Can I move my website from Squarespace?

By Kai M, Deliberate Design.

The short answer: yes. Squarespace is one of the easier builders to leave. Your domain moves if it is in your name, your blog posts and pages export as a file, and your photos download. The layout does not come with you, but a new site built from your content is a day's work for a small business.

What exports

• Pages and blog posts, as a WordPress style file
• Photos, one by one or from the export
• Your domain, after unlocking it in Squarespace and getting the transfer code

What does not

Galleries, product pages from a Squarespace shop, the design, and anything from the scheduling or member features. Products can be exported as a spreadsheet, which is enough to rebuild a small shop.

Order of work

1. New site built and tested while Squarespace stays live
2. Note your email settings if email runs through the domain
3. Point the domain at the new site
4. Keep the same page addresses where possible, so your Google Business Profile and any links still land
5. Cancel Squarespace after you have checked the new site is live

The ranking question

A move done this way does not lose your Google position. What loses it is dead links: a page that used to be yoursite.co.uk/prices and now is not. Keep the addresses or redirect them, and tell Google about the new site in Search Console.