Wix to WordPress Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Wix got you online fast—and for a while, that was exactly what you needed. But somewhere between your third App Market add-on and your fifth workaround, the cracks start to show. Pages you can’t restructure. Technical and architectural SEO controls you can’t reach. A Premium plan bill that keeps creeping up.

That’s usually when business owners start asking us about WordPress.

Here’s the good news: a Wix to WordPress migration is very doable. The catch? Wix doesn’t give you an export button. There’s no file that packs up your whole website, and a careless move can wipe out Google rankings you’ve spent years building.

This guide walks you through the whole process—what you can bring across, what has to be rebuilt, how to protect your traffic, and how to keep your email and enquiries flowing while the switch happens.

Why Businesses Are Moving From Wix to WordPress

Wix is built for simplicity. That’s its strength—and its ceiling. Once a business starts growing, the same guardrails that made setup easy start getting in the way.

You Own Your Website Instead of Renting It

On Wix, your website lives on Wix’s platform, under Wix’s rules. You can’t take your site’s files and host them somewhere else, and if you stop paying for your plan, your site loses its Premium features and connected domain.

WordPress (the self-hosted version from WordPress.org) is open-source software. You choose where it’s hosted, you can move hosts whenever you like, and you have full access to your site’s files and database. That portability matters more than most people realise—until the day they need it.

Deeper Control Over SEO

To be fair, Wix’s SEO tools have come a long way. You can now edit meta tags, canonical tags and robots.txt, manage 301 redirects in bulk and add custom schema markup. What you still can’t reach are server-level settings—caching, CDN rules, PHP and database access—and full control over your URL structure and site architecture. WordPress gives you both.

For businesses in competitive markets, that extra control can be what separates page two from page one.

Integrations With the Tools You Already Use

Most growing businesses run on a stack of tools—HubSpot, Mailchimp, Xero, booking platforms, live chat, call tracking. WordPress connects with nearly all of them, often through official plugins built by the software companies themselves.

Costs That Scale More Predictably

Let’s be honest here: WordPress isn’t free in practice. You’ll pay for hosting, some premium plugins, and ongoing maintenance. But you’re paying for what you actually use—not for a higher Wix plan just to unlock one feature, plus monthly App Market subscriptions on top.

What WordPress Can Do That Wix Can’t (Easily)

Wix is good at building a website. WordPress is good at building whatever your business needs that website to become.

Wix does offer its own versions of some of the features below. The difference is depth—how far you can take them, how well they connect with other tools, and whether you’re stuck with one provider’s way of doing things.

One Platform for Almost Any Type of Business

WordPress runs everything from local tradie sites to national online stores. Here’s how it handles some of the most common business needs:

Structured Content That Scales

WordPress lets developers create custom content types—case studies, projects, team members, property listings, FAQs—each with its own fields. You enter the information once, and it displays consistently everywhere it’s used.

That structure saves hours of editing as your site grows. It also makes your content easier for search engines to understand, because the same information sits in the same place on every page.

Built for Content Marketing

WordPress started life as a blogging platform, and it shows. Categories, tags, scheduled publishing, revision history, multiple authors with their own author pages—it’s all built in.

For businesses using content to win enquiries, that makes it far easier to grow a blog into a proper resource hub, where every article links back to the service pages that pay the bills.

Custom Functionality When Nothing Off the Shelf Fits

Need a quote calculator built around your pricing? A portal where clients download their reports? A connection between your website and the job management software your team already uses?

With WordPress, a developer can build exactly that. You’re not waiting for someone to release the right app—or paying a monthly fee for one that only does 80% of the job.

A Huge Pool of People Who Can Help

WordPress powers over 40% of all websites. That means no shortage of developers, designers and agencies who know it inside out.

If your web team ever changes, your website doesn’t have to. That’s a freedom closed platforms simply can’t offer.

Is WordPress Better for SEO Than Wix?

Short answer: not automatically—and anyone who tells you Google prefers WordPress is overselling it.

What the Data Says

You’ll often see one statistic quoted in the WordPress vs Wix debate. In a 2019 study of 6.4 million websites, Ahrefs found that 46.1% of WordPress sites received some organic search traffic, compared with just 1.4% of Wix sites.

It’s a striking number, but it shows correlation, not cause. The study is several years old, the two groups of sites were very different sizes, and Wix hosts a huge number of hobby and abandoned sites that were never trying to rank. Ahrefs itself has cautioned against reading results like these as proof that one platform is superior.

What Google Says

Google doesn’t give any platform a ranking advantage. Google’s John Mueller has said there’s no fundamental SEO difference between mainstream content management systems, and no ranking boost for using WordPress. He’s also acknowledged that Wix has improved a lot and is now a fine platform for businesses.

In other words, strong, helpful content on a well-built Wix site can outrank thin content on a WordPress site. The platform doesn’t do the ranking—the work does.

Where WordPress Pulls Ahead

The real difference is the ceiling. Once SEO becomes a serious growth channel for your business, the things that actually move rankings are easier to do—and take further—on WordPress:

• Site architecture that scales: full control over your URL structure, templated service and suburb pages, custom content types, and content hubs with clean internal linking
• Server-level control: your choice of hosting, plus caching, CDN rules and PHP and database access. Wix now handles on-page essentials like meta tags, canonicals, redirects and schema well, so this is where the real technical gap sits
• Structure for AI search: accurate schema and well-organised content make it easier for Google’s AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT to understand who you are, what you do and where you do it
• Content marketing without limits: a blog that can grow into a proper resource hub, with every article linking back to the pages that win you work
• Conversion tools and integrations: because traffic only matters if it turns into enquiries

That’s likely part of why the numbers skew the way they do. Businesses that take SEO seriously tend to end up on WordPress, because sooner or later they need that level of control.

Should You Switch to WordPress for SEO Alone?

If your Wix site is small, already ranks for the searches that matter, and you’ve got no plans to expand, switching platforms won’t magically lift your rankings.

But if you’ve hit a ceiling—you need more pages, more technical control or more content than Wix comfortably handles—that’s when WordPress starts earning its keep.

When a WordPress Redesign Is the Better Investment

Many Wix owners start out asking about a redesign, not a migration. Sometimes refreshing your Wix site is the right call. But if you’re about to spend money on a new website anyway, it’s worth asking a simple question: are you investing in a platform you’ll outgrow?

You’re Redesigning Anyway

A redesign involves the same core work whatever platform you use—planning your structure, rewriting content, designing new pages and getting the SEO right.

Do all that on Wix, and you’re still locked in. If you decide to leave in two years, none of that design work comes with you, and you’ll be rebuilding from scratch. Do it on WordPress, and every improvement is something your business keeps.

Your Wix Site Has Hit an SEO Plateau

You rank for your business name, but not for the search terms that actually bring in work. You’ve tried the basics, and nothing’s moving.

That’s often a sign you need more than Wix’s SEO settings can give you—more control over your URL structure, site architecture, server performance and how your pages connect.

You Keep Adding Apps to Fill the Gaps

One app for reviews. Another for pop-ups. Another for bookings. Each adds a monthly fee, and none of them talk to each other properly.

If your site has become a patchwork of subscriptions, a WordPress rebuild lets you replace that stack with a smaller set of tools that work together.

You’re Adding Bookings, a Store or Memberships

Adding major new functionality is the perfect moment to switch. You’ll be rebuilding large parts of the site regardless, so it makes sense to build them on a foundation designed to scale.

You Want to Expand Into More Suburbs or Services

Growing from one service area to twenty means a lot of new pages. WordPress templates let you build location and service pages that stay consistent, load fast and are easy to update in one place—rather than duplicating and editing pages one by one.

Your Business Runs on Connected Tools

If leads need to flow into your CRM, bookings into your calendar and sales into your accounting software, WordPress gives you far more ways to connect them—through official plugins, automation tools or custom integrations.

Wix Redesign vs WordPress Rebuild

If several of the signs above sound familiar, a rebuild with custom WordPress design usually delivers more long-term value than another round of changes inside Wix.

When Staying on Wix Makes Sense

We’d rather tell you this now than sell you a migration you don’t need.

Staying on Wix can be the smarter call if:

• Your site is a simple brochure site with a handful of pages and no plans to expand
• You don’t rely on Google search for enquiries
• Nobody in your business has time to handle updates, and you don’t want an ongoing support arrangement
• Wix already does everything you need without workarounds

WordPress needs regular updates, backups, and security monitoring. If that sounds like a burden you’d rather not take on—and you’re not planning to hand it to someone else—Wix may genuinely suit you better.

Wix vs WordPress at a Glance

What Moves Across From Wix—and What Doesn’t

This is where most DIY Wix migrations come unstuck. People expect a transfer and end up rebuilding most of the site by hand.

There’s No Full-Site Export

Wix doesn’t offer an XML export, a database download, or a WordPress migration tool. Your pages, layouts and design stay locked inside Wix—and that’s true whether your site was built in the classic Wix Editor or Wix Studio.

Your Blog Can Come Across—Partly

What you do have is your blog’s RSS feed, usually found at yourdomain.com.au/blog-feed.xml. WordPress can import it through its RSS importer.

But there’s a catch. The feed typically only includes your most recent posts (often around 20), and on some sites it carries short excerpts rather than full articles. Open the feed and check what’s actually in it before relying on it. Older posts—or full post content—may need copying across by hand or moving with a paid migration tool.

Some Data Can Be Downloaded as CSV Files

Wix lets you export several types of business data from your dashboard, including:

• Store products (Wix Stores)
• Orders
• Contacts and customer lists
• Form submissions
• CMS collections (formerly the Content Manager)

These won’t drop neatly into WordPress on their own, but they give you the raw data to import or reference.

What You’ll Need to Rebuild

Plan to recreate these from scratch:

• Every page—home, services, about, contact and landing pages
• Your design, layouts and navigation menus
• Images, which need downloading and re-uploading
• Contact forms and their settings
• SEO titles and meta descriptions for every page
• Wix Bookings services and schedules
• Dynamic pages built from CMS collections, which become custom content types in WordPress
• App Market apps (each needs a WordPress replacement)
• Custom code, tracking scripts and pixels
• Member areas and gated content

Before You Start: Your Wix Migration Checklist

The groundwork you do before touching WordPress decides whether the migration goes smoothly or turns into a scramble.

Benchmark Your Current Traffic and Rankings

Export your top pages and search queries from Google Search Console, and record your traffic and enquiry numbers in Google Analytics 4. If something dips after launch, you’ll need a “before” picture to diagnose it.

Build a Complete URL Inventory

Wix automatically generates an XML sitemap, usually at yourdomain.com.au/sitemap.xml. Use it as your starting list, then cross-check it against the Pages report in Search Console and a crawl from a tool like Screaming Frog. Every URL on that list needs a home on the new site—or a redirect.

Save Copies of Everything

Before you cancel anything, download:

• Page text and blog content
• Images, logos, PDFs and videos
• SEO titles and meta descriptions for every page
• Form submissions from your Wix dashboard
• CMS collection data
• Contacts and email subscriber lists
• Product data and order history
• Customer reviews displayed on your site

Check Who Controls Your Domain

Did you buy your domain through Wix, or through a separate registrar? Either way works—you can point the domain at your new host or transfer it to another registrar. What matters is that you can log in and manage the DNS settings.

For a .com.au domain, you’ll need the domain’s authorisation code (sometimes called the auth or EPP code) to transfer it, and the domain still has to meet auDA’s eligibility rules, such as being linked to your ABN.

Don’t Forget Your Business Email

This is the one that catches people out. If your email runs through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, it depends on MX records in your domain’s DNS. Change the DNS carelessly and your email stops arriving.

Write down your current MX, TXT and CNAME records (which handle your SPF, DKIM and DMARC settings) before changing anything. And check where your email is billed—if you bought your mailboxes through Wix, they’re tied to your Wix account, so sort that out before you cancel your plan.

List Every Form, Booking Tool and App

Go page by page and note every contact form, booking widget, newsletter sign-up, live chat tool, App Market app and tracking pixel. Each one needs a WordPress replacement—and each one is a potential lost enquiry if it’s forgotten.

Choosing Your WordPress Setup

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

They share a name, but they’re different products. WordPress.com is a hosted service that works more like Wix. WordPress.org is the free software you install on your own hosting, with full control.

For a business leaving Wix, the self-hosted WordPress.org version is usually the point of the exercise.

Picking the Right Hosting

Your host affects speed, security and how much support you get when something breaks. For Australian businesses, look for:

• Servers in Australia, so pages load quickly for Australian visitors
• Automatic daily backups you can restore yourself
• Staging environments for testing changes
• Free SSL certificates
• Real support from people who know WordPress

Growing sites with heavier traffic may outgrow shared hosting. Our breakdown of VPS hosting covers when that upgrade starts making sense.

Choosing a Theme or Page Builder

Coming from Wix’s visual editor, it’s tempting to grab the heaviest page builder you can find. Resist that. Bloated themes slow your site down, and speed affects both rankings and conversions.

A lightweight theme—either a modern block theme or a lean builder setup—gives you design freedom without the performance hit.

Replacing Your Wix Apps With WordPress Plugins

Most Wix features have a WordPress equivalent:

Keep the list tight. Every plugin adds updates to manage and code to load. We’ve put together the must-have WordPress plugins most business sites genuinely need.

Wix to WordPress Migration: Step by Step

Step 1: Build on a Staging Site

Keep your Wix site live while you build. Set WordPress up on a staging environment or temporary domain, and password-protect it so Google doesn’t find and index a duplicate of your site. WordPress’s “discourage search engines” setting alone isn’t a reliable block.

Step 2: Set Your Permalink Structure First

Before you import a single post, go to Settings → Permalinks in WordPress and choose your URL structure. “Post name” is the usual choice. Changing it later means redoing your redirect map.

Step 3: Import Your Blog Through the RSS Feed

Open yourdomain.com.au/blog-feed.xml in your browser and save the file. In WordPress, go to Tools → Import, install the RSS importer, and upload the file.

Then review every imported post. Expect broken formatting, missing images and odd spacing that need tidying up—and compare the imported posts against your live Wix blog to catch anything the feed left out.

Step 4: Bring Your Images Home

Imported posts can still load images from Wix’s servers, and those links won’t be reliable once you leave. Re-upload every image to your WordPress Media Library, or use a plugin that pulls externally hosted images in for you. While you’re at it, compress them and give each one a descriptive file name and alt text.

Step 5: Rebuild Your Pages and Design

This is the biggest job in any Wix migration—and the best opportunity. Rather than copying your old site pixel for pixel, fix what wasn’t working. Tighten your service pages, strengthen your calls to action, and make sure the mobile experience is as good as the desktop one.

Step 6: Recreate Forms, Bookings and Integrations

Rebuild every form, booking tool and integration from your checklist. Test each one end to end: submit it, confirm the notification email arrives, and check the lead lands in your CRM. Add spam protection while you’re there.

Step 7: Carry Over Your On-Page SEO

Re-enter the SEO title and meta description for every page using your SEO plugin—Wix’s SEO settings don’t travel with your content. Keep your H1s and heading structure, and don’t strip out copy that’s currently ranking just because the new design looks cleaner with less text. Recreate any custom schema you added on Wix, and make sure your homepage carries Organization or LocalBusiness schema, depending on whether you serve customers locally.

Step 8: Map Your 301 Redirects

If any URL changes, it needs a 301 redirect from the old address to the new one. This is the single most important step for protecting your rankings.

Wix uses URL patterns that WordPress won’t match by default:

Your exact URLs depend on how your site was set up, so work from your URL inventory rather than assuming. Map every old URL to its closest new equivalent—never send everything to the homepage.

Step 9: Test Everything Before Launch

Before going live, check:

• Every redirect lands on the right page
• No broken links or missing images
• Forms, bookings and checkout all work
• GA4, Google Tag Manager and conversion tracking fire correctly
• The site looks and works properly on mobile
• Page speed is at least as good as your Wix site

Step 10: Switch Your Domain Over

Point your domain’s DNS at your new host—usually by updating the A record and the www CNAME. If your domain is registered with Wix, you’ll do this in your Wix domain settings, or transfer the domain out first. Leave your MX records and email-related TXT and CNAME records exactly as they are.

Once the new site is live, remove the password protection and make sure “discourage search engines” is switched off, then keep your Wix plan running for a short while in case you need to retrieve anything you missed.

Protecting Your Google Rankings During the Move

A platform migration is one of the riskiest moments in a website’s life for SEO. Most ranking drops after leaving Wix come down to the same few causes: missing redirects, deleted content, lost metadata, or a “noindex” setting left switched on.

We’ve mapped out the full process for protecting your Google rankings during a redesign, and the same principles apply here. In short:

• Keep your domain the same if you can—changing platform and domain at once makes problems much harder to diagnose
• Submit your new XML sitemap in Google Search Console straight after launch
• Use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing of your most important pages
• Watch the Pages report for 404 errors over the following weeks, and fix them with redirects
• Compare rankings and traffic against your pre-migration benchmark

Some movement in the first few weeks is normal while Google recrawls the site. A steady decline isn’t—and the earlier it’s caught, the easier it is to fix. If you’d rather have experienced eyes on it, our SEO services cover migration planning and post-launch monitoring.

Don’t Forget Google Business Profile

If you have a Google Business Profile and your homepage or contact page URL changes, update the website link in your Google Business Profile. Check your contact details on the new site match your profile and directory listings exactly—NAP consistency is a quiet but real factor in local SEO.

Moving a Wix Store to WooCommerce

Stores need extra care, because there’s money moving through them.

• Products: export your catalogue from Wix Stores as a CSV, then use WooCommerce’s built-in CSV importer. The columns won’t line up perfectly, so expect to tidy up variants, categories and images afterwards.
• Customers and orders: you can export contacts and orders from Wix, but customer accounts and order history don’t come across cleanly as working records. A paid migration tool may be worth it if you need that history inside WooCommerce.
• Payment gateways: WooCommerce works with Stripe, PayPal, Afterpay, Square and other providers popular in Australia. Set them up and run real test transactions before launch.
• Shipping: plugins for Australia Post, StarTrack and Shippit can calculate live rates at checkout.
• Google Shopping: if you run Shopping ads, reconnect your product feed to Google Merchant Center so your ads don’t stop.

A WordPress WooCommerce store also gives you far more room to improve product and category pages for search than Wix Stores usually allows.

Australian Considerations Most Wix Migration Guides Miss

Many Wix migration guides are written with overseas businesses in mind. Here’s what Australian businesses need to factor in.

GST and Price Display

If you sell to consumers, the Australian Consumer Law generally requires you to show a single total price that includes GST. Configure WooCommerce’s tax settings for 10% GST and display prices inclusive of it.

Privacy and Customer Data

Moving customer data and installing new plugins changes how your website handles personal information. If the Privacy Act applies to your business, review your privacy policy so it reflects the new tools, analytics and forms you’re using—and keep exported customer data secure during the move.

Email Lists and the Spam Act

If you used Wix’s email marketing tools, you’ll be moving your subscriber list to a new platform. Bring your consent records with it. Under the Spam Act, you need to be able to show that people agreed to receive your marketing emails.

Accessibility

A rebuild is the perfect time to improve accessibility. Aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) with proper heading structure, image alt text, readable colour contrast, and forms that work with screen readers. It’s good for users, good for SEO, and helps reduce risk under the Disability Discrimination Act.

How Long Does a Wix to WordPress Migration Take?

It depends on what you’re moving. The biggest factors are:

A small brochure site is a much smaller job than a store with hundreds of products. The best way to get a realistic timeframe is to scope it properly before you start—rushing a migration is how rankings get lost.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Leaving Wix

• Cancelling your Wix plan before the migration is finished
• Assuming the RSS feed captured every blog post in full
• Changing DNS without recording your email records first
• Skipping redirects, or sending every old URL to the homepage
• Leaving images loading from Wix’s servers
• Forgetting to re-enter SEO titles and meta descriptions
• Launching with search engines still blocked
• Installing dozens of plugins to replicate every Wix app
• Not testing forms, bookings and checkout before going live
• Launching right before your busiest season

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Move From Wix to WordPress Without Losing My Google Rankings?

Yes—if the migration is planned properly. Keeping your domain, mapping 301 redirects for every changed URL, carrying over your content and SEO settings, and monitoring Search Console after launch all protect your rankings. Some short-term fluctuation is normal while Google recrawls the site.

Does Google Rank WordPress Sites Higher Than Wix Sites?

No. Google doesn’t favour any website platform, and its own representatives have said there’s no ranking boost for using WordPress. Where WordPress helps is control—it makes it easier to scale your site structure, fine-tune technical SEO and grow your content once search becomes a major source of enquiries.

Should I Redesign My Wix Site or Move to WordPress?

If your current site does everything you need and you just want a fresher look, a Wix redesign can work. But if you’re hitting SEO limits, paying for a growing stack of apps, or planning to add bookings, a store or more service areas, rebuilding on WordPress usually makes more sense. The redesign work is similar either way—on WordPress, you keep it if your needs change.

Can Wix Export My Website to WordPress?

Not as a complete site. Wix doesn’t offer a full-site export. Recent blog posts can usually be imported through your blog’s RSS feed, and some business data can be downloaded as CSV files, but your pages and design need rebuilding.

Will All My Wix Blog Posts Transfer?

Not always. Wix’s blog feed usually only includes your most recent posts, and sometimes only excerpts. Check the imported posts against your live blog, then copy across anything missing or use a paid migration tool for larger archives.

Can I Keep My Domain Name?

Absolutely. Whether your domain is registered through Wix or a separate registrar, you can point it at your new WordPress host or transfer it to another registrar.

Will My Business Email Stop Working When I Move?

It shouldn’t—as long as your MX records and email-related TXT and CNAME records are kept when you update your DNS. Record them before you make any changes, and check whether your mailboxes are billed through your Wix account.

Do I Have to Rebuild My Website’s Design?

Yes. Wix designs don’t transfer to WordPress. Most businesses use this as a chance to improve their layout, speed and mobile experience rather than recreating the old site exactly.

Is WordPress Harder to Manage Than Wix?

Editing content is easy once the site is set up. The bigger difference is maintenance—WordPress needs regular WordPress maintenance such as updates, backups and security checks. Plenty of businesses hand that to their web team so they can focus on running the business.

Can I Move My Wix Store to WooCommerce?

Yes. Product data can be exported from Wix Stores as a CSV and imported into WooCommerce. Customer accounts and order history usually need a paid migration tool or a manual approach.

When Should I Cancel My Wix Plan?

Only after your new site is live, your redirects are working, and you’ve confirmed every image, file and piece of data has been moved. Keeping your Wix plan running for a short overlap is cheap insurance.

Ready to Move Your Website From Wix to WordPress?

Leaving Wix is a big step—but done properly, it gives your business a website you own, a platform that grows with you, and far more control over how you show up in Google.

Whether you’re in Brisbane or anywhere else in Australia, we plan migrations with SEO built in from day one, from the URL inventory and redirect map through to rebuilding your site and monitoring your rankings after launch. Find out more about our WordPress website design and optimisation services, or get in touch to talk through your move.

Call: (+61) 0490 436 812

Email: [email protected]