From WordPress to Hugo: Rebuilding My Blog for Speed, Security, and Maintainability#
For years, my blog lived on WordPress. It worked, but it never felt like something I fully controlled. Between PHP vulnerabilities, plugin bloat, performance issues, and the constant need for updates, the platform carried more risk and overhead than I wanted for a personal site.
Eventually, I decided it was time for a change - not just a redesign, but a complete rebuild on a platform that aligned with how I like to work: fast, secure, version‑controlled, and future‑proof. That’s what led me to Hugo.
This article walks through why I migrated, how I built a fully automated conversion pipeline, and what I learned along the way.
Why I Moved Away from WordPress#
1. Security Concerns#
WordPress is built on PHP, and while the core team does a solid job, the ecosystem introduces unavoidable risks:
- PHP vulnerabilities can expose entire sites.
- Plugins - even reputable ones - frequently become attack vectors.
- A single outdated dependency can compromise the whole installation.
- Shared hosting environments amplify risk.
For a personal blog, that level of exposure felt unnecessary. I wanted something static, immutable, and safe by design.
2. Plugin Bloat and Fragility#
WordPress sites tend to accumulate plugins over time:
- SEO plugins
- Image optimizers
- Syntax highlighters
- Backup tools
- Caching layers
- Theme‑specific helpers
Each plugin adds code, complexity, and potential breakage. Updates sometimes fix issues, sometimes introduce new ones, and occasionally take down the entire site.
I wanted a system where nothing ran on the server. No plugins. No PHP. No database. Low attack surface.
3. Performance#
Even with caching, WordPress can feel sluggish. Hugo, on the other hand, generates the entire site in milliseconds. The result is:
- Instant page loads
- Zero server processing
- No database queries
- Perfect Lighthouse scores
Static HTML is hard to beat.
4. Maintainability and Ownership#
With WordPress, content lives in a database. With Hugo, every post becomes:
Everything is:
- Version‑controlled
- Portable
- Editable in any text editor
- Easy to back up
- Easy to automate
It’s the difference between renting and owning.
The Challenge: WordPress Exports Are Messy#
WordPress exports posts as XML, and inside that XML is a mixture of:
- HTML inside CDATA blocks
- WordPress shortcodes
- Embedded scripts
- Caption wrappers
- Escaped entities
- Inconsistent formatting
- Images wrapped in
<a>tags - Gists embedded via
<script>tags
A simple HTML‑to‑Markdown converter wasn’t going to cut it. I needed a custom migration pipeline.
Building the Migration Pipeline#
I wrote a PowerShell script that processes each post and outputs a clean Hugo content bundle. The pipeline handles:
1. Cleaning HTML Entities#
WordPress escapes everything. I unescaped:
<→<>→>&→&"→"'→'
This made the HTML parseable.
2. Removing WordPress Caption Shortcodes#
WordPress stores captions like this:
[caption id="..." align="..."] <img ... /> Caption text here [/caption]
If you remove the shortcode wrapper incorrectly, you either:
- Lose the image
- Keep the caption text
- Break the HTML
The final solution extracts only the <img> tag, discarding the caption text entirely. This preserves the image while avoiding duplicated captions in Markdown.
3. Converting Links#
I rewrote:
<a href="URL">text</a>
into:
[text](URL)
But with one critical rule:
If the link wraps an image, leave it alone.
Otherwise, the image disappears before extraction.
4. Extracting and Downloading Images#
Every <img> tag is:
- Parsed
- Downloaded
- Saved into the post’s
img/folder - Replaced with a Markdown image reference
This ensures the site is fully self‑contained and not dependent on external WordPress media URLs.
5. Converting GitHub Gists#
WordPress embeds Gists using <script> tags. Hugo uses:
{{ < gist user id > }}
The script automatically converts these.
6. Stripping Remaining HTML#
Once images, links, and shortcodes are handled, the remaining HTML is safe to strip or convert.
7. Generating Hugo Front Matter#
Each post gets:
- title
- date
- slug
- categories
- tags
- aliases (for redirects)
- featured image
Everything is clean, consistent, and ready for Hugo.
The Result: A Clean, Secure, Future‑Proof Blog#
After running the script, every WordPress post became a tidy Hugo content bundle. Images were local, links were Markdown, captions were fixed, and the entire site built instantly.
Deploying to GitHub Pages completed the transformation. Now my blog is:
- Static
- Secure
- Fast
- Version‑controlled
- Easy to maintain
No PHP. No plugins. Low attack surface.
Lessons Learned#
1. WordPress hides a lot of complexity#
You don’t notice it until you try to leave.
2. HTML is messy#
Even CMS‑generated HTML is full of edge cases.
3. Automation is worth the investment#
Once the script was right, I could re‑run the entire migration in seconds.
4. Hugo rewards structure#
Content bundles, shortcodes, and Markdown make everything predictable.
Would I Do It Again? Absolutely.#
Moving from WordPress to Hugo wasn’t a one‑click migration - it was a project. But it gave me:
- a faster site
- a more secure site
- a cleaner workflow
- full ownership of my content
- a setup I can maintain for years
If you’re considering the same move, it’s absolutely worth it.
