Approaches to Re-Templating

Re-Templating refers to the situation in which you want to restyle your site using a new Webflow template as a source.

Webflow does not support "themes" in the way that platforms like Wordpress do. All of your structure, style, and interactions are mixed in inseparably from your content.

That approach gives you maximum flexibility, but it also makes re-templating not much different from starting over.

Approaches

There are two basic approaches we'll explore.

1 - Rebuild the site

Buy your template, and then rebuild your new site in the template.

This involves;

1. Copy-pasting all of your static content
2. Exporting and re-importing all of your images and videos
3. Rebuilding your CMS, exporting your old content and importing it into the new CMS.
4. Mapping old paths to new ones ( for any changes ) with 301 redirects
5. Setting up new hosting, assigning your domains, and shutting down the old hosting, when you're ready to bring it live.

This is the essentially same approach you'd use if you were rebuilding e.g. a Wordpress site on Webflow.

It's most suitable when;

• Your site overall is relatively small and uncomplicated
• You do not have much CMS content, and it does not have complex relationships
• You do not have a ton of images and videos
• You are not using important Logic flows
• You do not have much custom code
• You do not have a lot of complex external integration or automations
• Your want to make major structural and navigational changes to the site, as part of the re-design

2 - Merge the template into the existing site

Buy your template, and then merge the new design into your existing site.

This involves;

1. Copy-pasting layout portions from the template to your existing site
2. Rewiring your CMS and collection list bindings to the new layout
3. "Internally transforming" components like your site-wide nav and footer
4. Dealing with class conflicts and standardization
5. Adjusting custom code, nocode attributes, etc to use your new layout and elements

It's most suitable when;

• Your site overall is large and complex
• You have a lot of CMS content, and/or it has complex relationships
• You have a ton of images and videos
• You have a lot of custom code
• You have a lot of complex external integration or automations
• Your do not want to make major structural and navigational changes to the site, as part of the re-design

SEO Considerations

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-its-easy-to-mess-up-a-site-revamp/504966/

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