Before you start
- Your Aha Studio accountWayback Rebuilder is for members: 20 sites a month, up to 30 pages each. Unlimited with your own AI key after your first 14 days.
- A domain the Wayback Machine keptUsually an expired domain you have just bought, for example one Expired Domain Hunter found (its Rebuild it link opens this page with the domain filled in).
Nothing is invented: the modern version writes from what the archived page said, and a sentence with a figure the archived page does not have is taken out. Nothing is published until you press Publish.
PART 01
Rebuild a site
0 of 7 done- Open Wayback RebuilderAt waybackrebuilder.ahastudio.net, or press Start something new on your account page and choose Wayback Rebuilder. From Expired Domain Hunter, press Rebuild it on an available domain.
- Type the domainDomain: the domain alone, for example oldsite.com. Year (optional): a year you know the site was good; leave it empty and the newest year whose home page is the site (not a parking page) is suggested.
- Press List the pagesThe Wayback Machine is asked for every page it kept. Files, logins, feeds and addresses with ?query parts are left out and counted.
- Keep the pages worth rebuildingThe best 15 are ticked for you. Untick what you do not want, tick more (up to 30). Wayback Machine on each row opens the old page to look first.
- Pick the year and the rebuildSnapshot year: each page is read from the capture nearest the end of that year. Rebuild: Modern updated version or As it was. As it was shows the copyright warning; tick the box under it to go on.
- Press RebuildThe pages are read from the archive, then rebuilt. It keeps going if you close the page, and is kept in Your work, Rebuilt sites.
- Look, download, publishPreview shows each page as it will look. Download ZIP is the whole site with every page at its old address; Download JSON is every page with where it came from. Publish sends it to your WordPress, Netlify, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages or cloud storage (connected under Your account, Publishing).
PART 02
As it was, or modern
As it wasThe archived pages themselves: their own words, headings, lists, tables and images, cleaned of dead scripts, ads, forms and the old menus. First a plain copyright warning: the words and images belong to whoever made them, and you tick that you have the right to republish them.
Modern updated versionEach page written fresh with AI. The archive is only research: the topic, the headings, what it covered and the address it had. The new page keeps the same topic and address, so people who land on it get what they came for.
Nothing inventedThe AI is told to add no statistics, prices, dates, reviews, quotes or names the archived page does not have. Then any sentence with a figure the archived page does not have is taken out, and a page that repeats much of the old wording is flagged.
Rebuild againOn a finished run, change the pages, the year or the rebuild and press Rebuild again. With the same year, the pages already read are not read again.
PART 03
The old addresses
Every page at its old path/about/ stays /about/, /blog/my-post.html stays /blog/my-post.html, the home page is the home page. That is what makes the old links count again.
.php and other old endingsA static host cannot run /page.php, so the page is saved at /page/ and a _redirects line sends the old address there (Netlify and Cloudflare Pages read it).
Links between the pagesA link to another rebuilt page goes to its kept address. A link to a page you did not rebuild is taken out, so there are no dead links. Links to other sites are kept, marked nofollow.
ImagesImages still load from the Wayback Machine. Save the ones you have the right to use and host them yourself, or take them out.
On WordPressEach page goes in as a WordPress page under its old slug, under its parent when the parent page is rebuilt too. The home page goes in as a page called home: make it the front page under Settings, Reading. A page WordPress puts at a new address is named, so you can add a redirect.
PART 04
Your limits
Sites a month20each rebuilds one domain
Pages a site30kept from the list and rebuilt
Your notes1,500characters for the modern version
PART 05
If something looks wrong
Still stuck? Email support@anthonyhayes.me or open the help desk.
Ready to build?Type the domain, then press *List the pages*.Open Wayback Rebuilder