Squarespace to WordPress migration service
We move a Squarespace site to WordPress. The pages and posts that Squarespace exports are carried across, the rest is rebuilt, and each old address is redirected to its new one. For site owners who have decided to move and do not want to do it themselves.
In short
- Squarespace's export carries layout pages, one blog with its posts, and text and image blocks. Everything else is rebuilt.
- The design is rebuilt in a WordPress theme. It is not copied.
- Each old address is redirected to its new one, and the redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
- Customer passwords do not move. Customers set a new one.
- It starts with a free assessment and a fixed quote in writing.
Squarespace hosts your site and gives you the tools to build it. WordPress is software you run on hosting you choose. Moving from one to the other is part transfer and part rebuild: Squarespace exports some of a site as a file WordPress can read, and the rest is made again on the new site.
This service is for the point where you have decided to move to WordPress and want someone else to carry the site across. You get a written list of what moves and what is rebuilt before you decide anything.
If you would rather do the move yourself, how to migrate from Squarespace to WordPress goes through it step by step.
What moves, and what is rebuilt
This table follows the list in Squarespace's help center of what its export holds.
| What | How it gets there | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Regular pages | Squarespace's export file | Squarespace calls these layout pages. Their text and image blocks come across. |
| Blog posts | Squarespace's export file | One blog page, with all of its posts and up to 1,000 comments on each. A second blog is not in the file and is moved by hand. |
| Images | Copied to the new site | Squarespace warns that an import into a WordPress site you host yourself may bring only links to images still on its servers. Those links stop working when the Squarespace site is deactivated. |
| Other kinds of page | Rebuilt | Album, cover, index, info, calendar, portfolio and store pages are not exported. Gallery pages are exported on version 7.0 only. |
| Video, audio, forms and embeds | Rebuilt | Audio, video and product blocks are not exported. Text from some other blocks arrives with very little structure. |
| Menus, headers and footers | Rebuilt | Dropdowns and page-specific headers, footers and sidebars are not exported. |
| Products | Squarespace's product export, a .csv file | Not in the site export. The product file has no featured or variant images, so those are added again in WooCommerce. |
| Customers | Squarespace's customer export, a .csv file | Names, email addresses and the last addresses used. No passwords: customers set a new one on the new store. |
| Orders | Squarespace's order export, a .csv file | The written reply says whether past orders are loaded into the new store or kept as a record. |
| Design | Rebuilt | Style settings and custom CSS are not exported. The look is rebuilt in a WordPress theme, not copied. |
| Drafts | Not exported | Tell us about any draft you want kept. |
| Addresses | Redirected | See the next section. |
What happens to your old addresses
On Squarespace, a page's address is its URL slug, such as /about. A blog post's address begins with the slug of its blog page. The rest comes from the post's title and the blog's URL format, which can include the date. A product's address is the store page's address followed by the product's own slug, and on version 7.1 a p/ always comes before that slug.
WordPress builds addresses from its permalink settings. A post can sit at /sample-post/ or under its date, and category and tag pages carry a base such as /category/. Some of your addresses can stay as they are. Others change, blog posts and products most often.
Each old address is redirected to its new one. Redirects you made in Squarespace as URL mappings do not come with the site: Squarespace applies them only to domains connected to a Squarespace site. Tell us about any you have. The redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
How it works
Step 1: Ask for a free migration assessment
Fill in the free migration assessment. Tell us that you are on Squarespace and going to WordPress, and roughly how many pages and posts the site has, and whether there is a store.
Step 2: Get a written reply and a fixed quote
We reply in writing with what moves by itself, what has to be rebuilt, and a fixed quote. Whether to go ahead is up to you.
Step 3: The new site is built on a staging copy
The WordPress site is built on a staging copy. Your Squarespace site stays live while this happens.
Step 4: Old addresses are mapped to new ones
Each old address is matched to its new one, and the redirects are checked.
Step 5: You look at the new site
You go through the new site on staging. The domain is changed only after that.
What it does not cover
- Hosting and subscriptions. You buy the WordPress hosting. Squarespace exports only from a site that is active and published, so keep that subscription running until the new site is live.
- The domain's registration. A domain registered with Squarespace can stay there and be pointed at the new host.
- Email. Mailboxes are not moved. Find out where your mail lives before you cancel anything.
- A new design. Rebuilding the look you have is part of the move. A different look is a separate job. See WordPress design and development.
- What Squarespace did for you beyond pages, posts and the store. Each such feature has to be matched by a WordPress plugin or left behind. The written reply names each one.
- Looking after the site afterwards. That is a care plan. See the WordPress maintenance service.
What it costs
Platform migration
Ask us for a quote
Moving a site or a store from one platform to another, with its old addresses redirected to the new ones.
- A written list of what moves and what is rebuilt, before you decide
- Old addresses redirected to the new ones, and checked
- The new site checked before the domain is changed
Common questions
Will the new site look the same?
Squarespace does not export style settings or custom CSS, so the look you have is made again in a WordPress theme. You go through it on staging before the domain is changed.
What happens to my search rankings?
Nobody can promise what a search engine will do. What protects them is that each old address answers with a redirect to the page that replaced it. Those redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
What happens to my customers' accounts?
Squarespace's customer export holds names and addresses and no passwords. Each customer sets a new password the first time they sign in to the new store.
What do you need from me?
Access to the Squarespace site, to the new WordPress hosting, and to wherever the domain is managed.