Weebly is a fantastic platform for website owners that want to be able to edit their content theimselves without hiring an outside source. Weebly enables anyone, with zero technical knowledge, manage and maintain their own website. For site owners that understand the importance of having a more advanced website foundation, Wordpress is the gold standard.
Because Weebly is such a great beginner's tools, many businesses start off with Weebly websites as they grow and build their business; once they are stable enough to sustain/maintain their own site, whether by in-house team or by hiring a Webmaster like MagnifyAds, successful business owners migrate to a larger platform like Wordpress.
Because Weebly is such a great beginner's tools, many businesses start off with Weebly websites as they grow and build their business; once they are stable enough to sustain/maintain their own site, whether by in-house team or by hiring a Webmaster like MagnifyAds, successful business owners migrate to a larger platform like Wordpress.
In this article, we will guide you step by step on how to move from Weebly to WordPress. You will be able to convert your Weebly site to WordPress and move your content properly. However, we must warn you that switching from Weebly to WordPress will require some sacrifices and technical knowledge. But we assure you that the reward is far greater. The amount of flexibility and power that you get with WordPress to grow your business is far superior.
Moving from Weebly to WordPress
Step 1. First thing you want to do is setup a WordPress site (this will use a different domain at start). We do this to keep your main website from going down while you are working on making the transfer from Weebly to WordPress. Besides, you can get the domain for free. Once you are done with the migration process, the last step would be pointing your main domain to the new site. Since you are hosted with Weebly, you would need to find new web hosting. We highly recommend Godaddy or Bluehost (and so does WordPress).
You would need to choose a theme for your WordPress site. You can use the default theme if you are just migrating the content and want to see if everything works properly. However, if you want to make your site look truly spectacular, then you need to read our article on how to select a perfect WordPress theme.
Step 2. Now that we have the WordPress properly setup, we need to migrate our Weebly content over to WordPress. Thankfully, WordPress has an option to import content from RSS. The hard part is getting the Weebly RSS feed to the right format.
Start with finding your Weebly RSS feed URL. It will be something like: www.yoursite.com/1/feed
If your feed URL is not working, then it means you DO NOT have a blog section in your Weebly site. Weebly clearly state that RSS feeds are only available for blogs. Feeds are not available for regular pages (sorry, there is nothing we can do for you about this). Hopefully, your feed URL is there and working fine. Now the problem is that your feed only shows 10 posts. Well, we can fix that using Google Reader. You must have a google account to use this service.
Since your feed URL was: www.yoursite.com/1/feed, you need to type it in Google reader like this: http://www.google.com/reader/atom/feed/http://www.yoursite.com/1/feed?n=500
As you notice, there is a ?n=500 at the end. This little bit tells Google to show 500 posts from the feed rather than the default 10. Now you might not have 500 posts, but that doesn’t matter. If you have more, then just increase that number. Typing this URL in your Google reader will bring up an XML file. Right click and select “Save Page As” and save it as a feed. Congratulations, you have downloaded your ATOM feed. But wait, this is not what we needed. We need a RSS feed file not an ATOM feed file. Let’s make the conversion.
Step 3. Converting an ATOM feed to RSS feed is a must because WordPress only imports from the RSS feed file. You will probably find tons of long complicated tutorials for this. Our advice would be to take the ATOM feed file that you saved. Upload it to your Bluehost account using their file manager or FTP. Then go to one of the conversion tools like Devtacular Atom to RSS.
Once you click the convert button on these tools, click File/Save As button, and save the file as yoursite.xml on your computer.
Step 4. Now that you have the RSS feed file, you are ready to import it to WordPress. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Tools » Import. Once there, you need to select the RSS import option.
Step 1. First thing you want to do is setup a WordPress site (this will use a different domain at start). We do this to keep your main website from going down while you are working on making the transfer from Weebly to WordPress. Besides, you can get the domain for free. Once you are done with the migration process, the last step would be pointing your main domain to the new site. Since you are hosted with Weebly, you would need to find new web hosting. We highly recommend Godaddy or Bluehost (and so does WordPress).
You would need to choose a theme for your WordPress site. You can use the default theme if you are just migrating the content and want to see if everything works properly. However, if you want to make your site look truly spectacular, then you need to read our article on how to select a perfect WordPress theme.
Step 2. Now that we have the WordPress properly setup, we need to migrate our Weebly content over to WordPress. Thankfully, WordPress has an option to import content from RSS. The hard part is getting the Weebly RSS feed to the right format.
Start with finding your Weebly RSS feed URL. It will be something like: www.yoursite.com/1/feed
If your feed URL is not working, then it means you DO NOT have a blog section in your Weebly site. Weebly clearly state that RSS feeds are only available for blogs. Feeds are not available for regular pages (sorry, there is nothing we can do for you about this). Hopefully, your feed URL is there and working fine. Now the problem is that your feed only shows 10 posts. Well, we can fix that using Google Reader. You must have a google account to use this service.
Since your feed URL was: www.yoursite.com/1/feed, you need to type it in Google reader like this: http://www.google.com/reader/atom/feed/http://www.yoursite.com/1/feed?n=500
As you notice, there is a ?n=500 at the end. This little bit tells Google to show 500 posts from the feed rather than the default 10. Now you might not have 500 posts, but that doesn’t matter. If you have more, then just increase that number. Typing this URL in your Google reader will bring up an XML file. Right click and select “Save Page As” and save it as a feed. Congratulations, you have downloaded your ATOM feed. But wait, this is not what we needed. We need a RSS feed file not an ATOM feed file. Let’s make the conversion.
Step 3. Converting an ATOM feed to RSS feed is a must because WordPress only imports from the RSS feed file. You will probably find tons of long complicated tutorials for this. Our advice would be to take the ATOM feed file that you saved. Upload it to your Bluehost account using their file manager or FTP. Then go to one of the conversion tools like Devtacular Atom to RSS.
Once you click the convert button on these tools, click File/Save As button, and save the file as yoursite.xml on your computer.
Step 4. Now that you have the RSS feed file, you are ready to import it to WordPress. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Tools » Import. Once there, you need to select the RSS import option.
Upload your RSS file that you downloaded in step 3, and click upload and import.
Once the import is complete, you should have all of your Weebly blog posts transferred over to WordPress.
Step 5. If you have pages that you want to move from Weebly, then it has to be done manually. If you have a lot of pages (i.e 25+, then it is probably worth using a plugin like HTML Import 2). For new users who don’t have a lot of pages, then it is probably worth you manually moving the pages over.
Fixing the PermalinksWeebly’s URL structure is different than what WordPress has to offer. If you have a lot of posts and a fairly popular site, then we highly recommend that you match your Weebly permalinks with WordPress. However, if your site is relatively small, then it is best to use the WordPress URL structure which is better in the long run.
In weebly, your URLs would look something like this:
http://www.yoursite.com/1/post/2013/01/simple-post-title.html
If you want to match the Weebly URL structure, then go to Settings » Permalinks page in your WordPress admin panel. Check the custom structure box, and paste the following code in there:
/1/post/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html
The above code will add .html at the end of all your post names, and it will also keep the URL structure just like Weebly. However, it does not add the .html for pages.
If you are migrating your pages, then you would need to add this plugin: Dot html,php,xml etc pages. Once activated, go to the settings page of this plugin. Click enable on both of the checkboxes.
Once the import is complete, you should have all of your Weebly blog posts transferred over to WordPress.
Step 5. If you have pages that you want to move from Weebly, then it has to be done manually. If you have a lot of pages (i.e 25+, then it is probably worth using a plugin like HTML Import 2). For new users who don’t have a lot of pages, then it is probably worth you manually moving the pages over.
Fixing the PermalinksWeebly’s URL structure is different than what WordPress has to offer. If you have a lot of posts and a fairly popular site, then we highly recommend that you match your Weebly permalinks with WordPress. However, if your site is relatively small, then it is best to use the WordPress URL structure which is better in the long run.
In weebly, your URLs would look something like this:
http://www.yoursite.com/1/post/2013/01/simple-post-title.html
If you want to match the Weebly URL structure, then go to Settings » Permalinks page in your WordPress admin panel. Check the custom structure box, and paste the following code in there:
/1/post/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html
The above code will add .html at the end of all your post names, and it will also keep the URL structure just like Weebly. However, it does not add the .html for pages.
If you are migrating your pages, then you would need to add this plugin: Dot html,php,xml etc pages. Once activated, go to the settings page of this plugin. Click enable on both of the checkboxes.
Lastly, if you have double dash in your URLs, then WordPress will probably render errors. So all you have to do is use the Redirection plugin to add those few redirects there.
Some of you are probably wondering what is the advantage of keeping the old URLs? Well, if you have a fairly established site with a lot of search engine traffic, then you can lose all the rankings when you make the switch without keeping the old URL structure. But if your site is fairly small, then it is worth cutting your losses and truly build a powerful presence for the future.
Updating Feeds URLIf you have a lot of subscribers, then they are going to your old feed URL which is yoursite.com/1/feed/
WordPress has a different feed URL which looks like yoursite.com/feed/
All you have to do to make this switch is use the redirection plugin to redirect any visitors to /1/feed/ to /feed/.
Importing All Images
When migrating your posts, all of your images will come through. However, they will all be hosted on your old Weebly site. Once that Weebly site is gone, all of your images will be too. This is why you need import all images to WordPress. Thankfully, there is a plugin for that.
Use this plugin: Import External Images to WordPress.
This plugin will basically examine all of your posts and make local copies of all linked images from the post. Simply install and activate the plugin. Once activated, go to Media » Import Images. Then click on the Import Images Now button.
Conclusion
While the process of migrating from Weebly to WordPress is not the most simple proceedure, this is the best way that we have found to move from Weebly to WordPress without paying to have your site migrated by a professional.
Have you recently switched from Weebly to WordPress? Did you find this tutorial helpful? Is there something that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
Some of you are probably wondering what is the advantage of keeping the old URLs? Well, if you have a fairly established site with a lot of search engine traffic, then you can lose all the rankings when you make the switch without keeping the old URL structure. But if your site is fairly small, then it is worth cutting your losses and truly build a powerful presence for the future.
Updating Feeds URLIf you have a lot of subscribers, then they are going to your old feed URL which is yoursite.com/1/feed/
WordPress has a different feed URL which looks like yoursite.com/feed/
All you have to do to make this switch is use the redirection plugin to redirect any visitors to /1/feed/ to /feed/.
Importing All Images
When migrating your posts, all of your images will come through. However, they will all be hosted on your old Weebly site. Once that Weebly site is gone, all of your images will be too. This is why you need import all images to WordPress. Thankfully, there is a plugin for that.
Use this plugin: Import External Images to WordPress.
This plugin will basically examine all of your posts and make local copies of all linked images from the post. Simply install and activate the plugin. Once activated, go to Media » Import Images. Then click on the Import Images Now button.
Conclusion
While the process of migrating from Weebly to WordPress is not the most simple proceedure, this is the best way that we have found to move from Weebly to WordPress without paying to have your site migrated by a professional.
Have you recently switched from Weebly to WordPress? Did you find this tutorial helpful? Is there something that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
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