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Migration
Move off Wix without losing what you already earned.
The redesign that kills your traffic is the one where nobody mapped the old addresses to the new ones. On a small site that takes an afternoon, and it's part of every build we do.
Why rebuilds lose rankings
A search engine doesn't rank your website. It ranks each address on it. Move the content to new addresses without telling anything where the old ones went, and every page starts again from nothing while the old links land on a page-not-found.
That's the whole mechanism, and it's why the story of the redesign that halved somebody's inquiries keeps going round.
What prevents it is a map: every address on the old site, next to the address it becomes, set up on launch day so anyone arriving at an old address is sent straight to the new one. On a twenty-page cattery site that is an afternoon of work.
How the move runs
Every page of the current site is saved before anything changes: the text, the photographs, the addresses and what each page was for.
The new site is built alongside the old one, which stays up and working the whole time. You watch it happen on a private link.
The map goes live with the site. Old addresses send people to the new ones, we tell Google where the new pages are, and we watch Google's own reporting tool for two weeks to make sure nothing was missed.
What you gain, apart from not losing anything
- Control of the hidden top of every page, where the facts machines read live, which is the thing Wix won't give you
- Photographs served at the size they're displayed, which usually makes a real difference to how fast the site loads
- An editor built around litters and kittens rather than around a page grid
- No monthly builder fee, no app store, and a copy of your site's files that transfers to you if you leave
The clearest example is a client build, Lapdolls Ragdoll Cattery: twenty-two pages redesigned and taken off Wix, every old address redirected, and an availability engine that keeps fifteen pages in step. Exotic Stars Persian Cattery, another client, came off Webflow the same way.
Questions
Will I lose my Google ranking if I move off Wix?
Only if the move is done badly. Rankings are attached to addresses, so every old address has to point at its new home on the day you launch. That map is part of every migration we do.
How long does it take?
Up to two weeks, however many pages there are. The site stays up the whole time and the switch happens in an afternoon.
Can I keep my domain?
Yes, and you keep it afterwards too. It stays in your name throughout and we point it at the new site rather than transferring it anywhere.
What about my photos and my text?
Everything gets captured before anything changes. Photographs come across resized properly, which usually makes a real difference to how fast the site loads.
What happens to my Wix subscription?
Cancel it once the new site is live and the redirects are confirmed working, not before. We'll tell you when that is.
Is my site too small to bother?
If it's five pages and you're happy with it, then probably yes, it is too small to bother, and we'll tell you that. The move is worth it when the builder is stopping you doing something, which is usually updating availability or adding the facts machines read.
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Not sure whether the move is worth it?
Send us the address and we'll tell you, including if the answer is that it isn't worth it yet.
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