Here’s the step most people miss when leaving WordPress: the XML export does not contain your images. It contains references to them (/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/photo.jpg), but not the actual files. Migrate your content without bringing the media along and every image on your new site 404s — which looks broken to visitors and hurts your SEO. This guide shows you how to move all your media across cleanly.
Why media is a separate step
When you export your WordPress content, WordPress generates an XML file with your posts, pages, and metadata. The image tags inside still point to their original URLs, but the binary files (.jpg, .png, .webp) live elsewhere on your server. You have to grab those separately.
Where WordPress keeps your media
Everything you’ve ever uploaded sits in one folder:
wp-content/uploads/
2023/
05/
photo.jpg
photo-300x200.jpg ← auto-generated thumbnail sizes
WordPress organizes uploads by year and month, and generates several resized copies of each image. You want the whole uploads folder.
How to download your uploads folder
Pick whichever you have access to:
- FTP or file manager (best). Connect with an FTP client like FileZilla, or your host’s cPanel File Manager. Open
wp-content/, then download the entireuploadsfolder as a single.zip. - A media export plugin. No FTP access? A free plugin like Export Media Library bundles all your uploads into one downloadable archive straight from the WordPress dashboard.
- From a full backup. If you already run UpdraftPlus or a similar backup plugin, extract the
uploadsfolder from your most recent backup archive.
Keep the URLs intact so images don’t 404
This is the part that protects your SEO. If a post references /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/photo.jpg, that exact path needs to resolve on your new static site — or the reference has to be rewritten in your content and the old path redirected. Image URLs are URLs: letting them break costs you image-search traffic and leaves visitors staring at broken thumbnails. (More on preserving URLs and rankings.)
Bonus: static is the perfect time to optimize
Once your images are out of WordPress, you can serve them straight from a CDN and modernize them — convert to WebP, generate responsive srcset sizes, and lazy-load. It’s one of the biggest speed wins of going static. (See optimizing images for static sites.)
Don’t forget these
- Featured images (post thumbnails) — they live in
uploadstoo, but are linked via metadata. - Images in widgets, theme options, or page builders — these are sometimes hard-coded and need checking.
- Favicons and logos — often stored outside
uploads; grab them from your theme or site settings.
ZeroPress does this for you
You don’t have to chase down folders and rewrite paths by hand. ZeroPress extracts your uploads, converts everything to WebP automatically, and fixes the references in your content so nothing breaks. (Here’s how the import works.) One-time migration, no monthly bill. (See pricing.)
Not sure what you’d be migrating?
The free migration checker scans your site and tells you in seconds whether it can go static cleanly — media and all — with no login required.