming Frog in spider mode, if available) to find broken links. Then either update the content or add redirects as necessary.
•  Menus and Navigation: Test all menu links on the site (header menu, footer menu, etc.). They should navigate correctly. Ensure dropdowns work, if any. Compare with the Joomla site to see if any menu item was missed. Also test any menu-based logic (for example, if the WP theme highlights the current page in the menu, make sure that works, etc.).
• Forms and Interactive Components: If you set up a contact form, send a test message to confirm it’s working and emails are received. If any search functionality exists, perform a search to see if results appear as expected (the index might need a re-sync if using a search plugin). Test any sliders or scripts to ensure they’re functioning (no JavaScript errors).
• User Accounts: If you migrated users, test logging in as a normal user. Also test the workflow: e.g., create a dummy contributor user and see if they can submit a post for review. Essentially, ensure the roles are properly functioning as intended. If the site has user-generated content or commenting, test those as well (WordPress uses its own comment system, you might need to import Joomla comments if there were any – not mentioned above, but note that if Joomla articles had comments via an extension like JComments, you’d want to migrate those or use a new WP commenting system).
• SEO Checks: Though we haven’t switched live yet, you can simulate or check a few things. View the page source of WP pages and verify the <title> tags and meta descriptions (provided by the SEO plugin) are correct and not empty. If the SEO plugin has a feature for social open graph tags, check those too. Basically, ensure the new site’s SEO output is as robust as the old site (if not better).
• Performance baseline: On staging, the site might not be cached, but you can still gauge if pages load without obvious slowness. Joomla vs WordPress performance can differ; ensure that large pages (maybe a blog index with many posts) are loading reasonably. If something is slow, identify if it’s due to unoptimized images or a plugin and address it. You might install a caching plugin but maybe wait until after go-live to fully configure.
• Cross-Browser / Responsive Test: If a new theme or design is involved, check the site on multiple browsers and devices. This isn’t migration-specific, but any redesign or theme switch should maintain responsiveness. Content migration can sometimes affect layout (for example, very long titles or many menu items might wrap oddly). Make adjustments as needed (shorten titles, etc., or tweak CSS).
• Compare with Joomla Site: Keep the Joomla site open side-by-side for comparison. For each section/page you test on WordPress, compare to the Joomla version: Did we carry over everything? For example, if Joomla’s page had an info box or a special module that is missing on WP, that’s a red flag to address. It’s easy to overlook something like a disclaimer or a partner logo carousel that was a Joomla module. Make sure all such elements are accounted for in the WP site (maybe as part of theme or as a widget/plugin).
• Fixing Discrepancies: It’s normal to find minor issues – maybe some pages look slightly different. Decide what needs fixing now vs. what’s acceptable. Broken functionality or missing content is a must-fix. Minor stylistic differences might be okay if it’s part of a planned refresh. Create a checklist of any problems found and solve them iteratively.

Perform QA in a systematic way – possibly have different team members focus on different aspects (content accuracy, design, links, etc.). The more thoroughly you test now, the smoother the launch will be.

Go-Live & Post-Migration Tasks

After extensive testing, you’re ready to go live with the new WordPress site. This phase includes the final deployment and a series of post-migration steps to finalize SEO and performance:

Go-Live Deployment:

• Backup and Freeze Content: Before switching, ensure you have a final backup of the Joomla site (in case you need to refer to it) and of the new WordPress site (just in case). It’s wise to put the Joomla site in maintenance mode or at least tell content editors to stop making changes, so you don’t have new content diverging after you start the switch.
• Deploy WordPress to Production: If you built the WP site on a staging domain or subdirectory, now is the time to move it to the main domain. This could involve moving files or using a migration plugin like Duplicator, or if it’s on the same server, simply updating the site URL. Typical steps:
  • Copy the WordPress files to the root (if they aren’t already).
  • Edit WP wp-config.php if needed for new DB or URL settings.
  • Use a search-replace tool to update any references from the temporary URL to the live domain (some plugins handle this, or WP-CLI search-replace).
  • Test the homepage and a few links on the live domain.
• DNS Switch: If you are moving to a new host, update DNS to point to the new server. Plan this during off-peak hours if possible. There might be a short period where some visitors still hit the old site – having Joomla in maintenance mode with a message “Site is being updated” can cover that gap.

Post-migration Checklist:

• Enable Redirects: Ensure all your 301 redirects are active on the live site. If using the Redirection plugin, it should already be configured, but double-check the settings (the plugin might need you to flush permalinks or something after domain change). Now go through that list of Joomla URLs one more time on the live domain to be certain they redirect properly to WordPress pages (no 404s). Also, test a few random old URLs from Google search results or analytics.
• Monitor 404s: Even after best efforts, there may be some URLs you missed. Use tools: Google Search Console will report 404 errors after a crawl, and the Redirection plugin (or AIOSEO’s 404 monitor) can log any 404 hits. Keep an eye in the first weeks and add redirects for any missed URLs.
• Finalize SEO Settings: In the SEO plugin, generate an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines. Also check robots.txt via the SEO plugin (WordPress by default allows all, which is fine if the site is ready). If the site was previously indexed, you might consider using the Search Console “Fetch as Google” (or “URL Inspection > Request Indexing”) for the homepage and a few key pages to encourage quick indexing of the new content. But usually, with proper redirects, Google will find the new content by itself.
• Performance Optimizations: Now that the site is live, implement performance best practices:
  • Install/enable a caching plugin (if not already). Configure page caching.
  • Consider enabling Gzip compression and a CDN for images if the site is heavy on media.
  • Optimize images (if you didn’t earlier) using an image optimization plugin 
  • Test site speed on GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights and address any major issues (often minifying CSS/JS, optimizing server response).
• Security Check: Ensure the site is secure post-launch:
  • Joomla and WP have different security concerns; hopefully the new site is more secure by virtue of being new WP. Make sure you didn’t carry over any sensitive info publicly (like no leftover Joomla files on the server).
  • You can install a security plugin (Wordfence or Sucuri) for monitoring, if desired.
  • Ensure all WP admin users have strong passwords (the ones migrated from Joomla should be fine if they kept their same password and it was strong, but encourage updates if needed).
• Training/Documentation: If the content editors were used to Joomla, provide a quick primer on using WordPress Gutenberg editor: how to edit posts, manage menus, widgets, etc. Highlight the improvements (they might find WP more intuitive!). This isn’t a technical step, but it helps ensure the site is maintained correctly post-migration.
• Old Site Decommission: Once the WP site is confirmed stable, you can officially decommission the Joomla site. This might mean archiving the files and database to cold storage. Do not just delete everything immediately; keep it for a while in case something was missed (you have backups though). You can also set up a blanket redirect: if someone somehow hits the old Joomla site (maybe on a different subdomain or IP), redirect all traffic to the new site’s domain.
• Post-launch QA: Do another round of checks now that it’s live: especially, see if any links or images broke due to the domain change (if staging URL was different, sometimes absolute links in content need replacing). Also verify contact forms send emails properly on production (sometimes email settings differ).

Finally, celebrate a successful migration! All Joomla content is now in WordPress, with URLs intact (or redirected), users moved, and functionality replicated. Continue to monitor the site’s analytics and search performance in the following weeks. You should see traffic gradually consolidate on the new site. If you notice any drop in certain page hits, investigate if that page was not redirected correctly.

By following this guide, a WordPress development team can methodically transition a Joomla site to WordPress without needing to search for external tutorials. The key steps – from preparation, thorough data mapping, careful import, to diligent post-launch checks – ensure a seamless migration with preserved SEO and improved content management going forward.

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