AI can build a site in a hurry, but can it build it well? Many businesses report frustration with their AI sites, including a generic design, no strategy for appealing to the target audience, thin copy, bloated code that makes the site drag, lack of plugins, limited control of search engine optimization, and difficulty troubleshooting when problems arise.
WordPress can help you solve many of these problems. WordPress sites can be simple to customize and fix, and they come with options for tens of thousands of plugins. If you want to convert your existing AI-generated site to WordPress, you can absolutely do it. But the bigger question is what happens to everything you’ve already built.
Think about your pages and photos, your web address, the form customers use to request a quote, and the spot you’ve earned on Google. Some of it can be easily migrated. Some of it has to be rebuilt.
How Was Your AI Site Built?
How much work the migration takes depends on the kind of AI tool you used to build the site. One common option is an all-in-one builder, where you sign in, pick a design, and the company creates and hosts the site for you. Those builders don’t let you take the site itself with you. You simply retrieve your basic content, and the site must be rebuilt around it.
With other AI tools, you can retrieve the files behind your site. In these cases, more of the design may be reusable. If you’re not sure which kind you have, a local web designer here in Utah can take a quick look at your account.
What Carries Over
Let’s start with what you keep. Everything you’ve written for the site, from your service descriptions to your blog posts, can be used again on WordPress, so nobody has to rewrite it. Some builders let you export it, and with others, you need to copy it over. Your photos and logo can come along as well, as long as you have the original files and not screenshots.
The way your site is organized can stay the same. You may need to rebuild each page, but customers can still find your services and contact page where they expect them.
A couple of things behind the scenes carry over as well. Your web address can usually stay the same, as long as you can get into the account where the domain is managed. If your AI builder provided it as part of your package, you may need to move it first.
Your Google Analytics history stays with Google, not your builder. Once you connect your new site to the same Google Analytics setup, it keeps collecting data alongside your old numbers.
What Gets Rebuilt
Now for the part that takes more work. The look of your site doesn’t automatically come with you. A designer may need to recreate the fonts, colors, and layouts from your AI-built site. The same goes for extras like pop-ups and slideshows. They can be rebuilt, but they may look or move a little differently.
Forms and other tools come down to how they were set up. If your contact form was part of the AI builder, it won’t work on the new WordPress site, and neither will anything tied to it, like the email you get when someone requests a quote. Both need to be set up again in WordPress.
The same is true for a booking calendar or online store that came with the builder, and past orders may not come along. Outside services you signed up for on your own, like Jobber or Mailchimp, are easier. Those may only need to be reconnected.
A few features may not have an exact match in WordPress. When you find them before the move starts, your developer will have time to pick the right replacements.
Keeping Your Spot on Google
If customers already find you on Google, you’ll want to protect that during the move. One of the biggest things is keeping the same page addresses where possible. If your service page is at yoursite.com/services today, keeping that address on the new site helps Google recognize the page it already knows.
If an address has to change, your WordPress web design agency can redirect the old one to the new one. That way, someone who clicks an old Google result or saved link still reaches the right page instead of an error.
Your page titles and descriptions should come over, too. Once the new site is live, your developer can use Google Search Console to check that Google can find the new pages and catch any problems.
What to Have Ready Before the Work Starts
Before you convert an AI website to WordPress, a little prep goes a long way. When a design agency knows what they’re working with, they can give you a more accurate quote.
Here’s what to pull together:
- A login to your AI builder account. Your design agency needs enough access to see how your pages are set up and export what they can.
- Access to your domain. That’s the account where you bought your web address, like GoDaddy or Namecheap. Your designer uses it to switch your address over to the new site when it’s ready.
- Access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Search Console is the free tool that shows how your site appears on Google. Your designer can use both to make sure your tracking and search reporting continue after the move.
- A list of the tools your site uses. Think booking, payments, email signups, and chat. Each one needs a plan for the new site.
You’ll also want to save your written content, original photo files, and privacy policy or other legal pages. If your builder lets you, download a spreadsheet of your past form submissions and quote requests, too.
Keep your old account open and paid for until the new site is live and you’ve confirmed everything you need has been saved or moved.
The Case for Building on WordPress
Building on WordPress pays off long-term because the platform makes it so easy to customize and scale your website. When you want to add online booking, upgrade to advanced analytics, or fix something that broke, you have plenty of options.
WordPress also puts more of the site in your hands. Your content, files, and hosting account can all be in your name. Make sure your agreement with your website designer spells that out.
Switching takes some work up front, but the new site can grow and thrive along with your business.