Founder of Goodspeed
Migrating your website from Wix to Framer can be an exciting shift towards a more modern, design-focused platform. However, if not managed carefully, it can lead to significant SEO challenges, such as traffic loss, broken links, and ranking drops.
A poorly executed migration can result in up to an 80% decrease in organic traffic, often requiring six months or more to recover. But with a structured, SEO-driven approach, you can preserve—or even improve—your website’s search performance and visibility.
This guide walks you through a step-by-step process, ensuring that critical SEO elements—such as URL structures, metadata, redirects, and backlinks—are properly transferred to Framer. By following these best practices, you can protect your rankings, user experience, and overall search presence during and after the migration.
1. Prep Work: SEO Audit & Data Gathering
Before making any changes, it’s crucial to capture and document your website’s current SEO performance. This ensures you have a clear benchmark to measure the impact of migration and troubleshoot any unexpected ranking fluctuations.
1.1 Benchmark Your Current Rankings & Traffic
Your first step is to track and document your website’s performance on Wix. Use Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to record:
Top-performing pages by organic traffic
Highest-ranking keywords and their SERP positions
Inbound backlinks and referral sources
These metrics provide a baseline for measuring SEO stability post-migration. Without this data, it becomes difficult to diagnose any drops in rankings or traffic inconsistencies once your site is live on Framer.
Many websites experience a 10–30% traffic loss in the first month after migration due to URL changes, metadata updates, and disrupted backlinks. By monitoring organic search trends daily in the first week and weekly for the first month, you can quickly detect and address any potential issues.
1.2 Collect On-Page Metadata & URLs
Your metadata and URLs play a crucial role in SEO continuity. Before migrating, extract and save essential SEO elements, including:
Title tags and meta descriptions
H1-H3 headings and keyword placements
Image alt text and structured data
Use Wix’s built-in SEO tools or crawlers like Screaming Frog to create a spreadsheet of all indexed URLs and metadata. This ensures that nothing gets lost in the transition and allows you to reapply SEO best practices seamlessly on Framer.
For best practices on metadata and SEO in Framer, check out How to Ensure SEO Best Practices When Using Framer Templates.
2. Aligning Wix URLs with Framer’s Structure
A poorly structured URL transition is one of the biggest causes of SEO decline after migration. Ensuring a logical, SEO-friendly site architecture will help maintain rankings and user experience while also working to prevent traffic loss in site migration.
2.1 Mapping Your Site Architecture
Where possible, keep your existing URL slugs identical to avoid unnecessary 404 errors and ranking disruptions. However, Wix and Framer differ in how they structure URLs, so if changes are required, plan 301 redirects in advance to ensure a seamless transition.
2.2 Building a Redirect Spreadsheet
To prevent traffic loss and broken backlinks, build a redirect spreadsheet before launch. This should include:
Original Wix URLs
New Framer URLs
Redirect status codes (301)
Without proper redirection, link equity can be lost, negatively impacting rankings. A structured redirect strategy helps ensure a seamless experience for both users and search engines.
For a step-by-step guide, check out Checklist for a Successful Website Migration from Any Platform to Framer.
3. Preserving On-Page SEO Elements in Framer
Migrating your website is more than just moving pages—it's about ensuring search engines continue to recognise and rank your content. Losing meta tags, image optimisations, or structured data can negatively impact your rankings and overall search visibility.
3.1 Meta Tags & Headers
Meta tags and headers play a crucial role in Wix to Framer SEO, ensuring search engines understand your content hierarchy and relevance. Follow these steps to preserve on-page SEO elements during migration:
Manually transfer title tags and meta descriptions to Framer’s CMS or site builder.
Ensure H1s, H2s, and H3s match your Wix setup to maintain content structure and keyword relevance.
Double-check crawlers like Google Search Console to identify any missing tags or improperly formatted headers.
75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results, highlighting the importance of accurate metadata and well-structured headings.
For more insights on Framer SEO best practices, see How to Ensure SEO Best Practices When Using Framer Templates.
3.2 Transferring Image SEO
Search engines rely on image alt text, filenames, and compression to understand and rank your images in Google Image Search. To avoid losing image-based rankings, make sure to:
Retain alt text descriptions from your Wix images.
Keep SEO-friendly filenames rather than using default uploads.
Use Framer’s built-in optimisation tools to reduce file sizes and improve load times.
53% of users abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Ensuring images are optimised and properly labelled will boost page speed and search visibility.
3.3 Structured Data
Structured data enhances search engine understanding of your content, improving rich results like FAQs, reviews, and events. If your Wix site already utilises schema markup, it’s essential to reapply these in Framer.
Use JSON-LD embeds or Framer’s custom code blocks to maintain structured data.
Ensure schema markup remains consistent for articles, local businesses, FAQs, or eCommerce pages.
The Formula Bot Case Study highlights how preserving structured data and metadata helped retain SEO rankings post-migration. Goodspeed helped them jump from 6th to 2nd rank on Google.
4. Handling Backlinks & Link Equity
Your website’s authority depends heavily on backlinks—incoming links from other reputable sites. A poorly managed migration can lead to broken backlinks, causing a significant drop in SEO value.
4.1 External Link Check
Before launching your new Framer site, audit all external backlinks to ensure they are either:
Pointing to the correct pages in the new URL structure, or
Redirected properly using 301 redirects.
Tools like Ahrefs or Moz help track high-authority backlinks. Losing valuable links can weaken your domain authority, leading to ranking losses.
80% of unmanaged migrations roll back within 30 days due to technical and SEO failures. Preventing broken backlinks is critical to maintaining authority.
See how Goodspeed helped a Financial Services Site successfully retain external link authority and rank #1 on Google.
4.2 Internal Linking in Framer
Internal links help distribute link equity and enhance site navigation. Without proper internal linking, Google’s crawlers may struggle to index your new site properly.
Rebuild navigation menus, footer links, and cross-page connections to mirror your previous Wix setup.
Maintain anchor text relevancy to ensure links remain contextually useful.
Internal links help search engines understand page relationships and improve crawling efficiency, reinforcing site-wide rankings.
5. Launch Phase: Redirect Implementation & Testing
Once your new Framer website is live, it’s crucial to test your redirect setup, fix broken links, and monitor for SEO issues.
5.1 Setting Up 301 Redirects
A well-executed redirect strategy ensures seamless user experience and minimal ranking fluctuations, which is crucial for a successful SEO migration from Wix to Framer. Implement:
301 redirects for all changed URLs via your hosting control panel or server configuration files.
Framer’s redirect management tools, if available, to keep transitions smooth.
A 1-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by up to 7%, making it crucial to implement fast and efficient redirects.
5.2 Live Testing for 404s
Once redirects are in place, run extensive live testing using:
Google Search Console to find indexing errors.
Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify broken links.
If 404 errors persist, search engines may devalue your rankings—fixing them promptly is key.
This Zen Educate testimonial highlights how Goodspeed ensured a seamless migration with efficient redirect planning and issue resolution. Here’s what they had to say: “Goodspeed's reactivity, collaboration, and good energy were impressive”
6. Post-Launch Monitoring & Adjustments
A website migration doesn’t end when the new site goes live—ongoing monitoring is essential to track performance, catch errors, and make necessary SEO adjustments. Without post-launch oversight, even a well-planned migration can result in ranking fluctuations and traffic loss.
6.1 Watch Your Rankings & Traffic
Immediately after launch, monitor your organic traffic, keyword rankings, and user engagement metrics using:
Google Search Console to track indexing and ranking shifts.
Google Analytics to monitor traffic sources, bounce rates, and conversions.
Ahrefs or SEMrush to check for lost backlinks or sudden keyword drops.
It’s common to see a temporary drop in organic traffic within the first few weeks. However, if rankings decline significantly beyond four weeks, it may indicate unresolved redirect issues, broken links, or lost metadata. The average SEO recovery time for a migration is between 4–12 weeks, so consistent monitoring ensures that any dips are addressed promptly.
6.2 Re-Submit Sitemaps
To help search engines quickly understand and index your new Framer site, submit an updated sitemap in Google Search Console:
Generate your sitemap in Framer.
Go to Google Search Console > Sitemaps and enter the new URL.
Regularly check for indexing errors or pages marked as "Discovered – currently not indexed."
A well-optimised Framer site can enhance engagement metrics like lower bounce rates and longer session durations, contributing to long-term ranking improvements.
7. FAQs on Wix-to-Framer SEO
To address common concerns about migrating from Wix to Framer, here are some frequently asked questions:
Will my rankings drop immediately after migrating from Wix?
Minor fluctuations are expected, but a well-planned SEO migration from Wix to Framer should minimise long-term ranking loss. If rankings do drop significantly, check for redirect errors, missing metadata, or unindexed pages.
Do I need technical support to transfer my SEO elements from Wix to Framer?
While Wix provides built-in SEO tools, certain aspects—like structured data migration and URL redirects for SEO migration—may require technical assistance.
How quickly will Google reindex my new Framer site?
Once you submit an updated sitemap, Google typically reindexes within a few days to a few weeks, depending on your site authority and crawl frequency.
Can Framer deliver better performance than Wix?
Yes! Framer’s pre-rendered pages and modern hosting setup can significantly enhance page speed and overall site performance, potentially improving rankings.
Conclusion
Migrating from Wix to Framer doesn’t have to mean sacrificing SEO performance. With careful preparation, structured URL mapping, and a robust redirect strategy, you can successfully transition to Framer without losing organic search visibility.
By following this step-by-step website migration SEO checklist, you ensure that every critical SEO element—from backlinks and metadata to structured data and internal linking—is retained. Post-launch monitoring is crucial, as Google may take several weeks to fully reindex your new site, but with Framer site optimisation and regular adjustments, your site can recover rankings and even outperform its previous version.
Want to ensure a flawless transition? Avoid SEO pitfalls—book a free consultation for Wix to Framer migrations.
Written By
Harish Malhi
Founder of Goodspeed
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