How to Properly Move from Weebly to WordPress and Save all the Functionality

If you currently experience limitations with your Weebly website, rest assured many other businesses encounter similar issues, and it’s OK. Otherwise, there would not be so many requests to migrate Weebly to WordPress.

As your platform grows, the capabilities of your website should accommodate the changes. However, transitioning may seem a difficult and messy process. ProCoders is here to break stereotypes because, with some planning and the right tools, moving to WP doesn’t have to be a horror show. 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the entire migration process step-by-step.

Why Migrate from Weebly to WordPress?

Before we dig into the details of how to switch from Weebly to WordPress, let’s look at some of the key reasons you may want to make the change:

More design flexibility and control:	More powerful functionality:	You own your content:
Weebly offers themes and a drag and drop website builder, but you’re limited in how much you can customize the design. WP offers thousands of themes and nearly endless customization capabilities.	The Word Press plugin ecosystem provides access to all kinds of advanced features and functionality that simply aren’t available with other platform.	One difference between the platforms is that you don’t get to actually own your content with a Weebly account. With WordPress, though, you own the website and can take the content wherever you want.

Better SEO options:	Lower long-term costs:	Easier site management:
WP has more built-in SEO functionality and SEO-related plugins available. This makes it easier to optimize your website content for search engines. ProCoders WordPress SEO services will help you with that.	WP is open-source software, so you don’t have to pay licensing fees. Web hosting and other expenses can also be lower, which makes the WordPress site cost more budget-friendly.	WordPress dashboard allows for easier site management versus Weebly’s mix of backend admin and front-end editing.

For many site owners, the expanded capabilities and design flexibility of WP outweigh the simplicity and beginner-friendliness of Weebly’s drag-and-drop website builder. If you feel like you’ve outgrown your initial platform, migrating to WP is worth considering.

Things to Consider Before Weebly Export to WordPress

We’ve asked our Head of WordPress Development to share a few things to think about as you prepare to transfer Weebly to WordPress:

Your current features	Your Weebly subscription	New domain registration
Review what features you’re currently using with your site, as you’ll need to find alternatives if migrating to WordPress.	You’ll need to cancel your subscription once you transfer website from Weebly to WordPress. Don’t forget this step!	With Weebly, your domain is registered through them. You’ll need to change the registrar to your new host.

Site backup	Content migration	Site redirects
Fully back up your current Weebly site before beginning the migration process. This gives you a restore point just in case.	You’ll need to move all your site blogs, blog posts and pages, images, and other content to WordPress. This can take some time.	To avoid broken links, set up 301 redirects from your old URLs to your new WordPress ones.

Learning WordPress	Recreating site features	Testing
While WordPress is very user-friendly, expect a bit of a learning curve as you get used to it versus Weebly. You can make this step easier by checking out the WordPress developer salary cost and hiring an expert to move Weebly site to WordPress for you.	Any special site features, customizations, forms, etc., will need to be recreated in WordPress, either using plugins or custom code.	Be sure to thoroughly test your new WP site before launching to identify any issues.

With some prep work and planning, you can make the Weebly to WordPress migration go much more smoothly.

10 Steps to Take When Switching from Weebly to WordPress

So, how to change Weebly to WordPress? We’ve prepared an overview of the key tasks in the process. Keep in mind, though, that these are general steps. Our clients get an individual approach to their websites because every project is one of a kind and may require changes in the roadmap.

1. Choose your new WordPress hosting provider

Select quality WP hosting with onboarding assistance.

2. Install WordPress and plugins

Get WP installed on your new host along with any must-have plugins.

3. Back up your Weebly site

Fully back up your Weebly site via their backup tool. Save changes and download a copy for safety.

4. Migrate your domain

Point your custom domain name to your new hosting account via changing domain registrar DNS settings.

5. Import your content

Manually move over your pages, posts, and other content to WordPress.

6. Install a WordPress theme

Find a suitable theme that matches your original site’s design and install it.

7. Customize the theme

Tweak the theme with the WordPress customizer to match your old site’s look and feel.

8. Add redirects

Create 301 redirects from your old Weebly URLs to your new WordPress URLs.

9. Configure settings

Adjust all the settings, like permalinks, to match your existing setup.

10. Test and launch

Thoroughly test that everything looks and works correctly before launching.

Following this step-by-step plan will help streamline your Weebly to WordPress migration and make the process more manageable. Let’s look at each section in more detail.

Step 1: Choose Your New WordPress Hosting Provider

The first step is choosing where you’ll host your new WordPress site. Here are some tips for picking the right hosting provider:

• Choose specialized WP hosting over basic shared hosting for better performance.
• Look for hosts with a 1-click install to make setup easy.
• Pick a host with free site migration assistance to help transfer your Weebly site.
• Ensure your host has top-notch security protections like firewalls and backups.
• Check that they offer 24/7 live support in case you need help during or after you convert Weebly to WordPress.
• Compare price and plan features – more resources may carry bigger price tags.

Take your time evaluating hosts to choose one that’s affordable, reliable, and provides the features your WordPress site needs.

Step 2: Install WordPress and Must-Have Plugins

Once you’ve chosen the host, you can work with your provider to get WP installed. Most will migrate your domain nameservers and help with the initial installation.

During the setup process, activate essential plugins like:

• Yoast SEO – For search engine optimization of your content.
• Smush – To compress images for faster load times.
• W3 Total Cache – To add site caching for improved performance.
• Sucuri Security – For hardcore site security protections.

Step 3: Back Up Your Existing Weebly Site

Before touching your site, it’s crucial that you fully back it up first. This provides a restore point if anything goes wrong.

Log into your admin dashboard and use their built-in site backup tool. Test restoring the backup to a staging environment if possible. This verifies you have a working snapshot of your live site.

Step 4: Migrate Your Domain Registration

Currently, your domain name is registered and managed through Weebly. To use it with your new WP site, you’ll need to change domain registrars.

Some hosts offer free transfers for new customers. If so, you can migrate your domain registration directly to your new host. If your new host doesn’t manage domains, you’ll need to transfer out to a dedicated registrar like Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.

The process involves updating nameserver records to point to your new host. ProCoders experts ask you to keep in mind that this may result in a brief period of downtime for your site.

Step 5: Import Your Weebly Site Content

Now comes the hard part – getting your actual site content. Unfortunately, there’s no official automated Weebly to WordPress import plugin. You’ll have to manually copy and paste most of the content from the Weebly blog into the new WordPress pages you create. It’s tedious but unavoidable.

The same process applies to images, custom content types, menus, widgets, and most other types of content. Recreate everything in WP.

Some specific tips that can help:

• Use a plugin like Velvet Blues to import posts and comments.
• Install an SEO plugin to help match old URLs/metadata to new imported content.
• Keep Weebly open in another window to reference as you rebuild in WordPress.
• Create a spreadsheet mapping old pages/posts to new WordPress equivalents.
• Expect the content migration process of the media library to be time-consuming. But taking it slow and steady will get the job done.

Step 6: Install a WordPress Theme

At this point, the content from your site should be migrated over successfully to WP. Now you need to work on matching the look and feel with themes and plugins.

Get started by finding a suitable WP theme. You have two options here:

1. Locate a comparable free template similar to your design.
2. Hire WordPress developers to convert your Weebly theme files into a custom WordPress theme.

Option #1 is quicker and cheaper. Just search the WP theme directory to find a flexible theme with similar styling and features. With option #2, you’ll get an exact site design match. However, it requires developer resources to customize the theme.

Evaluate both routes and choose the one that fits your timeline, budget, and needs. ProCoders is always here to help you. 

Step 7: Customize the Theme

Once you’ve installed a theme in WP, the next step is customizing it to match the look of your old site.

Use the WP customizer tool to tweak settings like:

• Colors
• Typography
• Layout/spacing
• Images
• Buttons
• Menus
• Widget areas, etc.

The customizer gives you a live preview as you adjust the theme’s settings and style. Keep tweaking until you’ve replicated your old design as closely as possible.

You can also modify the theme code directly or if you need deeper customization. Just take care not to break the template in the process!

Step 8: Set Up Redirects to WP

With your Weebly content now migrated over to WP, there’s one very important task left. You need to set up redirects from your old URLs to your new ones.

This is crucial to avoid broken links, preserve SEO equity, and send visitors to the right new locations as you convert Weebly to WordPress.

There are a few ways to add these redirects:

• Use the Redirection plugin if you only need a handful of redirects.
• For more redirects, try the Simple 301 Redirects plugin.
• For the most flexibility, add redirect rules to your .htaccess file manually or via a plugin like Safe Redirect Manager.

Take the time to carefully redirect every old URL that gained any significant traffic. This protects your migration work and avoids website issues post-launch.

Step 9: Configure WP Settings

At this point, your new WordPress website should be complete with all your transferred content and theme customization in place. Now you just need to configure your WP settings page.

Double-check that key settings like:

• Permalinks
• Date and time formats
• Image sizes
• New user defaults, etc.

…are configured as you need. Use your old website as a reference and match the same settings where applicable.

Also, create any custom menus, widgets, theme options, and other configurations that were on your original website.

Step 10: Thoroughly Test the New Site

You’re nearing the finish line! But before the launch of your new WP website, it’s extremely important to thoroughly test it first.

Here are some key things to validate before going live:

• Content: Make sure all Weebly content is migrated properly and nothing is missing.
• Site functionality: Test forms, galleries, eCommerce, etc. to confirm all features work.
• Site design: Check that the theme customization matches your old website’s look.
• Links/redirects: Validate that navigation and redirects go to the correct URLs.
• Speed: Use PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to check website performance.
• Mobile responsiveness: Confirm site looks and functions properly on mobile devices.
• Browser testing: Check the site on different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.

Take your time testing every aspect of the WP website. It’s much easier to catch any issues now versus after the launch! Of course, ProCoders’ QA specialists are ready to do it as a part of your tech team!

Now you can finally launch your new WP resource!

What to Do After Your Weebly to WordPress Migration

A lot of hard work has already been put into migrating your site over to WP. But the work isn’t done quite yet – here are some next steps to take after the transition is complete:

Optimize for search engines	Master WP	Install additional plugins	Enhance design
Update meta tags, use SEO plugins, create XML sitemaps, and drive search traffic to your new WP site.	Dig into WP tutorials and documentation to master how to use your new content management system effectively.	Check out the WordPress plugin directory to find plugins that add the functionality you need.	Make theme tweaks and improvements over time to polish and perfect the look of your website.

Analyze traffic	Fix any issues	Create fresh content	Migrate email lists
Use Google Analytics to monitor how visitors find and interact with your new WP site.	Address any bugs or problems that pop up following your launch and initial testing.	With the move finished, get back to focusing on creating engaging new content and posts for your audience.	Use a tool to transfer any email subscriber lists over to WP options like MailChimp.

Moving to WP is an investment that will continue paying dividends for your website. Keep improving and enhancing it over time as you settle into your new CMS. And remember that you can always hire CMS developers to do all of this for you.

How ProCoders Can Help If You Convert Your Weebly Website to WP

If the decision to export Weebly site to WordPress seems too labor-intensive for your tech team or you don’t have one at all, connecting with professional WP developers is a smart option.

The ProCoders team offers full-service migration packages that handle the entire process for you. Here are some of the key ways we can assist with your website’s transition:

Free migration workshop	Content migration
A 1.5-hour call where we’ll talk about the best migration tactics for your specific site.	Our team can efficiently transfer your pages, posts, products, etc., into WP.

Theme design conversion	Plugin integration
We’ll either have your design converted to WP or build you an all-new custom theme.	We’ll install and configure the perfect plugins to recreate your site’s functionality.

Advanced customization	Pre and post-launch support
For complex sites, our developers can build site features with custom code.	We’ll test everything thoroughly pre-launch and fix any post-launch issues.

In just a few weeks, our WP developers can handle your entire migration with no hassle or headaches for you. Contact us for a free quote!

Conclusion

Transitioning from Weebly to WP takes effort but pays dividends by moving your site to a more powerful platform. With proper planning and a roadmap, you can make the transfer smoothly and avoid major headaches. Take advantage of the flexibility and capabilities WP offers to take your site to the next level.

And don’t forget that ProCoders has all the resources necessary to successfully import Weebly to WordPress for you!