Leaving GoDaddy Website Builder without losing your domain, email or rankings.
A lot of small businesses start on GoDaddy’s builder because the domain was already there. Leaving is straightforward once you know which pieces are separate: the domain, the email and the website are three different things, and only the website has to move.
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Websites I have built for Kentucky businesses
Leaving GoDaddy Website Builder: the short answer
You do not have to leave GoDaddy to leave the GoDaddy Website Builder. Keep the domain registered where it is, keep the email where it is, and rebuild the website somewhere you own, usually WordPress. Then point only the website records at the new site and redirect every old page address.
GoDaddy documents a way to export store products to a spreadsheet file. I have not found a GoDaddy tool that exports the pages and design in a form another platform can use, so plan the move as a careful rebuild with redirects, not a copy.
Signs it is time to leave the builder
A builder is a reasonable way to get online. It stops being reasonable when the website starts holding the business back. The usual signs:
- The one feature you need is not there: a quote form that asks the right questions, a booking calendar with real limits, a store with your rules.
- You cannot control the details search engines read, or you renamed a page and had no way to redirect the old address.
- It looks like a template, because it is one, and your competitors’ sites look better.
- It is slow on a phone, and you cannot change how it is built.
- You are paying every year for a site you can never take with you.
If none of that is true and the site is doing its job, stay. A move costs time and money, and it has to buy you something.
Know the separate pieces before you touch anything
Most problems in a move come from treating the domain, the email and the website as one thing. They are separate products, often all billed by GoDaddy:
- The domain registration. You lease the name from a registrar. It can stay at GoDaddy forever; moving the website does not require transferring it.
- The DNS records. The address book that says where the website lives and where email goes. Only the website records need to change.
- The email. Your mailboxes may be with GoDaddy, Google, Microsoft or someone else. They run on mail records that should not change when the website moves.
- The website. The builder subscription. This is the only piece you are replacing.
Builder or WordPress hosting? GoDaddy sells both, and they move differently. Its help center files the builder under Websites + Marketing, while its WordPress hosting is a separate product whose backups include the site’s files and database. If your site already runs on WordPress at GoDaddy, it is not a builder site: it can be copied to another host whole, and the rebuild below does not apply. Either way, the domain and the email are separate subscriptions from the website plan.
Before anything else, confirm you can log in to the GoDaddy account that holds the domain, with two-step verification on a phone you control. My free domain ownership lookup shows the registrar, the expiry date, the DNS provider and the mail provider for any domain, so you know what you are working with.
What you can take with you
For a store, GoDaddy’s help center describes exporting products from a Websites + Marketing online store to a spreadsheet file, either all of them, a category or a selection. That gives a new store a starting point for product names and prices, though everything should be checked by hand after import.
Do not count on the builder’s own backup to carry the rest. GoDaddy’s builder backup page says a website backup covers only the site’s sections, text and settings, not blogs, products, appointments or images.
For everything else, plan to collect it yourself:
- Every page and its address. Write down the full URL of each one. These become your redirect list.
- The text, copied out page by page.
- The images, downloaded at the best size you can get, and better still, the originals from your own computer or photographer.
- Blog posts, with their dates and addresses.
- Forms, with every question and where each one sends its email.
- Tracking and verification: Google Analytics, Search Console, any Facebook pixel, and any verification codes in the site’s settings.
That inventory is the most important hour of the whole move.
The move, step by step
- Inventory the old site as above, and note which pages bring in visitors and calls.
- Build the new site privately on a staging address while the builder site keeps running. You review it page by page.
- Rebuild the forms and test them. Send a real submission from each one and confirm it arrives in the right inbox, not in spam.
- Map every old address to its new one and set each as a permanent redirect on the new site.
- Change only the website records in DNS to point at the new host. Leave the mail records alone.
- Check everything live: every page, every redirect, every form, the phone links, the security certificate.
- Tell Google: submit the new sitemap in Search Console and watch it for the following weeks.
- Cancel the builder last, once the new site has run cleanly for a while. Cancel the builder plan only, not the domain or the email.
That is the same order I use on every move to WordPress.
Keep your email working through the move
Email breaks in a move for two reasons: someone switches the domain’s nameservers without copying every record, or someone deletes the old setup before checking what depended on it.
- Change records, not nameservers, unless you have copied every existing record first.
- Leave the MX records alone. They decide where your mail is delivered.
- Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC before and after, so mail from your domain still authenticates. My free SPF, DKIM and DMARC checker reads them for any domain.
- Send the website’s form mail through an authenticated service. A new site that sends notifications from an unauthenticated server is the most common reason form emails go missing.
Keep the rankings you have earned
Google has learned your old addresses. If they stop working, the visitors and the rankings attached to them leak away. Builder addresses rarely match the structure of a new site, so every one needs a permanent redirect to the page that replaces it, including old blog posts and product pages.
Carry over page titles and descriptions where they were working, keep the same main phrases on the pages that rank, and check Search Console for errors after the switch. A move done this way keeps what you have; a faster, better-built site can grow from there. The detail is in website redesign that keeps your rankings.
Where to go instead
If you are leaving because you want ownership, features and full control, WordPress is the usual answer, and it is what I build on here in Louisville for clients across Kentucky and beyond. If you only want a nicer editor and no upkeep, another builder may suit you better, and I compare them honestly:
Whichever you choose, keep the domain in an account you control, so the next decision is yours too.
Stay on GoDaddy’s builder if, leave if
Stay if
- The site is a few pages, it does its job and you update it yourself without trouble.
- You have no feature the builder is blocking.
- You do not have time for a move this season.
Leave if
- The site needs to do something the builder cannot.
- You want control over search details, speed and design.
- You want to own the site and be free to choose a host and a developer.
- You are ready to spend a few weeks doing it properly, with redirects.
Frequently asked questions
Can I export my GoDaddy website to WordPress?
Not as a working site. GoDaddy describes exporting store products to a spreadsheet file, but the pages and design have to be rebuilt in WordPress, with the text, images and posts carried over and every old address redirected.
Do I have to transfer my domain away from GoDaddy?
No. The domain can stay registered at GoDaddy. You only change the website records so the name points at the new site. Transfer it later if you prefer another registrar.
Will my GoDaddy email stop working when I move the website?
Not if the mail records are left alone. Email and the website run on separate DNS records. Cancel only the website builder plan, never the email subscription, and check the mail records before and after the switch.
Will I lose my Google rankings?
Not if every old address gets a permanent redirect to its new page, titles and descriptions carry over and the new sitemap goes to Search Console. Moves without redirects are the ones that lose rankings.
How long does moving off the GoDaddy builder take?
It depends mostly on the number of pages, products and forms and how quickly content is approved. The old site stays live the whole time, so there is no rush. How long a website takes explains what sets the schedule.
What does a move cost?
It depends on the size of the site and what the new one needs to do. I quote it from a short written scope after one conversation, so the number matches the work.
The discipline behind a move: count it before and after.
Lucas Play’s catalog lived on an older store. Before launching the new one, I moved and checked 1,374 products, 1,763 photos, 60 categories, 70 tags and 20 brands, and crawled 1,486 addresses so every one answered.
A small builder site has far fewer pieces, but the method is the same: list everything, move it, then prove nothing was left behind before anyone cancels the old plan.
Ready to leave the builder?
Send me your website address. I will look at what is there, what the domain and email are set up to do, and tell you exactly what a move involves before anything changes.
