How to Move from Wix to WordPress Without Hurting SEO

Thinking of Moving from Wix to WordPress?

Using WordPress as your website platform instead of Wix gives you more control over design, speed, and customizations. We know switching platforms can feel risky, especially if you are already ranking well organically on search engines. However, with a clear plan and the right tools, you can keep search visibility stable while opening the door to a fresh design and future growth. Follow the eight steps below to learn how you can rebuild your website on WordPress with confidence and minimize ranking loss.

1. Run an SEO Health Check Before You Touch Anything

Benchmark current performance

Open Google Search Console and Analytics, filter for the past three months, and export clicks, impressions, and positions for every page. This snapshot will help you spot any unexpected drops after launch.

Pro tip: Keep an eye on pages that drive conversions. If you run a service-based business, a single service page may bring in most new leads.

Crawl the Wix website

Use Screaming Frog or a free online crawler to grab every live URL. Export the list of status‑200 URLs as a CSV; this becomes your redirect map.

Flag any thin or irrelevant pages now. If a page has no traffic, no backlinks, and no conversions, you might choose not to rebuild it on the new website.

Don’t forget to back up everything from your Wix website just in case, even if you don’t think you’ll ever reuse it. That includes images and all content. Treat it as your insurance policy in case anything goes missing later and you need to restore it.

2. Plan Your URLs and Redirect

Keep URL slugs consistent where possible

While rebuilding a website can always have short term impacts on SEO rankings, one of the best ways to migitate these effects is by keeping things as consistent as possible. That is why for the most part, we recommend keeping your url slugs of current pages the same on your new website.

For example, if you’re a lawyer with a page for criminal law on your current website with the slug ‘criminal-law’, then you should use this exact same slug on your new website on WordPress as well. This helps keep things consistent with search engines rather than having to index completely new pages.

Decide where to add redirects

However, is it not necessary to copy over all pages. This is a great time to review your current website sitemap and see if there’s any pages that you should rebuild, or any pages that are no longer necessary.

If there are some pages on your Wix website that you won’t be rebuilding on your WordPress website, then it is important to set up 301 redirects to the closest related active page. Doing this ensures that are no 404 errors when trying to access the old page and also signals to search engines where this old page now leads to.

Just remember to set up a redirect to the closest related page to ensure that there are no 404 errors and Google knows where this old page now leads to

Open a spreadsheet with three columns: Old URL, New URL, Redirect Added? – Copy the Wix URL list into column one, then match each to its future WordPress equivalent. Google’s own site‑move guide stresses that a clean 301 preserves most link equity. If you’ll handle redirects with a plug‑in like Rank Math, the CSV can be imported directly.

3. Set Up Your New WordPress Environment

Choose hosting and install WordPress

Look for a Canadian server location to keep latency low for local visitors. We recommend Cloudways for reliable managed hosting with great performance, scalability, and servers located across North America, including Canada.

Keep the site private during build

In Settings → Reading – check “Discourage search engines from indexing this site,” and consider a password on the staging URL. You’ll lift both blocks on launch day.

Use a staging environment to experiment with themes, page builders, and plug-ins without impacting your live domain. We recommend using a lightweight builder like Elementor.

4. Recreate Content Manually and Refine Your Design

Rather than importing posts or using automation tools, we recommend manually rebuilding content within WordPress. This gives you full control over formatting, SEO structure, and copy updates. Start with your most important pages – like your homepage, services, and contact – and revise content to reflect your current messaging and goals.

Recreate your navigation, categories, and any blog post structure in WordPress so that visitors and search engines recognize the flow. While you’re rebuilding, take time to update spacing, image layouts, and headlines for better readability. If your old site felt cluttered, this is your chance to simplify.

If you’re unsure how to organize your content, our post on fixing homepage design errors offers helpful tips that apply across your site.

You can also use this time to create new, helpful pages that didn’t exist before – like FAQs or service-specific landing pages, to increase engagement and SEO depth.

5. Apply 301 Redirects and Technical SEO

Add the full list of redirects, then test with httpstatus.io or Screaming Frog’s list mode. Limit chains to one hop: Old → New.

Update:

• Canonical tags to point to the WordPress URLs
• robots.txt to allow crawling
• XML sitemap via Rank Math or Yoast

If you’re using plugins like Rank Math, take advantage of their built-in schema markup and sitemap tools. These give search engines better context about your content right away.

6. Test Everything on Staging

Run a fresh crawl of the WordPress site and look for:

• Broken links
• Missing images
• Pages blocked by robots.txt
• Schema markup errors

If you’re debating template vs. custom design, our comparison on custom web design versus templates outlines the impact on speed and user trust.

Also test forms, buttons, and lead flows. Submit each form to confirm emails are being received, check that all call-to-action buttons work properly on desktop and mobile, and make sure any required fields or error messages behave as expected.

7. Launch Day Checklist

1. Point DNS A‑record to your new host during a quiet traffic window.
2. Remove “Discourage search engines.”
3. Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console.
4. Keep the Wix subscription active until DNS changes finish and redirects serve for at least a week.
5. List out who will be responsible for website maintenance tasks.

8. Post‑Launch Monitoring

Track indexing and rankings

Check Google Search Console’s Pages → Indexed report daily during the first week. Temporary ranking fluctuation is normal.

Strengthen internal links

Spot orphan pages with an SEO crawler and add links from high‑authority posts. For example, if you serve health professionals, our piece on how a website can grow your clinic makes a natural internal reference.

Keep a list of new pages you plan to publish and schedule internal links from future blog posts to these migrated ones. This ongoing internal linking helps distribute authority and reduce bounce rate.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Forgetting image redirects, leading to broken visuals in Google Images
• Leaving mixed HTTP and HTTPS assets, which triggers browser warnings
• Redirect chains longer than one hop, wasting crawl budget
• Blocking search engines during launch with “noindex” still active
• Launching with broken mobile menus or CTAs

Make The Jump to WordPress Today!

A successful migration comes down to planning, spotless redirects, and steady monitoring. Shift the groundwork first, flip the DNS switch when you’re ready, and keep a close watch on Google Search Console.

Need a hand? Mendel Sites specializes in WordPress design & development and we have rebuilt dozens of Wix websites on WordPress without losing traffic – book a free discovery call and we’ll guide you through every step.

Frequently Asked Questions