Project Overview: A 20-Year Framing Company on a Bad Platform
AllPro Framing LLC (allproframingmn.com) is family-owned, founded in 2004, and headquartered at 72 10th Ave South, Suite 204, Waite Park MN. They specialize in residential and commercial framing, roofing, siding, and insulation across Central Minnesota. The team is solid. The book of business is solid. The reputation is solid.
The website was the weak link — specifically, the platform. They were on Wix, paying a monthly subscription, dealing with a slow-loading template that looked like 50,000 other contractor sites, and getting buried on Google for the exact local terms they should have been ranking for. Worse: the email was hosted separately through GoDaddy, the domain was registered on GoDaddy, and the whole stack was a tangle of subscriptions held together with duct tape.
They asked us a simple question: “Can you get us off Wix without breaking anything?” Yes. And here’s how.
20+
years in business, finally on a website that matches
11
pages migrated and rebuilt from scratch
0
minutes of email downtime during cutover
$0
monthly Wix subscription — gone forever
The Problem: Why Wix Is the Wrong Platform for Contractors
Wix is a fine platform if you’re running a hobby blog or a one-page portfolio for a side project. It’s the wrong platform for a serious contractor. Here’s why — and these are the same reasons every framing, gutter, concrete, or remodeling business should leave Wix.
- Page speed is brutal. Wix injects megabytes of unnecessary JavaScript, third-party scripts, and bloated CSS into every page. Mobile load times of 5+ seconds are normal. Google penalizes that directly through Core Web Vitals.
- SEO is locked behind a subscription tier. Custom URL slugs, structured data, sitemap control, redirect management — all of it ranges from limited to expensive on Wix. We needed full control to actually rank AllPro for “framing contractor Central Minnesota.”
- Code is unportable. Wix sites can’t be exported. If you ever leave, you start over from zero. There’s no GitHub repo, no source code, no real ownership.
- Boilerplate signature. Every Wix site has a near-identical HTML structure under the hood. Google sees a sea of similar sites and weights the content lower.
- Monthly fees forever. Wix charges $14–$36/month per site, every month, in perpetuity. A custom build pays for itself in under 18 months and never charges you again.
- Email is a separate subscription. Wix doesn’t handle email well, so most contractors run Google Workspace or GoDaddy email separately, multiplying the bills.
Reality check: If you’re a contractor on Wix paying $20–$30/month, you’re paying $240–$360 per year for a slow, limited, non-portable site. Over five years, that’s the same as a one-time custom build that you own forever and that ranks better.
The Migration Tech Stack
Here’s exactly what we moved AllPro Framing onto. Static HTML on Netlify, source-controlled in GitHub, with email continued on Google Workspace and DNS managed through GoDaddy. Nothing exotic. Just the right tool for each job.
HTML5 / CSS3
Vanilla JavaScript
Oswald + Inter Type System
Font Awesome 6.5
Netlify Hosting
GitHub Source Control
Netlify Forms (estimate intake)
GoDaddy DNS
Google Workspace Email
GeneralContractor Schema
Custom Domain (allproframingmn.com)
301 Redirect Map (Wix → new URLs)
The Migration Playbook (Step by Step)
This is the exact sequence we ran for AllPro Framing. If you’re a contractor staring down a Wix migration, this is the playbook. Done in this order, you don’t lose SEO, email, or sleep.
- Inventory the existing Wix site. Crawl every URL, capture every meta description, screenshot every page. The goal: nothing on the new site is worse than what was already there.
- Build the new site in parallel. The new Netlify site goes up at a temporary preview URL. The old Wix site stays live during the build. No customer-facing change yet.
- Rebuild every page from scratch on a clean codebase. Hand-coded HTML. Modern, semantic structure. Real on-page SEO. Real schema markup. Real performance.
- Map the URL redirects. Every old Wix URL gets mapped to its new equivalent. We set 301 redirects in netlify.toml so the moment DNS flips, every old link still resolves to the right page.
- Verify email continuity. Check existing MX records on GoDaddy. Confirm Google Workspace setup. Make sure DNS migration won’t touch email records during the cutover.
- Update DNS records carefully. Point the A and CNAME records to Netlify. Leave MX records alone. SPF, DKIM, DMARC stay intact. Email never blinks.
- Cancel the Wix subscription only AFTER verification. Once the new site is live, every page resolves, and email is verified working — only then do we cancel Wix.
- Submit a new sitemap to Google Search Console. Fresh sitemap.xml, fresh robots.txt, fresh validation. Google starts crawling the faster, schema-loaded version within hours.
- Monitor Search Console for 30 days. Track impressions, click-through rate, and any 404s. Add additional redirects if needed.
What We Built for AllPro Framing
Beyond just lifting the old content over, the new site got significant upgrades. Wix wasn’t just slower — it was missing entire features.
Hand-Built Homepage
Clean hero, founders trust signal (“Family owned, 20+ years”), service overview cards, testimonials, and dual CTAs (call or estimate).
Service Pages
Dedicated services covering residential framing, commercial framing, roofing, siding, and insulation. Each with its own anchor for search.
Project Gallery
Hand-curated photo gallery on gallery.html. Lazy-loaded, mobile-responsive, lightbox-ready.
Free Estimate Page
estimate.html with a structured intake form connected to Netlify Forms. No third-party form builder needed.
Business Cards Page
Custom business-cards.html for in-person handouts and crew distribution. Direct-print ready.
Apply / Careers Page
apply.html for tradespeople. Job fair pages too — banners, flyers, signup sheets, table sign — all hand-built and printable.
Real On-Page SEO
Unique title and meta description per page, GeneralContractor schema, geo tags US-MN, sitemap.xml, robots.txt, OpenGraph + Twitter Card.
Sub-2-Second Load
Static HTML on Netlify’s edge CDN. The same site that was 5+ seconds on Wix now loads in under 2 seconds globally.
The Architecture (vs. What Wix Was Doing)
Visualizing the difference makes it obvious why the new architecture wins.
BEFORE: Wix Stack
Wix Editor (Subscription)
Wix Hosting (Slow)
Limited SEO Control
No Code Export
AFTER: Custom Stack
allproframingmn.com
Netlify CDN
GitHub Repo (Owned)
GoDaddy DNS
Google Workspace Email
Netlify Forms (Estimate)
301 Redirect Map
Schema + Sitemap
Search Console Verified
The Business Outcome
The point of a Wix-to-custom migration isn’t a flashier site. It’s real, durable improvements to speed, ranking, conversion, and total cost of ownership.
Page Speed Tripled
Going from a 5-second Wix mobile load to a sub-2-second static-CDN load is the kind of upgrade you can feel. Every saved second reduces bounce rate. For a contractor whose homeowner leads come from late-night Google searches, this matters more than any visual upgrade.
SEO Foundation Reset
The new site has unique title tags per page, structured data, geo tags, sitemap, OpenGraph data, and clean URL structure. Google now has a real site to index instead of a Wix template. Rankings rebuild within 60–90 days for sites that were previously buried.
Subscription Eliminated
The Wix monthly fee is gone forever. The only ongoing costs are domain renewal (a few bucks a year) and Google Workspace email. Netlify hosting on the starter tier is free for small contractor sites.
Should You Migrate Off Wix?
If you’re a contractor running on Wix and any of these sound like you, yes:
- Your Google rankings have plateaued or declined.
- You feel like the site looks like “every other Wix template.”
- You’re paying $20+/month and can’t get the SEO control you actually need.
- You’ve thought about hiring a real web designer but didn’t know how to handle the migration without breaking email.
- You want to actually own your website, not rent it.
The migration itself is mechanical. We’ve done it for framing, gutters, remodelers, restaurants, and real estate agents. The hardest part is just deciding to do it.
Related Reading
Other migration and contractor case studies on the blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why migrate from Wix to a custom website?
Wix sites are slow, share boilerplate code with hundreds of thousands of other sites, lock you into monthly subscriptions, and limit your SEO control. A custom site built on Netlify with GitHub source control is faster, ranks better, costs less long-term, and is owned outright. For any contractor doing real volume, the math is overwhelming.
Will I lose my SEO if I migrate from Wix?
Not if the migration is done properly. We map every old Wix URL to its new equivalent, set up 301 redirects, preserve meta tags and canonical URLs, and submit a fresh sitemap to Google Search Console. Most clients see improved rankings within 60 to 90 days post-migration because page speed and structured data are dramatically better than what Wix was producing.
Can you keep my email working during the migration?
Yes. We handle the DNS migration carefully, preserving MX records (whether you use Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or another email host) so your email never goes down during the switchover. AllPro Framing kept Google Workspace email through the migration with zero downtime — we verified MX records were untouched before and after the cutover.
How long does a Wix-to-custom migration take?
Most contractor migrations take 2 to 4 weeks from kickoff to launch. We build the new site in parallel, do a final review, then cut DNS over during a low-traffic window. The visible downtime is typically zero to a few minutes.
What does a Wix-to-custom migration cost?
Migrations typically run $1,500–$3,500 depending on the number of pages, photo galleries, and form complexity. Compare that against $20–$30/month on Wix forever. Most migrations pay for themselves in 24–36 months — and after that, you own the site free and clear.
Ready to leave Wix behind?
If you’re a contractor on Wix and you’re ready to own your website instead of rent it, let’s talk. Call or text Jacob at (320) 360-8285, or DM HUNT — we’ll send a free preview and migration roadmap before you commit.