How to import an existing website

Site import turns a client's live website into a Mount Olympus site made of real sections and widgets you can edit. Use it when a client moves to you with a site they already have.

How to import a site

1. Go to Websites, click Import, then Import a site.
2. Under Client, pick the client. Or leave it on New client… and type the business name.
3. Under Website address, enter the site's address (for example https://www.example.com).
4. Click Import. We look for the site's pages and blog posts. This can take a few minutes on a big site.
5. On Choose what to import, untick anything you don't need. Use Filter by title or address to find pages, and Select all or None for each list.
6. Check the time and the credits at the bottom, then click Start import.

The import runs in the background. You can close the page, and we email you when it's done. Imports that still need something are listed under Imports in progress, with Pick pages, Continue or Retry. A failed import stays in the list for a week.

Choose what to import

• Pages and Blog posts are listed separately, each with "N of M selected".
• Each row shows the page title, its address (click it to open the old page) and where we found it (sitemap, link or feed).
• The bottom line shows how many pages and posts you picked, about how long it takes (about 1–2 minutes a page) and the cost.
• The first page is the homepage. If you untick everything, Start import is grayed out.

How the pages are rebuilt

Zeus rebuilds each page you picked and checks it against the original:

• Each section is rendered and measured. Text whose color got lost gets the original color back, and columns that sit side by side on the old site stay side by side.
• At the end, every color that is exactly one of the brand colors the import put in the theme is linked to it. Change Primary or Secondary later and those places change too. White, black, grays and every other color stay as they were on the old site.
• The header, footer, colors and fonts are built once, from the homepage, and used on every page. If the homepage has no menu (a landing page, say), they come from the next page that has one.
• The header menu matches the old menu: the same items in the same order, with their drop-downs. The phone menu lists the same items. If the old site's phone header couldn't be read, tablets and phones get the logo, the main button and a menu button, and the header's other links and buttons move into the phone menu. Pages that weren't in the old menu are still imported, but hidden from page-based menus.
• A part that's exactly the same on several pages, like a sign-up band or an FAQ, is rebuilt once and reused.
• Words styled inside a paragraph (bold, italic, another color or font) keep their look. Collapsed FAQ answers and content that fades in as you scroll come over too.
• Fonts come over with every weight the text uses, including accent fonts like a script word in a heading.
• A video behind a section, like a hero video, stays full width at the old site's height.
• Columns, cards and buttons keep their size and place: a button keeps its label on one line, a row of equal columns stays one row, a picture set beside running text gets its own column, and boxes laid on a card become the card's contents.
• Widgets are matched to ours: review sliders become a testimonial carousel, titled picture grids a gallery, FAQs keep their fonts and colors, and forms with words inside the fields keep them as placeholders.
• Section backgrounds come over with the section: wave and slant dividers along its edges, a background photo that stays put as you scroll, and a see-through tint over the section's color.
• Images, fonts and videos are copied into the site, and links to old pages point at the new pages.

Sites built with some website builders are recognized when we scan them. Their pages import with their own layout, styles and widgets instead of being rebuilt by Zeus. They cost the same credits per page as any other import, and the picker shows the price at the bottom. Keep such a site published while it imports, because its layout styles are read from the live site.

Sites built with Elementor, Divi, WordPress blocks, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, GoDaddy or Shopify are read block by block, the way the builder made them:

• Each block becomes the matching widget: headings and text, buttons, pictures, galleries and collages, sliders (every slide, including the hidden ones), tabs (every tab's content), FAQs, testimonials, counters, forms, maps, videos, social icons and blog lists.
• Columns keep the builder's own widths. Buttons keep their own padding, line height, border and width.
• The header and footer are built the same way: the logo, the menu with its drop-downs, other link menus, the buttons and the menu button. A see-through header over the first section stays over it.
• Shop blocks, like product grids, collections and the cart, are left out for now, and the report says so.

Sites in more than one language

If the site has copies of its pages in other languages (like /fr/ or /es/ addresses), Choose what to import shows Languages found, for example English (17) · French (12). Only the main language is ticked to start with.

• Tick a language to add all of its pages and posts at once, or untick it to take them out. The count and cost update as you go.
• Copies of the same page show as one row with a small tag per language (EN · FR). Click a tag to add or leave out just that copy.
• We tell languages apart from what each page says about itself and from language folders in the address. A folder like /it/ that isn't a language ("IT services") stays a normal folder.

A ticked language doesn't come in as extra pages. Each of its pages becomes the translation of its main-language page:

• The language is added to the site as a Draft language, at the same address as before where possible (French at /fr). Only you see it, in previews and share links, until you set it to Live in Settings → Languages.
• Each French page keeps the old site's French layout ("Own layout in French"), its own address, SEO title and description.
• The French header and footer come in too, read from the French homepage. French blog posts become the French versions of their posts.
• Each language version is rebuilt and charged like a page, and the price shown includes them.
• A French page whose main-language page you didn't pick, or a language a site can't have yet, comes in as a page of its own. The picker and the report say so.

In the report, Relink and translate with Zeus next to a language puts its pages back on the main-language layout, then Zeus translates them. It shows the cost and asks first. Addresses and SEO titles stay. Use it when you'd rather every language share one design. See How to make a site in more than one language.

The import report

When it's done you see Import complete, with:

• Pages, Sections, Files copied and Blog posts counts;
• Widgets created, and the list of Pages (each opens in the editor);
• each language that came in, with its pages, posts and whether its header and footer came in;
• Needs a look: things to check, with links to each page. If some text came out hard to read, click Fix readability;
• Notes: things we did or skipped, for example pages that couldn't be read;
• Rebuilt pages, and how many redirects were added.

Click Open in editor to start working on the site. The new site is a draft until you publish it.

What else comes over

• Photos are also listed in the client's media, in a folder named Imported from the old domain (for example "Imported from example.com"), marked Imported, with the old alt text. They're the same files the site uses, not copies. Importing the same site again doesn't list them twice. See the media library.
• Redirects are added for page addresses that changed, so old links keep working. Old blog post addresses (like /post/… or /2023/04/…) redirect to the imported posts once they're published.
• Blog posts arrive as drafts. Every post you ticked comes in, even one the blog feed doesn't list.

Examples

• A plumber moving from a WordPress site: enter the address, untick the old "Thank you" and test pages, and import the rest. The menu, service pages and blog come over, with redirects for the old addresses.
• A dentist with English and Spanish pages: tick Spanish under Languages found. The Spanish pages become the Spanish versions of the English ones, as a Draft language you check before putting it live.
• A big site with 150 pages: pick only the pages that matter, start it and close the page. You get an email when it's done.

Limits and what it can't do

• Up to 200 pages and 1,000 blog posts per import.
• Pages the site's robots.txt blocks aren't imported.
• Very long pages are read up to about 16,000 pixels tall.
• A page where the old site showed an error or block page instead of its content (access denied, a bot check, a site error, a 404, a "domain not connected" page) isn't imported. It's listed under Notes with the reason.
• The old site's cookie notice isn't imported. Set up the site's own cookie banner instead.
• A big site imports in stretches of a few minutes, each one saving its work. Nothing is skipped to fit the time. If an import is interrupted on our side, it carries on from its last save within about 2 minutes.

Credits

• Each page you import costs credits (10 credits a page at the standard price), whether Zeus rebuilds it or the site's builder is recognized. The exact price shows at the bottom of Choose what to import and on Start import.
• You need enough credits for your whole selection to start. Each page is charged as it finishes, and pages that fail are free. Once started, the import always finishes.
• Blog posts, images, redirects and Fix readability are free.
• Relink and translate with Zeus in the report costs 1 credit a page for that language. The header and footer are free.

Who can use it

Agency people with the Mount Olympus tool. A team member limited to some clients can import only into those clients. Clients can't import sites.

Troubleshooting

• "Enter a valid website address": the address couldn't be read as a web address. Type it in full, like https://www.example.com.
• "Choose a client, or name a new one": pick a client, or type a business name for a new one.
• "A client with that name already exists": another client already has that name, and you don't have access to it. Pick a client you work on, or use a different name.
• "That address couldn't be reached": the site didn't answer. Check the address opens in your browser, then try again.
• "No pages could be read from that address": the site answered, but no pages could be read (it may block visits like ours). Check the site is live and not behind a password.
• "Pick at least one page — the site needs a homepage.": tick at least one page before you start.
• "Label needs N credits — you have M. Buy credits to continue.": you don't have enough credits for the whole selection. Buy credits, or untick some pages.
• "None of the selected pages could be rebuilt — see the notes for each page": every page failed. Open Rebuilt pages to see each page's reason, then click Retry from this step.
• "The import page lost touch with the import. It carries on in the background — you'll get an email when it's done.": your connection dropped. Nothing is lost. Wait for the email, or open the import again from Imports in progress.
• "Import stopped": click Retry from this step. It carries on from where it stopped, without redoing finished pages or posts.
• Some text is hard to read on the new site: click Fix readability in the report.
• A page or post is missing: look under Notes in the report. A page that showed an error, or a post that couldn't be read after a few tries, is listed there by name.