Migrate from Wix to WordPress or STUDIO – keep your content and SEO

Why businesses migrate from Wix

Wix makes the first version of a site easy. As a business grows, these limits tend to show up:

• No full export: there is no way to download the whole site as HTML or a theme and host it elsewhere
• A fixed foundation: the template cannot be switched after publishing, so a major redesign means starting a new site
• Limited fine-tuning: speed work, custom features and integrations with other systems are hard to control
• Separate mobile work: desktop and mobile layouts often need adjusting one by one
• Rising costs: a custom domain and removing Wix ads require a paid plan, and apps add monthly fees

A small site that rarely changes can be perfectly fine on Wix. Write down the three things that bother you most about your current setup – that list becomes your checklist for choosing the new platform. If you want to stay on Wix and improve search, see Wix SEO.

Wix to WordPress or Wix to STUDIO?

The two most common destinations are WordPress and STUDIO. Both are good choices for different kinds of sites.

• WordPress: best if you post news or blog articles often, want to grow search traffic with content, or plan to add bookings, memberships and other features. You choose your own hosting and can always take your data with you
• STUDIO: best if design quality matters most, the site has a moderate number of pages and you prefer not to manage a server. It is a Japanese service with a Japanese admin panel and a built-in CMS for news and simple updates
• Mainly selling online? With many products, Shopify or BASE are also worth considering

The clearest way to decide: who will update the site, how often, and what kind of content. For the details of moving to STUDIO, see STUDIO migration.

What carries over from Wix and what gets rebuilt

Since Wix has no full-site export, a migration means collecting your materials and rebuilding the site on the new platform. Sorting things first makes the workload and the quote predictable.

• Text: copy page content across – a good moment to fix outdated information
• Images: gather your original photo files; save anything missing from the Wix media library
• Blog posts: WordPress can import them via the RSS feed and similar methods, but layout and images need checking before launch
• Products: Wix Stores products export to CSV and can be reformatted for the new platform
• Contacts: export your contact list to CSV and keep the form submissions you need
• Design and features: layouts, animations and Wix app features such as bookings and forms are rebuilt on the new platform

Rebuilding also means you can rethink structure and navigation in one go. Start by listing every page and marking each one keep, merge or remove.

Steps that protect your SEO during the move

URLs are the biggest risk. Wix blog posts usually live at addresses like /post/article-name, and if the new site uses different URLs, redirects are essential. This order keeps traffic losses small:

• List all URLs: export them from your sitemap or Search Console
• Find your strongest pages: pages with the most visits or search impressions keep their full content
• Map old to new: assign a new URL to every old one – this becomes your 301 redirect list
• Carry over SEO fields: page titles, meta descriptions and image alt text move too
• Set up tracking: add GA4 and Search Console to the new site so you can compare before and after
• Check after launch: watch for broken links, 404 errors and indexing for a few weeks

Our guide to site migration SEO and 301 redirects covers the setup in detail. A simple spreadsheet with old and new URLs side by side is all the mapping you need.

Switching the domain and closing Wix safely

The final step is the domain switch. A mistake here can take your site or email offline for a while.

• Check where the domain is managed: a domain bought through Wix can be transferred to another registrar or simply pointed elsewhere via DNS; newly registered domains cannot be transferred for a set period
• Record your email settings: if you use email on your domain, note the MX and related records before changing anything
• Cancel Wix last: keep your Wix plan until the new site is live and tested
• Own your accounts: use the move to put the domain, hosting and analytics in your own name

Switch at a quiet hour, then test a form submission and incoming email straight away.

How UNANOBO handles a Wix migration: a free demo first

Before you commit, UNANOBO builds a free demo of your new site on WordPress or STUDIO, based on the content and brand of your current Wix site. You open it on your computer and phone and decide whether to go ahead once you have seen it.

After the demo you get a plan and estimate covering which pages to carry over, the URL redirect approach and the domain switch. The process is free demo, feedback, launch, growth, and the founder handles every project personally – one contact from the first demo to improvements after launch. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English.