From Markdown to Dynamic: Migrating 900 Hugo Posts to WordPress with Zero PHP Experience

June 27, 2025

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Aleix Nguyen

I originally built my Assetto Corsa mod-sharing site using Hugo. It was blazing fast, simple to host via Cloudflare Pages, and easy to manage — as long as I only had a few dozen posts.

But when the content grew past 900 posts, it hit a wall:

Markdown got painful to manage
Hugo couldn’t handle dynamic filters or AJAX search
Cloudflare build limits became a blocker
There was no CMS, no backend, no future scalability

So I migrated everything to WordPress.

No PHP experience. No front-end background.\
Just system thinking, debugging skills, and actual product need.

Why Hugo Fell Short

No dynamic features (search, rating, filtering)
Markdown hard to manage at scale (~900 posts)
Static build quota exceeded daily on Cloudflare Pages
No real CMS backend for future editors or monetization

The Migration Approach

Rebuilding the Theme (Without PHP Knowledge)

Reused TailwindCSS and custom CSS from Hugo
Structured the theme using standard WordPress templates (header.php, index.php, etc.)
Modularized parts like post card, filters, search form
Replicated ~90–100% of the original Hugo design
Added Swiper.js sliders for gallery-like single posts

// With AI support, I built PHP logic step by step:
// - Template hierarchy
// - WP loop
// - Hook functions

Markdown to ACF Field Mapping

Parsed frontmatter from all .md files using a custom PHP script
Mapped: title, date, tags, category, thumbnail → native WP fields + ACF fields
Script executed via Composer CLI
Iterated 7–8 times to fix import bugs
Final pass: 850+ posts imported cleanly, ~40 had minor date issues (acceptable)
During this migration, I also refined the content structure:
- Removed outdated or non-compliant posts to align with long-term goals (performance, SEO, monetization)
- Trimmed frontmatter fields down to essential metadata only (e.g. version, source, author)
- Normalized inconsistent fields for cleaner ACF mapping and easier template logic

Dynamic Features Implemented

AJAX Search, Filter, Sort & Pagination

Custom admin-ajax.php endpoints
PushState navigation
Slight delay (~200ms) to improve UX smoothness
WP_Query dynamically filtered via JS

Auto-scroll to top after pagination was planned but not implemented due to AWS account suspension.

Star Rating System

Stored as post meta
One vote per cookie/session
Average + total rating shown live

Swiper Slider

Built from ACF repeater fields
Responsive gallery inside single post

Security

All AJAX calls nonce-verified
Output escaped (esc_html, esc_attr)
XML-RPC disabled
Login URL hidden
No security plugin used — manual best practices applied

Testing

Lighthouse score: 95+
Pingdom (SF): 95
AJAX response: 100–150ms
Tested on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
Mobile-friendly (DevTools + real devices)

What I Learned

I didn’t know PHP or AJAX when I started.\
But I knew how to think in systems.

I broke every challenge into sub-problems
Used AI like a debugging assistant, not a crutch
Validated everything manually — request by request
Built like a backend/infrastructure person would: by owning the logic
Migration wasn’t just technical — I had to rethink what content was worth keeping, and how to structure it for long-term scalability and compliance