Add to Chrome — first conversion freeWhy this conversion is different
Static sites are fast and cheap to host, but they push every copy change through a git commit and a rebuild. That is the usual reason people migrate: the marketing or client team wants to edit without a developer in the loop.
The design is rarely the problem — losing it is. A rebuild in a page builder never lands quite the same, and re-templating by hand costs days. Converting the built output keeps the design byte-for-byte while WordPress takes over the publishing workflow.
Plan the migration in two tracks: design (this conversion) and content (WordPress import). Convert one representative page per template — home, listing, single post, contact — and then move the posts across with a WordPress importer.
How it works, step by step
1. Build and serve the production site
Run the generator's build command and serve the output, or just use the live URL. Avoid the dev server, which injects live-reload scripts.
2. Capture one page per template
Home, a listing page, a single article and any special landing page. Each capture folds into the same theme and internal links keep working.
3. Install, then import the content
Upload the theme .zip, activate it, then bring your Markdown or HTML content into WordPress with an importer plugin. From then on the team publishes in wp-admin.
What gets converted — and what doesn't
Converted
- Layout, typography scale and spacing exactly as built
- Compiled CSS from any pipeline: Sass, PostCSS, Tailwind, vanilla
- Fonts, images, SVGs, favicons and Open Graph images referenced on the page
- Navigation between captured pages
- CSS animations and scroll-reveal styling in their rendered state
Not converted
- Markdown content files — those are imported into WordPress separately
- Generator-specific features such as collections, taxonomies or shortcodes
- Search built on a client-side index, which needs a WordPress equivalent
- Build-time redirects and headers configured at the host level
A real example
Before
A Hugo documentation and marketing site: home, docs index, docs article, pricing and blog, deployed to a CDN.
After
One WordPress theme covering those five templates, with the Markdown articles imported as WordPress posts and pages.
Five captures build the theme; the content is then imported so editors work in wp-admin while the design stays identical.
Benefits
- Keeps a design the team already approved instead of rebuilding it
- Removes the deploy step from everyday content changes
- Same workflow whatever the generator — Jekyll, Hugo, Eleventy, Astro, Gatsby
- Runs locally, so client sites never pass through a third-party server
Limits to know before you start
- Content migration is a separate step from design conversion
- Very large sites need one capture per distinct template, not per URL
- Client-side search and comments need WordPress plugins afterwards
Frequently asked questions
How do I migrate a static website to WordPress?
Convert the built site into a WordPress theme with Themify — one capture per template — install the theme, then import your content into WordPress with an importer plugin.
Does this work with Jekyll, Hugo, Eleventy or Astro?
Yes. They all output HTML and CSS, which is what gets captured, so the generator behind the build makes no difference.
Will my URLs stay the same?
WordPress controls permalinks after migration. Match your old paths in Settings → Permalinks, or add redirects, so you keep the SEO value of existing pages.
What happens to my Markdown posts?
They stay content: import them into WordPress. The theme handles presentation only.