Webflow is a website builder that allows you to create visually stunning websites without any coding skills, while WordPress is an open-source platform for creating and managing websites with the largest market share. Both Webflow and WordPress have their own unique benefits, but for those who look for more flexibility and scalability, WordPress is the way to go. If you’ve learned this the harder way after creating your Webflow website, don’t worry – there’s still a solution.
In this article, our digital marketing agency will explore the best way to migrate Webflow to WordPress. You’ll get to learn about the benefits of Webflow to WordPress conversion, the step-by-step process, and some tips and tricks to make the transition as smooth as possible. And we’ll show you how to make an effective Webflow to WordPress switch without risking your reputation in search engines. So let’s start!
Table of Contents:
- Benefits of Moving from Webflow to WordPress
- What You Need To Do Before Performing a Migration
- 6 Steps To Migrating From Webflow to WordPressInstall WordPressExport Your Webflow Content
- Need Help With Webflow To WordPress Conversion?
Benefits of Moving from Webflow to WordPress
The decision to perform a Webflow to WordPress migration depends on your specific needs and goals. For example, if your website is a basic brochure site, and you don’t plan on adding too many new features, then Webflow design may be a good fit. However, if you want to create an eCommerce store, add blogging functionality, or have membership programs, then moving to the WordPress platform is advisable. Here are some of the reasons to convert Webflow to WordPress:
More flexibility and scalability
While Webflow is one of the best WordPress alternatives, it’s still inferior to this platform in terms of flexibility and scalability. There are tons of free WordPress plugins and opportunities for customizations you can take advantage of to make your website meet your business goals. Hard-coded websites are much more flexible compared to no-code solutions. That means you’ll also be able to easily expand your WordPress site and add new functionalities as your company starts to grow. And you won’t have to worry about sudden performance drops with the increase in traffic.
WordPress is better for SEO
With a custom WordPress theme, you can boost your website’s performance in search engines and improve online visibility. WordPress is built with search engine optimization in mind, so after you transfer Webflow to WordPress, you won’t have as much trouble securing a fresh stream of organic traffic to your e-Commerce site.
Lower maintenance costs
While Webflow is a powerful tool, it can be costly to maintain, especially if you need to make significant changes to your Webflow design. It’s much easier to make such changes in WordPress. And if you don’t know how to do it on your own, here is some good news – developers usually charge less to modify Word Press sites.
Better content management system
WordPress is designed to be the best website management software all types of businesses can trust. After you convert Webflow to WordPress, it will be much easier for you to create, organize, and manage your content. That can save you a lot of time and energy in the long run and help you improve your company’s workflow.
Enhanced Security
More than 800 million WordPress sites currently exist, and a large community of developers constantly works on improving this platform’s security. Vulnerabilities are usually discovered and patched quickly, not leaving much space for hackers to harm your reputation and steal your customers’ private information.
Better community support
As an open-source platform, WordPress has a large and active community of developers, users, and experts who are willing to help you with any questions or problems that may arise. You’ll also be able to find many amazing WordPress templates and plugins for free or seek help when creating custom WordPress designs. That is a considerable advantage compared to Webflow, which is a proprietary product.
Don’t Forget to Do This Before Your Webflow to WordPress migration
Performing website content migration can be a very complex task, and it’s easy to forget the small steps it involves while focusing on larger ones. If you want to make your Webflow WordPress transition as smooth as possible, you need to prepare for it carefully. Let’s explore some of the crucial steps you need to take before you export Webflow to WordPress:
Make Sure to Backup Your Webflow Website Data
It’s worth mentioning that you’re not actually moving content when you export Webflow to WordPress. Your Webflow site will remain the same. But just in case, you should always back up your website data. This way, if anything goes wrong when switching between Webflow and WordPress, you’ll be able to quickly restore your website to its previous state and start over again.
For example, let’s say you accidentally delete a page or change a setting you didn’t mean to. If you have a backup, you’ll be able to get that page or a specific setting back in no time. Without a backup, you might have to start from scratch and recreate the entire page.
Considering how easy it is to back up your Webflow site, this task shouldn’t give you any headaches. All you have to do is hold down Ctrl + Shift + S if you’re a Windows user or Command + Shift + S if you’re using MacOS. You’ll then be able to write a short description for your backup file. Once you’re done, you can access it by navigating to Settings > Backups from Webflow Dashboard.
Find a Reliable WordPress Web Hosting Provider
There are several types of hosting services you can choose from. Each comes with its pros and cons, so it’s essential to make a careful choice:
- Shared hosting: As the most basic type of hosting, shared hosting is also the most affordable. While you’ll need to share server resources with other websites, shared hosting is still a great option for small websites with low traffic. However, keep in mind that it will be hard to prevent website downtime in case of increased traffic on neighboring sites.
- VPS hosting: VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, and it’s a step up from shared hosting. With this type of hosting, you’ll get your own virtual server and more control. If the amount of traffic on your website is moderate, VPS hosting solutions will do the job.
- Dedicated hosting: With dedicated hosting, you’ll get your own physical server and complete control over your website. But with these benefits comes a high price, so dedicated hosting is mainly reserved for large websites with high traffic.
- Cloud hosting: With a network of servers for hosting websites, cloud hosting allows for more flexibility and scalability. If you’re dealing with a lot of traffic spikes, this might be the ideal option for your new WordPress website.
- Managed WordPress hosting: This is a premium hosting service where the hosting company takes care of all the technical aspects of running your website. With managed WordPress hosting, you won’t need to worry about updates, backups, and security. If you want to focus on running your eCommerce store or other business aspects, but don’t want to hire an in-house team, managed hosting is a perfect option.
But even when you know which type of hosting type you want, it’s important to choose your web hosting provider wisely. Firstly, you need to make sure that the host offers support for the latest version of WordPress or necessary updates and security patches. Also, remember to check their uptime. If they can’t guarantee that your website will be available to visitors at least 99 percent of the time, keep exploring other options.
And if you plan to move a large Webflow website to WordPress, consider the amount of storage and bandwidth your website will need. For example, eCommerce stores with a lot of large files, such as images and videos, need hosting plans that offer more storage. And if you expect a large amount of traffic on your website, make sure that a host offers adequate bandwidth.
Checking reviews and comparing different hosting options will help you make a better decision and prepare for Webflow to WordPress migration.
6 Key Steps To Migrating from Webflow to WordPress
Now that we’ve prepared by backing up data and finding a hosting solution, it’s time to take key steps for Webflow to WordPress migration. By following this step-by-step tutorial, you shouldn’t have much trouble moving your Webflow site to WordPress and successfully launching your new website. So let’s start.
Install WordPress
Many hosting providers offer solutions that allow you to install WordPress within minutes. They also provide setup guides you can follow to make the installation as smooth as possible. But if your provider doesn’t offer such services, you can visit WordPress.org and download the software manually. Then follow these steps:
- After downloading the WordPress package, you need to upload it to your hosting account.
- Now proceed to create a MySQL database for your site. That is where all your website’s data will be stored.
- When you’re done creating your database, it’s time to run the WordPress installation script. You can do it by accessing the URL you’ve uploaded your files to. You’ll be able to set up the name for your database, the username, and the password.
- After installation is complete, you can log in to your new WordPress site’s admin area and start customizing it. You can add WordPress plugins to enhance your website’s SEO performance and security.
You can check the WordPress installation guide for more details. Then proceed to the next phase of Webflow to WordPress migration.
Export Your Content from Webflow Dashboard
If you’ve successfully completed the previous step, it’s time to perform a Webflow export. Luckily, it’s very easy to export your data from this website builder. But the only downside is that you won’t be able to export all of it. Webflow allows you to export:
- Blog posts
- Web pages
- Texts
- Embedded blocks
- Gallery pages
- Images
To export such files, access your Webflow Dashboard and navigate to the CMS Collections panel. From there, you’ll be able to see all the files on your Webflow site. Now let’s say you want to download blog posts – all you have to do is click on the Export button upon selecting the desired collection. Your blog post collection will automatically download to your computer as .csv file. Then continue your Webflow export process by repeating this action for other collections.
Use Migration Plugin to Import Files to WordPress
The next step is to import your Webflow content to the WordPress platform. Unfortunately, while this CMS comes with a tool for importing XML files, you’ll need to install the WordPress plugin in order to import CSV files.
To do so, navigate to Tools > Import section from your WordPress Admin dashboard. Then select WordPress from the list of options. The plugin for importing files from Webflow to WordPress will install automatically – you just need to activate it.
Now you’ll be able to import the desired files. If you don’t want these files to be associated with your Admin username, you can pick another one. Also, make sure to name your content in order to keep everything clean and organized. And that’s it; you’ve successfully migrated most of your content from Webflow to WordPress. But there’s a hook. You’ll need to do some of the work manually:
Import Images
You can’t automatically import images from Webflow to WordPress using the previously described strategy. However, there are still two possible solutions. You can either upload each image manually to your blog post pages(which can be a daunting task if your Webflow website is large) or use a WordPress plugin, such as the Auto Upload Images plugin. This plugin will scan for image URLs in your blog posts or Webflow files and then automatically import them to your new WordPress website.
Set up your Permalinks
One of the things that scare most website owners who want to export Webflow to WordPress is the sudden traffic drop. Luckily, you can prevent this by keeping your URLs the same as they were on your Webflow site, even after migration. WordPress makes it very easy for you to customize your permalink structure. You just need to navigate to Settings>Permalinks and start editing your URLs to match those from your Webflow site.
Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your website’s pages and posts. They help search engines understand your website’s structure. Preserving your permalinks after a Webflow to WordPress migration will help you prevent broken links and maintain your rankings in search engines. The key is to take the time to plan your permalink structure before migrating and then follow best practices for setting up redirects and custom permalinks in WordPress.
Check if all of your content is available
If some of your content is missing or some links are broken, it can confuse your visitors and negatively impact your SEO performance. And you certainly don’t want to overlook some of your fantastic blog posts your target audience found very helpful and engaging. For example, imagine you have a blog post on your Webflow website that’s been getting a lot of traffic and is ranking on the first page on Google. If you fail to migrate it properly to your new WordPress site, anyone who clicks on the link to that post will get a notorious “404 error”.
So after you export Webflow to WordPress, always make sure to double-check for your content availability. You should thoroughly test all the links to ensure they’re working correctly. And don’t forget to see if your pages or blog posts look how you want.
Choose and customize your WordPress Theme
Webflow and WordPress are two different tools, and they work in different ways. So, even though you may have put a lot of time and effort into designing your website in Webflow, you won’t be able to copy and paste that Webflow design into your new WordPress site.
Choosing the right WordPress theme is crucial because it will be the cornerstone of your website’s design. Luckily, this open-source platform provides endless opportunities for customization, so you’ll be able to meet any brand guideline or specific style. However, you need to choose carefully, as some WordPress templates are better than others. We recommend using the Sage framework to build WordPress themes. It provides high code quality, which is essential for achieving excellent website performance.
Before you activate the WordPress theme, tweak colors, fonts, layout, and other design elements until you meet your web design objectives. With enough effort, you can make your new website look exactly like your old Webflow site and even better.
Point your Domain from Webflow to WordPress
Your domain is what connects your website to the internet. If you don’t point your domain from Webflow to WordPress, your visitors will still be directed to your old Webflow site. Changes that you introduced with your new WordPress site won’t be visible to anyone.
If you want to keep the same domain (which we highly recommend), you’ll need to update your domain’s name servers. Change the name servers in your domain registrar account to the ones provided by your new hosting provider. It will look similar to this:
ns1.yourhost.com
ns2.yourhost.com
Please note that the process of pointing your domain from Webflow to WordPress may vary depending on the domain registrar you used. Make sure to check if your hosting provider has any specific instructions.
Now when people decide to visit your URL, they’ll be able to enjoy your new WordPress site. Website traffic redirection is a crucial step in Webflow to WordPress migration, and you should perform it once your new site is ready to launch.
Launch your WordPress Website
Congratulations, you’ve managed to convert Webflow to WordPress successfully. Now it’s time to launch your new website and start enjoying the benefits described at the beginning of this article. After you make sure that all your content pieces are there and that your new website is mobile-friendly and optimized for search engines, it’s time to launch it.
Again, make sure to take your time with this whole process. It’s better to be safe than sorry. And even after launch-date, you need to invest efforts into maintaining your new WordPress site. This way, you can keep your e-Commerce website high performing and create a safe environment for your business and its customers.
Do You Need Help with Webflow to WordPress Conversion?
When you export Webflow to WordPress, you can take your website to the next level and give it more flexibility and functionality. With a little bit of work, you’ll have a beautiful and functional website up and running in no time. However, if you don’t want to leave anything to chance, so you’re looking for professional help, Alpha Efficiency might be the right solution.
With years of experience performing a Webflow to WordPress migration, our web design agency Chicago can help you go through this process as smoothly as possible. We’ll ensure that each file is successfully transferred to this powerful content management system. And you’ll get the desired look for your new website too.
With the right partners by your side, Word Press conversions are easy. Get in touch today, introduce us to your business, and we’ll show you a detailed action plan.
