Migrate posts via CSV import

Each platform has its own export path. The output format varies, but the content you need is the same: title, body (HTML), slug, excerpt, categories, tags, author, publish date, status.

WordPress: go to Tools → Export → Posts → Download Export File. The download is an XML file (WXR format). You will convert this in Step 2.

Squarespace: go to Settings → Advanced → Import/Export → Export. The download is a WordPress-compatible XML — same conversion path as WordPress above.

Ghost: go to Settings → Labs → Export your content. The download is a JSON file. Your conversion path is JSON → CSV.

Any other platform: export as CSV if available. If the platform only gives you HTML or a proprietary format, work with your developer to extract post data into rows in a spreadsheet.

The goal of this step is a file — any format — that contains at minimum: title, body, slug (or full URL), publish date, and status. Everything else can be filled in manually after import if needed.

SGEN's import screen accepts a CSV file with nine columns. The header row (row 1) must contain these column names exactly:

title,slug,body,excerpt,category,tags,author,date,status

Column reference:

A populated sample for your business' first three posts:

title,slug,body,excerpt,category,tags,author,date,status
"How to Brew the Perfect Pour-Over",how-to-brew-the-perfect-pour-over,"<h2>Equipment</h2><p>Start with a Chemex or V60. The grind size matters more than the kettle..</p>","Guide to brewing pour-over coffee at home.",Brewing Tips,"brewing,pour-over,technique",an editor,2025-11-14,publish
"Our Favourite Ethiopian your product",our-favourite-ethiopian-yirgacheffe,"<h2>Origin</h2><p>your product sits in the Gedeo Zone of southern Ethiopia, one of the oldest coffee-growing regions in the world..</p>","Tasting notes and brew recommendations for this classic origin.",Sourcing,"sourcing,ethiopia,single-origin",a teammate,2025-10-28,publish
"Canvas Tote Bag — Why We Made One",canvas-tote-bag-why-we-made-one,"<h2>The idea</h2><p>We wanted something our regulars could carry to the farmers market and back..</p>","The story behind our Canvas Tote Bag.",Behind the Scenes,"products,merch",an admin,2025-09-03,draft

Conversion tips that prevent the most common import failures:

• Wrap every cell containing HTML, commas, or line breaks in double quotes.
• Inside a quoted cell, escape any existing double quotes as "" (two double quotes in a row, not a backslash).
• Body HTML stays as literal HTML — <h2> not <h2>. The importer reads raw HTML from the cell.
• Save as UTF-8 encoded CSV. If you see garbled accented characters after import (é instead of é), the file was saved with the wrong encoding. Re-export from your spreadsheet explicitly as UTF-8.
• Do not include a byte-order mark (BOM). UTF-8 BOM causes the importer to read the first column name as title instead of title. Save as plain UTF-8, not UTF-8 BOM.

Once your file is ready, the first few rows in a spreadsheet view look like this before you export to CSV:

Go to Tools → Post Migration → Import. The upload screen shows a file picker, a format selector, and two import options.

Click Upload and preview. SGEN parses the file and shows a row-by-row preview. No posts are created yet at this stage — the preview is a validation step only.

After upload, SGEN shows the first 10 rows parsed into columns. Check each of the following before proceeding:

• Title column populated. If titles show blank, the header row was not detected — your file likely has no header row, or the column name does not match title.
• Body column shows HTML. A few tags and a paragraph is correct. If it shows raw CSV text with escaped quotes, the file encoding or quoting is wrong.
• Dates are in a recognisable format. 2025-11-14 and 2025-11-14 09:00:00 both parse correctly. Day-first formats like 14/11/2025 may not.
• Accented characters display correctly. é, ñ, ü should appear as themselves, not as é or â€.
• Warning flags on individual rows. SGEN flags rows with known problems inline — read the Note column.

Row warning reference:

• "Category not found in SGEN" — the category name in your CSV does not match any category on the site. Create the category at Blog → Categories, then re-upload the CSV.
• "Slug already exists on this site" — a post at that slug already exists. Either rename the slug in your CSV, or enable Skip duplicate slugs and re-upload — the importer will skip that row rather than create a duplicate.
• Blank title — the header row is missing or on the wrong row. Row 1 must be column names, not a post.

If the warnings are minor (1–2 rows), you can proceed and fix those posts manually after import. If most rows show warnings, fix the CSV and re-upload — correcting 50 posts inside SGEN is slower than fixing one CSV file.

Below the preview, the field-mapping panel shows each column SGEN detected in your header row and a dropdown to match it to the SGEN field it represents. If your column names match the nine expected names exactly, the mapping is auto-detected and the dropdowns are pre-filled.

Once every column is mapped correctly, click Confirm mapping and import.

Before importing all 50 posts, run a test batch of 5. Prepare a second CSV file with just the first 5 rows (including the header row). Import those 5, verify them in SGEN and on the public site, then import the remaining 45.

This is the single most important habit in any migration. One encoding problem, one mismatched category, one broken HTML cell — all of these are a 5-minute fix in a 5-post CSV and a multi-hour fix when you discover it after importing 50 posts.

After a successful 5-post test import, the confirmation banner shows the count and the new post IDs assigned:

If the test batch looks right, go back to the import screen and upload the full 50-post file. Enable Skip duplicate slugs so the 5 posts you already imported are skipped cleanly. The confirmation banner will read "Imported 45 of 50 posts. Skipped 5 (duplicate slug)."

Go to Blog → All Posts. Filter by Draft to see newly imported posts at the top.

For each post in the test batch (and then the full set):

1. Click the title to open the edit screen.
2. Check the body — correct HTML, no garbled characters, no raw CSV artefacts visible on the page.
3. Set the correct category and tags if any were missed during import.
4. Update the author display name if needed. Imported posts default to the importing admin's account.
5. Click View in the section actions row to preview the post on the public site while it is still in Draft.
6. When satisfied, set Status to Published and save.

After publishing, the Blog list for your business shows all imported posts alongside any content that was already on the site:

Your old CMS had URLs structured differently from SGEN's. Once posts are published on SGEN, every old URL that visitors or search engines still know about needs a redirect to the new location.

For 50 posts, set up redirects in bulk using the redirect CSV import at Redirects → All Redirects → Import/Export.

Prepare a redirects CSV with these seven columns:

target,destination,type,is_regex,is_active,priority,stop_processing
2025/11/how-to-brew-the-perfect-pour-over,/news/how-to-brew-the-perfect-pour-over,301,0,1,0,1
2025/10/our-favourite-ethiopian-yirgacheffe,/news/our-favourite-ethiopian-yirgacheffe,301,0,1,0,1
2025/09/canvas-tote-bag-why-we-made-one,/news/canvas-tote-bag-why-we-made-one,301,0,1,0,1
2025/08/barista-t-shirt-sizing-guide,/news/barista-t-shirt-sizing-guide,301,0,1,0,1
2025/07/brewing-guide-2026-preview,/news/brewing-guide-2026-preview,301,0,1,0,1

Use 301 — Permanent when the old site is going offline permanently. Use 302 — Temporary if both sites are running in parallel while you finish the migration. Flip 302 rules to 301 once the old site is decommissioned.

After importing the redirects CSV, the All Redirects list shows all 50 rules with their Hits counters. Test each redirect by visiting an old URL in a private/incognito window — the browser address bar should show the new SGEN URL after the redirect:

The import moved post bodies as HTML text. Any image src values inside the body HTML still point at your old CMS's domain. Once the old site goes offline, those images break.

Work through this while your old site is still live:

1. Open each imported post at Blog → All Posts → [post title].
2. Scan the body for image references pointing at the old domain.
3. Download each image from the old site while it is still accessible.
4. Upload each image to SGEN's Media library at Media → Upload Media.
5. Replace the old src URL in the post body with the new SGEN media URL.
6. Also check inline links — any <a> pointing at an old-site URL that you did not set up a redirect for becomes a dead link once the old site goes offline.

For 50 posts, prioritise by traffic. Use your analytics to identify which posts get the most visits, and do those first. Posts with no images and no internal cross-links are done in under a minute each.

Before you take the old site offline, work through this checklist:

• All 50 posts are published on SGEN and load correctly in an incognito window.
• All 50 redirect rules are Active in Redirects → All Redirects, and the Hits counter is climbing on the high-traffic ones.
• Images in every post body load from SGEN's media library, not from the old domain.
• Inline links that referenced the old site have been updated or covered by redirects.
• Your categories and tags on SGEN match the old site's taxonomy.
• Your sitemap at /sitemap.xml on SGEN includes all 50 posts.

Once these are confirmed, you can decommission the old site. At that point, flip any 302 Temporary redirects to 301 Permanent using the Redirects bulk action.