Tips For Moving Your Site To WordPress

You've made the decision — you're switching your site to WordPress. Congratulations.

Now comes the tricky bit — moving everything over. It may seem daunting at first, but break it into manageable steps and you'll be up and running in no time.

And if you're moving to Krystal — whether it's our managed WordPress or our PCI-compliant business hosting — we may even be able to migrate your site for you. Just get in touch and we'll let you know what's possible.

Prefer to do it all yourself? Here's a clear guide to help you move your site onto WordPress smoothly.

Lock everything down

Before you start, put a freeze on your current site. That means no new pictures, no new products, no changes to the code. No little "oh, it's just one tiny thing, I'll just go in and fix it". Nothing changes. Everything stays exactly how it is.

This makes it far easier for you to track what's been moved and what hasn't, without having to constantly check back and forth once you've put things into your new WordPress site. You can make all the changes you want on your new site, but your old site stays exactly as it is.

Take a backup of your site

If possible, take and download a full backup of your site. This gives you a safety net and a working reference point. You'll have a copy of what already exists, and you might be able to take what you need (images, copy, pages) from it.

Besides, it's always a good idea to have backups, whatever you're planning.

Keep your old site live

As tempting as it might be to flip the switch, don't just yet. Keep your domain name pointed to your old site. You wouldn't have people walking through your business while you're renovating, so you don't want them going through your not-quite-ready website either.

With Krystal hosting, you can work on a temporary URL then point the domain over, or with our Managed WordPress, you can set up a staging site, move your site to live, and then point the domain to it. Either way, you can upload, edit and make drastic changes to your site without worrying about any potential customers seeing. No downtime for your visitors, no pressure on you while you get things ready.

Try an import tool (for a faster move)

WordPress comes with a few built-in import tools (under Tools > Import in the admin panel) to make things easier, and there are lots of plugins that can help speed up the process.

Whatever import plugin you use, be prepared to double check each page to make sure everything's in the right place and looks the way you want it to. Things don't always import perfectly, but you can easily delete and reimport sections if needed.

Or go manual (for more control)

If an import tool won't work for you, or you want to make major changes to your site structure and design, you can manually import in each bit of your website. It takes a little longer, but you'll be able to absolutely make sure everything you put in is what you want to keep.

Build your site structure

For every page on your current site, you need to have a matching page on your new WordPress site. For good search engine optimisation (SEO), you want them to have the same URL as well.

So, for example, if your current site has: https://www.annettespets.com/cat-toys

You'll need to make a cat-toys page in WordPress. And the same goes for cat-posts and cat-beds and dog-toys and whatever else you have a page for. Don't worry about filling the pages with text yet — much like a house, you want to make sure the structure's in place before you start decorating.

Prepare your images

Make sure you've got all your images ready to upload. That means checking:

• You've chosen the right ones
• They're in the right format
• The file sizes aren't too large
• There's nothing missing

Ask yourself: Do I know which images I want? Do I have copies ready to upload? Are they in the format I want? Do they need any editing?

Go over the images you have and the images you want, and make sure you're happy with them before you start to add them to pages in your new WordPress website. WordPress can resize images to match your site's design, so you don't have to worry too much about that, but you do have to keep an eye on file size, just so you don't fill up your storage too quickly or make your customers spend minutes downloading.

Prepare your copy

You might think it's a piece of cake, just copying and pasting in text from one screen to another, but think about the formatting. Do you have headings (<h1>, <h2>)? Do you have lists? Do you have text that's bold or italicised or in a different colour? Do you have your text in columns? Are there break-out boxes?

When you put your text into your new WordPress site, check that you're happy with the formatting. WordPress uses "blocks" — formatted sections of text — that let you structure your site content the way you want. It's easy to learn and flexible, so experiment with what's available and don't forget to save your work!

Test, test, and test again

Once you have everything in your new site, and you're happy with how it looks, it's time to test it. And test it again. And test it a third time.

• Does the layout look right on desktop and mobile?
• Have you proofread every page?
• Are all your links working?
• Have you checked the search engine optimisation?
• Is there any placeholder text left?
• If you're selling products online, have you tried a test purchase?

You won't be able to catch every error, but catching most of them before you go live will save you so much pain once everything's live. And don't forget to get other people to test as well — they might catch what you've missed. Go for launch!

Once you're fully happy with your brand-new WordPress website, it's time to go live.

Head to your domain name provider and point your domain to our nameservers. If your domain is with us, we've got a quick guide to show you how to switch your nameservers. If it's elsewhere, you'll find our nameserver info here.

Remember, if you need any help, we're here for you.

It'll take a bit of time for all the servers across the world to realise that your domain now points to your new site, but once that's done, you can close your old site and enjoy the power, the ease and the beauty of your WordPress site.