Here's the part most migration guides bury: three months after migrating from Squarespace to WordPress, plenty of site owners open Google Search Console and find their organic traffic down significantly, and can't figure out why. The content looks identical. The screenshots match. The problem isn't the migration itself — it's a handful of specific, predictable decisions made before, during, and right after the move.
One number to know upfront: expect a 10–15% traffic fluctuation for roughly three weeks after launch, even when redirects are set up correctly. That's normal. What's not normal is a 40% drop that never recovers — that's the sign something in the redirect mapping or URL structure was missed.
What Actually Transfers (And What Doesn't)
This is the single most common thing that trips people up: Squarespace 7.1, the current default version, does not support XML export at all. If you're on an older Squarespace 7.0 site, the built-in export tool works but only pulls blog posts and basic pages in XML format — product pages, galleries, event listings, custom CSS, and membership content do not transfer automatically and have to be rebuilt manually in WordPress.
Alt text is another quiet casualty. Squarespace stores alt text in its own CMS fields, and native export doesn't carry it into WordPress reliably. Document every image's alt text in a spreadsheet before you export.
| Content type | Transfers automatically? | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Blog posts | Yes (7.0 only, via XML) | Verify formatting after import |
| Basic text pages | Yes (7.0 only, via XML) | Verify formatting after import |
| Product pages | No | Rebuild manually |
| Galleries | No | Rebuild manually |
| Custom CSS/styling | No | Recreate in new theme |
| Membership content | No | Rebuild manually |
| Image alt text | No | Document manually before export, re-enter after |
| Squarespace 7.1 sites | No XML export exists | Manual content copy or a migration service |
The URL Structure Trap
The mistake that causes the most damage is specific to Squarespace: the platform often structures blog and collection URLs differently than a standard WordPress setup, with nested paths that don't resemble the rest of the site's structure. When those specific paths aren't individually mapped and redirected, Google sees two unrelated pages instead of one page that moved (read 301 redirects explained and why poor migrations drop traffic).
Step-by-Step Migration Process
- Inventory every live URL using your XML sitemap or a crawling tool, and log the exact path, meta title, meta description, and canonical tag for each page.
- Document image alt text manually for every image that matters for SEO.
- Export your Squarespace content via Settings > Advanced > Import/Export (7.0 sites only; 7.1 sites need manual content copying).
- Set up WordPress on a staging environment with search engine indexing disabled.
- Choose and install a theme (GeneratePress, Astra, Kadence) that matches or improves on your current design.
- Import content and manually rebuild everything that didn't transfer: product pages, galleries, custom layouts, and alt text.
- Build your redirect map — every old URL path mapped to its new WordPress equivalent.
- Install a redirect management plugin and upload your mapping in bulk.
- Test every redirect on the staging site before touching DNS.
- Point DNS to the new host only after every redirect has been verified.
- Monitor Search Console weekly for the first month to watch rankings settle.
What It Actually Costs
WordPress itself is free, but total cost of ownership for a small business typically lands in the $500–$3,000 per year range once managed hosting, plugins, and themes are factored in. If you hire someone for the migration and build, expect $500–$3,000 for a basic site, or $5,000+ for a custom build (read WordPress vs Squarespace).
Reality Check
The content moves in about 20 minutes. Whether your SEO survives the move over the following three months depends on decisions made before you ever click export — the redirect map, alt text documentation, and URL structure matching.
Brandywebs handles Squarespace-to-WordPress migrations with full redirect mapping and SEO preservation, and builds new WordPress sites starting at $999 (read WordPress to Webflow migration).
Get a free quote from Brandywebs →
FAQs
Will I lose my Google rankings if I migrate from Squarespace to WordPress? Not necessarily. A 10–15% traffic fluctuation for a few weeks is normal even with a correct migration. Permanent losses trace back to missed 301 redirects or unmapped URL structures.
Does Squarespace let you export your whole site to WordPress? Only partially, and only on Squarespace 7.0. Product pages, galleries, custom CSS, and membership content don't transfer. Squarespace 7.1 has no XML export option at all.
Why do Squarespace to WordPress migrations sometimes tank SEO rankings? The most common cause is Squarespace's nested blog and collection URL structure not being individually mapped to the correct WordPress redirect.
Does image alt text transfer during a Squarespace to WordPress migration? No. Squarespace stores alt text in CMS fields that the standard export doesn't carry over reliably.
How long does a Squarespace to WordPress migration take? A small site might take a few days; a large ecommerce site can take several weeks due to manual rebuilding of product pages and galleries.
How much does it cost to migrate from Squarespace to WordPress? Ongoing WordPress costs run $500–$3,000/year for hosting, theme, and plugins. Hiring out the build and migration typically costs $500–$3,000+ for a standard business site.
Should I migrate my whole site at once or in stages? Build and test the entire new WordPress site on a staging environment first with indexing blocked, then switch DNS only after verifying every redirect.
Is it better to migrate my existing Squarespace site or rebuild from scratch? If your site has minimal SEO history, a fresh WordPress build is often simpler. If you have years of ranking content, a careful migration with proper redirects is worth the effort.