<b>Q: We're replatforming the CMS but keeping content — can we keep the exact same URLs?</b>

<b>Q: We're replatforming the CMS but keeping content — can we keep the exact same URLs?</b>

Smart instinct to ask before you commit.

Short answer: keep them identical if you possibly can. Every URL you preserve is a redirect you never have to manage.

Long answer: replatforming is the safest kind of migration precisely because you can hold URL structure constant — same paths, same trailing-slash behavior, same casing. The risk is that the new platform imposes its own pattern (Shopify forcing <code>/products/</code>, WordPress adding dates, a new tool lowercasing everything). Those silent changes break links you didn't know existed.

If the platform forces a change, fine — but go in knowing exactly which patterns shift, and map only those.

Next step: before launch, crawl the new staging site and diff its URL list against the old one. Anything that changed needs a 301. Anything identical needs nothing — leave it alone.