How to Migrate From Squarespace to WordPress?

Why You Should Migrate from Squarespace to WordPress

While Squarespace is known for its simplicity, it often becomes restrictive as your needs evolve. WordPress offers unmatched flexibility, control, and scalability, making it the preferred platform for growing websites.

If you are asking yourself “Should i switch from Squarespace to WordPress?” then here is the answer for you:

• 🛠️ Greater Customization: WordPress offers unmatched flexibility with access to over 60,000 plugins and thousands of themes, allowing you to tailor every aspect of your site’s design and functionality beyond what Squarespace allows.
• 🔒 Full Ownership of Your Content: With WordPress, your site is self-hosted, giving you complete control over your files, database, and hosting—no vendor lock-in.
• 📈 Better SEO Capabilities: As SEO migration specialists, we know how important search visibility is. WordPress with SEO plugin gives you full control over URL structure, metadata, schema, and content hierarchy something that’s difficult or limited in Squarespace.
• 🛒 eCommerce Flexibility: WooCommerce (built for WordPress) supports everything from digital downloads to advanced product variations, subscriptions, and third-party integrations. It’s ideal for merchants needing more than what Squarespace Commerce can offer.
• 💰 Cost Efficiency: With WordPress, you’re free to choose your hosting, themes, and plugins giving you more financial control. We’ve worked with clients who’ve cut platform costs in half post-migration, simply by paying only for what they truly need.
• 🌍 Larger Developer Ecosystem: WordPress powers over 37% of the web. That global reach means there’s a vast network of trusted developers, support forums, and documentation, making it easier to scale, troubleshoot, and grow your site over time.

For a more detailed comparison, check out our in-depth article: WordPress vs. Squarespace – tested and reviewed by our experts.

How to Migrate from Squarespace to WordPress (Step-by-Step)

Planning to move your site from Squarespace to WordPress? Whether you’re seeking more flexibility, advanced features, or better long-term scalability, a well-executed Squarespace to WordPress migration ensures you retain your content, design integrity, and SEO rankings. In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to transfer your Squarespace site to WordPress in a structured, reliable way. We’ve broken the process into 7 clear steps to help you migrate from Squarespace to WordPress with minimal disruption:

• Prepare for the migration
• Export content from Squarespace
• Import content into WordPress
• Import and relink images
• Rebuild any missing or unsupported elements
• Set up redirects, configure SEO settings, and point your domain
• Finalize and optimize your new WordPress site

Let’s dive into the first step:

Step 1: Prepare for the Migration

A successful migration begins with the right setup. Before moving your site from Squarespace to WordPress, make sure the following pieces are in place:

• WordPress Hosting: Choose a reliable hosting provider optimized for WordPress. Look for plans that offer strong uptime, performance, and support for growth.
• Clean WordPress Installation: Set up a fresh WordPress install, this will serve as the foundation for importing and rebuilding your content.
• Admin Access to Squarespace: You’ll need full access to your existing Squarespace site to export data, gather design references, and ensure a smooth transition.

Starting with a solid foundation helps reduce downtime, protects your SEO rankings, and makes the migration much easier.

Step 2: Export Content from Squarespace

To begin your Squarespace to WordPress migration, you first need to export your existing content. Squarespace provides a built-in export tool that generates a WordPress-compatible XML file — but it’s important to understand its limitations and what content will require manual migration.

How to Export Your Content

• Log in to your Squarespace admin dashboard.
• Go to Settings → Advanced → Import/Export.
• Click Export, then choose the WordPress logo when prompted.
• Once the export completes, download the .xml file — this file will be imported into your new WordPress site in the next step.

What the Export Includes:

• Blog posts
• Static pages (standard layout)
• Image galleries

When you transfer a Squarespace site to WordPress, be aware that some content won’t carry over automatically. What the Export Excludes:

• Product and store pages
• Event listings
• Audio and video blocks
• Custom CSS or JavaScript
• Theme styles, design layouts, and settings

You’ll need to manually rebuild some features in WordPress, especially if your Squarespace site uses advanced blocks or custom styling.

Exporting Product Data

If you’re migrating an online store from Squarespace to WordPress, you’ll need to export your product data separately:

• In Squarespace, go to Commerce → Inventory.
• Click Export All to download a .csv file containing your product information.

You can then use this CSV data to convert to WooCommerce specified CSV format and Import to WooCommerce.

Step 3: Import Content into WordPress

With your exported Squarespace .xml file ready, the next step in your Squarespace to WordPress migration is to import that content into your new WordPress site. This will move your blog posts, static pages, and image galleries into your WordPress installation.

How to Import Your Squarespace Content into WordPress:

• Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
• Go to Tools → Import, then choose WordPress from the list.
• Click Install Now to add the official WordPress Importer plugin.
• After installation, click Run Importer.
• Upload the .xml file you downloaded from Squarespace. 
• Assign authors: you can match content to existing WordPress users or create new ones.
• Be sure to check the option “Download and import file attachments” to transfer images and other media.
• Click Submit to complete the import.

This process is a core part of how you transfer a Squarespace site to WordPress, allowing you to preserve your key content structure.

What to expect after import? While your posts, pages, and galleries will be imported, keep in mind:

• Page formatting may not match your original layout exactly
• Embedded content (like audio/video blocks or custom scripts) may not display properly
• You may need to manually adjust spacing, formatting, and page templates in your WordPress theme

Step 4: Import and Localize Images

After importing your content, many of your images may still be hotlinked, meaning they’re hosted on Squarespace’s servers. This can lead to broken visuals or slower load times down the road. To complete your Squarespace to WordPress migration properly, you should download and self-host all images within WordPress.

Why Image Localization Matters?

• Ensures long-term access to media even if your Squarespace account is closed
• Improves site speed and reliability
• Helps with SEO by storing images under your WordPress domain

How to Automatically Download Images from Squarespace

• In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New and search for Auto Upload Images.
• Install and activate the plugin (it’s free and widely used).
• Navigate to Posts → All Posts.
• (Optional) Click Screen Options at the top to display more posts per page.
• Bulk-select all posts, choose Edit from the dropdown menu, then click Update.

This triggers the plugin to:

• Scan your post content
• Automatically detect and download externally hosted images (including those from Squarespace)
• Store them in your WordPress Media Library, updating the image URLs in your content accordingly

Visit a few posts and pages and inspect the image URLs. You should see them now served from your WordPress domain (e.g., yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads) instead of referencing Squarespace’s CDN.

Step 5: Rebuild Missing or Unsupported Content

Because Squarespace’s export tool only includes limited content types, certain elements from your original site won’t automatically transfer. To complete your Squarespace to WordPress migration, you’ll need to manually recreate or reconfigure parts of your site within WordPress.

Manually Rebuild These Elements

Custom Layouts & Blocks: Use the WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg) or a visual page builder to recreate custom layouts, audio/video blocks, and event pages that weren’t included in the export.

eCommerce Pages & Product Listings: If you’re transferring a store from Squarespace to WordPress, you can rebuild your online shop using WooCommerce:

• Download a sample CSV file from GitHub and replace the example data with your own product details. (For details on how to do this, read our detailed article on WooCommerce Import Products.)
• Go to WooCommerce → Products → Import.
• Upload the CSV file that you have tweaked to match WooCommerce’s data requirements.
• Map fields accordingly to bring your product data into WordPress then click Run The Importer.

Custom CSS & Styling: If your Squarespace site used custom CSS, copy that code from your Squarespace settings and paste it into Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS in WordPress. Be prepared to make adjustments, as some classes or elements may differ.

Optional but Recommended: Install a visual page builder like Elementor to rebuild more advanced layouts or recreate the unique design elements you had on Squarespace. This can speed up the redesign process and help you visually match your old site’s structure while leveraging the flexibility of WordPress.

Step 6: Configure SEO Settings, Redirect URLs, & Point Your Domain

To protect your search engine rankings during your Squarespace to WordPress migration, you need to properly configure your new site’s SEO settings and implement URL redirects. Failing to do this can result in broken links, traffic loss, or a drop in visibility on Google.

Set Up SEO-Friendly URLs

• In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → Permalinks.
• Select Post name for a clean and search-optimized URL structure (e.g., yourdomain.com/sample-post).
  • This mimics the structure commonly used on Squarespace and is best for SEO.

Redirect Old Squarespace URLs

Because WordPress and Squarespace use different URL formats, you’ll need to manually redirect old URLs to their new counterparts on WordPress. Steps:

• Install and activate the Redirection plugin (free from the WordPress plugin repository).
• Use it to create 301 redirects from your Squarespace URLs to the matching WordPress slugs.
• Prioritize key pages such as blog posts, service pages, and landing pages — and test each redirect to ensure accuracy.

This ensures your transfer from Squarespace to WordPress doesn’t disrupt your SEO performance or user experience.

Point Your Domain to WordPress

Once your WordPress site is ready and SEO settings are in place, it’s time to update your domain so it points to your new hosting environment:

Steps to Go Live:

• Log in to your domain registrar.
• Update the DNS records to reflect your new WordPress host.
• Allow 24–48 hours for full DNS propagation across the internet.

Keep your Squarespace subscription active during this transition period to avoid downtime in case of propagation delays or mistakes.

Step 7: Finalize and Optimize

With your WordPress site now live, the final step is to ensure everything works seamlessly and is optimized for performance, security, and search engines. This is critical to completing a successful Squarespace to WordPress migration without data loss or SEO setbacks:

Post-Migration Quality Assurance Checklist:

• Content Review: Go through your key pages and blog posts to confirm all text, media, and formatting transferred correctly. Check for broken links, missing images, and spacing/layout issues.
• Submit Your Sitemap to Google: Use an SEO plugin (like Yoast SEO or Rank Math) to generate an XML sitemap. Go to Google Search Console, verify your site, and submit your new sitemap for indexing.

Completing these steps helps ensure your transfer from Squarespace to WordPress is stable, secure, and SEO-ready. Be sure to follow each one carefully, and always keep a full backup until the migration is complete and verified.

Need help? If you’d rather not handle the technical side, check out our All-in-One Migration Services or Contact Us for personalized assistance with your Squarespace to WordPress migration.