What an import-ready website is

The kind of website zip PageShift can turn into real, editable pages, and how to get one built by a designer or an AI chat.

PageShift can take a website made of plain HTML files and turn it into a real PageShift site: every page opens in the editor, the forms send to Leads, the blog becomes blog posts, and old addresses keep working. To do that well, the website must be built in a way PageShift understands. We call that an import-ready website.

What's in an import-ready website

An import-ready website is one zip file that holds:

one folder per page, each with an index.html file (for example about-us/index.html becomes the page /about-us/);
the styles, scripts, fonts and pictures the pages use;
optionally a redirects.txt file listing old addresses that should send visitors to new ones (see Keep old addresses working).

For example, the sample website Summit Ridge Roofing (summit-ridge-roofing.zip) looks like this inside:

summit-ridge-roofing/
  index.html
  redirects.txt
  about-us/index.html
  services/index.html
  services/roof-repair/index.html
  blog/index.html
  blog/signs-you-need-a-new-roof/index.html
  contact/index.html
  thank-you/index.html
  404/index.html
  css/style.css
  images/…

Each page has the same frame: a header with the logo and menu, the page content, and a footer. Forms are plain HTML forms. Titles, descriptions and structured data are in each page's head.

Get one built: the Import-Ready HTML Website Prompt

The PageShift package includes a document called Import-Ready HTML Website Prompt (in the 3-prompts folder). It tells a web designer, or an AI chat such as Claude or ChatGPT, exactly how to build the HTML so it imports with nothing broken.

Open a new AI chat for each website.
Upload the Import-Ready HTML Website Prompt (and, if you use it, your content-writing prompt).
Paste the filled-in brief from Build-an-import-ready-website-TEMPLATE.md (also in 3-prompts): your business, brand colors, logo, every page with its old address, the blog articles and the forms.
The chat first shows a table of every page with its old and new address. Check it and confirm.
It then builds the pages and delivers the zip, the final address list, the redirects.txt file and a to-do list for you.

A single page instead of a whole site

For one extra page on a site you already have, such as a landing page for an ad campaign, use the template Build-an-import-ready-landing-page-TEMPLATE.md (or the single HTML page template). Part D of the prompt explains how that page is built: one HTML file (or a zip with its pictures), its own design, header, footer and form. You import it with Import an HTML page: see Import a single HTML page.

Rules worth knowing

Rule	Why
Folder names in lowercase with hyphens (`roof-repair`, not `Roof_Repair`)	The folder name becomes the page's address
Keep the zip under 50 MB (and under 300 MB unpacked)	Larger zips may be refused by your server; the import screen shows your server's upload limit
Pictures as WebP, no wider than 1600 px	Pages load fast
Only web files: pages, styles, scripts, pictures, fonts, video, audio and PDFs	Anything else, like PHP files, other zips or design files, is skipped for safety

When the zip is ready, go on to Import a whole website.