Moving Websites Built with Older Technology into WordPress

WordPress and other Content Management Systems (CMS) are replacing website builders like Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and Adobe Muse. A major benefit of the latest CMS’s is the ability to edit and update the site from any computer browser. DUe to this and the many available add-ons and security features, you may even be considering changing your site over.

When you’re migrating from an older technology to WordPress there are some basic steps you will need to follow to recreate your site. Once in WordPress, you can take advantage of their many 3rd party add-ons, simple interface, and security features. In this guide, we will show you how to move any website over to WordPress. Are you ready to start using WordPress to manage your website?

Assess your Site

The first step is reviewing your site and determining how many pages and images will need to be copied over. Keep in mind you will have to create each page and copy the content over. So, if you have 10 pages you will need to repeat these steps 10 times.

Copy the Text

You will now copy the text over to an editor such as Notepad, Sublime Text, Google Docs, or MS Word. Keep in mind you are only copying the text, so there is no need to worry about the formatting. I recommend saving each page individually so you have a backup of the content available.

1. Highlight the title and text on your page and copy it.
2. Paste it into your text editor.

Copy the Images

After copying the text from your site, you will want to download any images from your pages. It may be easier to organize if you save each page to a different folder.

1. Right-click each image and Save the image to your local computer.
   *Note: In some cases, you may not be allowed to download images from the page directly (right-click disabled). You can always use FTP to download the images directly from your server.

Create a new WordPress Page

It is time to create a Page in WordPress now. You will then have somewhere for your content to go.

1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Click Pages in the navigation menu.
3. Click the Add New button.

Paste the Text

Now, that you created a page you can add your content.

1. Enter your page Title.
2. Paste your text into the page.

Upload Images

After you have your page with text, we will add the images to the page.

1. Click the plus sign (+) with a circle around it on the top left to add a block.
2. Click the Image button.
3. Choose the Upload button, then select and open your image.
4. Choose your styling, options are align left, align center, align right, wide width, and full width.
5. To the right, you can adjust additional settings such as image size, alt text, and link settings.

Congratulations, now you know how to migrate your site to WordPress from older formats such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and Adobe Muse! Now that you have your pages created, you can begin customizing the site. We recommend our WordPress Education Channel if you want to get more familiar with your new CMS.