How To Migrate Your Website From Weebly To WordPress

Moving to WordPress is a smart choice if you started your website on Weebly but now feel limited. Both platforms let you build websites, but they work very differently. Weebly is a beginner-friendly website builder with a simple drag-and-drop interface. On the other hand, WordPress is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that gives you more control, flexibility, and customization options. 

Many people switch from Weebly to WordPress because they want more freedom. With WordPress, you can use thousands of plugins to add features, improve your site’s SEO, and customize your design exactly how you want. Unlike Weebly, where you’re tied to their system, WordPress lets you fully own your website and move it wherever you like. This means you can scale your site without restrictions. 

If you’re considering moving your website from Weebly to WordPress, you may feel overwhelmed by the migration process. But don’t worry – we’re here to make it easy for you. This tutorial explains how to move your content, set up WordPress, and ensure everything works smoothly.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Moving from Weebly to WordPress gives you more control, better customization, and improved SEO options.
• Before starting, choose the right hosting plan and register a domain if you don’t have one.
• If using WordPress.com, you don’t need extra hosting, but for WordPress.org, a hosting provider is required.
• Manual migration involves copying and pasting content, uploading images separately, and fixing links.
• Automated migration tools like Feedzy RSS Aggregator can help import blog posts but may require manual cleanup. However, third-party tools export all content. Again, you still need to check manually.
• After migration, choose a WordPress theme and customize it to match your previous design.
• Install essential plugins for SEO, security, and speed optimization to improve your site’s performance.
• Update permalinks to create SEO-friendly URLs and ensure proper site navigation.
• If you transferred a custom domain, update your DNS settings to connect it to your new WordPress site.
• It may take up to 48 hours for domain changes to be fully effective after updating DNS records.
• After migration, check for broken links, missing images, and formatting issues before launching.
• Once everything is set up, explore WordPress’s features to make the most of your new website.

Prerequisites for Migration From Weebly to WordPress

Before you convert Weebly to WordPress, you need a few things in place such as a domain name, web hosting, and WordPress installation. Setting these up correctly will make your migration process smooth and hassle-free. Let’s go through each step. 

Purchase Web Hosting 

Unlike Weebly, WordPress is self-hosted, which means you need a hosting provider to store your WordPress site’s files and data. So, choose the right web hosting that ensures it runs smoothly and loads fast. If you’re wondering how to find the best hosting at an affordable cost, refer to the following guide:

– Finding The Best Affordable WordPress Hosting

There are different types of hosting available for WordPress. The best option depends on your WordPress website’s needs and budget. 

• Shared Hosting: Best for small websites and beginners. Affordable but slower if traffic increases. 
• VPS Hosting: Offers better speed and performance by providing a dedicated portion of a server. 
• Managed WordPress Hosting: The best option for beginners. It includes automatic updates, security, and expert support. 
• Dedicated Hosting: Expensive but provides complete server control for high-traffic WordPress websites. 
• Cloud Hosting: This hosting uses multiple interconnected servers to ensure high performance, scalability, and reliability for websites and applications.

If you’re new to WordPress, WordPress Hosting is the easiest and safest option.

Register a Domain Name 

Your domain name is your website’s unique address on the internet, like yourwebsite.com. It’s what visitors type in their browsers to find your site. If you already have a custom domain name registered with Weebly, you can transfer your domain to your new hosting provider. If not, now is a great time to get one.

You may register a domain name through a domain Registrar or purchase one while signing up for web hosting. Many hosting providers, like Hosted.com, offer a free domain for the first year when you buy a qualifying hosting plan. 

To register a domain, find available domain names using a search tool or a domain name generator on a hosting provider’s website. This will help you check if your desired domain is still available. Next, choose the right domain extension that suits your brand.

The most common choice is .com, but you can also consider .net, .org, or country-specific extensions like .co.uk if they align with your business or audience. Once you’ve found the perfect domain, add it to your cart, enter your details, and complete the purchase to secure your WordPress website’s online identity.

Once you have a domain, you must point it to your new WordPress site. This means updating your Domain Name System (DNS) settings to match your hosting provider. 

• If you transfer your domain, the hosting provider will handle this automatically. 
• If you registered a new domain with your hosting provider, it will already be linked to your site. 
• If your domain is still registered with Weebly, update your nameservers to your new hosting provider. You can find these nameservers in your hosting dashboard. 

After updating DNS settings, it may take a few hours to 48 hours for the changes to take effect (this process is called DNS propagation). 

By setting up your domain correctly, visitors can access your new WordPress site without issues. Now that your domain and hosting are ready, install WordPress.

Install & Set Up WordPress

Once your domain and hosting are set up, install WordPress. Most hosting providers, including Hosted.com, offer one-click WordPress installation, making the process quick and effortless.

Once WordPress is installed, you can sign in to your WordPress dashboard and start building your site. From here, you can configure a few WordPress settings that must be updated after installation.

With your domain, hosting, and WordPress ready, you can start migrating your content from Weebly to WordPress. The following steps cover how to transfer Weebly to WordPress.

Weebly to WordPress Migration Methods

Now that you have set up WordPress, it’s time to move your website from Weebly. There are a few different ways to do this:

1. Manual Migration
2. Automatic Migration Using WordPress Plugin
3. Automatic Migration Using Third-Party Export Tool.

Let’s start with manual migration below and then discuss the other methods:

Manual Migration

Manual migration involves recreating your website on WordPress. This means setting up your pages and posts, moving content from Weebly, uploading images, and fixing internal links.

This method is best for small to medium-sized websites. If your site has hundreds of pages, the process can take longer, but you’ll have complete control over how everything is structured. Manual migration is also great for cleaning up old content and improving your site’s layout. 

Let’s go through each step of the manual migration process. 

• STEP 1: CREATE PAGES/POSTS IN WORDPRESS 

Before copying your content from Weebly, set up pages and blog posts in WordPress. You can do this manually or use bulk creation plugins. 

Manual Creation (One by One)

Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. Go to Pages → Add New Page.

Enter the title of your page (e.g., About Us or Contact). Then, click Publish to save it. 

Repeat these steps for all the pages from your Weebly site. 

For blog posts, follow the same steps under Posts → Add New Post. 

Use Bulk Page Creation Plugins

If you have many pages, creating them one by one can be slow. In this case, try plugins to generate multiple pages simultaneously. There are various plugins to choose from; this tutorial example uses the Bulk Page Creator plugin. Here’s how to install and use it:

First, go to the Bulk Page Creator plugin’s official page and click Download. It will download a ZIP file to your computer.

Next, go to WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New Plugin and click Upload Plugin.

Click Choose File. Select the plugin .zip file from your computer and click Install Now to begin installation.

Once WordPress installs the plugin, you will see a success message. Click Activate Plugin to enable it on your site.

After activation, go to Settings → Bulk Page Creator. Select Multiple Pages mode. Then, enter the names of all the pages you want to create, separating each with a comma.

If necessary, select a Parent page – this will act as the main page under which all new pages will be grouped. Once done, click Add Page to generate the pages.

Next, choose whether to create empty pages or add content immediately. You can also set Page Status to either draft or published depending on whether you wish to make them live. Finally, click Update Site to complete the process.

Remember, Bulk Page Creator will create your posts as pages. So, to convert them back to post, install and activate the Post Type Switcher plugin. Then, open your page (that should be a post) in WordPress editor. On the right side, look for Post Type and click the link next to it. Change the type from Page to Post and click Save in the upper-right corner to apply the changes.

Once your pages and posts are ready, you can start adding content. 

• STEP 2: COPY & PASTE CONTENT FROM WEEBLY TO WORDPRESS

Since Weebly does not offer an easy export option, you must copy and paste content manually. Here’s how you can do it:

Transfer Content from Weebly to WordPress Website

Open your Weebly site and go to a page or post. Highlight the text, right-click Copy.

Then, go to WordPress and open the matching page or post. Right-click the content area and select Paste.

Lastly, click Save (or Publish, if you’re pasting content into a new post or page). 

Repeat this for every page and blog post. This process may take time, but it ensures all your content is correctly formatted. 

However, images do not copy automatically, so save and upload these manually. Here’s how:

Open a Weebly page or post and right-click on an image. Select Save image as and download it to your computer. Ensure you give each image a proper and meaningful name.

Then, navigate to the correct post or page and insert an Image block. To do that, type /image and choose Image.

Then, click Upload to choose the image from your local machine.

Now, you can use the image toolbar to add a caption or link or to adjust alignment.

You can also update the image’s aspect ratio, width, height, and resolution under Block.

If you have many images, this will take some time, but it will organize your site. 

TIP: For larger websites with many images, use FTP or SFTP to upload images together. To do this, connect to your web hosting account using FileZilla or another FTP client. Navigate to your WordPress uploads folder (wp-content/uploads). Drag and drop all Weebly images (that you downloaded on your computer) into this folder. Additionally, you can use a plugin like Media Sync to register images in WordPress.

Fix Internal Links

After copying your text content and images from Weebly to WordPress, update internal links. Internal links are links that connect one page to another on your website. Since Weebly and WordPress have different URL structures, the links may be broken after migration. 

You can fix this in 2 ways: Manually or Using a Plugin. If you have a small website or blog, fix it manually by going through the following steps:

1. Open each page or post in WordPress.
2. Click on any internal links and check if they work.
3. If a link is broken, update it with the correct WordPress URL.
4. Lastly, click Save to save changes. 

However, if you have a large website with many internal links, you can use a search and replace plugin like WP Migrate DB. Here’s how:

First, install and activate the plugin. Next, go to Tools → WP Migrate. Switch to MIGRATE. Then, click Find & Replace.

Expand Custom Find & Replace. Fill in the FIND and REPLACE fields with Weebly links and corresponding WordPress links, respectively. You can also click the Aa button to run a case-sensitive find and replace. Then, click PREVIEW CHANGES.

Now, the plugin will start searching the tables of the WordPress database.

Once you are done searching, it will show the number of replacements without applying them. If you’re using the paid version of the WP Migrate DB plugin, you can view the exact details of all the changes that will be made when you transfer Weebly to WordPress.

If everything looks good, scroll down and click APPLY CHANGES to update links in bulk. This method saves time if you have many pages. 

Once all your content, images, and links are in place, go through your site and double-check everything. Ensure each page looks good, functions correctly, and has no broken links. 

By completing this manual migration from Weebly to WordPress, you now have a fully working WordPress website with all your content from Weebly.

Automated Migration Using WordPress Plugin

If you want to migrate Weebly to WordPress without copying everything manually, use the automated migration option. Instead of transferring pages and posts one at a time, you can use a plugin to do most of the work.

This approach saves time and effort, making it ideal for websites with plenty of content. However, automated migration is not perfect. Some content may not transfer correctly, and you may need to do a final cleanup after migration to fix broken links, missing images, or formatting issues. 

However, there are some downsides. Since plugins mainly work with Weebly’s RSS feed, they often only import blog posts and not pages or images. Also, not all migration plugins are reliable. Many are outdated or lack crucial features. Therefore, choose an actively maintained, free plugin to ensure a smooth migration process. 

For this tutorial example, we use Feedzy RSS Aggregator. This plugin helps fetch blog posts from Weebly’s RSS feed and imports them into WordPress as posts. If you need more advanced features, such as controlling post formatting and images, there is a premium version you can use.

It’s correct that Feedzy automates post-migration, which makes the process much faster than migrating manually. But since it only transfers blog posts, you’ll still need to move pages and images separately, which we cover later in this tutorial. 

• STEP 1: INSTALL FEEDZY RSS AGGREGATOR PLUGIN

Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.  In the search bar, type RSS Aggregator by Feedzy and click Install Now once you find it. After installation, click Activate to enable the plugin’s features. 

• STEP 2: IMPORT BLOG POSTS FROM WEEBLY TO WORDPRESS

After activation, a new Feedzy option will appear in your WordPress dashboard. Click on this and go to Import Posts. Here, you’ll see an option to create a new import task. Click New Import to begin setting up the migration process. 

On the New Import page, specify your import name. You can name it with anything relating to the feed or any title that suits your preference.

Next, enter your Weebly RSS feed URL into the Source field so Feedzy can fetch your blog posts. The feed URL usually follows one of these formats: 

1. https://yourwebsite.com/1/feed  (in our case, this format worked)
2. https://yourwebsite.com/feed
3. https://yourwebsite.com/rss

Remember, you can add multiple feed URLs by separating using commas.

Once you enter the correct feed URL, you’ll see options to configure your import. You can: 

• Assign blog posts to a specific category in WordPress. 
• Choose to import full content or summaries. 
• Adjust other settings based on your requirements. 

After reviewing the settings, click Save & Activate Importing at the bottom to begin the import process.

Once the import is complete, you’ll see the number of posts that were imported.

Now, go to your Posts section in WordPress to check your newly imported blog posts.

Note: This method efficiently transfers blog content but does not import pages or images. You need to handle those manually. We’ve already discussed how to move images and pages from Weebly to WordPress while learning the manual migration process.

Automated Weebly to WordPress Migration Using a Third-Party Export Tool

This method is best for exporting pages, posts, and images from Weebly to WordPress within the posts/pages. However, before exporting your Weebly content, you must make a small change to your Weebly settings. Disable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) before export. This is necessary because SSL can interfere with the content extraction process. Don’t worry – after the migration, you can enable SSL again on the WordPress site for security. 

Remember, if you’re using a free subdomain on Weebly (e.g. https://www.yourwebsite.weebly.com), you cannot use this method, as Weebly doesn’t allow you to disable SSL on free subdomains. To disable SSL you need a custom domain linked to your Weebly website.

Once you’ve disabled SSL, follow the given steps to transfer Weebly to WordPress:

• STEP 1: EXPORT WEEBLY CONTENT

Log in to your Weebly account. Navigate to Settings → General in the Weebly editor. 

Locate the SSL option and click Disable to turn it off. Ensure SSL is fully disabled before proceeding.

Next, navigate to Weebly to WP Converter. This tool converts your Weebly content into a format that WordPress can understand. Enter the following details: 

Lastly, click Export my Weebly Website to generate the file.

Your Weebly site URL. Ensure you use http:// for this tool to operate (e.g., http://yourweeblysite.com).

Your name and email address.

Choose export format. If you have no comments and no categories, choose RSS. Otherwise, select WXR.

Choose Yes to include pages in the export if you want to move both blog posts and pages from Weebly to WordPress.

Once complete, click Download Your Weebly Export File to save the .xml file to your computer. This .xml file contains all your Weebly content, including posts, pages, and metadata. Now, it’s time to import this file into WordPress. 

• STEP 2: IMPORT CONTENT FROM WEEBLY TO WORDPRESS

Now that you have the Weebly export file, you can transfer it to WordPress. Here are the steps:

Go to WordPress Dashboard → Tools → Import. Scroll down to WordPress and click Install Now (Weebly is not listed, but the WordPress importer works for Weebly content).

Then, click Run Importer.

Click Choose File to upload the file you exported earlier. Then, click Upload file and import.

Once the file is uploaded, you’re ready to complete the migration. 

• STEP 3: COMPLETE THE WEEBLY TO WORDPRESS IMPORT PROCESS 

After uploading the XML file, WordPress will process your Weebly content and transfer it into the correct format. This process includes importing your blog posts, pages, and categories. Here’s what you can do next:

1. If you have multiple authors on Weebly, WordPress will ask you to assign them to existing WordPress users or create new ones. Choose the correct option and proceed. 
2. If you have images on your pages or posts, check Download and import file attachments.
3. Lastly, click Submit to begin the process. 

The time required depends on the size of your website. Smaller sites take just a few minutes, while larger ones may take longer. 

Once the import is finished, you’ll see a success message confirming that your Weebly content has been transferred to the WordPress site.

Your blog posts and pages should now appear in your WordPress dashboard. 

After completing the import, review your content and ensure everything looks good. Go to Posts → All Posts and Pages → All Pages to ensure everything is properly transferred. Some images may not have been imported correctly. If images are missing, upload them manually through the Media Library.

Additionally, click links inside your content to check if they work. If some links still point to your old Weebly site – update them to match your new WordPress URLs. Finally, you can enable SSL for WordPress security (if you want to keep Weebly website live, you can also activate SSL there).

Once these steps are complete, your website will be fully migrated from Weebly to WordPress. You can now customize your design, install plugins, and start managing your site on the WordPress platform. In the following steps, we’ll discuss customizing your design, installing plugins, and optimizing your site for better performance after moving from Weebly to WordPress.

Post-Migration Steps

Once you successfully migrate your website from Weebly to WordPress, use these few final steps to complete the process. These steps will help you set up your website correctly, improve its performance, and ensure everything runs smoothly.

Choose & Install a WordPress Theme

A theme controls the design of your WordPress website. Since Weebly and WordPress use different design systems, your site may not look the same after migration. You need to choose a theme that matches your brand and customize it to match your previous design.

To simplify this for you, we’ve already written about installing and customizing a theme, which you can find at the following link:

– How to Install WordPress Themes: A Beginner’s Guide

For more advanced design options, premium themes from platforms like ThemeForest offer extra features and support.

Install Essential Plugins

WordPress plugins add extra features to your website. Unlike Weebly, where features are built-in, WordPress allows you to install only your required features. Below are some of the essential plugins, but ensure you choose the right one:

– SEO Plugins (Improve Search Rankings)

– Security Plugins (Protect Your Site)

– Performance Optimization Plugins (Speed up Your Website)

Once you choose your plugins, install and activate these by navigating to Plugins → Add New Plugin in the WordPress dashboard.

Configure Permalinks

Permalinks are the URLs for your pages and blog posts. WordPress lets you change how URLs are structured to make them SEO-friendly and easy to read. Here’s how to set up SEO-friendly URLs:

Go to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard. Choose Post name and click Save Changes. This structure makes it easier for search engines and users to understand your URLs when you migrate Weebly to WordPress.

TIP: If you face any trouble or permalinks don’t work, refer to the tutorial, WordPress Permalinks Not Working: 3 Easy Ways to Fix Them.

Once these tasks are complete, your website will be fully ready to use on WordPress. You can now focus on creating content, engaging with visitors, and growing your online presence.

FAQS

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