Thinking about moving your site from Wix, Squarespace, or Joomla to WordPress?
You’re not alone. Many NZ business owners are making the switch to WordPress for greater control, scalability, and flexibility. But there’s one big concern that stops them:
“Will I lose my Google rankings and traffic?”
The short answer: Not if it’s done properly.
At Red Jet, we specialise in WordPress conversions that keep your SEO intact – and often improve it. Here’s how we help clients move their sites without losing search traffic, leads, or momentum.
🔍 Why SEO Can Be at Risk During a Website Migration
When switching platforms or redesigning your site, you risk:
- Changing page URLs
- Losing valuable metadata (titles, descriptions, alt text)
- Breaking backlinks
- Slowing down your site
- Forgetting to redirect old content
All of this can signal to Google that your site is “new” or lower quality – unless you take the right steps to preserve and transfer your SEO.
🧭 Step 1: Create a Full SEO Audit Before You Move
Before doing anything technical, you need to map out what exists. This includes:
- A full sitemap of current URLs
- Top-performing pages in Google Analytics / Search Console
- Meta titles, descriptions, and H1 tags
- Image filenames and alt text
- Backlinks pointing to key content
🛠️ Tools we use: Screaming Frog, SEMrush, and Google Search Console
This audit becomes your content map – your blueprint for rebuilding the site on WordPress without leaving any SEO value behind.
🔁 Step 2: Match Old URLs with New Ones (301 Redirects Are Key)
If any page URLs change during the migration — which they often do when moving from Wix or Squarespace – you need to set up 301 redirects.
A 301 redirect tells search engines:
“Hey, this old URL has permanently moved to this new one. Pass all the ranking power over.”
For Example:
yourwixsite.com/about-us → yournewwordpresssite.co.nz/about
Even if just one character changes in the URL, Google sees it as a different page.
How We Do It:
- Create a full redirect map
- Set up server-level 301 redirects or use a reliable plugin like Redirection
- Test all redirects after launch
✅ This step is non-negotiable for preserving SEO during a site conversion.
🧱 Step 3: Rebuild Content Carefully in WordPress
When migrating from non-WordPress platforms, content often gets “flattened” – losing formatting, headings, or internal links.
What We Do:
- Recreate key pages manually in the WordPress block editor (not copy-paste!)
- Preserve all headers (H1, H2) for SEO clarity
- Add internal links where possible
- Re-optimise metadata using Yoast SEO or SEOPress
📄 Content that was “just okay” before can be improved during the migration, giving you a fresh SEO boost.
⚡ Step 4: Optimise Speed, Security, and Mobile
Google’s ranking algorithm favours:
- Fast load times
- Secure (HTTPS) connections
- Mobile-friendly design
We build your WordPress site using:
- GeneratePress or other lightweight themes
- WP Rocket (included in our hosting) for speed
- Cloudflare CDN and Redis caching
- Premium security via Wordfence
🟢 The result? A faster, safer, better-looking site that performs well on all devices.
🛠 Step 5: Launch Carefully (and Monitor Everything)
Before going live, we:
- Run the site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights
- Validate redirects and mobile responsiveness
- Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console
- Monitor for crawl errors, ranking shifts, and broken links
And after launch? We stay on hand to troubleshoot anything unusual.
📉 Traffic dip after a launch? We’ll diagnose it immediately.
✨ Bonus: Add Features You Couldn’t Get Before
Platforms like Wix or Squarespace can be limiting. On WordPress, you can now:
- Install conversion tools (like Gravity Forms or WooCommerce)
- Integrate with CRMs and marketing platforms
- Add advanced SEO plugins
- Create custom blog layouts or landing pages
- Own your content fully — no lock-in
WordPress gives you room to grow, without starting over.
🔄 Real Example: Wix to WordPress – With Better Rankings
Client Story: A Wellington-based wellness coach moved from Wix to WordPress.
After our full SEO-preserving migration:
- Load time dropped from 5.1s to 1.2s
- Rankings for “online breathwork coach NZ” improved from #5 to #2
- Organic enquiries tripled within 60 days
Why? Better speed, clearer content structure, and zero lost SEO during the transition.
✅ Ready to Migrate Your Site – Without Losing Ground?
At Red Jet, we handle:
- Full content mapping
- SEO-safe migration
- Redirect setup
- Plugin configuration
- Performance tuning
- Zero-downtime launch
