BMABA are leaders in tech innovation for martial arts, and we're committed to ensuring all of our instructors and clubs benefit from this huge strategic position we have in UK martial arts.
What is a site migration?
A website migration refers to our in-house developers taking what is effectively a copy of your existing site - whatever the platform or software it runs on - and producing that replica on our in-house specialist platform, WordpressbyBMABA.
How Does It Help Me & Why Is It Worth Doing?
More than ever, the power to attract new members and retain existing students requires clubs to embrace technology. We've invested heavily in tech since 2012 and we continued this with ClubManager by BMABA, WordpressbyBMABA and our surrounding set of complementary tools spanning AI, SEO, Analytics and more.
Our free website migrations help you move from any existing software provider - be that Wix, Wordpress, Squarespace, self-hosted HTML or anything else - to our modern, up to date and fully supported managed Wordpress solution.
Visually you shouldn't notice any real difference. Your existing layout, content and imagery will look the same on our platform as it does on your current site, with a few exceptions where outdated designs or technology will be slightly tweaked to format correctly. You're then free to do as you wish. That includes redirecting your domain name to us and having your site fully hosted with us, saving money compared with hosting elsewhere.
You're then free to do as you wish - whether that's leaving everything 'as is', updating any content, update the design, introducing our club management platform, developing a webshop - we even have one to one support available with our expert in house web developers to help you really turbo-charge your club website!
How Is It Done & Is My Data Safe?
First things first, your data is completely safe. We won't touch anything internal or 'behind the scenes' on your website - the migration is purely visual, based on public facing content on your website currently.
Our expert in-house Wordpress developers will re-build your existing website on our exclusive WordpressbyBMABA platform, closely mimicking the design, layout, colours and so on. We'll also look to replicate content, imagery and other aspects of your site to make sure it looks visually comparable. Behind the scenes of course, you'll benefit from a fully managed Wordpress solution with Security, Speed, SEO, Backups, Plugins and so much more fully-configured and ready to go.
The Migration Process
We'll start by having you raise a migration ticket here. It's really important you don't cancel any existing subscriptions or domain names whilst we're still migrating your site content. Please don't do anything to your existing site or make any changes whilst the migration process is taking place. We'll typically have migrations done within 24-48 hours if it's a simple site, or 3-4 working days if it's complex, subject to the current queue of migrations we have stacked up.
We'll take care of setting up WordpressbyBMABA for you, and if you ask us to, ClubManager by BMABA too. You don't need to do anything in MyBMABA, so please don't setup anything our end either as the team will be doing this for you.
Once we're done, we'll let you know via ticket which will go to your inbox and webchat in MyBMABA. You should at this point review the entire site fully to make sure you're happy our developers have been able to copy across everything needed, and that we've managed to maintain or improve the design aspects (per your brief). You should also make sure you login to the administrator dashboard, and ensure you're comfortable you have full access to the site as an admin.
Once you're happy with everything our end, it's up to you what you do with existing provisions. Most clubs use this period to make improvements, setup ClubManager by BMABA or learn the ropes of Wordpress whilst their existing site remains live, and then when ready they shut down the old website (and save a small fortune in hosting fees in the process!) and redirect a domain name to our platform (or use our free domain name). We'll be happy to provide support on this when the time comes.
I Don't Know If I Definitely Want To Switch To BMABA's Platform?
That's absolutely fine. You're not obliged to. It's a part of all memberships so we recommend you explore it. Let our team copy across your existing site, and then turbo charge it for you on our Wordpress setup with our Club Management Plugin integrated too. You can then 'take it for a spin' to see if it's what you need. If you don't like it, no problem - we can remove part or all of it, or we can try designing something bespoke for you. Ultimately, provided you don't knee-jerk into cancelling any existing services whilst we do the migration for you, there's nothing to lose. If you do like; great. You're free to run with it at no cost.
Costs, Timescales & Limitations
The migration is completely free, start to finish.
As with most BMABA resources, there are some distinctions between Bronze, Silver and Gold. This isn't a limitation in terms of the migration, but rather the WordpressbyBMABA platform we're migrating your site to.
Bronze members enjoy
> Up to 500 Unique Monthly Visitors
> 1x Administrator Account
> Upto 75x User Accounts
> 1000MB Disk Space
Silver members enjoy;
> Up to 2,500 Unique Monthly Visitors
> 1x Administrator Account
> Upto 250x User Accounts
> 2.5GB Disk Space
Gold members enjoy;
> Up To 5 Websites!
> Your Own Domain (i.e: you.com)
> Up to 15,000 Unique Monthly Visitors
> 5x Administrator Account
> Upto 1,500x User Accounts
> 5GB Disk Space
> All Premium Themes & Templates
> All Premium Plugins
There are also some limitations at Bronze and Silver in terms of posts, pages, menus, products and so on but nothing that is likely to be an issue if you are within the above limits.
Likewise, our Club Management Platform is fully unlocked with the only cap being capacity. It's currently 25 members for Bronze instructors, 50 members for Silver instructors and 100 members for Gold instructors, with unlimited capacity costing £15 per month as a flat fee.
If you're currently Bronze and need Silver, or Silver and need Gold, please speak with our team on chat for a pro-rata quote on upgrading.
Don't forget, you can combine ClubManager by BMABA useage between your club, so for example 5 Bronze instructors can request up to 125 active members, and 3 Silver instructors could request up to 150 members, and so on.
In terms of the time it takes to complete the migration, it will typically depend on how many other sites we're currently supporting and migrating, and also how complex your existing site is to move over. The bigger your existing website, the longer the process will take.
Most clubs with smaller websites (up to c. 4 pages) see a completed migration within 24 hours (during office hours). Larger websites can take a few days, depending on complexity. You will see your ticket update the moment it's picked up by a Developer, so you'll know when we've started.
There may be at times some limitations to what we can transfer without having administrator access to your current website. For example, we can't always replicate embedded elements, content behind lock screens, or at times other more complex development work (for example, full replication of products in an e-shop, etc). Our developers will work with you on a case by case basis if they encounter any limitations, and they'll help you work out the best way forward.
My New Website Software & Tech Stack
Once live, your site will now be running on Wordpress, one of the most popular website softwares in the world. We'll take care of hosting your site on our commercial grade WPMU hosting provision with a full array of premium licenced themes and plugins, top-notch SEO, Speed Optimisation, Security and Analytics, and so much more as standard. Our package if purchased individually would cost more than £1,650 per year!
Not Sure? Please Ask!
If you're at all unsure about the process, what's required or what the end result will be, please just let us know on chat and we'll be happy to guide you along.