How to Import an Existing Website into an AI Website Builder

Last verified: August 12, 2026

The Short Answer#

To import an existing website into an AI website builder, start with a representative URL, let the importer discover the site's navigation and sitemap, convert the pages into editable sections, and then review every important link, image, form, and mobile layout before publishing.

Treat import as a migration head start, not a promise of a pixel-perfect clone. The best outcome is an editable site that preserves the useful structure and content of the original while making future changes easier.

Coherence Sites supports this workflow. It opens the source in a rendered browser, combines navigation and footer links with sitemap.xml when available, and imports up to 50 pages into editable site pages.

Import, Rebuild, or Copy?#

These are three different jobs:

Most small-business migrations should begin with import, then deliberately rebuild only the sections that need improvement.

What an AI Website Importer Should Do#

A useful importer needs to do more than download the homepage HTML.

Render the real page#

Many websites assemble navigation, content, and styles in the browser. A rendered-browser import can see more of the page visitors actually see than a basic HTML request.

Discover the important pages#

The importer should inspect navigation and footer links, then use the site's sitemap as another discovery source. This matters because a sitemap may contain articles, service pages, or resources that do not appear in the main menu.

Convert the result into editable structure#

A screenshot is not an editable website. The useful output is a set of sections or blocks that can be reordered, rewritten, removed, and reused.

Make limitations visible#

No general-purpose importer can safely reproduce every application surface. Dashboards, authenticated product experiences, advanced calculators, directories backed by live data, and bespoke interactions may need to remain custom.

How to Import a Website into Coherence Sites#

In Coherence Sites:

1. Open Sites and choose Import from URL.
2. Enter the source URL, site name, and desired Coherence site slug.
3. Choose an automatic, light, or dark theme preference.
4. Start the import and follow its progress from the Sites list.
5. Open the imported site and review the homepage before editing every secondary page.
6. Replace or refine blocks that did not map cleanly.
7. Test the draft, publish it, and verify the public URL.

The Coherence importer starts with the submitted page, discovers same-site URLs from rendered navigation and footer links, adds URLs found in sitemap.xml, removes duplicates, and caps the import at 50 pages. JavaScript-rendered sites are supported, but that does not mean every interactive behavior can be converted.

Read the product instructions in Importing from URL or explore the AI website builder.

What to Review After the Import#

Page inventory#

Compare the imported page list with the pages that actually matter to the business:

• Homepage
• Product or service pages
• Pricing
• About and contact
• Legal pages
• High-traffic articles or resources
• Campaign pages that still receive links

An import cap is a reason to prioritize, not to publish a partial site accidentally.

Navigation and internal links#

Click every primary navigation item, footer link, CTA, and in-page anchor. Redirect old URLs where needed so existing backlinks and search traffic do not land on dead pages.

Images and brand assets#

Coherence may initially hotlink images from the source site. Replace important images with assets you control before retiring the old host. Check logos, image crops, alternative text, and mobile rendering.

Forms#

Do not assume an old embedded form will become a working native form. Rebuild the important inquiry form, map each input to the correct customer record field, and submit a real test. See how to send website form submissions to your CRM.

Metadata and analytics#

Review page titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, analytics, consent tools, pixels, and conversion events. Visual similarity is not proof that the measurement or search setup survived the migration.

Pages That Usually Import Well#

• Small-business homepages
• Service and location pages
• SaaS marketing pages
• Landing pages
• Documentation and help content
• Blogs and resource hubs
• About and contact pages

Pages That Usually Need More Work#

• Logged-in applications
• Dashboards
• Complex ecommerce flows
• Real-time directories
• Calculators with custom logic
• Pages whose content depends on a visitor's account
• Advanced animation or canvas experiences

For a mixed site, import the editable marketing layer and keep the application custom. A migration does not need to force every URL into the same publishing system.

Website Import QA Checklist#

• I have permission to reuse the source site's content and assets.
• Every business-critical page appears in the new page inventory.
• Navigation, footer links, CTAs, and in-page links work.
• Important images no longer depend on a host I plan to shut down.
• Page titles, descriptions, and canonical URLs are correct.
• Forms create the intended customer or lead record.
• Analytics and conversion events fire once, not twice.
• The site works on phone, tablet, and desktop widths.
• Old URLs redirect to their closest new equivalent.
• I have crawled the published site for broken links and accidental noindex tags.

When Coherence Is Not the Right Import Tool#

Do not choose Coherence Sites for a migration that requires exact reproduction of a deeply custom web application. Keep that surface in its existing framework, or plan a dedicated engineering migration.

Coherence is a stronger fit when the goal is to turn a conventional marketing site, docs collection, blog, or resource hub into an editable system connected to the rest of the workspace.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Will an AI website importer create a pixel-perfect copy?#

Not reliably. It should preserve useful structure, content, and visual cues, but custom components and runtime behavior often need manual work. Evaluate the quality of the editable result, not screenshot similarity alone.

Can I import a JavaScript-rendered website?#

Coherence uses a rendered browser for URL import, so it can work with JavaScript-rendered navigation and content. Highly interactive application behavior may still need a custom implementation.

Does importing a site preserve SEO automatically?#

No. Preserve URLs where practical, add redirects where they change, review metadata and canonicals, and verify the published site in Search Console. Import reduces page-building work; it does not replace migration QA.

Can I import more than the homepage?#

Yes. Coherence combines rendered navigation and footer discovery with sitemap URLs and imports up to 50 pages. Review the final page inventory because discovery depends on what the source exposes.

What should I do with the old website?#

Keep it available until the new site is published, tested, and redirected. Do not cancel the old host or domain configuration before verifying the new site and its assets.