Process
Moving Off Wix: What Happens to Your Content, Domain and Rankings
By the Coast Creative team4 min read
A lot of businesses start on Wix, and that's fine. It's quick to launch and easy to edit. But at some point many of them want more: better speed, more control over design, more room to grow, or a website that isn't tied to one company's platform. Then the question becomes how to leave without losing everything.
The good news is that leaving Wix is very doable. The part people don't expect is that your design doesn't come with you. Here's what to plan for.
Your design stays behind
Wix websites only run on Wix. There's no export button that turns your current website into files you can host somewhere else. The layout, the theme and the way pages are built all stay on their servers.
That's why most moves off Wix are really rebuilds. That sounds like a downside, but it's usually the point. Most people leaving Wix want a better website, not the same one somewhere new.
Your content comes with you, with some work
Your words, photos and documents are yours. They just take some effort to gather.
Page text usually gets copied over by hand, which is a good moment to rewrite the parts that have aged. Images can be downloaded from your media library, but grab the originals, not the compressed versions on the live pages. If you run a Wix store, products can be exported to a spreadsheet, which helps a lot. Blog posts take more effort, especially if you have dozens of them, so count them early and plan time for it.
Make a simple spreadsheet of every page on your current website before you start. It becomes your checklist for the move and the basis for redirects later.
Your domain can move too
If you bought your domain through Wix, you can transfer it to another registrar. Domains generally can't be transferred within 60 days of being registered or transferred, so check that first. You'll turn off the transfer lock in your Wix account, get a transfer code and start the transfer at the new registrar.
If your domain is already registered somewhere else and only pointed at Wix, it's even easier. You just update the DNS settings when the new website is ready to go live.
Don't forget email. If your business email runs through a service connected to your domain, make sure those settings move with it, or your inbox can go quiet on launch day.
Protect your rankings with redirects
This is the step that makes or breaks a move. Wix uses its own address patterns, like /post/ for blog posts and /product-page/ for store items. Your new website will almost certainly use different ones.
Every old address that gets traffic or has links pointing at it needs a 301 redirect to its new equivalent. That tells Google the page has moved permanently and passes along most of the trust the old page built. Skip this, and those pages turn into errors, and the rankings you earned over years can drop in a matter of weeks.
Your page spreadsheet makes this simple: old address in one column, new address in the next.
Plan the launch day
Keep your Wix plan active until the new website is live and checked. Launch on a weekday morning, not a Friday evening. After the switch, submit your new sitemap in Google Search Console, test your contact forms and click through your most important pages on a phone.
Expect search traffic to wobble for a few weeks while Google catches up. If redirects are in place, it usually settles and then improves, because the new website is faster and better built.
Know when Wix is still fine
Not everyone needs to leave. If your website is simple, you edit it yourself and it brings in the business you need, staying put is a reasonable choice. The case for moving is strongest when speed, design limits, SEO or growth are holding you back.
We've moved several clients off Wix, including businesses whose original Wix websites we built years earlier. If you're weighing a move, we can look at your current website and tell you honestly whether it's worth it. Every project gets a fixed quote before work begins.