Migrate from Squarespace to WordPress

Move your content without losing SEO.

Moving from Squarespace to WordPress without proper redirects will tank your search rankings. Here’s the migration checklist that preserves your URLs, redirects, and link equity.

Before You Touch Anything: The Audit

Migrations fail when people skip the audit. You need a complete picture of what exists before you can recreate it. This isn’t busywork—it’s the difference between a smooth migration and months of fixing broken links and lost traffic.

Export everything you’ll need:

• Current URLs: Crawl your Squarespace site with Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs). Export the list.
• Google Search Console data: Download your top-performing pages, queries, and any indexed URLs.
• Analytics: Note which pages get the most traffic. These are your priority.
• Backlinks: Check Ahrefs free backlink checker – pages with backlinks MUST redirect properly.

The URL Problem

This is where most migrations go wrong. Google has indexed your old URLs. Other sites link to them. Visitors have them bookmarked. Change a URL without a redirect and you get a 404—which tanks your search ranking and frustrates visitors. Every URL change needs a plan.

Squarespace and WordPress structure URLs differently:

• Squarespace: yoursite.com/blog/my-great-post
• WordPress: yoursite.com/my-great-post
• Squarespace: yoursite.com/pages/about-us
• WordPress: yoursite.com/about-us

Every URL change needs a 301 redirect. No exceptions.

The Migration Steps

This is the actual migration process. Follow it in order. Rushing through or skipping steps is how people end up with months of recovery work. A methodical migration takes a weekend; fixing a botched one takes months.

1. Set Up WordPress on Staging

   Don’t migrate directly to your live domain. Set up WordPress on a staging subdomain (staging.yoursite.com) or a temporary domain first.

2. Export Content From Squarespace

   Squarespace Settings > Advanced > Import/Export > Export. This gives you an XML file with posts and pages.

   What exports: Blog posts, basic pages, text content

   What doesn’t export: Images (you’ll re-upload), gallery pages, product pages, forms

3. Import to WordPress

   Tools > Import > WordPress. Upload the XML file. WordPress will create posts and pages but images will be broken. You’ll fix those next.

4. Re-upload Images

   Download all images from Squarespace (you may need to do this manually or use a browser extension). Upload to WordPress Media Library. Update posts to use the new image URLs.

   For bulk image fixing: Better Search Replace plugin can update old Squarespace image URLs to your new WordPress URLs in one operation.

5. Match URL Structure (Or Set Up Redirects)

   Option A: Match Squarespace URLs

   Set WordPress permalink to /%postname%/ and manually adjust slugs to match Squarespace originals.

   Option B: New URLs + Redirects

   Use Redirection plugin to create 301 redirects from every old URL to every new URL. Import your Screaming Frog crawl as the source list.

6. Test Everything Before Going Live
   • Click every internal link
   • Check every image
   • Test forms
   • Run Screaming Frog on staging – look for 404s
7. Go Live + Verify
   • Point your domain to WordPress hosting
   • Submit new sitemap to Google Search Console
   • Use “URL Inspection” tool on your top 10 pages
   • Monitor Search Console for crawl errors over the next 2 weeks

Common Migration Mistakes

These mistakes account for 90% of migration problems. If your migration goes badly, check this list first—you’ll probably find the cause here.

Avoid these—they cause most of the problems.

• Forgetting redirects: Every old URL must go somewhere. No 404s.
• Redirect chains: A âž” B âž” C is bad. A âž” C is good. Keep redirects flat.
• Ignoring images: Broken images hurt SEO and user experience.
• Rushing: A bad migration takes months to recover from. Take your time.

Timeline

Expect ranking fluctuations for 2–4 weeks after migration — don’t panic. Google needs time to recrawl and reassess. What matters is the long-term trend, not the first week. If traffic stabilizes or improves, you’re fine. If it tanks and stays down, check for redirect problems.

The Post-Migration Checklist

• All content is visible on the new WordPress site
• Old Squarespace URLs redirect to new WordPress URLs (301 redirects)
• Search Console shows no crawl errors on the new site
• Forms, e-commerce, and integrations work on the new platform
• DNS is pointed to new hosting with SSL active

Monitor: Check Search Console weekly for the first month. Watch for traffic drops or crawl errors during the transition period.

Sources

• WordPress.org – Importing Content from Squarespace
• Google Search Central – Redirects & Google Search
• Squarespace – Exporting Your Site