Venue Website Migration: Import Your Existing Site and Review It First

Venue website migration without the blank page

A common reason to put off a new platform is the website. Dozens of pages of words and photos that somebody wrote, shot and organized years ago, and a menu with names nobody remembers deciding.

Venue website migration should start with what you already have. VenueChief’s website import reads your current site and builds a plan, so you can import an existing website into a VenueChief site with one review step instead of copying and pasting each page.

What is new: three steps, and a plan you approve

You find it under Venue Settings, in the Import a Website tab beside Pages. Pick the venue, then:

1. Address. Paste your current website address. VenueChief reads the sitemap or follows links on the same site, over HTTPS, up to a limit of 120 pages.
2. Plan. See every page it found, with some pre-unticked and a reason. Each page is imported as content, matched to a built-in page that replaces it, or flagged because the match is unclear. Untick anything you do not want.
3. Run. The import creates the pages and reports what it did.

Nothing is written until you approve the plan.

What comes across

• The words. Headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, forms and FAQs become real blocks you can edit. Scripts are removed and named in the report.
• The pictures. Pictures on the same site are copied into an “imported” folder in your library, so they survive when the old host is switched off.
• The structure. Page titles, descriptions, noindex settings and original addresses carry over, and your menu follows your old site’s own wording and order. Your old home page arrives hidden, as a page of its own, unless you choose to replace your front page.
• The look. Colors and fonts are approximated, and a dark site stays dark.
• The booking pages. Where your old site had a Book online or Shop page, the import links to the working VenueChief page rather than copying a lookalike.
• The products. Tick Read their products and a draft catalog is filed for review under Data migration. Nothing goes on sale.

Changed your mind? Undo it.

The undo is one action. Imported pages are archived, your front page is restored and your theme values go back. The pictures it copied and the address mappings stay, so a second try does not start from zero.

Before you start

A short checklist helps the import go well. Make sure your current site is public and uses HTTPS, that its content is in the page itself rather than drawn by scripts, and that you know which pages you actually want. Decide whether your old home page should arrive hidden or replace your front page. Choose the venue you are importing into. And keep your old site running until you have checked the new one, because venue website migration is a review job, not a leap of faith.

Who it suits

Any venue with an existing website that wants to switch: a karting track with a ten-year-old site, a sim racing center with a hand-built one, an entertainment center with a site from an agency. After the import, the website builder is how you refine the pages.

What it changes on a busy week

• Copying page by page becomes reviewing a plan.
• The new site starts with the words and the photos from your current site, ready to review.
• If a page is wrong, it is wrong in one place that you can edit.

Availability and fine print

The import is available to anyone who can edit venue policies. It is not a pixel-perfect clone: expect to check every page. See pricing for what your plan includes.

Addresses that change, and old pages replaced by a built-in page, are forwarded with temporary redirects. Permanent redirects are set at your domain host or CDN. Sites that rely on JavaScript to show their content can import almost empty, and one run takes roughly a second per page, so very large sites are out of scope. A second run does not notice pages you deleted, and prices read from a shop are imported as text only.