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How to Properly Move from Weebly to WordPress (Step by Step)

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Do you want to switch from Weebly to WordPress?

Yes, it is possible to migrate all of your Weebly content to WordPress without hiring a developer or knowing how to code. We built a free Weebly to WordPress importer tool that does it all for you.

In this article, we will show you how to properly move from Weebly to WordPress (step by step).

Weebly to WordPress

From our experience, most folks don’t choose the best blogging platform when they are first starting out. Instead, you are more likely to go with one of the many hosted solutions like Weebly because you heard how easy it was and that it was free.

Unfortunately, WordPress gets a bad rap sometimes, and there are many myths about it that simply aren’t true.

Once you get more into blogging and you learn about SEO, monetization, customization, etc, then you have that oops moment because you realize that you made the wrong choice.

You discover that WordPress is indeed the best content management system out there.

And that’s when you start to panic because you don’t want your hard work to go to waste.

Don’t worry, it won’t. We have helped hundreds of people switch from Weebly to WordPress. No, you don’t have to know any code. If you can follow directions and point-and-click, then you can move your Weebly site to WordPress.

Yes, it will take you about an hour to properly migrate from Weebly to WordPress, but it’s completely worth it.

Bonus Free Offer: Since a lot of you asked for this, we are now offering free Weebly to WordPress migration service as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. This means one of our expert team members will do the entire migration for you (100% free). Yes, you can literally switch from Weebly to WordPress without any risk.

However, if you are someone who likes learning and doing things yourself, then you can follow our step-by-step tutorial below.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Weebly to WordPress Video Tutorial

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If you don’t like video tutorials or want to move at your own pace, then continue reading the instructions below.

Step 1: Getting Started

To start a WordPress blog, you need two things:

  • A domain name (this is the name of your blog i.e., wpbeginner.com)
  • A web hosting account (this is where your website lives on the internet)

While WordPress itself is free, both domain and web hosting come at a cost ($14.99 / year for domain and $7.99 / month for web hosting).

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 73% off on web hosting.

If, for some reason, you want other options, then you can look at our list of the best WordPress hosting companies.

Once you have set up your domain and hosting, the next step is to install WordPress. We have a step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress.

After you’re done installing WordPress, you are ready to move to the next step, which is to move your Weebly content to WordPress.

Step 2: Export Content From Your Weebly Website

In the past, it was way too difficult for users to move from Weebly to WordPress because it wasn’t easy to export data from Weebly.

We decided to solve this problem and developed a free Weebly to WordPress Importer.

It is a free online tool that imports your content from Weebly and converts it into a WordPress-compatible import format. It does not make any changes to your existing Weebly site, so it is perfectly safe to use.

Head over to the Weebly to WordPress Importer website and enter your Weebly website URL.

Weebly to WordPress Importer

You will be asked to provide your name, email address, and to select an export format.

The default option is WXR format, and you should not change that unless you run into an issue later.

Next, you need to choose whether you want to include pages in your export file. The default option is ‘Yes’, and you don’t need to change that either unless you really don’t want to export Weebly pages.

After that, you need to click on the ‘Export my Weebly Website’ button.

Weebly to WordPress Importer will now fetch content from your Weebly website and convert it into a WordPress-compatible export file.

Download your Weebly export file

You will see a button to download your Weebly export file. You need to right-click on it and select ‘Save link as’ from the menu.

This will download the export.xml file to your computer.

Step 3: Import Weebly Content into WordPress

Now that you have your Weebly content in a WordPress-compatible format, it is time to import it into WordPress.

Login to your admin area and head over to the Tools » Import page.

You will see a list of importers available for different platforms. You need to scroll down to WordPress and then click on the ‘Install Now’ link.

Install WordPress importer

WordPress will now fetch the importer plugin and install it on your WordPress site without reloading the page.

Once it is installed, you need to click on ‘Run Importer’ to launch it.

Run WordPress importer

This will bring you to the WordPress importer page. Go ahead and click on the ‘Choose file’ button to select the export.xml file you downloaded earlier.

Next, click on the ‘Upload file and import’ button to continue.

WordPress importer will now upload your export file and analyze it. On the next screen, it will ask you to assign authors.

Import authors and media attachments

You can import an author from your Weebly website, create a new author, or assign all content to your existing WordPress user.

Don’t forget to check the box next to the ‘Download and import file attachments’ option. It will fetch images from your Weebly website into the WordPress media library so you can use them later.

You can now click on the ‘Submit’ button to run the importer. WordPress will now import content from the export file to your WordPress database. It will also try to fetch images linked in your Weebly blog posts and pages.

Upon completion, you will see a success message.

Successfully imported Weebly data into WordPress

Congratulations, you have successfully imported content from your Weebly blog to WordPress. You can now go to posts, pages, and categories in the WordPress admin area to see if all your content is there. Also, check the media library to see the images imported from your Weebly site.

If the import process fails in the middle, then you can always run it again. The importer is smart enough to detect duplicate content and skip it. It will only import the content that wasn’t imported successfully in the previous attempt.

Step 4: Setting Up Redirects

If you were using a custom domain on your Weebly site (like yoursite.com), then you need to point it to your WordPress hosting provider.

First, you need to log in to your Weebly account and go to the Domains page. Click on the domain name that you want to edit, and then on the Domain Settings page, click on the ‘Change’ button next to the Nameservers option.

On the next screen, you need to enter your new WordPress host’s nameservers. For Bluehost, these are ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com.

Changing name servers

Click on the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

Nameserver changes may take a while to propagate across the internet. Once the changes take effect, visitors will start seeing your WordPress site.

If you were using a subdomain URL on your Weebly site (like http://example.weebly.com), then here is how you would setup redirect.

Login to your Weebly dashboard and edit your website. Next, you need to click on Settings and then the SEO tab.

Subdomain redirect

Now, scroll down to header code option and add this line of code:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.yourdomain.com/">

Replace yourdomain.com with your new WordPress site’s domain name.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ and ‘Publish’ buttons to save your changes.

You can now visit your Weebly website, and it will refresh and redirect to your WordPress website.

Step 5: Setting Up Permalinks

Your Weebly website may have a different URL structure for blog posts and pages. Typically, it is something like this:

For blog posts: http://example.com/blog/your-post-title/
For pages: http://example.com/page-title.html

If you were using a custom domain on your Weebly site, then users visiting a post on your old Weebly blog will see a 404 error.

Here is how you would make sure that users are redirected to the correct post.

You will need to visit the Settings » Permalinks page. Scroll down and select the ‘Custom structure’ option and then add /blog/%postname% in the text field next to it.

Permalinks

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your permalinks.

Now, you need to add .html at the end of URLs for your WordPress pages.

You will need to install and activate the Add Any Extension to Pages plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Add Any Extension to Pages. Simply enter .html in the plugin settings and click on the ‘Update Settings’ button.

Add .html to pages in WordPress

Now you need to visit the Settings » Permalinks page and click on the save changes button to update your permalink structure.

Step 6: Troubleshooting

Here are a few things that you may need after transferring your site from Weebly to WordPress.

1. Importing or Replacing Images

WordPress will try to import images from your Weebly website to WordPress during the import. However, if your images are not downloaded to the media library, then you will need to import them. See our guide on how to import external images in WordPress for detailed step by step instructions.

2. Fixing Errors in WordPress

If you are seeing some errors on your WordPress site after the transfer, then head over to our ultimate guide on common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

3. Things to Do After Installing WordPress

If everything goes well, you will be now ready to customize your new website and take advantage of the enormous flexibility of WordPress. See our list of important things to do after installing WordPress.

We hope this article helped you properly move from Weebly to WordPress. You may also want to see our list of the must have WordPress plugins for business websites and our guide to WordPress vs. Weebly.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us. Here's our editorial process.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

254 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
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  2. Sarah says

    Any tips on exporting pages that are visible only to certain members or member groups in Weebly? There are about 100 I need to move over to WordPress but they are not visible unless viewed by a logged in member who has access to those pages.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      The export file should include any hidden pages unless Weebly has changed their export rules.

      Admin

  3. herve says

    Hi,
    I’ve recently needed to export several weebly’s websites but I think they’re too big. Every time I request an export, I get a 504 – Gateway Timeout.
    Is there another solution or alternative?
    Thanks,
    Rv

  4. Sarah Jayne says

    I just want to clarify something – does this move a full website or just the blog? I have my website and blog on Weebly and I want to move it to WordPress.

  5. shlomo says

    Hi, when I run the importer I get this message:
    Could not find any content in your weebly blog to export. Did you enter the correct URL?

    If I enter my domain name directly into my web browser it does take me to my website. I would appreciate any help in how can I resolve this?

    Thanks

    • WPBeginner Support says

      No specific theme needs to be used on WordPress to import your content, the theme used is based on personal preference.

      Admin

  6. Lindsey says

    Helpful. If I’m transfering my domain from Weebly to create a new WP site through BlueHost, do I need to wait for the domain transfer to complete fully (could take 3-10 days) before completing the steps provided? TIA.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You can create a site on a temporary domain on BlueHost and once your domain is transferred you can update the domain. That would allow you to start working on it before the transfer is complete.

      Admin

  7. Adam Lee Rosenfeld says

    Hi I have a client with a Weebly site that has an eccomerce setup (products, a shopping cart, etc.). Would this solution work for a site like that?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Sadly, at the moment we do not have a recommended method for easily transferring e-commerce data from Weebly

      Admin

  8. Jordan Eagle says

    I’m pretty much the novice blogger verbatim who started on Weebly and wants to move over to WordPress. This blog was super helpful in transferring media, text, and most content from blog posts and pages on my Weebly blog. I, too, received the error from their exporter:
    “Could not find any content in your weebly blog to export. Did you enter the correct URL? Go Back”
    I was able to get one complete export.xml file in a handful of failed attempts on the exporter. However, I contact WPBeginner support and within 12 hours they had done the export themselves and set along the export file.

    Would definitely recommend using this for an easy transfer.

  9. ZP says

    I am helping a non profit migrate their site, but we are not sure if the blog posts will transfer along with all the other site content. Does anyone know? Thanks.

  10. Zhivko G. says

    Hi,
    I am also trying to migrate my Weebly site to WP, and I keep getting the message “Could not find any content in your weebly blog to export. Did you enter the correct URL?”. I disabled the SSL, but it is of no use: I tried several times, waited for minutes, but still no effect. Can something be done? Thanks.

  11. Mark Bolmida says

    I’d like to move a well established (12 years) Weebly site to WordPress. It ranks well for my industry and I don’t want the move to affect my SEO in a negative way. Will it? I’m hoping with the more tools available in WordPress I can make my site better and make ranking even better.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      There should not be a major change in your SEO if you move the site and set up your redirect properly.

      Admin

  12. Bjorn Yourey says

    Hi, Before I do this just curious to know will my contact forms, background images get transferred as well or its just strictly content which gets transferred from weebly to wordpress?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It would depend on how the images are added but it would be best to expect only the content will be transferred.

      Admin

      • Bjorn Yourey says

        thank you so much for your reply, should i follow the same methods to get it migrated from weebly to the weebly in siteground? I just signed up on their site and just about to migrate from weebly to wordpress for 1 site, but also wanted to know if i should follow the same instructions for weebly to weebly platform in siteground, thanks again for your help.

        • WPBeginner Support says

          At the moment we do not have a guide for moving a Weebly site, if you reach out to SiteGround they should be able to help with that.

  13. JOE says

    When I try to export the weebly site I only get this error message,

    Could not find any content in your weebly blog to export. Did you enter the correct URL? Go Back

    I have done everything, still it display the same message. I’m using the domain fro weebly by the way.

    please help.

  14. Alison Bigg says

    When I try to export the weebly site I only get this error message,

    Could not find any content in your weebly blog to export. Did you enter the correct URL? Go Back
    Thanks for any help. Alison

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to reach out to us using our contact form for us to be able to assist with that issue.

      Admin

  15. Charles says

    Will this work for transferring a Weebly eComm site to a WordPress site integrated with WooCommerce?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It should work for transferring your site content but you would need to recreate your product pages.

      Admin

  16. Clint Holden says

    Would I be better to wait to export from weebly until I have beaver builder installed or does it matter

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You can export from Weebly at any point and adding your content would give you something to style on your new site as well :)

      Admin

  17. Ian Dunn says

    I also got the “Could not find any content …” error, but it was because I had a custom domain setup.

    To get it to work, I had to add a “{site-name}.weebly.com” subdomain, and then enter that address into the tool.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Thank you for letting us know about that issue, we’ll be sure to look into possible reasons why it could have happened :)

      Admin

  18. Danielle says

    Hello! I’ve been trying to use your plugin to convert my weebly site to WordPress, but it times out every time. What can I do to fix this? I have high speed internet, but I’m wondering if my site is too big…?

  19. Linda says

    Hello. I finally took the plunge and transferred my weebly site to wordpress. I put it off because I thought it would be a nightmare and complicated. Decided the time was now as my site looked very outdated and was losing ranking. I couldn’t believe how easy it was! I needed to turn off SSL (and then back on again) for it to work.

    Thank you all so much for offering this free service!

    Happy New Year and I wish you all the very best.

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