Migration without losing rankings
Are you moving off Wix or Webnode and worried you will lose your Google rankings?
I move websites from closed platforms to WordPress so the content, the addresses and the traffic all survive. Page mapping, 301 redirects and post-launch monitoring are part of the work, not an extra.
Websites on Wix, Webnode or an ageing content system get abandoned for the same reasons: the monthly fees keep growing, the template cannot really be changed, performance is outside your control, and a simple feature like a filtered catalogue or a stock connection turns out to be impossible. The decision to leave is usually right. The dangerous part is the migration itself: when page addresses change and nobody redirects them, Google sees hundreds of missing pages for a while and the rankings you spent years building drop within days.
I have been doing migrations for 19 years and I treat them as a move, not as a new website. First comes a complete list of existing addresses and how they perform, then a map of old addresses to new ones, and only at the very end does anything get switched. That order is the whole difference between a migration you cannot spot in the statistics and one whose damage you spend six months repairing.
01
Inventory of content and current performance
I start with a complete list of everything the old site contains: pages, articles, products, images, documents and addresses you may have forgotten about. Each one is matched with data from Google Search Console and analytics, so it is clear which pages actually bring traffic and for which queries. Skip this step and the migration happens blind, with the most valuable pages usually the first to disappear. The output is a sheet showing what moves, what gets merged and what is not worth taking along.
- A list of every address and media file
- Search Console and analytics data
- A move, merge or drop decision per page
02
Mapping the content into the new site
Content is hard to export from a closed platform, so I combine automated transfer with manual review. Text, images, metadata and heading structure move into clean WordPress templates with custom fields, so you can manage the content afterwards without depending on a page builder. Where it makes sense, I simplify the structure: three weak pages about the same topic perform better merged than as three separate results competing with each other. Every structural change is recorded in the address map.
- Transfer of text, media and metadata
- Clean templates with no builder lock-in
- Merging duplicate and thin pages
03
301 redirects and keeping your rankings
The core of the service is the redirect map. Every old address gets a permanent 301 redirect to its new counterpart, never a bulk redirect to the homepage, because Google reads that as an error and discards the value of the page. I test redirects before launch on a copy of the site, check for chains and loops, and verify that canonical addresses, language versions and structured data survived. After the switch I watch indexing and error reports daily, so any problem is handled in hours rather than weeks.
- A 301 map for every old address
- Redirects tested before the switch
- Indexing and error checks after launch
04
Technical SEO, speed and security after the move
A migration is the cheapest moment to fix the things the old platform never allowed. The new site gets a sensible heading structure, correct titles and descriptions, a sitemap, structured data, optimised images and HTTPS with a working redirect from the non-www version. I measure speed before and after, so you see the difference in numbers rather than in impressions. I also set up backups and updates, so leaving a hosted platform does not leave you without a safety net.
- Titles, descriptions, sitemap and structured data
- Speed measured before and after the move
- Backups, HTTPS and updates from day one
05
Process, price and what happens after launch
The old website keeps running until the new one is verified on a staging address. I switch outside peak hours and spend the first week watching Search Console, analytics and server logs. My rate is EUR 40 per hour including VAT. Migrating a smaller brochure site typically lands between 10 and 20 hours; a larger site with a catalogue, a blog and hundreds of addresses between 20 and 50 hours. If part of the content is not worth moving, I say so before you pay for it.
- The switch happens only after staging is verified
- Rate of EUR 40 per hour including VAT
- Roughly 10 to 50 hours depending on scope
- A week of monitoring after launch
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Common questions about website migration
Will the migration cost me my Google rankings?
With a correctly prepared 301 redirect map and the content preserved, rankings normally settle back within days and the switch is barely visible in the statistics. Drops happen when addresses change without redirects or when page content is lost along the way.
How much does migrating from Wix to WordPress cost?
A smaller brochure site typically lands between 10 and 20 hours, i.e. EUR 400 to 800 including VAT at EUR 40 per hour. Sites with hundreds of pages, a blog or a shop run to 20 to 50 hours. You get the estimate after the address inventory.
How long will my site be down during the migration?
It will not be. The new site is prepared on a staging address and only switched once it has been checked. In practice the outage is a matter of minutes while the domain settings change, and it is done outside your busiest hours.
Do the blog, images and shop move too?
Yes, I move articles with their dates and authors, the media library and products with their variants. A shop additionally needs a plan for orders and customer accounts, which we handle separately based on what the original platform can export.
Will I be able to manage the site myself afterwards?
That is the goal. Content gets clear fields and templates, so editing text and images needs no knowledge of code. After handover we go through the admin together and you get short written documentation.
Stuck on a platform that no longer fits?
Send me the address of your site. I will look at the volume of content, the migration risks and write a realistic estimate.
Discuss the migration