Migrating or refreshing your existing website
Most small businesses do not need a new website from scratch. They need the one they have to look current, load properly on a phone, and stop losing inquiries. Avallon imports your existing site so you keep the content, then rebuilds the design around it. Nothing about your current site changes until you decide to publish and point your domain at the new one.
Who does what
Avallon handles
- Captures your pages as they render in a browser, including styles and images
- Keeps page titles, copy, images, phone numbers, and email links
- Lets you choose which pages to import
- Shows an import summary: pages imported, images saved, pages skipped and why
- Builds four redesign concepts from your real content
You provide
- Review every imported page for out-of-date prices, staff, and services
- Check that forms, phone links, and maps still work
- Decide which old URLs matter and note them for redirects
- Point your domain at the new site when you are ready
Outside the platform
- Changing your domain registrar, DNS, or email settings for you
- Automatic redirects from your old URL structure
- Recovering content that only existed inside a plugin or app
What the import keeps
The importer opens your site in a real browser and saves each page as it renders, so it works with most site builders and content systems. Text, headings, images, and contact links come across. Images are downloaded and stored with your new site so they do not depend on your old host staying online.
Page titles and the homepage meta description are preserved. Meta descriptions on inner pages are not carried across automatically, so review them in the SEO panel before you publish.
What to review before publishing
- Prices, hours, staff names, and service lists, especially anything that changed since the old site was written
- Contact forms: submit a test message and check it arrives in your inbox
- Phone and email links on a mobile device
- Embedded maps, booking widgets, or third-party scripts, which may need to be re-added
- Page titles and descriptions in the SEO panel
Old URLs and redirects
Imported pages are saved as flat pages named after the last part of the old address. A page at /services/interior-detailing becomes /interior-detailing. If your old pages have links from other sites or rank in search, those addresses matter.
Avallon does not create redirects from old URLs automatically. Keep a short list of the pages that matter, and either keep the same page names where you can, or set redirects at your domain provider after you switch. This is a known gap and is on our roadmap.
Switching over
Your new site is published to an Avallon-hosted address first. Test it there. When you are satisfied, connect your domain (a Pro feature) and update DNS at your registrar. Your old site stays live until that DNS change, so there is no gap. Avallon does not change your email settings; only the records you choose to update change.
Limitations to know
- Sites that render only through JavaScript may not import. In that case you can upload an HTML file instead.
- Sites behind a security checkpoint that blocks automated browsers cannot be imported directly.
- Nested URL structures are flattened; plan redirects for pages that matter.
- There is no staging preview on a separate address before publish; you review inside the editor, then publish to the hosted address.
Questions owners ask
No. Reading your site does not change it. Your current site stays live until you point your domain at the new one.
Yes. Your domain stays with your registrar. Connecting it to the new site is a Pro feature; on the free plan the site lives on an Avallon-hosted address.
The import summary lists skipped pages and why. You can import a page individually, or rebuild it from the content with a plain-language edit.
Next step
Free to start. You review everything before it is published.
