A large university website cannot be moved with guesswork. This website migration case study shows how Refact helped the University of Southern California move a complex web ecosystem into a new digital home without losing critical content, structure, or search visibility. Working alongside USC and Digital Pulp, we supported the first phases of the move, then stepped into a longer-term partner role as the migration continued.
USC and the Scale of the Challenge
USC is the oldest private research university in California. It serves almost 50,000 students across 23 schools and runs a wide network of websites, subsites, and digital assets. The Keck School of Medicine alone had major content and operational needs, which made the move far more complex than a standard redesign launch.
Before the rebuild, Refact supported USC’s older site through maintenance work. That gave us a close view of the content structure, technical limits, and publishing needs already in place. When USC moved to a new web experience designed with Digital Pulp, our role shifted from support to execution.
More Than a Redesign
This was not just a visual refresh. USC’s web presence included microsites, subdomains, article archives, and assets spread across different areas of the organization. The real job was to move that content cleanly, preserve working paths for users, and reduce the risk that comes with a large institutional launch.
That kind of move needs a clear website migration process, not just development hours. It also needs careful coordination between design, engineering, hosting, and content teams.
How Refact Approached the Migration
The migration worked like a phased move, not a single cutover. We mapped old URLs, reviewed content types, handled transfers, and cleaned up content so it fit the structure of the new site.
- Content migration: We moved pages, posts, and articles from multiple USC subdomains into the new environment. That included checking formatting, assets, and content relationships so key information did not break in transit.
- Content cleanup: We organized pages, assets, and metadata to match the standards of the new platform. This helped the new site stay easier to manage after launch.
- Redirect planning: We set up redirect rules to protect search traffic and send users to the right destination after old URLs changed.
Large moves succeed when teams do the prep work early. That includes the kind of inventory and structure review covered in prepare content for a CMS migration.
Phase 1.5 and the PPHS Migration
One key milestone came with the migration of the PPHS website from its own subdomain into the new Keck School of Medicine site. We called this phase 1.5 because it sat between the first migration work and the larger remaining rollout.
This phase included three core tasks:
- Newsroom migration: We cleaned and moved articles and related assets from the PPHS newsroom into the new Keck USC newsroom. We also added user profiles and access for authors and editors.
- 301 redirects at scale: We created and automated redirect rules so old links would continue working and search performance would be protected.
- Hosting transition support: We handled technical migration work tied to the new hosting setup so the move stayed stable.
That phase created a strong base for the rest of the project. It also showed why phased migration is often the safer path for large organizations with complex content systems.
From Migration Support to Long-Term Partnership
After phase 1.5, Refact began work on the remaining sections of the older USC web presence. Our role also expanded. Beyond migration, we now help maintain the new site and support future improvements as USC’s main digital partner.
The result is bigger than a cleaner website. USC now has a stronger foundation for content management, a better experience for visitors, and a partner that can continue improving the platform over time.
If you are planning a high-stakes migration and want a team that brings clarity before code, talk with Refact.