Moving from Wix to WordPress is more involved than most platform-to-platform migrations. Wix doesn't provide a WordPress-compatible export, there's no one-click transfer. You'll need to export what you can, manually recreate what you can't, and accept that your Wix layout simply doesn't exist in WordPress terms. That said, it's entirely doable, and the end result is a site with far more flexibility, better hosting options, and stronger long-term SEO potential. Here's the complete process.
Before touching anything, do a full inventory of what your Wix site contains. List every page and its URL, note all blog posts and their slugs, identify any forms and what they feed into, and document your current navigation structure. This inventory becomes your migration checklist and your redirect map later.
Take screenshots of every page, especially your homepage and any custom-designed sections. Wix's drag-and-drop layouts don't export, so screenshots are your reference document when rebuilding in WordPress. Also crawl your Wix site with a tool like Screaming Frog (the free version handles up to 500 URLs) to capture every URL before you begin. This is your record of existing pages and their structure.
Blog posts via RSS: If your Wix site has a blog, the RSS feed is available at a URL like yoursitename.wixsite.com/yoursite/blog-feed.xml. This gives you post titles, body content, publication dates, and categories in a format you can convert to a WordPress WXR import file. Several tools handle this conversion including online RSS-to-WXR converters. Post content transfers reasonably cleanly; images may come across as Wix CDN URLs rather than local files, you'll fix that in a later step.
Images and media: Wix has no bulk media export. You can download images individually from the Wix Media Manager, or use a browser extension or crawling tool to download all images from the live site. Save them with descriptive, keyword-informed filenames before uploading to WordPress, this matters for image SEO. For large sites, budget several hours for this step.
What doesn't transfer: Your Wix page layouts are proprietary and don't exist outside Wix's editor. There's no CSS to export, no template files, no structural data. Static pages need to be rebuilt manually in WordPress. For a five-page brochure site, this takes a few hours. For a large site with dozens of pages, plan accordingly. Wix eCommerce products, forms, and bookings also don't transfer via any automated method.
Get your WordPress hosting in place and WordPress installed before you start moving content. Use your host's one-click installer or Softaculous in cPanel. Once WordPress is installed, go to Settings → Permalinks and set the structure to Post name (/%postname%/). Doing this before any content is imported means all slugs are generated with the correct structure from the start.
Choose and install your theme before importing. Trying to import content and design simultaneously leads to wasted effort. Install your essential plugins first too: an SEO plugin (Yoast SEO or Rank Math), a caching plugin if your host doesn't provide server-level caching, a contact form plugin (WPForms Lite or Contact Form 7), and the Redirection plugin for managing 301 redirects. Set up the basic site structure, create your key pages as empty drafts, configure the navigation menu, and set your static homepage in Settings → Reading before importing.
For blog posts, convert your Wix RSS feed to a WordPress WXR file using an online converter, then import via Tools → Import → WordPress. The WordPress Importer plugin will prompt for installation if not present. Run the import and assign posts to the correct author. Review every imported post after import, inline formatting sometimes needs adjustment, particularly if Wix content contained custom blocks or embedded media.
After importing, use the "Import External Images" plugin to pull all Wix CDN-hosted images into your WordPress media library. This is a critical step. Images left pointing at Wix CDN URLs will break the moment your Wix subscription expires. Run the plugin, let it process all posts, then verify a sample of posts to confirm images are now served locally. For any images that didn't transfer automatically, manually re-upload from your downloaded media collection.
Use your screenshots as a reference and rebuild each page in the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) or a page builder. The block editor handles columns, images, headings, quotes, and buttons natively, it's capable enough for most Wix-style layouts without additional plugins. If your design relies on more complex section layouts or you want pixel-level control, Elementor Free or Kadence Blocks give you drag-and-drop capability closer to Wix's editor.
Work through pages systematically: rebuild the content, verify images are uploaded locally, check all internal links point to the correct WordPress URLs, and preview on mobile before moving on. Don't wait until every page is built before checking mobile, fixing responsiveness issues is easier page by page than retroactively across a completed site.
Wix URL structures are often inconsistent: blog posts at /post/your-title, pages at /about-us, category pages with various structures. WordPress with a Post Name permalink structure creates clean /your-post-title URLs, which will almost never match the Wix structure exactly. Before going live, map every old Wix URL to its new WordPress equivalent using the inventory you created at the start.
Install the Redirection plugin and create 301 redirects for every page that has changed URL. Prioritise pages with external backlinks (check Google Search Console or Ahrefs if available), your most-visited pages (check Wix Analytics before switching), and any URLs you've shared publicly in emails, social media, or print materials. Without redirects, anyone following an old Wix link gets a 404 page, and any Google ranking signal attached to those URLs is lost permanently.
Lower your domain's DNS TTL to 300 seconds at least 24 hours before going live. If your domain is registered through Wix, log into Wix and go to Domains → Manage → Advanced DNS to access these settings. Wix allows you to update nameservers to point away from Wix, or to transfer the domain to an external registrar, either approach works.
When your WordPress site is fully built and tested, update your domain's DNS to point at the new hosting server. Keep your Wix site active for at least 48 hours after the DNS switch so that visitors still hitting the old server see the site rather than an error. Once propagation is confirmed globally using a tool like DNS Checker, submit an updated XML sitemap in Google Search Console to accelerate reindexing. Expect a short-term ranking fluctuation as Google processes the new structure, with proper redirects in place, this resolves within a few weeks and the WordPress site typically outperforms the Wix site in the medium term.
HostBible handles the WordPress setup and technical side so you can focus on moving your content. Free migration assistance included on all plans.
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