Drupal to Webflow:
step-by-step guide

What this Drupal to Webflow migration guide covers

This guide walks through the complete process of migrating from Drupal to Webflow — from auditing your existing setup to launching and monitoring the new site post-launch.

Who this guide is for

This guide is for organizations running Drupal-powered websites that want to move to a platform with a lower maintenance burden, better visual editing capabilities, and stronger marketer autonomy.

When migrating from Drupal to Webflow makes sense

Drupal is a powerful platform, but it's built for developers and demands ongoing technical investment to maintain. Migrating to Webflow makes sense when you want to:

• Reduce developer dependency for content updates and site changes
• Eliminate module maintenance overhead and security patching complexity
• Move to a platform with integrated hosting and a visual design system
• Give marketing teams direct control without requiring technical support
• Modernize the front-end without rebuilding a custom theme from scratch

What's included in this guide

Beyond the migration steps, this guide also covers pre-migration preparation, content extraction from Drupal's database-driven architecture, common mistakes, and timeline estimates by site complexity.

Step-by-step: How to migrate from Drupal to Webflow

Drupal migrations require a structured approach because of the platform's modular architecture, complex content types, and database-driven content storage. Our 8-step process is designed to handle that complexity while protecting your SEO and keeping your content intact throughout.

Step 1 – Audit your existing Drupal website

Drupal sites are often complex, with custom content types, views, and modules that all need to be accounted for before migration begins. A thorough audit is non-negotiable.

• Inventory all content types and nodes: List every content type in your Drupal installation — articles, basic pages, custom types — along with their fields and taxonomies. Include URLs, titles, and metadata for each.
• Identify high-value content: Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to flag high-traffic content and pages with strong backlink profiles. These are migration priorities.
• Audit modules and custom code: Document all active Drupal modules and note what functionality each provides. Identify custom modules that will need Webflow equivalents or replacements.
• Review Views and dynamic displays: Drupal's Views module often drives complex dynamic content displays. Document each View and determine how it will be replicated in Webflow's CMS.
• Assess URL structures: Export all URLs and evaluate Drupal's pathauto patterns. Note what should carry over and what should be cleaned up during the migration.

Step 2 – Define your Webflow site architecture

Translating Drupal's content model into Webflow requires mapping Drupal's node types and taxonomies to Webflow's page and CMS structure.

• Convert content types to Webflow structures: Simple pages like About and Contact become static Webflow pages. Article nodes, blog posts, and structured content types should become Webflow CMS Collections.
• Define CMS Collections and fields: Plan each Collection's field structure based on Drupal's content type fields. Map text fields, date fields, image fields, and taxonomy references to their Webflow equivalents.
• Recreate taxonomy relationships: Drupal's taxonomy system can be replicated using Webflow's Reference and Multi-Reference fields. Map categories, tags, and custom vocabularies to the appropriate Webflow structure.
• Simplify URL structures: Drupal's pathauto patterns often generate complex URLs. Use this migration to standardize and simplify the URL structure across the new site.
• Decide what to retire: Leave behind outdated content, unused content types, and low-value nodes that don't serve the new site's goals.

Step 3 – Map SEO, URLs, and redirects

Drupal's SEO setup — often handled through modules like Pathauto and Metatag — needs to be carefully transferred to Webflow to avoid ranking losses.

• Export all Drupal URLs: Use Screaming Frog or Drupal's built-in URL export to generate a complete list of all live URLs.
• Map old paths to new Webflow slugs: Document every URL change and match it to the new Webflow destination. Pay particular attention to taxonomy term pages and Views-generated URLs.
• Transfer SEO metadata: Extract page titles, meta descriptions, alt texts, and canonical tags — typically stored in the Metatag module — and prepare them for Webflow's SEO fields or CMS Collection fields.
• Configure 301 redirects: Set up redirects in Webflow for every URL that's changing. Use Webflow's bulk redirect import to handle the volume efficiently.

Step 4 – Rebuild design and layout in Webflow

Drupal's theme layer — whether Twig templates, a contrib theme, or a fully custom build — is replaced entirely by Webflow's visual Designer. Approach the rebuild systematically.

Start by establishing a design system in Webflow before building any pages. Define color variables, typography styles, and spacing values globally. Create reusable components for buttons, cards, navigation, and footers. This ensures consistency across the site and speeds up the overall build.

Rebuild layouts responsively from the start. Drupal's theme system often handles responsiveness at the template level, whereas Webflow requires deliberate breakpoint-by-breakpoint setup.

Don't try to replicate Drupal's layout structure exactly. Use the migration as an opportunity to improve the information architecture, modernize the visual design, and remove complexity that accumulated over years of incremental development.

Step 5 – Migrate content and CMS data

Drupal stores content in a MySQL database with a complex relational structure. Extracting it for Webflow import requires careful planning and usually involves custom scripts.

• Export content from Drupal: Use Drupal's Data Export module or custom PHP/Python scripts to extract node content into CSV format. Export each content type separately to keep the data clean and organized.
• Flatten nested content structures: Drupal's field API can produce deeply nested data, especially for entity references and multivalue fields. Flatten these into the simpler, flat structure that Webflow's CSV import expects.
• Handle media assets: Download images and files from Drupal's managed file system. Images with public URLs can be referenced directly in the CSV. Locally managed files need to be uploaded to Webflow's Asset Manager.
• Import and validate: Import cleaned CSV files into Webflow CMS Collections in batches. Spot-check a sample of items from each collection before moving to the next content type.

Step 6 – Reconnect integrations and scripts

Drupal's integration ecosystem is built on contributed modules and custom API connections. Moving to Webflow means rebuilding or replacing these systematically.

Start with forms. Rebuild any contact, lead capture, or application forms using Webflow's Form Builder. Reconnect form submissions to the CRM, email marketing, or automation tools previously connected through Drupal modules, and test submissions end-to-end.

Re-add analytics and tracking through Webflow's Project Settings. This covers Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, and other tracking tools previously managed through Drupal's module system.

For functionality previously handled by Drupal modules — search, access control, e-commerce — identify Webflow-native solutions or third-party tools. Platforms like Zapier and Make can handle integrations where direct Webflow connections don't exist.

Step 7 – QA, performance, and SEO validation

Drupal sites often have performance challenges due to module overhead and complex render pipelines. QA is a chance to confirm the Webflow build is measurably better.

• Visual and layout review: Compare every page against its Drupal counterpart across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Check for layout inconsistencies, broken images, and missing content.
• CMS content validation: Sample items from each CMS Collection to confirm field accuracy, correct image rendering, and working internal links.
• Performance testing: Use PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and GTmetrix. Confirm the Webflow site meets Core Web Vitals thresholds on both desktop and mobile — it should outperform the Drupal baseline.
• Redirect verification: Crawl original Drupal URLs and verify that every changed path returns a 301 redirect to the correct new destination.
• SEO audit: Validate page titles, meta descriptions, heading hierarchies, canonical URLs, and sitemap completeness before going live.

Step 8 – Launch and post-launch monitoring

When QA is complete, point your domain to Webflow, publish the site, and immediately submit the updated sitemap to Google Search Console. Monitor the following in the weeks after launch:

• Search Console: Watch for crawl errors, indexing issues, and any URLs returning unexpected status codes. Drupal sites with complex URL structures often surface redirect issues post-launch.
• Traffic and rankings: Some fluctuation is expected. Sustained drops after the initial settling period indicate a specific issue — usually with redirects, metadata, or content gaps.
• Replaced module functionality: Confirm that everything previously handled by Drupal modules is working correctly in its Webflow equivalent or replacement integration.

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