Moving a website from one platform to another is always a challenge — we know, because it’s a big chunk of the work that we do at Edgar Allan for our clients. In fact, as a Webflow agency, if we’re working with a client who already has a website, it’s more than likely that they’re chosen us because they’d like to transition from WordPress to Webflow.

Planning and executing a migration from WordPress to Webflow is no small feat, especially when large content libraries come into play. Keep reading to learn about our process for making the transition, along with common mistakes to avoid.

1. Get a snapshot.

This step is arguably the most important in the entire process of migrating from WordPress to Webflow. Getting a thorough audit of the existing site will be your guiding light throughout the migration process. At Edgar Allan, we do this with an automated tool, like Screaming Frog. This will (almost, see our note) ensure that you’re capturing everything, including “hidden” pages that aren’t linked to from within the site.

Having a thorough audit is vital because unless you have a clear understanding of what you’re migrating, you’ll have no way of knowing that you succeeded at the end of the project.

‍What to watch out for:

-   Any missed pages in your audit. Tools like Screaming Frog and Google Analytics are great tools for auditing, but they don’t always catch everything. It’s important that you also verify that you aren’t missing anything with your own manual site crawl. Believe us; it’s worth the time.

-   301 redirects. You’ll need to make a note of these so that you can be sure to bring them over in the migration, too.

2. Migrate the site.

Now comes the migration itself. Once you have everything in place, it’s time to migrate your site from WordPress to Webflow. If you have access to the WordPress site, then you’re in luck — the WP CSV  plug-in helps with moving over the CMS.

If you don’t have access to the site (because either you or your client don’t want to notify the current owner of the site that it’s moving or because you don’t have access to the site at all; don’t laugh, it happens more than you’d think), then the process is more laborious. In these cases, you’ll have to move everything over manually. (For now, at least. Keep up with Edgar Allan on Twitter and through our blog to learn about any new tools we may or may not be launching in the near future to help with this scenario. 😉)

‍What to watch out for:

-   Your file type. You must export your WordPress site as a CSV for Webflow to be able to read it.

-   Data structure. Keeping your data clean and organized in the migration process is super important. Be warned: take meticulous notes of everything you’re doing or you will be doomed, especially when it comes to migrating the CMS.

-   Published dates. If you have published dates on blogs or news articles, they will automatically populate with the date of the migration, rather than the original publish date. You can fix this in Webflow by creating a custom field, but it must be accounted for when you export your CSV into Webflow.

3. Check your work.

Once your migration is complete, it’s vital that you go back and check against your work — this is why it’s so important that your original audit be thorough and complete. If you can’t match your migrated Webflow site up exactly with the original audit of the WordPress site, you’ll have no way of knowing if you successfully transferred everything over.

‍What to watch out for:

-   Missing pages. Ensure that everything that everything made it from WordPress to Webflow by either going through manually or running another site crawl.

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For more information about the two platforms, check out our article comparing  Webflow vs WordPress.

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Edgar Allan is a content- and brand-focused Webflow agency. Check out our blog for info about content design, project management, Webflow, and more.

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