Migrating from WordPress to Webflow: What to Expect

For years, WordPress has been the go-to CMS for businesses and content teams. But for many organizations, especially those focused on marketing performance, visual consistency, and speed, it's starting to show its age. Managing bloated plugins, chasing down update conflicts, and relying on developers for basic changes isn’t a sustainable model.

Enter Webflow.

This guide walks you through what to expect when migrating from WordPress to Webflow. We’ll break down the pros, the limitations, and how to prepare for a smooth transition—especially if you're part of a fast-moving marketing team.

Why Teams Are Choosing to Migrate WordPress to Webflow

WordPress is powerful, flexible, and backed by a huge ecosystem. But that ecosystem is also its Achilles heel. As one of the most popular content management systems, WordPress offers extensive customization and a large community, but it also comes with complexity, security concerns, and maintenance challenges compared to alternative CMS options.

• Plugin fatigue: Most WordPress sites rely on a dozen or more plugins just to function. Each update carries risk, and even one poorly maintained plugin can break your site.
• Performance drag: Page builders like Elementor or WPBakery add visual convenience but kill your PageSpeed scores with bloated markup and unnecessary scripts. Additionally, your choice of hosting provider and hosting plan can further impact site speed and reliability, with lower-tier options often limiting performance.
• Security risks: Outdated plugins, abandoned themes, and over-permissioned users are common entry points for hackers.
• Developer dependency: Want to change the layout of a blog post? Edit a CTA? Launch a new landing page? You’re usually filing a ticket.

For marketing teams, that means slower campaigns, more back-and-forth, and constant technical debt.

What Webflow Offers Instead

Webflow rethinks how websites are built and managed. It combines a powerful visual designer with a CMS that marketing teams can actually use. Webflow lets you achieve complete design flexibility and control, enabling you to create custom, responsive, and interactive websites without relying on themes or plugins.

• Visual design control: You can design and update pages in a pixel-perfect interface without writing code, making it easy to implement modern web design and responsive design best practices.
• No plugins: Everything from SEO to form handling to site performance is baked in.
• Built-in CMS: Dynamic content collections make managing blogs, case studies, and team pages a breeze.
• Fast hosting: Webflow's hosting is an integrated, high-performance solution, with sites hosted on a global CDN with enterprise-grade performance and security.
• No theme bloat: There are no themes, just components. That means less junk, faster load times, and better scores across Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals.
• Interactive elements and scroll animations: Webflow enables you to add interactive elements and scroll animations, such as fade-ins and slide-ins, to enhance user engagement and visual appeal.

Most importantly: Webflow puts marketing teams in the driver’s seat.

Pre-Migration: Evaluating Your Current Website

Before you dive into building your new Webflow site, it’s essential to take a close look at your current WordPress site. This evaluation is the foundation for a smooth transition and a successful migration. Start by reviewing all your website’s pages, posts, and media files—identify what’s still relevant and what can be left behind. This is your chance to declutter and ensure only the best content makes it to your new Webflow website.

Next, map out your site’s structure. Pay special attention to navigation menus and internal linking, as these elements are crucial for both user experience and SEO. Take note of how your current website organizes information and consider how you can streamline or improve it in your new Webflow site.

Don’t forget to analyze your site speed and overall performance. Use SEO tools to check how your WordPress site is ranking and where there’s room for improvement. Webflow’s built-in SEO tools and fast hosting can help you address any issues you uncover, setting your new webflow site up for better results from day one.

By thoroughly evaluating your current website, you’ll be able to plan your migration process more effectively, avoid surprises, and take full advantage of everything Webflow offers. This careful preparation is key to a successful migration and a Webflow website that outperforms your old WordPress site.

What You Can—and Can’t—Migrate Easily

Migrating from WordPress to Webflow isn’t a one-click operation. You’ll need to manually map content, rebuild pages, and rethink structure in some cases. Migrating the entire site, including cms content and custom post types, may require manual restructuring to ensure all data is properly organized and displayed. But much of your existing site can be transitioned smoothly if you know what to expect.

Easy to Migrate

• Page content: Use clean HTML exports or simply copy and paste content into Webflow’s designer.
• Blog posts: Export from WordPress using CSV or third-party tools and import into Webflow CMS Collections.
• SEO metadata: Page titles, meta descriptions, and alt text can be carried over or improved during migration.
• Media: Images and files can be re-uploaded or optimized in the process.

Requires Rebuilding or Workarounds

• Shortcodes and plugin-dependent content
• Custom functionality (e.g., calculators, forms with logic)
• WooCommerce stores (requires third-party integration or platform change)
• Comments and user accounts (not supported natively in Webflow)

How to Prepare for the WordPress to Webflow Migration

Setting up your Webflow account and starting a new Webflow project are foundational steps before beginning your migration. A successful CMS migration starts with a content audit and a solid plan. Here’s what we recommend:

1. Audit your WordPress content: Identify pages that are live, ranking, or worth keeping. Weed out outdated posts and unnecessary clutter.
2. Document your SEO data: Export all meta titles, descriptions, URL slugs, and image alt text.
3. Plan your Webflow CMS structure: Use the Webflow dashboard to create and manage Collections for recurring content types (e.g., blog posts, authors, case studies).
4. Design with components in mind: Unlike WordPress themes, Webflow relies on reusable layout blocks. Plan with consistency.
5. Backup everything: Even if you’re not bringing it all over, archive your entire WP site for reference by exporting your WordPress data as a CSV file for easier import.

After migration, configure your project settings and Webflow project settings, and integrate Google Analytics to track website performance.

Content Structure Changes to Expect with Webflow CMS Collections

Webflow’s model is more like building with Lego blocks than editing templates. That comes with a learning curve but also a lot of freedom. Webflow's CMS underpins this new approach, allowing you to create, import, and manage content efficiently within the platform.

• CMS Collections replace post types: You’ll need to set up each Collection manually with the fields you want, leveraging Webflow's CMS for flexible content management.
• Page building is visual: No PHP templates or shortcodes—you build everything in the Designer visually.
• No plugin layer: Instead of relying on third-party plugins, you integrate what you need directly (forms, embeds, etc.), making the experience more seamless and secure.

It might take time to get used to, but most teams find it faster, cleaner, and easier to manage once the transition is complete. Starting your Webflow build and adapting to the absence of third party plugins can present common challenges, and post migration adjustments are often necessary to ensure everything runs smoothly.

SEO Considerations

SEO doesn’t need to suffer during a migration—but it does need to be planned for optimal visibility in search engine results and to meet the requirements of search engines.

• Use 301 redirects: Map your old URLs to new ones to preserve rankings and ensure website visitors are seamlessly redirected to the correct pages.
• Preserve or improve metadata: Webflow gives you complete control over titles, descriptions, and Open Graph fields.
• Image optimization: Re-upload images with descriptive alt text or use automation tools to add it intelligently.
• Submit new sitemaps: Webflow auto-generates a sitemap, but you’ll want to re-submit in Google Search Console.

After migration, check for broken links and compare your website's performance to the previous website to evaluate the success of your SEO efforts.

For added confidence, we recommend using a tool like Semflow during and after the migration to audit each page.

Ongoing monitoring of your website's performance is crucial for maintaining and improving your search engine rankings.

What Your Workflow Looks Like After the Move

Post migration support and quality assurance are essential to ensure your new site functions smoothly and meets user expectations.

This is where Webflow shines.

• Fewer dev requests: Your marketing team can create, launch, and edit content without developers.
• Faster time to market: New landing pages can go live in hours, not weeks.
• Visual consistency: Reusable components mean every page stays on-brand.
• No plugin updates: No more chasing compatibility issues or patching security holes.

In short: with reliable hosting and ongoing optimization, your new website becomes a strategic asset, not a technical liability.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Rebuilding WordPress-style templates in Webflow: These mistakes are among the most common challenges teams face during migration. You’re not migrating themes—you’re rebuilding with a modern component system.
2. Ignoring redirects: This is an SEO killer. Map every important URL.
3. Overcomplicating CMS Collections: Keep it lean. Webflow has some limitations with relational content.
4. Not training your team: Take time to onboard editors into the new workflow.
5. Skipping the audit: Junk content from WordPress doesn’t need to follow you into Webflow.

Launching Your New Webflow Site

Launching your new Webflow site is the moment your migration process comes to life. After designing, building, and refining your Webflow project, it’s time to go live and share your new Webflow site with the world.

Before you hit publish, double-check that all your content has been imported correctly and that your SEO settings are fully configured. Use Webflow’s built-in tools to test your site’s functionality, responsiveness, and performance—this is your chance to catch any last-minute issues before your audience sees them.

When you’re ready, update your DNS records to point your custom domain to your new Webflow site. This step officially transitions your website from your old platform to your new Webflow website. Make sure to monitor the site closely after launch to ensure everything is running smoothly and that your visitors are having a seamless experience.

A well-planned launch not only ensures a smooth transition but also lets you immediately benefit from Webflow’s speed, design flexibility, and SEO capabilities. With your new Webflow site live, you’re ready to make the most of your investment and start growing your online presence.

When Webflow Might Not Be the Right Fit

Webflow isn’t built for every site. Here are a few use cases where another platform might serve you better:

• Large ecommerce stores: Consider Shopify or a headless commerce setup.
• Membership sites: Webflow lacks native user accounts and gated content functionality.
• Multi-language support: Not available out of the box (requires workarounds like Weglot).
• Deep relational data: If your site relies on complex relational models, a headless CMS like Storyblok or Contentful may be a better fit.

That said, most marketing sites, agency sites, service businesses, and content platforms thrive on Webflow.

Final Thoughts: Is the Move Worth It?

If your team is tired of plugin management, slow development cycles, and bloated themes, migrating from WordPress to Webflow might be one of the best decisions you can make.

It’s not an automated process, and it requires thoughtful planning. But what you gain is a faster site, a smoother workflow, and a platform that empowers your team instead of bottlenecking them.

We help businesses like yours make this transition every day. Want to talk through your WordPress-to-Webflow migration with our Webflow Developers?

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