How to migrate from WordPress: the options, the steps and how to keep your rankings

When it is worth leaving WordPress

WordPress runs a lot of websites and can work fine. But a WordPress site depends on five pieces from five different authors: PHP, WordPress core, the theme, the plugins and the hosting provider. Each one has its own updates, and a single failing piece is enough to expose the whole site, as happened on 21 October 2026 with PHP2Shell, a critical vulnerability in PHP itself.

It is worth considering when any of these apply:

• The website sells, takes bookings or works with business data. A shop, orders, bookings, a customer area or a link to the ERP: that is where plugins weigh the most.
• Nobody watches it every week. Updates pile up, and so does the risk.
• You have lots of plugins for small things. Each one is another author with access to the server.
• It is slow on mobile. Google takes that into account, and so do your visitors.
• You want AI assistants to find you. That takes readable text, structured data and a fast website.

The four options

There is no single answer for every company. These are the four real options, from the smallest change to the biggest:

• Stay on WordPress and keep it well maintained. If the website is simple, has few plugins and someone watches it every week, it is a reasonable choice: PHP up to date, core, theme and plugins updated, backups and a firewall.
• A website without a panel. It is published as files, with no PHP and no database. For a website that presents the company and rarely changes; whoever maintains it makes the changes.
• A website with a separate content management system. Texts are edited in a content management system and the website is published as files. For those who publish a lot, such as a blog or news, but have no business process on the website.
• A website plus custom software with an admin panel. The public website, with no PHP and no plugins, and behind it software built for the company: a panel where you edit what changes often (products, prices, news, opening hours) and where you work (orders, bookings, customers), connected to the ERP if needed. This is the one we recommend in most cases.

Which one suits you depends on what the website does today and what you want it to do. That is why the first step is always the inventory.

Why we recommend a website with custom software and a panel

When a company considers leaving WordPress, it is usually because the website already does more than present it: selling, taking bookings, winning customers or working with business data. For that, custom software has five advantages:

• Fewer exposed pieces. The public website runs no PHP and no plugins on each visit, and the code that does the work is only what you use.
• A panel built for your work. Everyone logs in with their own role and sees what concerns them, without the options you never use.
• Connected to what you already have. The ERP, the CRM, the bank or the accounts, so nobody copies data by hand.
• It is clear who applies the patches. For the servers and the environments the code runs in, the cloud provider; for your code, whoever built it, under a maintenance contract.
• The code is yours. If you ever change provider, the software stays with you.

What you should know: custom software also needs maintaining, and it costs more up front than a template. It pays off when the website works for the business.

The steps of a migration

1. Inventory. Every address on the website, the plugins and what each one does, the forms and where their emails go, the shop, the users and the integrations.
2. Decide. What stays, what goes and what is missing, and which of the four options fits.
3. Prototype. The new website with your content, on a test address, without touching the current one.
4. Content. Texts, images, blog posts and, if there are any, products, customers and orders.
5. Address map. Each old address with its new one: the same address or a 301 redirect.
6. Forms and legal texts. Every form reaches the right inbox, and the legal notice, privacy and cookie policies describe what the new website does.
7. Testing. Mobile, speed, forms, redirects and, if there are any, payments.
8. Domain switch. Once everything has been tested, the domain points to the new website; the old one is kept for a few days, in case you need to roll back.
9. Tell the search engines. Submit the sitemap to Google and Bing, and watch Search Console for the first few weeks.

How to keep your Google rankings

What loses rankings in a migration is not changing technology: it is changing addresses without redirecting them, losing texts or titles, or ending up with a slower website. Google explains how to do it in its guide to site moves.

• The same addresses or, if they change, a 301 redirect from each old address to its new one, never all of them to the home page.
• The same titles and descriptions, or better ones.
• Structured data: the company, the products and the frequently asked questions.
• A faster website than before, especially on mobile.
• The new sitemap submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

What if the website is a WooCommerce shop?

Products, customers and orders are exported and brought into the new system. What is built to measure is the shop and the panel: the catalogue, orders, stock and, if needed, the link to the ERP so orders go in by themselves. Payments go through a payment gateway, the one you use now or a new one.