10Clouds: Why we moved from Wordpress to Jamstack with Sanity

Unveiling the Transformation of 10Clouds’ Website with Sanity

In the digital age, websites serve as more than just a platform for selling goods and services; they are a representation of your identity to the world. At 10Clouds, we understand the significance of a well-structured and efficient website. Therefore, we embarked on a journey to enhance our own website, transitioning from WordPress to the dynamic Jamstack architecture, powered by Sanity as our Content Management System (CMS). This monumental shift allowed us to redefine our approach to content management and supercharge our online presence. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons behind this transition, our experience with Sanity, and the remarkable changes it brought to our digital landscape.

Our Vision for the New Website

When we set out to revamp our website, we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. Our primary goals were as follows:

1. Empowering Content Managers

In our previous setup, Content Managers were limited in their ability to make changes. While blog posts were easily editable in the CMS, other page updates required developer intervention. We aimed to grant full editorial access to all Content Managers, ensuring they could make real-time updates without relying on developers.

2. Enabling Page Creation

We sought to provide Content Managers with the autonomy to create their own pages. This involved the use of content segments to construct unique pages, reducing the dependence on the development team.

3. Seamless Data Migration

Transferring data from our old blog to the new site was a critical task. This migration included images, authors, blog posts, categories, and their intricate relationships. Our goal was to ensure data integrity throughout the transition.

4. SEO Optimization

In the digital realm, visibility is key. We strived to make our new website SEO-ready, optimizing content to rank higher in search engines.

5. Enhanced Functionality

We aimed to expand the functionality of our website, including the ability to introduce new elements into blog posts, such as wrapped quote blocks.

6. Refreshed Content

All blog posts and blog post lists were slated to receive a refreshed graphical interface to enhance user engagement.

7. Performance

Website speed is paramount in today’s fast-paced world. We were committed to ensuring our site loaded quickly and efficiently on both desktop and mobile devices.

8. Incremental Migration

To mitigate risks and ensure a smooth transition, we decided to migrate the website incrementally, one page at a time, instead of performing a wholesale migration.

Why We Chose Sanity

In our quest for an ideal CMS, we considered several options, including Contentful and Strapi. Sanity emerged as the frontrunner due to the following compelling reasons:

1. Content Freedom

Sanity provided us with unparalleled liberty in structuring content. We could define content elements that perfectly matched our needs, including author profiles, categories, blog posts, and custom pages.

2. Image Optimization

With Gatsby, image optimization can be a significant bottleneck during builds. Sanity’s CDN-based image serving eliminated this concern, ensuring images didn’t impact build times.

3. Flexible Content Structure

Sanity offered outstanding flexibility in structuring our content and managing relationships between content segments. Its support for block content (rich text) allowed us to define unique structures in the text editor, providing the flexibility we needed for our components.

Reception Among Our Teams

The transition to Sanity was met with enthusiasm from both our development and editorial teams.

Developer’s Perspective

Initially, our developers encountered challenges related to differences in the GraphQL schema across different branches. However, this issue was swiftly addressed by providing each developer with their own dataset. This solution ensured a smoother development process.

Editors’ Delight

Our editors were thrilled with the newfound ability to access all areas of the website’s backend, a capability that was previously out of their reach. This empowerment enabled them to publish content independently, including long-awaited company case studies, with just a few clicks.

Independent Page Creation through Storybook

One of our primary objectives was to empower Content Managers with the ability to edit website content and create new pages without technical expertise. To achieve this, we turned to Storybook.

Storybook allowed us to implement union types, an array of different content sections that could be combined to form complete pages. Once these sections were designed and developed, they could be added to a library, enabling Content Managers to create new pages effortlessly. The challenge was to make this library user-friendly.

Content Managers had an extensive list of available sections, and understanding their purposes was essential to encourage utilization. Storybook came to the rescue by presenting a user-friendly library of available sections, making it easy for our marketing team to select, configure, and arrange them to compose various pages with just a few clicks. This approach also facilitated rapid prototyping and deployment.

Achievements and Benefits

The transition to Sanity and the revamped architecture brought about numerous achievements and benefits for 10Clouds:

• Streamlined Architecture: Our website architecture was simplified, providing more autonomy to both developers and the marketing team. This transformation made our website faster, more customizable, and easier to maintain.
• Performance Boost: Thanks to the architecture changes, we observed a remarkable 25% increase in website traffic, demonstrating the positive impact on user engagement and SEO.

Our Future Plans

As we look ahead, we are committed to further expanding the capabilities of our website. Our future plans include:

• Empowering Content Managers: We aim to extend the independence of our marketing team by enabling them to create more pages independently using the content segments available in Sanity.
• Open Source Initiative: During the migration process, we developed a tool to simplify blog post migration. We have decided to open source this tool, making it accessible to others who may benefit from it. You can explore the repository here.

In conclusion, the migration to Sanity has been a transformative journey for 10Clouds. It has not only enhanced our website’s performance and content management capabilities but also provided a model for empowering non-technical team members to contribute to the digital landscape. With our eyes on the future, we are excited to continue expanding our capabilities and sharing our experiences with the broader community. Stay tuned for more exciting developments from 10Clouds!