How to Move a Website from Wix to WordPress the Right Way

Moving your website from Wix to WordPress is a significant but rewarding process. While Wix offers simplicity and convenience, its limitations eventually become clear for growing businesses and creators. WordPress, being open-source and self-hosted, gives you complete control over every aspect of your site—from design and functionality to SEO and scalability. This guide walks you through the process step by step, showing how to move your site efficiently without losing your content, structure, or visitors. If you’re wondering how to move a website from Wix to WordPress, this guide will help you do it safely and correctly from start to finish.

Introduction

Migrating from Wix to WordPress allows you to gain full ownership of your online presence. Wix operates as a closed ecosystem, meaning you are tied to its hosting, editor, and pricing model. When you decide to migrate from Wix to WordPress, you’ll break free from those limitations and gain complete flexibility over your site’s functionality and hosting environment. WordPress, on the other hand, gives you freedom. You can choose your hosting provider, customize your site as you please, and use thousands of free and premium themes or plugins.

The process does involve a few manual steps since Wix doesn’t support direct exports, but with proper preparation, anyone can do it. Once you’re done, you’ll have a faster, more flexible website that can grow with your goals, whether you’re running a personal blog, business site, or online store.

Wix vs WordPress: Key Differences

Before you begin the transfer, it helps to understand the fundamental differences that make people switch from Wix to WordPress. These distinctions can help you plan your migration more effectively and set realistic expectations for the improvements you’ll see. Many website owners choose to move site from Wix to WordPress because of these exact differences in flexibility and long-term potential.

Ownership and Control

Wix retains control of your site files and hosting. You can’t access the source code or move your website to another provider. With WordPress, your data belongs entirely to you. You decide where to host it, how to configure it, and what tools to use. This independence also means you can migrate, back up, or restore your site anytime.

Customization

Wix offers a visual editor that’s simple but restrictive. You can only use features available through its app market. WordPress supports thousands of plugins and themes, allowing you to add custom functionality such as forums, membership systems, or eCommerce stores. Developers can modify PHP, CSS, and JavaScript directly, giving limitless flexibility.

Scalability

Wix is best for small or static sites. As traffic grows, performance can suffer, and costs rise quickly. WordPress is built to scale, from small blogs to enterprise websites, and adapts easily with caching, CDNs, and optimized hosting.

Cost Flexibility

Wix pricing includes hosting, but you pay for convenience, often at a premium. With WordPress, you can choose from affordable shared hosting to high-performance VPS or dedicated servers. You control every upgrade and cost based on your site’s growth.

Prepare for Migration

Preparation is the foundation of a successful move. Before touching any files, make sure you have a clear inventory of your current website and a plan for where everything will go in WordPress. Learning how to move a website from Wix to WordPress starts with careful preparation, ensuring that no data or design element gets lost during the transition.

Review Your Wix Content

Go through every page, blog post, gallery, and feature on your Wix site. Note which parts you want to keep, which can be improved, and what might be outdated. Take screenshots if necessary to use as visual references when rebuilding pages in WordPress.

Choose Hosting for WordPress

Pick a dependable hosting provider with good speed, uptime, and support. A managed WordPress host can simplify setup, while a VPS gives more control and flexibility. Look for features such as SSD storage, daily backups, and one-click installs.

Install WordPress

Most hosts include automatic WordPress installation through their control panels. Once installed, you can log in to your new dashboard and start customizing. If you prefer manual installation, download WordPress from wordpress.org and upload it to your server.

Select a Theme

Choose a theme that aligns with your design goals. You can either replicate your Wix design using a similar layout or use this opportunity to refresh your site’s look. Responsive, SEO-optimized themes are best for long-term growth.

Export Content from Wix

Wix doesn’t provide a universal export tool, so you’ll have to transfer your content using a combination of manual and automated methods.

• Blog Posts: If your Wix site has a blog, export it via RSS feed. Copy the feed URL (usually found at yourdomain.com/blog-feed.xml) and save it. This allows you to import your blog posts directly into WordPress later.
• Static Pages: For non-blog content such as your Home, About, or Services pages, you’ll need to manually copy the text and paste it into Word or Google Docs. This ensures you have a clean version of the content for reformatting in WordPress.
• Images: Wix stores images on its own servers, so download them manually from the Media Manager or directly from your website using right-click > “Save As.” Organize them into folders to make uploading easier later.
• Forms and Widgets: Note down all forms, social feeds, or interactive elements. These will need to be recreated using plugins such as Contact Form 7, WPForms, or Social Feed Gallery once you move to WordPress.

Import Content into WordPress

Understanding how to move a website from Wix to WordPress is easier once all your exported files and notes are organized, making this step straightforward. Once you’ve gathered your content, it’s time to move it to your WordPress installation. 

1. Import Blog Posts: From the WordPress dashboard, go to Tools → Import → RSS. Upload your saved RSS feed file to bring in your posts. Check that categories, tags, and formatting look correct after import.
2. Recreate Pages: Copy and paste your saved text into new pages using the WordPress Block Editor. Adjust headings, add images, and use layout blocks to improve visual presentation. Page builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder can simplify this step for non-technical users.
3. Upload Media: Go to Media → Add New to upload your saved images and videos. Organize them with folders or plugins to keep things tidy. Replace old URLs in your pages and posts with the new media URLs.
4. Menus and Navigation: Rebuild your site structure by visiting Appearance → Menus. Add all pages, posts, and categories in the same order they appeared on Wix to maintain consistency.

Redesign and Customize

Once you migrate from Wix to WordPress, the fun begins as you can redesign your website exactly as you’ve always envisioned it. Your new site design is where WordPress truly shines. Use this step to enhance your website’s visual identity and functionality.

Choose or Customize a Theme

Many themes offer built-in customization through the Customizer panel. You can modify colors, typography, header styles, and backgrounds. If you want deeper control, use a child theme to safely edit code without losing changes after updates.

Add Plugins

Extend your site’s functionality with essential plugins. Install SEO plugins like Rank Math or Yoast SEO, caching tools like W3 Total Cache, and security plugins such as Wordfence. Plugins allow you to recreate any missing Wix features and add entirely new ones.

Set Up Widgets and Sidebars

Use widgets to display dynamic content such as recent posts, social feeds, or newsletter signups. Sidebars can host call-to-actions or important navigation links, improving user engagement and accessibility.

Redirect Wix to WordPress (Preserve SEO)

Maintaining your search engine rankings during migration is critical. Redirects and domain updates ensure that your visitors find the new site instead of broken pages.

• Connect Your Domain: If you purchased your domain through Wix, unlock it and update the nameservers to point to your new hosting provider. This step ensures traffic is directed to your new WordPress site.
• Set Up 301 Redirects: Use a redirection plugin or your hosting control panel to map old Wix URLs to their new WordPress equivalents. This keeps your SEO intact and prevents broken links.
• Submit New Sitemap: Once your new site is live, generate a sitemap using your SEO plugin and submit it to Google Search Console. This helps search engines quickly index your new pages.

Final Testing and Launch

After migrating from Wix to WordPress, it’s crucial to test your site carefully to ensure every page, plugin, and link works properly. Before announcing your new website, perform thorough testing to ensure everything functions as intended.

1. Test All Pages and Links: Visit every page and link to verify navigation, formatting, and media display. Fix any broken internal links or missing images.
2. Check Forms and Plugins: Test all contact forms, popups, and plugin integrations to ensure they work properly. Adjust configurations if something fails to load.
3. Optimize Speed: Install a caching plugin like LiteSpeed Cache or WP Super Cache and use image compression tools such as Smush or ShortPixel to improve performance.
4. Take a Full Backup: Use a plugin like UpdraftPlus or your host’s built-in backup feature to save a complete copy of your site before launch. This gives you a safe restore point if something goes wrong.

Tips for a Smooth Transition

If you plan to move site from Wix to WordPress, these final steps will ensure the process goes smoothly without affecting your visitors. These additional steps help minimize disruption and ensure your migration is as seamless as possible.

Use Staging Environment

Many hosting providers offer a staging area where you can test your WordPress site before making it public. This helps catch bugs and layout issues early.

Avoid Downtime

Keep your Wix site live until you’ve tested everything and confirmed that the WordPress version works perfectly. Once you’re ready, switch your domain settings to the new host.

Plan for Ongoing Maintenance

WordPress is powerful but requires regular care. Schedule automatic updates, backups, and performance checks to keep your site secure and fast.

Conclusion

Moving from Wix to WordPress gives you true freedom to grow, customize, and scale your website. While the process may take a few hours to complete, the benefits are long-term: better SEO control, improved flexibility, and ownership of your data. Once your WordPress site is live, you’ll enjoy full creative control and a stronger foundation for future expansion. By now, you’ve seen how to move a website from Wix to WordPress in a way that keeps your design, traffic, and SEO intact.

Get Started with SiteValley WordPress Hosting

At SiteValley, we make your move from Wix to WordPress seamless. Our hosting solutions are optimized for WordPress performance, combining reliability, speed, and dedicated support. You’ll have full access to all the tools you need to launch and manage your new website with confidence. We recommend our Small Business Hosting Plan, perfect for personal and professional websites that need stability, scalability, and strong performance. With SiteValley, your WordPress migration is in safe hands, fast, secure, and fully under your control.