Off the Builder: Leaving Wix & Co. Without a Google Crash

Sooner or later the builder gets too tight: the site is too slow, the feature you need is not there, or you simply do not want to keep paying rent. The move is doable, but it is a new build with moving logistics, not a single click. Here is the honest process.

The uncomfortable truth first

Website-builder sites cannot be “exported and loaded in somewhere else”, the technology belongs to the provider and stays with them. What you take with you: your content, your domain and your Google rankings. What gets built new: the website itself. That is why a move is always also the chance to sharpen your structure and your presence.

Step 1: Inventory, what belongs to you?

Before anything gets cancelled: run the ownership check. The domain is decisive: is it registered in your name? With some builder plans it sits under the provider, in which case it has to be transferred to you first. Without your domain, no clean move.

Step 2: Save the content

Copy the texts out, download images at full size (not the shrunk web versions, if originals exist), export form data and customer lists wherever you can. Also draw up a list of every page address (each subpage with its exact address), you will need it for step 4.

Step 3: Rebuild, better than before

The new website takes shape in parallel while the old one keeps running. Make the most of the rebuild: which pages worked, which did nobody ever visit? What should the site be able to do in future that the builder never managed? (Appointment booking, calculators, multiple languages, examples here.)

Step 4: Rescue the rankings, the decisive step

Google knows your old page addresses. If the addresses change during the move (almost always), every old address needs a permanent redirect to its new counterpart, the technical term is 301 redirect. Without it, Google and all existing links run into dead ends, and hard-won rankings crash. This is the step where do-it-yourself moves most often fail.

Step 5: Switch-over day and checks

Only once the new site is standing and the redirects are ready: switch the domain. The old website stays online until the move is confirmed, so there is no day without a website. Then watch for two weeks: do all the redirects work, are the new pages showing up in Google? Only then cancel the builder contract.

When the move is (still) not worth it

Honestly: if your builder site does its job, a business card with little visitor expectation and no feature wishes, stay put for now. The move pays off when the site is meant to bring in customers and the builder is getting in the way. The decision aid: Builder or custom-built?

Move with us

We take on the whole process, inventory, rebuild, redirects, switch-over day, and in the end the website is yours, with everything. What it costs, the price calculator shows you in two minutes.