{"id":919,"date":"2018-12-26T20:41:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T18:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/?p=919"},"modified":"2018-12-26T20:45:22","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T18:45:22","slug":"how-to-convert-your-html-site-to-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/how-to-convert-your-html-site-to-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Convert Your HTML Site to WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you came of age during the 90’s, you likely remember watching \u201cFriends\u201d on TV, eating cereal Saturday mornings while watching cartoons, and staying up late to play video games using your Game Boy Color. When you searched the web during that time, all websites had nothing but text and static HTML. Fast-forward two decades and \u201cFriends\u201d is on streaming services or syndication, Saturday cartoons have been replaced with entire channels dedicated to the genre, and handheld video games are most commonly played on your mobile phone.<\/p>\n

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HTML only websites have given way to websites that are more complex. They provide a more immersive, exciting, and enjoyable experience for visitors as well as website creators. A lot of this new flexibility is thanks to projects like WordPress<\/a>. Now, just about anyone who installs WordPress can quickly create an exciting website with functionality that was not thought of decades ago. They don\u2019t need code, and they don\u2019t need HTML.<\/p>\n

What can you do if you want to migrate your HTML only site to a WordPress site? Thankfully, there are a number of options available to address this problem.<\/p>\n

Three Ways to Migrate Your HTML Site to WordPress<\/h2>\n
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  1. Manually Make a WordPress Site Based on a Static HTML Site<\/strong>
    \nDepending on your level of expertise with coding, this may not be a difficult option, or it may be a daunting task. The idea is to take the code that you already have and use that as a base in creating WordPress theme files. You\u2019ll need a little bit of PHP, CSS, and HTML experience. But, at the end of the day, you\u2019re going to be doing a lot of copying and pasting.<\/p>\n

    The good side is that you will have a WordPress theme that looks like your original site. The downside is that you won\u2019t have the WordPress flexibility that allows you to use widgets and edit your site on WordPress’ back end.<\/li>\n

  2. Take a Pre-Made Theme and Then Move Your Content over to It<\/strong>
    \nWordPress has so many pre-made themes that you will likely find one that has a similar feel and style to the site you have. You can simply adjust it so that its     design and appearance<\/a> resembles your old website. If you do this, you will have complete access to all of the features of WordPress. In the future, you can expand that existing theme, taking advantage of the best that WordPress has to offer.<\/li>\n
  3. Pay Someone to Do It for You<\/strong>
    \nThis option has the benefit of being the easiest option on our list. Depending on your budget, you can find someone who\u2019s experienced at migrating HTML only sites to WordPress to do it for you. The downside is that you miss out on getting a feel for how WordPress works. Once you understand how WordPress works, you will be able to do a lot of the adjusting yourself when needed. Something that not many know is that some of     Canada\u2019s best web hosting<\/a> companies offer HTML to WordPress migrations for free.<\/li>\n

    How to Manually Make a WordPress Site Based on Static HTML<\/h2>\n

    Start by creating a theme folder<\/strong> with basic files. It\u2019s a lot like when you create a directory on your computer, so you can pick whatever name you want. Then, use a code editor to create various text files. They should have the following names:<\/p>\n