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Breitloh

Move off Wix

Wix is a good way to get a first site up and a bad place to still be three years later. The content is stuck inside it, the ceiling arrives sooner than anyone expects, and the bits you want changed turn out to be the bits you are not allowed to change. Getting out is a rebuild, much like [moving off WordPress](/services/move-off-wordpress), and it is more straightforward than it sounds.

Book a callWebsite rebuild
A site built from plugins on the left, redirected page by page to a single clean build on the right, with the page weight falling

Where it usually hurts

There is no real export
Wix will not give you your site. There is no meaningful export of pages, layouts, or media, which means anyone quoting you a quick automated migration has not tried it. The content comes out by hand, carefully, page by page.
The ceiling is the platform
The thing you want next is usually the thing Wix will not do: a member area that works properly, a booking flow shaped like your business, a template that does not fight you. Every workaround makes the site slower.
Speed is out of your hands
You can compress your images and buy the better plan, and the site is still assembled by somebody else's platform. On a phone, on mobile data, that is the difference a visitor actually feels.

What the job covers

  • Every page and post lifted out of Wix by hand, structure intact
  • Your domain moved across with no gap in service
  • A redirect for every old address, including the ones Wix generated
  • The same content in an editor your team can genuinely use
  • Media brought across and resized, which is usually the biggest speed win

What it has to talk to

Wix Bookings or Wix Forms, if you use them
Both are rebuilt rather than moved, because neither travels. That is a good moment to fix the flow you have been putting up with, since it is being rebuilt either way.
Your domain and email
The domain moves, the email does not need to. This is the part people worry about most and it is the part with the clearest checklist, done outside working hours so nothing drops.
Anything embedded
Chat widgets, booking tools, and analytics that were pasted in as embeds carry over as themselves, and the ones nobody has looked at since 2021 get retired.

A worked approach, not a client

How I would approach a fifteen page Wix site

  1. 01

    First, get the content out

    Copy is lifted page by page into structured content, images pulled at full size, and anything that only exists as a screenshot flagged early so it can be recreated properly.

  2. 02

    Then build the templates

    Fifteen pages usually need four templates. Building templates rather than pages is what makes the sixteenth page cost almost nothing.

  3. 03

    Then the domain, out of hours

    Domain moved, redirects live, Wix left running for a fortnight in case anything turns up that nobody remembered.

Questions I get asked about this

The ones that come up on almost every first call. If yours is not here, ask it and you will get a straight answer.

Can I keep my domain?

Yes. Your domain is yours and it moves with you, whether it was bought through Wix or elsewhere. The move happens outside working hours and the old site stays up until the new one is answering.

Can you export my Wix content automatically?

No, and nor can anyone else, because Wix does not provide a usable export. The content comes out by hand. That sounds worse than it is: for most sites it is a day of careful work, and it is the moment to cut the pages nobody reads.

Will my rankings survive?

They should, provided every old address gets a redirect and the content keeps its meaning. Wix sites often gain, because the rebuild is faster and better structured than the platform allowed.

Do we have to keep paying Wix during the rebuild?

Yes, until the new site is live and answering, then for about a fortnight afterwards as a safety net. It is one more month of a subscription you were already paying, and it means there is never a moment where nothing is up.

Can you rebuild the design we have?

Yes, though on a Wix site it is usually worth revisiting. The layout you have is partly your design and partly what the template would allow, and it is hard to tell which is which until it comes apart. I measure the type and spacing off the live site so it still feels like you.

What happens to our blog posts?

They come across with their dates and their addresses, and each one gets a redirect. Once they are structured content they can be listed, filtered, and reused in ways the Wix blog would not do, which is usually the moment someone realises how much was stuck in there.

Wix says our SEO is fine. Is it?

Wix has improved and it still constrains you. The site is heavier than it needs to be on a phone, the URL structure is theirs, and the technical controls stop where the platform decides. Speed on mobile is where most Wix sites lose ground, and it is the thing you cannot configure your way out of. The same ceiling turns up on Squarespace, for slightly different reasons.

What does it cost to run afterwards?

Less than the Wix plan in most cases, and the line items are yours: a domain, hosting, and the content system. There is no premium tier to unlock a feature, and nothing that costs more because your traffic went up in a good month. Set that against what a rebuild costs rather than against nothing.

Do the contact forms keep working?

They get rebuilt, and they send from your own domain with the authentication records set up properly, so notifications reach your inbox rather than your spam folder. Wix form entries stay in Wix, so if there is a history worth keeping, export it before the subscription lapses.

Related

Tell me what you have now

Half an hour on a call, and a straight answer about whether this is the right job and whether I am the right person for it.

Book a callhello@breitloh.com