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How to move your website to Wix without losing Google rankings

Mosaddik Billah 4 min read

WixSEO

A woman lifting a cardboard box while moving into a new room
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
On this page
  1. 1. Keep the same domain
  2. 2. List every URL that matters
  3. 3. Map each old URL to a new one
  4. 4. Move the content, not only the design
  5. 5. Add the 301 redirects
  6. 6. Launch and check
  7. 7. Watch the next few weeks
  8. The short version

Moving a site to Wix from WordPress, Squarespace or a custom build is mostly about design and content. But one part decides whether your Google traffic survives: every old URL must lead somewhere sensible on the new site. Get that right and most sites keep their rankings. Skip it and Google sees hundreds of missing pages.

Here is the plan I follow for a move.

1. Keep the same domain#

If you can, keep your domain name and only change where it points. A new platform on the same domain is a much smaller change for Google than a new platform and a new domain. Connect the domain to Wix only when the new site is finished and checked.

If you must change domain as well, everything below still applies, plus Google Search Console’s Change of Address tool for the old domain.

2. List every URL that matters#

Before touching anything, make a list of the old site’s pages. Use all of these, because each one finds pages the others miss:

  • The old sitemap, usually at /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml.
  • Google Search Console, under Performance, Pages: every page that gets clicks or impressions. Export it.
  • Your analytics, for pages that get visits from other sources.
  • Backlinks: in Search Console, under Links, the pages other sites link to.

Put the list in a spreadsheet with one column for the old URL. Pages with traffic or links are the ones you can’t afford to lose.

3. Map each old URL to a new one#

Add a second column with the matching Wix URL. Where you can, keep the same path. On Wix you can set each page’s URL slug in its SEO settings, so /about-us can stay /about-us.

Some paths will change. Wix adds a prefix to blog posts (/post/...) and to dynamic pages, so /blog/how-to-choose-tiles might become /post/how-to-choose-tiles. That’s fine, as long as the old URL redirects to it.

For pages you’re not moving, redirect to the closest relevant page, such as the category or service the page was about. Redirecting everything to the home page is treated by Google much like a missing page.

4. Move the content, not only the design#

Rankings come from content. For pages that rank, keep:

  • the same main text, or improve it, but don’t cut it down to a few lines
  • the page title and meta description, set in each page’s SEO settings
  • the headings, images with alt text, and internal links between pages

A redesign is a good time to improve weak pages. Just don’t remove the content that was bringing visitors.

5. Add the 301 redirects#

In your Wix dashboard, open the URL Redirect Manager in the SEO settings. Add each old URL and its new destination as a 301 (permanent) redirect. For a long list, you can import the spreadsheet as a CSV file instead of adding them one by one.

A 301 redirect tells Google the page has moved for good, so it passes the old page’s ranking signals to the new one.

Add the redirects before you connect the domain, so they work from the first minute.

6. Launch and check#

On launch day:

  1. Connect the domain to the Wix site.
  2. Test the redirects. Open 10 to 20 old URLs from your spreadsheet, especially the ones with the most traffic, and check each lands on the right page.
  3. Check the site is indexable. In each page’s SEO settings, “Let search engines index this page” should be on for every page you want in Google.
  4. Connect Google Search Console through Wix’s SEO tools and submit the new sitemap, /sitemap.xml. Wix creates and updates it automatically.
  5. Request indexing for your most important pages with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.

7. Watch the next few weeks#

A small dip right after a move is common while Google recrawls the site. Each week for the first month, check in Search Console:

  • Pages, “Not found (404)”: old URLs you forgot to redirect. Add them to the Redirect Manager.
  • Performance: clicks and impressions compared with the weeks before the move, and which pages lost the most.
  • Your top pages: still in Google, and showing the new URLs.

Keep the redirects permanently. People and other sites will keep using the old links for years.

The short version#

Same domain if you can. A spreadsheet of every old URL, each mapped to a new one. 301 redirects in the Redirect Manager before launch. Content kept or improved. Then test, submit the sitemap, and watch Search Console for 404s. After the move, the Wix SEO checklist and why your Wix site is slow cover what to tune next.

If you’d like your site moved to Wix without losing what it has built up, I do Wix website design, including migrations.

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