Will Migrating My Website from Other Platforms to Wix Affect SEO Rankings? A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

When helping businesses upgrade and migrate their websites to Wix or Wix Studio, I often get this question:

“If I move my website to Wix and keep my original domain, will I lose my SEO rankings?”

This concern becomes even more common when the client’s site already ranks on Google and they plan to redesign the layout during the migration.

The good news is: as long as the migration is carefully planned and supported by essential SEO settings, rankings can transition smoothly—or even improve.

When This Applies: Keeping the Original Domain + Redesigning the Site

This is the most common real-world scenario:

• The business has an existing site that’s been live for years, but it’s outdated and hard to maintain

• They want to redesign the site using Wix for a better experience and easier updates

• They plan to keep using their original domain (e.g. www.yourbusiness.com)

While this setup may involve some SEO challenges, it’s also a valuable opportunity to optimize the structure and improve search performance.

Does a Website Redesign Affect SEO?

The answer: It can—but the impact is controllable, and the benefits are greater.

When redesigning a website, you’ll likely make changes such as:

• Adjusting the layout or block order, including heading levels (H1, H2, etc.)

• Rewriting or optimizing page content

• Updating images and their ALT tags

• Modifying internal link structure

• Renaming certain URLs (e.g. changing /about-us to /about)

These changes may lead to a short-term SEO fluctuation while search engines re-evaluate the updated pages. But at the same time, they introduce improvements that can drive long-term gains.

The True Goal of SEO: Conversion and Business Growth

Business owners care about SEO not just to appear higher in search results, but to:

• Attract more qualified traffic

• Build trust and credibility with visitors

• Ultimately generate more leads, bookings, or sales

  
  

If your old website has slow load times, outdated layout, or poor mobile experience, it may still rank but struggle to convert traffic into results.

Upgrading your site can directly improve that by offering:

• Faster loading speeds 

• Better mobile responsiveness, which supports higher mobile search rankings

• Clearer layout and CTAs, encouraging user engagement and conversions

• A more professional brand image, which increases trust and perceived value

  
  

That’s why, when I migrate and redesign websites, the goal is not just to “preserve rankings”—it’s to build a structure that converts traffic into real business.

In other words: short-term SEO shifts can bring long-term, sustainable growth.A well-executed redesign is always worth it—even if there’s some temporary fluctuation—because it sets your site up for long-term success.

The Right Migration Workflow Before Launching on Wix

Step 1: Gather Key SEO Data from Your Existing Site

Use the following tools to collect structural and performance insights from your current site:

• Screaming Frog: Export all page URLs, titles, meta tags, headers, ALT text, etc.

• Google Search Console: Review keyword rankings and crawl data

• Google Analytics: Identify which pages generate the most traffic and conversions

Documenting this data helps you retain keyword structure and prioritize key pages when rebuilding your site.

Step 2: Build the New Site Using Wix’s Temporary Domain

Before your new site goes live, use the Wix default preview domain (e.g. yourname.wixsite.com/project) to build and test everything.

During the redesign, be mindful of the following:

• Keep URL paths as consistent as possible with the old site (e.g. keep /about-us)

• Retain the core keyword focus, meta data, and content structure

• Ensure every page includes an H1 heading, clean paragraph layout, and ALT tags for images

  
  

Step 3: Create a URL Mapping Table for Redirects

If some URLs are changing, prepare a mapping table in advance. For example:

Old URL Path	New URL Path
/about-us	/about
/services/web-design	/web-design

This will be used when you set up 301 redirects after connecting the domain.

Step 4: Connect Your Original Domain to Wix

After testing the new site, go to your Wix dashboard and connect your existing domain.

Wix fully supports custom domains. Once the domain is connected, visitors who access your old URL will land on the newly built Wix site.

Step 5: Set Up 301 Redirects

If any URLs have changed, you’ll need to set up 301 redirects to guide both users and search engines from the old paths to the new ones.

This ensures:

• No 404 errors if someone tries to visit an old link

• Your original SEO value and link authority is transferred to the new URLs

How to do this in Wix:

1. Log in to your Wix dashboard and go to SEO Settings

2. Open URL Redirect Manager

3. Click “+ New Redirect”

4. Enter the old path (e.g. /about-us) and the new path (e.g. /about)

5. Save the redirect

Important notes:

• Wix will automatically redirect some page types (like products or services) when slugs are updated

• Blog posts, however, will not redirect automatically—you must set them manually

  
  

Step 6: Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console

After launching your new site, go to Google Search Console:

• Add and verify your domain

• Submit the new sitemap (automatically generated by Wix, typically at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml)

• Check for 404 errors

• Monitor index status and page performance

  
  

Step 7: Monitor Rankings and Optimize as Needed

The first two weeks after launch are a transition period. You may notice:

• A few keywords dropping temporarily

• Search engines crawling old or redirected pages

• Some changes in traffic source or volume

This is completely normal. As long as your content quality remains high and your redirects are correctly configured, SEO performance will stabilize—and often improve.

Common Questions

Q: If I kept the same URLs in Wix, do I still need to set up redirects?A: No. If the URL paths are identical, there’s no need for redirects. But if any paths are different, redirects are essential.

Q: Can I keep the old site running during the transition?A: It’s not recommended. To avoid confusion or duplicate content issues, your Wix site should completely replace the old one once it's live.

Q: Will my rankings drop after migration?A: A minor drop in the first few weeks is common, but if redirects and structure are handled properly, rankings typically recover—and may even improve.

Q: If the page content and design are fully updated, will Google treat it as a new site?A: Not if your URL structure remains intact, your content focus stays consistent, and proper redirects are in place. Google will recognize it as a site upgrade, not a completely new website.

Conclusion: A Thoughtful Migration Is a Chance to Boost SEO

If you follow this process:

• Back up your old SEO structure

• Rebuild your site on a Wix test domain, keeping paths where possible

• Set up 301 redirects for changed URLs

• Connect your domain and submit the new sitemap

• Monitor rankings and keep optimizing

Then your move to Wix can be more than a platform change—it can be a strategic SEO upgrade.

SEO isn’t about clinging to the past. It’s about continuously improving structure, content, and user experience.

Redesigning your site on Wix may cause some short-term SEO movement, but in return, you’ll get faster performance, higher conversions, and better long-term trust with both users and search engines.