8 Steps to Switching your Wordpress Site to Squarespace
So you’ve decided to make the switch but aren’t sure where to start when it comes to migrating from Wordpress to Squarespace. Moving a website may sound like a massive undertaking but it’s not as complicated as you might think.
Whenever a website is moved to a different platform, there is a possibility of a dip in your analytics and ranking which is why it’s so important to keep your search engine rankings in mind when it comes to transferring over to Squarespace. Here are a few simple steps to make sure you don’t lose your hard-earned traffic when migrating your site.
Grab a fresh cup of coffee and let’s get started!
Step 1: List down all your current URLs
Just like when you are moving houses, it’s always important to take inventory of what you have so that nothing gets lost in the move. A simple Excel spreadsheet of your current URL’s, the new URL’s and if you want them redirected. Don’t forget those galleries and blog posts!
If you have a complex or large website, you might want to use a tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Beam Us Up. One important thing to remember is it’s better to wait until the website move is successful before cancelling your current hosting plan (just in case!).
Step 2: Prep your site’s new home
One great thing about Squarespace is its 14-day trial account. To get started, all you need to do is go to Squarespace and click “Get Started”. You can then select one of the 7.1 templates and then begin customizing it to suit your company (ex. Company logo, social media accounts etc.).
If you are looking for something a little more bespoke, you might want to consider our Squarespace Web Design service.
Step 3: Under Construction
While in the middle of moving, It’s best to lock the site with a site-wide password to keep your content from being found by search engines. Once the site has completely migrated and everything is all set up, the password can be removed. For Squarespace’s trial sites, they are automatically locked however paid accounts are open by default so it’s good practice to set a password just in case.
Step 4: Migrating your Website
After your initial prep-work, it’s now time to move everything over to the new site. There are lots of ways to go about it. Squarespace has a great step-by-step guide to help walk you through the process. There may be some formatting that might break down during the process but you can tweak that once everything is moved over. A few things you might want to take note of:
Disable any Wordpress plugins before starting
WordPress 3.2 or higher is required
Any images saved in your Media Library that aren’t attached to any posts or pages won’t import. It’s best to download all images in your Media Library as a backup.
Fore more info on what content will not be automatically migrated, you can check out this Squarespace article
Step 5: Building and Styling your site
With everything moved over, it’s time to start rearranging and styling your new home. The Squarespace Pages panel can be used to add new pages and organize everything. Don’t forget to use Google Search Console when making sure your new site is fully optimized for search engines. A quick reminder: your brand and your website are constantly evolving so don’t feel like everything created during this stage is going to be set in stone. You’ll always be able to update it to suit your brand’s needs.
Step 6: Setting up redirects
Creating 301 redirects is pretty important when it comes to any website migrations but especially for legacy website migrations. A 301 redirect is what tells search engines that you’re your old content has moved to a new URL. This is where that spreadsheet you created in Step 1 will be used. Within Squarespace, you can visit Settings > Advanced > URL Mappings to start setting up the redirects. Here’s Squarespace’s guide on setting them up.
Step 7: Connecting your domain and final steps
You are almost there! Now it’s time to connect your domain. This part can vary as your domain can stay with where you are currently registered (ex. GoDaddy or Bluehost), where in this case you can just point DNS records to Squarespace. Here is Squarespace’s guide to help walk you through the process. Once you are all set with your domain, here are a few other last-minute steps you will want to get done:
Remove the site-wide password so everyone can see your brand new home
Pay for Squarespace’s hosting
Make sure you know where your emails are hosted before cancelling your old WP site
Step 8: Submit your new sitemap
Submit your new sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to request indexing of your new website.
And there you have it! You’ve now successfully moved your website over from Wordpress to Squarespace.
If you either don’t have the time or inclination to switch your site yourself, speak to me about my switching service. I can get your Wordpress, Wix or Weebly site switched over from as little as £595 plus VAT.
