Joomla to Webflow:
step-by-step guide

What this Joomla to Webflow migration guide covers

This guide covers the entire process of moving from Joomla to Webflow — from auditing your existing site to launching and monitoring the new one.

Who this guide is for

This guide is for site owners, marketing teams, and web professionals running Joomla-powered websites who want to move to a more modern, visually-driven platform without losing their content or search rankings.

When migrating from Joomla to Webflow makes sense

Joomla is a capable CMS, but it's heavily developer-dependent and increasingly difficult to maintain as web standards evolve. Migrating to Webflow makes sense when you want to:

• Replace a developer-dependent CMS with a visual-first platform
• Reduce maintenance overhead from extensions, templates, and updates
• Give marketing teams direct control over content and layout changes
• Improve front-end performance and Core Web Vitals scores
• Move to a platform built for modern WebOps workflows

What's included in this guide

Beyond the step-by-step migration process, this guide also covers pre-migration preparation, design rebuild strategy, common pitfalls, and timeline estimates based on site size and complexity.

Step-by-step: How to migrate from Joomla to Webflow

Joomla migrations require careful planning because of the platform's extension-heavy architecture and non-standard content structures. Our 8-step process is designed to handle that complexity while keeping your SEO intact and your content complete.

Step 1 – Audit your existing Joomla website

A comprehensive audit of your Joomla site is the foundation of a successful migration. Without it, you risk carrying over technical debt and missing high-value content. Here's what to cover:

• Inventory all content types: List every article, category, menu item, and custom content type in your Joomla installation. Include URLs, titles, and meta descriptions in your spreadsheet.
• Identify high-value pages: Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to flag high-traffic pages and those with strong backlink profiles. These are migration priorities.
• Audit extensions: Document all active Joomla extensions — components, modules, and plugins — and note which functionality each provides. Determine which will need Webflow equivalents or replacements.
• Review URL structures: Joomla URLs can be complex due to menu item aliases and SEF URL settings. Export a complete URL list and assess what should carry over versus what should be restructured.
• Document technical debt: Identify outdated templates, unused extensions, and low-value content that shouldn't be migrated to the new site.

Step 2 – Define your Webflow site architecture

Joomla's component-based structure doesn't map directly to Webflow, so this step is about translating what you have into Webflow's model.

• Convert Joomla content types: Static pages like About, Contact, and Services become static Webflow pages. Joomla articles organized by category should become Webflow CMS Collections.
• Define CMS Collections and fields: Plan the structure of each Collection — field types, required fields, and any custom data specific to that content type.
• Map dynamic relationships: Joomla's category and tag system can be replicated using Webflow's Reference and Multi-Reference fields. Plan these relationships before building.
• Clean up URL structures: Joomla SEF URLs are often unnecessarily nested. Use this migration as an opportunity to simplify and standardize your URL patterns.
• Decide what to retire: Leave behind content that has no SEO value or business purpose on the new site.

Step 3 – Map SEO, URLs, and redirects

Joomla's URL structure and SEO setup often require significant cleanup during migration. Careful mapping ensures you don't lose rankings in the process.

• Export all Joomla URLs: Use Screaming Frog or a similar crawler to generate a full URL export from your current Joomla site.
• Map old URLs to new Webflow slugs: Document every URL change and match it to the new Webflow destination. Pay particular attention to category and article URL patterns.
• Transfer SEO metadata: Extract page titles, meta descriptions, alt texts, and canonical tags from Joomla and prepare them for Webflow's SEO fields or CMS Collection fields.
• Configure 301 redirects: Set up redirects in Webflow for every URL that's changing. Use the platform's bulk redirect import to handle large volumes efficiently.

Step 4 – Rebuild design and layout in Webflow

Joomla's template-based design system is replaced entirely by Webflow's visual Designer. This is your opportunity to modernize the site's look while building a cleaner, more maintainable front-end.

Start by establishing a design system in Webflow before building any pages. Define color variables, typography styles, and spacing values globally. Create reusable components for common UI elements — buttons, cards, navigation, and footers — to ensure consistency across the site.

Rebuild layouts responsively from the start. Webflow's breakpoint system gives precise control over how designs adapt across screen sizes, but it requires deliberate setup rather than automatic inheritance.

Resist the temptation to replicate Joomla's layout structure exactly. Use the migration as an opportunity to improve the information architecture and UX, not just recreate what was there before.

Step 5 – Migrate content and CMS data

Joomla stores content in a MySQL database, which means extraction requires either database-level exports or extension-based tools. Here's how to approach it:

• Export content from Joomla: Use Joomla's built-in export tools or a third-party extension to extract articles and category data into CSV format. For complex custom content types, a database export may be required.
• Clean and reformat for Webflow: Webflow's CSV import has specific requirements. Review and restructure the exported data to match Webflow's field format, paying attention to rich text content, image URLs, and reference field structure.
• Handle media files: Download images and media from Joomla's Asset Manager and re-upload them to Webflow. Images with public URLs can be referenced directly in the CSV import.
• Import and validate: Import CSV files into Webflow CMS Collections and spot-check a sample of items from each collection before moving on to the next step.

Step 6 – Reconnect integrations and scripts

Joomla's functionality is largely delivered through extensions, most of which have no direct Webflow equivalent. This step is about systematically rebuilding what you need on the new platform.

Start with forms. Rebuild contact and lead capture forms using Webflow's Form Builder. Reconnect form submissions to any CRM, email marketing, or automation tools you were using, and test the full submission flow before launch.

Re-add analytics and tracking through Webflow's Project Settings. This covers Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, and similar tools. For page-specific tracking or embeds, use Webflow's Page Settings.

For Joomla extensions that handled specific functionality — search, membership, e-commerce — find Webflow-compatible replacements or third-party integrations. Tools like Zapier and Make can bridge gaps where native Webflow integrations don't exist.

Step 7 – QA, performance, and SEO validation

Joomla sites often carry significant performance debt from extension bloat and legacy templates. QA is an opportunity to confirm the new Webflow site is actually better, not just different.

• Visual and layout review: Compare every page against its Joomla counterpart across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Check for layout inconsistencies, broken images, and typography issues.
• CMS content validation: Sample items from each CMS Collection to confirm field accuracy, correct image rendering, and working internal links.
• Performance testing: Use PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and GTmetrix on key pages. Confirm the new site meets Core Web Vitals thresholds on both desktop and mobile.
• Redirect verification: Crawl original Joomla URLs and verify that every changed path returns a 301 redirect to the correct new destination.
• SEO audit: Validate page titles, meta descriptions, heading hierarchies, canonical URLs, and sitemap completeness before launch.

Step 8 – Launch and post-launch monitoring

When QA is complete, point your domain to Webflow, publish the site, and immediately submit the updated sitemap to Google Search Console. Monitor the following in the weeks after launch:

• Search Console: Watch for crawl errors, indexing issues, and pages returning unexpected status codes.
• Traffic and rankings: Some fluctuation is normal post-migration. Sustained drops after the initial settling period indicate a specific problem worth investigating.
• Extension-replaced functionality: Confirm that everything you replaced from Joomla's extension stack is working correctly in its Webflow equivalent.

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