How to Migrate from WordPress to Wix

Moving from WordPress to Wix means trading a self-hosted, plugin-driven CMS for a fully managed, drag-and-drop website builder. For many small businesses, that trade is worth it: no more plugin updates, security patches, hosting bills, or theme conflicts. But WordPress and Wix are architecturally very different platforms, and a careless move can tank your search rankings overnight. There is no one-click importer that carries everything across cleanly.

This guide walks through exactly what changes, what breaks, and how to migrate from WordPress to Wix while preserving the URLs, content, and SEO equity you have spent years building. The single most important rule up front: WordPress and Wix use different URL structures, so a complete 301 redirect map is non-negotiable. Skip it and you will hand Google a site full of 404s.

Below is the same process our team follows on client website migration projects, condensed into steps you can execute yourself.

Why Businesses Move From WordPress to Wix

WordPress powers a huge share of the web, but its flexibility comes with maintenance overhead. Owners typically switch to Wix for a few concrete reasons:

• No maintenance burden. Wix handles hosting, SSL, security, and platform updates. There are no plugins to update or PHP versions to babysit.
• Visual editing. Wix's drag-and-drop editor lets non-technical owners move elements pixel-by-pixel without touching code or hiring a developer for small changes.
• Predictable pricing. One monthly Wix plan bundles hosting, CDN, and support, replacing separate bills for hosting, premium themes, and paid plugins.
• Built-in tools. Wix Bookings, Wix Stores, and Wix Ascend cover appointments, e-commerce, and email marketing natively, so you avoid stitching together WooCommerce and third-party plugins.

The tradeoff is control. Wix is a closed system: you cannot edit the underlying code freely, export the design, or move to another host later without a full rebuild. If your site relies on complex custom functionality, weigh whether a managed WordPress setup or a custom-built platform serves you better before committing.

What Changes and What Breaks

Understanding the gaps before you start prevents nasty surprises mid-migration. Here is what does not carry over automatically:

• URL structure. WordPress blog posts often live at /2024/05/post-name/ or /category/post-name/. Wix blog posts default to /post/post-name and pages sit at /page-name. Almost every URL will change.
• Plugins. None of your WordPress plugins transfer. Yoast SEO, Contact Form 7, WooCommerce, membership tools, and caching plugins must be replaced with Wix's native equivalents or Wix App Market apps.
• Theme and design. Your WordPress theme cannot be imported. You rebuild the design in a Wix template, which usually means a light redesign rather than a pixel-perfect clone.
• Custom code and shortcodes. PHP functions, custom post types, and shortcodes have no Wix equivalent. Wix offers Velo (its dev platform) for custom logic, but it is a rewrite, not a port.
• Media and formatting. Images, alt text, and post formatting frequently need cleanup after import because Wix's rich-text editor handles markup differently.

Content itself, your text, images, and blog posts, does transfer with effort. Everything wrapped around that content typically gets rebuilt.

Step 1: Audit and Export Your WordPress Content

Start with a full inventory. Crawl your existing site with a tool like Screaming Frog to capture every published URL, page title, meta description, and its current search traffic. This crawl becomes the foundation of your redirect map and ensures nothing gets orphaned.

Then export your content. In WordPress, use Tools > Export to generate an XML file of posts, pages, and media references. Wix's own Import from WordPress tool can ingest blog posts via your site's RSS feed or the XML export, pulling in titles, body content, and featured images. Note that it primarily handles blog posts, not full pages, e-commerce products, or custom layouts, so plan to recreate those manually. Download a backup of your /wp-content/uploads/ media library separately so you have full-resolution originals on hand.

Step 2: Set Up and Build the Wix Site

Choose a Wix template that matches your site's structure and content types (blog, store, bookings). Rebuild your core pages in the Wix editor, recreating your homepage, service pages, and key landing pages. As you go, deliberately carry over the on-page SEO elements that drive rankings:

• Set each page's SEO title and meta description in the Wix SEO panel (under each page's settings), matching or improving your WordPress values.
• Preserve H1 and heading hierarchy so content structure stays intact for search engines.
• Re-add image alt text, which often gets stripped during import.
• Keep your primary keywords and internal linking patterns consistent with the old site.

If you are treating this as an opportunity to modernize the look rather than clone the old design, approach it as a deliberate website redesign so you improve conversions and layout while you rebuild, rather than recreating an outdated design.

Step 3: Map and Set Up 301 Redirects

This is where rankings are won or lost. Because Wix URLs differ from WordPress URLs, every old address needs a permanent 301 redirect pointing to its new equivalent. A 301 tells Google the page has moved permanently and transfers the majority of its accumulated link equity to the new URL.

Build a two-column spreadsheet: old WordPress URL on the left, new Wix URL on the right. Map every page that has traffic, backlinks, or ranking keywords, prioritizing your highest-value pages first. Wix supports 301 redirects directly in the dashboard under SEO Tools > URL Redirect Manager, where you can add them individually or upload them in bulk via CSV. For a repeatable framework, our 301 redirect map guide walks through the exact columns and QA process. Do not rely on wildcard rules alone; verify each high-value redirect resolves to the correct destination.

Step 4: Test Everything Before Launch

Never point your domain at Wix until the new site is fully staged and checked. Wix lets you build on a temporary *.wixsite.com address first. Before going live, work through a pre-launch checklist:

• Confirm every important page exists on Wix with correct content, titles, and meta tags.
• Test all forms, buttons, bookings, and checkout flows end to end.
• Verify the site renders correctly on mobile, Wix is mobile-responsive but the mobile editor is separate and needs its own review.
• Check that internal links point to new Wix URLs, not dead WordPress paths.
• Recreate your XML sitemap (Wix generates one automatically at /sitemap.xml) and prepare to resubmit it.

Our full website migration SEO checklist is worth running line by line here, this stage catches the errors that cause traffic drops.

Step 5: Launch, Update DNS, and Monitor

When the site is verified, connect your custom domain. You can either point your domain's nameservers to Wix or update the A records and CNAME at your current registrar to Wix's values. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate globally, so schedule launch during a low-traffic window and keep your WordPress site live until propagation completes.

Immediately after launch, activate your 301 redirects, resubmit your sitemap in Google Search Console, and request indexing of key pages. Then monitor closely for the next 4 to 8 weeks: watch Search Console for crawl errors and 404 spikes, track rankings for your priority keywords, and fix any missed redirects the moment they surface. A temporary ranking dip is normal; a sustained drop signals a redirect or content gap that needs immediate attention.

Realistic Timeline and Cost

A migration's effort scales with site size and complexity, not the platform names. Honest expectations:

• Small brochure site (5 to 15 pages): roughly 1 to 2 weeks of focused work to rebuild, redirect, and test.
• Content-heavy or blog-driven site (50+ posts): 3 to 6 weeks, since each post's formatting, images, and redirects need individual attention.
• E-commerce or membership sites: longer still, because products, payment flows, and customer data must be recreated in Wix Stores rather than imported wholesale.

On cost, Wix subscriptions run from budget-friendly monthly plans to Business and Enterprise tiers. The larger expense is labor. At our $80/hour rate, a straightforward small-site migration is a modest project, while a large content or store migration is a bigger engagement, mostly driven by manual content recreation and redirect QA. If you would rather not manage the URL mapping and testing yourself, our website development team handles the full move end to end so your rankings stay intact.