How to Migrate from WordPress to Wix: A Step-by-Step Guide

Moving your website from one platform to another can feel like a monumental task. If you’re considering a switch from WordPress to Wix, you likely have questions about the process, the benefits, and the potential challenges. While WordPress is a powerful and flexible content management system (CMS), Wix offers an intuitive, user-friendly experience that appeals to many business owners and creators. This guide will provide a comprehensive walkthrough to help you migrate from WordPress to Wix smoothly and efficiently.

We’ll cover everything from pre-migration planning to the final steps of launching your new Wix site. You will learn how to handle your content, design, SEO, and more, ensuring a successful transition without the common headaches.

Why Migrate from WordPress to Wix?

Before diving into the “how,” it’s important to understand the “why.” Both platforms have distinct advantages, and the right choice depends on your specific needs. Users often move from WordPress to Wix for several key reasons.

Simplicity and Ease of Use

Wix is famous for its drag-and-drop editor. This visual, intuitive interface allows you to build and customize your site without touching a single line of code. For those who find the WordPress dashboard, themes, and plugins overwhelming, Wix provides a much gentler learning curve. You see your changes in real-time, making the design process faster and more straightforward.

All-in-One Solution

With Wix, hosting, security, and technical support are all included in your plan. You don’t have to find a separate hosting provider, install an SSL certificate, or manage security plugins. Wix handles the back-end maintenance, so you can focus on your content and business. This bundled approach simplifies website management, especially for those who are not technically inclined.

Dedicated Support

When you run into an issue with WordPress, you often have to consult community forums, documentation, or hire a developer. While the WordPress community is vast, finding a quick and direct answer can be challenging. Wix offers 24/7 customer support through various channels, providing a reliable safety net when you need assistance.

Cost Predictability

WordPress itself is free, but the costs can add up. You have to pay for hosting, premium themes, and premium plugins. These costs can fluctuate and sometimes come with unexpected renewal fees. Wix offers tiered subscription plans with clear pricing. This makes it easier to budget for your website expenses without any surprises.

Pre-Migration Checklist: Planning Your Move to Wix

A successful migration begins with a solid plan. Rushing into the process without preparation is a common mistake that can lead to lost content, broken links, and a drop in search engine rankings. Follow this checklist to prepare your site for the move.

1. Audit Your Existing WordPress Site

Take a detailed inventory of your current website. This audit will help you decide what to keep, what to update, and what to leave behind.

• Content: Create a spreadsheet listing all your pages and posts. Note the URL, title, and any key elements like images, videos, or forms. This is a great time to identify outdated or low-performing content that you may not need to migrate.
• Media: Catalog your images, videos, and downloadable files (like PDFs). Make sure you have high-quality original copies saved locally.
• Functionality: List all the plugins you use on your WordPress site. What function does each one serve? Do you have an e-commerce store, a booking system, a forum, or a membership area? You’ll need to find equivalent features or apps in the Wix ecosystem.

2. Choose Your Wix Plan

Wix offers a range of plans tailored to different needs. Review them carefully to select the one that best matches the functionality you identified in your audit.

• Website Plans: These are ideal for portfolios, blogs, and business websites that don’t require online payment processing.
• Business & eCommerce Plans: If you plan to sell products, offer services, or accept payments online, you will need one of these plans. They include features like secure online payments, customer accounts, and abandoned cart recovery.
• Enterprise Plans: For large-scale businesses needing custom solutions and dedicated support.

Consider your future needs as well. It’s easier to start with a plan that allows for growth than to upgrade later.

3. Back Up Your WordPress Site

This step is non-negotiable. Before you make any changes, create a complete backup of your WordPress site. This includes your database (posts, pages, comments) and your files (themes, plugins, uploads). Many hosting providers offer one-click backup solutions. You can also use a trusted backup plugin like UpdraftPlus or Duplicator. Download a copy of the backup and store it securely on your computer and a cloud storage service.

4. Set Up Your Basic Wix Site

Before you start migrating content, get your basic Wix site ready.

• Sign up for Wix: Create an account and choose your plan.
• Select a Template: Wix offers hundreds of professionally designed templates. You can filter them by industry or style. Choose one that aligns with your brand and the look you want to achieve. Remember, while you can customize everything on the template, you cannot switch to a different template later without starting over.
• Customize Basic Design: Use the Wix Editor to set up your site’s color palette, fonts, and header/footer. This creates the foundational design into which you’ll place your migrated content.

Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating from WordPress to Wix

Once your planning is complete, you can begin the migration process. There are two primary methods for moving your content: the automated blog import tool and the manual copy-and-paste method.

Method 1: Using the Wix Blog Importer (For Posts Only)

Wix offers an automated tool that can import your blog posts directly from WordPress. This is the fastest and easiest method, but it only works for posts, not pages or other content types.

Step 1: Export Your WordPress Content

First, you need to generate an export file from your WordPress site.

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to Tools > Export.
3. Choose to export All content. This is important because even though the Wix importer only takes posts, the file needs to be structured correctly.
4. Click Download Export File. An XML file will be saved to your computer.

Step 2: Import Posts into Wix

Now, you’ll use this file to import your posts into your Wix site.

1. Log in to your Wix account and go to your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Blog section. If you haven’t added a blog yet, you’ll be prompted to do so.
3. In the Blog dashboard, find the Settings or Tools section. Look for an option that says Import Posts.
4. You will be prompted to enter your WordPress site’s URL or upload the XML file you just downloaded. Uploading the file is generally more reliable.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions. Wix will scan the file and begin the import process. This can take some time, depending on the number of posts you have.
6. Once the import is complete, Wix will notify you.

Step 3: Review and Clean Up Your Imported Posts

The automated tool is good, but it’s not perfect. You must review every imported post.

• Formatting: Check for any strange formatting issues. Headings, bold text, and lists may not transfer perfectly.
• Images: The importer attempts to bring images over, but it can sometimes fail. You may need to re-upload and insert images into your posts. Ensure they have appropriate alt text for SEO.
• Links: Internal links that pointed to other pages on your old WordPress site will now be broken. You’ll need to manually update these to point to the new corresponding pages on your Wix site.

Method 2: Manual Content Migration (For All Content Types)

For pages, custom post types, and for users who want complete control over the process, manual migration is the way to go. While it’s more time-consuming, it ensures that every piece of content is placed and formatted exactly as you want it.

Step 1: Create Corresponding Pages in Wix

Using the content audit spreadsheet you created earlier, start building out your site structure in the Wix Editor.

1. Go to the Site Menu panel in the editor.
2. Click + Add Page for each page on your list (e.g., About Us, Services, Contact).
3. Organize your pages into a logical navigation menu, including subpages if needed.

Step 2: Copy and Paste Text Content

This is the core of the manual process.

1. Open a WordPress page or post in one browser tab and the corresponding new Wix page in another.
2. Copy the text content from WordPress.
3. When you paste it into the Wix text box, it’s a good practice to first paste it into a plain text editor (like Notepad or TextEdit) to strip any hidden formatting from WordPress. Then, copy it from the plain text editor and paste it into Wix.
4. Use the Wix text editor to re-apply all your formatting—headings (H1, H2, H3), bold, italics, bullet points, etc. This ensures clean code and consistent styling across your new site.

Step 3: Migrate Media Content

You’ll need to upload all your images and videos to the Wix Media Manager.

1. In the Wix Editor, click the + (Add) button and select Image or Video.
2. You’ll see an option to upload media. You can upload files from your computer, or even import them from Google Drive or other services.
3. Organize your uploads into folders within the Media Manager to keep things tidy (e.g., “Blog Images,” “Product Photos”).
4. Once uploaded, you can easily add them to your pages and posts. Don’t forget to add descriptive alt text to all your images for accessibility and SEO.

Step 4: Rebuild Functionality with Wix Apps

WordPress relies on plugins for extra features, while Wix uses the Wix App Market. Go back to your list of WordPress plugins and find equivalents in the App Market.

• Contact Forms: Use the Wix Forms app to build custom forms.
• eCommerce: If you had a WooCommerce store, you’ll need to set up Wix Stores. This involves manually adding each product, including descriptions, prices, and images.
• Bookings: For appointment-based businesses, Wix Bookings is a powerful tool that replaces plugins like Amelia or Bookly.
• SEO: Wix has robust built-in SEO tools, so you won’t need a direct replacement for plugins like Yoast SEO. We’ll cover this in more detail later.

This part of the migration can be the most labor-intensive, especially for e-commerce sites. Take your time to configure each app correctly.

Post-Migration SEO: Protecting Your Rankings

One of the biggest fears when changing platforms is losing your hard-earned search engine rankings. A careful SEO migration strategy is crucial. Wix provides the tools you need to manage this effectively.

1. Implement 301 Redirects

This is the single most important step for preserving your SEO. A 301 redirect permanently sends visitors and search engine bots from an old URL to a new one, passing along most of the link equity (or “SEO juice”).

Your URL structure will likely change when you move from WordPress to Wix. For example:

• Old URL: yourdomain.com/blog/2025/10/my-first-post
• New URL: yourdomain.com/post/my-first-post

You must create a 301 redirect for every single page and post that you migrate.

1. Use the URL list from your initial content audit. Add a new column for the new Wix URL for each piece of content.
2. In your Wix dashboard, go to Marketing & SEO.
3. Find the SEO Tools section and select URL Redirect Manager.
4. For each URL, enter the old page path (e.g., /blog/2025/10/my-first-post) in the “Old URL” field and the new page path (e.g., /post/my-first-post) in the “New URL” field.
5. Save each redirect. It’s tedious but absolutely essential.

2. Configure Wix SEO Settings

Wix has moved beyond its old reputation and now offers comprehensive SEO capabilities.

• SEO Wiz: When you first set up your site, Wix offers an SEO Wiz that walks you through creating a personalized SEO plan. It helps you with keywords, title tags, and meta descriptions.
• Page-Level SEO: For each page, you can access advanced SEO settings. Here you can customize the URL slug, title tag, meta description, and social share settings. Make sure these match the optimized tags from your old site or take the opportunity to improve them.
• Structured Data (Schema): Wix automatically adds some structured data (like for products and blog posts) and allows you to add custom schema markup for more advanced SEO. This helps search engines understand your content better.

3. Connect to Google Search Console

Once your site is live, connect it to Google Search Console (GSC).

1. In the Wix SEO dashboard, find the option to Verify Your Site with Google. Wix simplifies this process.
2. Once verified, submit your new sitemap to GSC. Wix automatically generates and updates your sitemap for you. The URL is typically yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
3. Use GSC’s URL Inspection Tool to check if your key pages are being indexed correctly. Monitor the Coverage report for any errors that may arise after the migration.

Connecting Your Domain and Going Live

The final step is to point your domain name to your new Wix site.

1. Choose a Launch Time: Pick a time when your site typically receives low traffic (e.g., late at night or over a weekend) to minimize disruption.
2. Connect Your Domain in Wix: In your Wix dashboard, go to the Settings menu and find the Domains section. Follow the steps to connect a domain you already own. Wix will provide you with the specific records (either nameservers or a CNAME record) that you need to update.
3. Update Your Domain Registrar Settings: Log in to where you bought your domain (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap). Go to the DNS management settings and update the records as instructed by Wix. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate worldwide, but it’s often much faster.
4. Publish Your Wix Site: Hit the “Publish” button in the Wix Editor. Your new website is now live!

Final Post-Launch Checks

Your work isn’t quite done. After your new site is live, run through this final checklist.

• Test Everything: Browse every page of your site on both desktop and mobile devices. Click every link, fill out every form, and test any special functionality.
• Check Redirects: Use an online tool to check a few of your key 301 redirects to ensure they are working correctly.
• Monitor Analytics: Keep a close eye on your Wix Analytics and Google Analytics. Expect a small dip in traffic initially as Google re-crawls your site, but it should stabilize if you’ve managed your 301 redirects correctly.
• Cancel Old Hosting: Once you are confident that your new Wix site is stable and everything is working, you can cancel your WordPress hosting plan. Do not do this until you are 100% sure the migration is a success.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

• Pitfall: Not planning and auditing first.
• • Solution: Create a detailed content and functionality audit before you start. Knowing what you have is the first step to a successful move.
• Pitfall: Forgetting to implement 301 redirects.
• • Solution: Make this a top priority. A failure to redirect old URLs will crush your SEO and create a terrible user experience with countless “404 Not Found” errors.
• Pitfall: Not reviewing imported content.
• • Solution: Manually check every single imported blog post for formatting errors, broken images, and incorrect links.
• Pitfall: Ignoring mobile optimization.
• • Solution: Use the Wix mobile editor to ensure your site looks and functions perfectly on smaller screens. Drag and drop elements to optimize the mobile layout independently of the desktop view.

Migrating from WordPress to Wix is a significant project, but with careful planning and a methodical approach, it can be a smooth and rewarding process. By trading the complexity of WordPress for the simplicity and all-in-one nature of Wix, you can free up time and energy to focus on what truly matters: growing your business and connecting with your audience.