In 2026, the operational task around Zones is either maintain or migrate, not create new. New projects should build customer feedback or community Q and A on Experience Cloud with Custom Objects and Topics, not on Salesforce Ideas Zones. For existing Zones, the choice is between leaving them dormant (low-cost, accepts no new content) and migrating to a custom Experience Cloud site (more effort, but fits the strategic platform direction). This guide covers the migration path, which is the higher-effort and higher-value option.
- Inventory the existing Zone and its content
Open Setup, Ideas (or Chatter Answers if applicable), and find each active Zone. For each Zone, document the configuration (name, visibility, moderator team, category list, theme), the content volume (total ideas, total comments, total votes), and the activity level (ideas per month, active commenters per month). Export the underlying Ideas, Comments, Votes, and Watches data through Data Loader for backup. This inventory is the source of truth for the migration scope; missing a single Zone in the inventory means missing the migration of its content.
- Build the replacement Experience Cloud site
From Setup, All Sites, create a new Experience Cloud site using the LWR template. Build a custom object (or reuse the Idea object) to represent ideas, with fields for Title, Description, Status, Category, Vote Count, and Comment Count. Build Lightning Web Components for idea submission, idea browsing, voting, and commenting. Use Topics on the new object to mirror the Zone-based categorization. Build the moderator UI as a separate record page for moderator-permitted users. Test the site in a sandbox under realistic load before promoting.
- Migrate the historical data
Export Ideas, Comments, Votes, and Watches from the legacy Ideas object. Transform the data to fit the new object schema if it differs. Load the data into the new Experience Cloud site through Data Loader. Validate counts after each load: idea count matches, comment count matches, vote count matches. Map each historical idea to the right Topic (replacing the Zone reference). Keep the legacy Zones in read-only mode during the migration so users cannot add new content to either side simultaneously. After data validation, deactivate the legacy Zones.
- Redirect URLs and notify users
Set up 301 redirects from every legacy Zone URL and every legacy idea URL to the corresponding Experience Cloud URL. SEO link equity and bookmarks depend on the redirects working for at least a year. Notify the user community through email, in-app banners, and any partner communication channels. Provide a transition period (typically 30 to 60 days) where both the old and new sites are visible, with the old site clearly flagged as archived. After the transition window, take the legacy site fully offline and deactivate the Zone records in Setup.
- Zones are part of a legacy stack. Chatter Answers is retired and Salesforce Ideas has been deprioritized. Building new functionality on Zones in 2026 is a dead end you will have to redo on Experience Cloud later.
- Zone metadata does not auto-migrate to Experience Cloud. The migration is a manual rebuild of UI, moderator workflow, and Topic-based categorization, not an export-import.
- Public Zones expose data through the guest user identity. Sharing rules on the underlying Ideas object have to match the public-private intent, or sensitive ideas can leak.
- Email notification rules on legacy Zones do not carry over to Experience Cloud sites. Plan the notification rebuild as part of the migration so users do not lose their subscription to interesting ideas.
- Vote records on the legacy Ideas object are not auto-recreated on the new schema. Migrate the Vote data explicitly so historical ranking and vote counts survive the cutover to the new site.