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CMS migration for high-traffic media

Website: Free Radio

Duration: ~4 months (ongoing support)

Customer location: Ukraine

Industry: Media

Services: Custom Software Development ● UI/UX Design

Tech stack: UI-UX Design ● WordPress

Dedicated team behind the project

Bohdan

Frontend developer

Yurii

WordPress Engineer

Iryna

UI/UX Designer

Lilia

UI/UX Designer

Sviatoslav

DevOps Engineer

Yevheniia

Project Manager

The client

Free Radio is an independent Ukrainian news platform focused on reporting from frontline regions, with a mission to provide objective journalism in areas affected by conflict and misinformation. Their editorial work is centered on human rights, local governance, and community recovery.

Client achievements:

One of the most trusted newsrooms in Eastern Ukraine

Free Radio is widely recognized for its commitment to independent journalism and human rights reporting in conflict-affected regions. Read more

Recognized for impact in hard-to-cover territories

Operating in Bakhmut and Donetsk region, the outlet continues to deliver fact-checked content under pressure.

The challenge

Free Radio had outgrown its legacy platform. The site held a large and diverse content base – articles, landing pages, editorials – created through different tools and editors over the years. Migrating this content without losing structure, formatting, or SEO was a key challenge.

The team also needed a scalable CMS tailored to editorial workflows and a design refresh that wouldn’t disrupt existing publishing processes. All this had to be done with minimal internal distraction and within tight timelines.

What was done

Ralabs handled end-to-end migration, transforming the old platform into a modern WordPress-based infrastructure. We designed a clean, modular theme optimized for fast loading, search visibility, and editorial control.

All existing content was mapped, exported, validated, and imported into the new system using custom scripts. Multiple publishing formats – legacy editors, landing builders, etc. – were preserved or refactored to work smoothly with the new setup.

We also applied DevOps best practices to ensure stability post-launch and automated several routine operations.

Implemented features:

Full content migration

Moved all legacy articles, landing pages, and editorials to WordPress, ensuring no loss of structure or formatting.

Custom WordPress theme

Designed a scalable theme tailored to Free Radio’s publishing needs, with clean UX and modular layout.

Homepage and section builder

Implemented a flexible builder using reusable blocks to let editors easily configure home and section pages.

Automatic image optimization

Applied image compression and caching for faster load times and better performance across devices.

SEO metadata management

Preserved and enhanced SEO settings with metadata fields, structured data, and schema integration.

Recommendation widgets

Built dynamic content blocks to surface related stories and improve on-page engagement.

Legacy format support

Added fallback logic to keep older content formats functional within the new theme.

CI/CD and AWS-based hosting

Deployed the platform on AWS with continuous integration and monitoring for minimal maintenance overhead.

Results

01

Business impact

The new platform delivered immediate value to the client’s team. With minimal friction and faster delivery, Free Radio saw measurable savings and long-term infrastructure stability.

Up to 50% cost savings compared to traditional dev approaches
No onboarding delays – Ralabs already had deep understanding of media workflows

Minimal maintenance costs due to stable, future-ready infrastructure

02

Technical improvements

The rebuilt CMS not only preserved SEO and performance standards but improved the editorial experience and site speed across devices. 

Fast loading thanks to server-side caching, image compression, and AWS-based architecture  
Fully SEO-optimized – legacy content retained its visibility and indexing 
Custom blocks and builders let editors manage homepage and section layouts without developer help  
Stable performance – the platform required no major support post-launch

Improved user experience through clean design, intuitive blocks, and related content widgets

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