Migrating from Squarespace to WordPress

What transfers, what doesn't, realistic timelines, and how we handle your move from Squarespace to a self-hosted WordPress site.

Squarespace is a great starting point, but many businesses outgrow it. WordPress offers more flexibility, more powerful plugins, and full ownership of your content and hosting. Moving from one to the other is one of the most common migrations we handle.

Quick summary

Moving from Squarespace to WordPress typically takes one to three weeks of build time plus a brief cutover window. Squarespace's export covers standard pages and one blog, but design, styles, forms, and e-commerce do not transfer — they must be rebuilt. Redirects and SEO preservation require careful planning. We handle the technical side; you need to provide access and content sign-off.

What transfers and what doesn't

Not everything on your Squarespace site can be imported directly into WordPress. Understanding this upfront avoids surprises.

What transfers

Via Squarespace's .xml export:

Standard pages (Squarespace calls them layout pages), with their text and image blocks
Posts from one blog, with up to 1,000 comments per post
Some text from other blocks, such as embed blocks, with minimal formatting
Gallery pages (older version 7.0 sites only)

Images can be a catch: an import into self-hosted WordPress may only link back to the images on Squarespace, so they may need copying across separately.

What does NOT transfer

Your design, layout, and styling
Other page types, such as store, portfolio, index, and calendar pages
Any blog beyond the first one
Dropdown menus in your navigation
Audio, video, and product blocks
Drafts
Contact forms and their logic
Squarespace Commerce products and orders (these export separately as .csv files)
Custom CSS and code injections
Member areas
Email campaigns

Design is rebuilt from scratch

Squarespace and WordPress use completely different design systems. Your new WordPress site will be designed to match your brand, but the underlying structure is rebuilt — not converted. This is actually an opportunity to modernize and improve your layout.

Realistic timeline

Phase	What happens	Typical duration
Discovery	Audit current site, plan new structure	2–3 days
Setup	Install WordPress, theme, and plugins	1 day
Content migration	Export and import content, rebuild pages	3–7 days
Design & QA	Style the new site, test all pages	3–5 days
Redirect setup	Map old URLs to new ones	1 day
Cutover	Switch DNS, go live	1–4 hours
Post-launch	Monitor, fix issues, submit sitemap	2–3 days

The migration process, step by step

We audit your current Squarespace site. We document every page, blog post, image, form, and any special features. This becomes the migration map.

You export your Squarespace content. In Squarespace, open Settings and find the Import & export content panel. Click Export, then the WordPress icon. When the export is ready, click Download to save the .xml file, and send it to your project lead. The export only works on a paid site that's set to Public, not on a trial. If your site has more than one blog, you'll be asked to pick one.

We set up your new WordPress site on staging. We install WordPress on your chosen hosting provider, configure the theme, and import your content XML. You never see a broken site go live.

We rebuild pages that didn't transfer. Page layouts don't carry over, and neither do the page types, forms, and blocks the export skips (such as store pages and video blocks). We rebuild those in WordPress's block editor or Elementor, starting from the imported text and images.

We rebuild your forms. Contact forms, booking forms, and any lead-capture forms are set up fresh using a WordPress form plugin.

We set up redirects. We map every old Squarespace URL to the equivalent new WordPress URL. If the URL structure changes, redirects prevent traffic and SEO from being lost.

You review the staging site. We send you a preview link. You go through every page, check content accuracy, and give us your feedback. We fix issues before going live.

We switch the domain over. Once you're happy, we update your DNS settings to point your domain to the new WordPress site. We keep your Squarespace site running until the DNS change is confirmed live.

Post-launch monitoring. We submit your new sitemap to Google, check for crawl errors, and monitor for any broken links or missing content for at least one week after launch.

Content you'll need to prepare

Some content decisions require your input. These things help us move faster:

A confirmed page structure for the new site (we can draft one for you to approve)
Any updated copy or images you want to use on the new site
Confirmation of which blog posts, portfolio items, or case studies to keep vs remove
Your preferred contact form fields and where form submissions should be emailed

What about Squarespace Commerce?

If you have a Squarespace Commerce store, migration is more complex. Products, orders, and customer data do not transfer via XML export. Squarespace can export products, orders, and contacts as separate .csv files instead, though the product file leaves out some details, such as customer reviews and variant images. Options include:

Manual product re-entry (feasible for small catalogs under 50 products)
CSV import tools (for larger catalogs)
A fresh WooCommerce setup built around your current product catalog

Talk to your project lead about the best approach for your store size.

After the migration

Once your new WordPress site is live, keep your Squarespace website subscription active (don't cancel yet). Wait at least two to four weeks while you confirm that:

All pages load correctly
All forms work and submissions are reaching you
Search rankings are stable or recovering
No content is missing
Images load from your new site, not from Squarespace (imported images can still point back to Squarespace, and those links stop working once you cancel)

After that period, you can safely cancel your Squarespace website subscription. Cancelling it doesn't cancel a domain registered with Squarespace: the domain stays active (and keeps billing), so you can keep managing its DNS or transfer it elsewhere. Google Workspace and Email Campaigns subscriptions also carry on until you cancel them separately.

Common questions

Will my domain name change?

No. Your domain name stays exactly the same. We update the DNS settings (the technical settings that point your domain to your website) so the same address opens the new WordPress site instead of the old Squarespace one.

Will my Google rankings drop?

A small, temporary dip is possible, especially if any URLs change. We set up 301 redirects to minimize this. Most well-executed migrations see rankings recover within four to eight weeks. See Don't lose your SEO during a migration for full detail.

Can I keep my Squarespace email campaigns?

Squarespace email campaigns don't transfer to WordPress. If you want to continue email marketing, we can set you up with a dedicated email marketing tool like Mailchimp, Kit, or Beehiiv. Your subscriber list can be exported from Squarespace and imported to the new tool.

Who hosts the new WordPress site?

We recommend managed WordPress hosting providers like Flywheel, WP Engine, or Kinsta. These offer faster performance, automatic backups, and staging environments. See the hosting section for comparisons.

Pre-migration checklist
Don't lose your SEO during a migration
What is WordPress?
What is managed WordPress hosting?
Give us Squarespace contributor access
Give us WordPress admin access
Which platform is your website built on?
WordPress — the complete client guide — where to learn your new site

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.