Migration
Squarespace to WordPress: export content and rebuild with confidence
Understand the XML export limits, verify image copies, and plan the design, URL, and domain work before canceling Squarespace.
Moving from Squarespace to WordPress begins with a partial content export. Squarespace can generate an XML file for supported content, but it does not export a complete working copy of the site’s design and features. Plan to rebuild the layout and handle unsupported content separately.
The most important acceptance check is media ownership. An imported page can look correct while its images still load from Squarespace. Confirm that required files exist at a destination you will keep before canceling the old site.
Understand the export boundary
Squarespace’s export guide lists supported layout pages, text and image blocks, and one blog page with its posts. It excludes items such as store pages, multiple blog pages in one export, drafts, style settings, and custom CSS. Review the full list against your site before treating the XML as a complete archive.
| Content or feature | Your migration work |
|---|---|
| Supported pages and blog content | Export, import, and reconcile the result |
| Theme and visual styling | Rebuild with a WordPress theme and editor |
| Commerce, bookings, or member features | Plan a separate replacement and data-transfer process |
| Images, PDFs, and other files | Confirm actual file copies, not just old-host links |
| Domain, DNS, and email | Keep or change each service deliberately |
Choose the WordPress destination
WordPress.com and WordPress on another host are different hosting arrangements. Choose based on the editing, plugin, developer-access, and support requirements of the rebuilt site. Our WordPress.com versus WordPress.org guide explains that decision.
WordPress.com’s Squarespace import guide provides its own import workflow. For another host, establish which importer will be used and what it supports. Avoid assuming that a vendor-specific import button is part of every WordPress installation.
Export while the source is available
Squarespace says the site must be active and published for export and that trial sites cannot export. Prepare before a cancellation deadline. Keep the XML, original downloadable assets, page inventory, and a record of settings that the export does not capture.
For a site with more than one blog, decide how the additional collections will be handled and checked. For a store, inventory products, orders, customer records, subscriptions, tax settings, and integrations separately. A content XML file is not evidence that financial and customer workflows have migrated.
Inspect a representative import before rebuilding everything
Start with a normal page, a long article, an image-heavy page, and any unusual content block. Check headings, links, dates, categories, image captions, and mobile readability. Decide whether imported formatting should be cleaned up before recreating it throughout the site.
Choose a theme that supports the new editing workflow. Recreating every visual detail of the old template can cost more than a considered redesign, but a redesign also expands the project. Agree which visual and functional differences are intentional before a contractor starts estimating the work.
Verify media independently
Squarespace explicitly warns that self-hosted WordPress imports may retain image references rather than copying the files. Check the WordPress media library and the actual image URLs on the page. Download and upload missing assets you are entitled to move, then replace the old references.
Inspect several old posts as well as the home page. Include background images, linked downloads, and images inside unusual blocks. A quick visual check while the old site remains online can hide dependencies that will fail only after cancellation.
Prepare the URLs and cutover
Map existing URLs to the final WordPress URLs. Preserve useful paths where possible and redirect changed ones to relevant destinations. Check canonical tags, internal links, sitemap entries, and search visibility settings using the migration SEO checklist.
Connect the domain when the destination is ready. You do not have to transfer registration on the same day. Preserve DNS records for any email service that stays in place, and check external mail after the website change.
Before canceling Squarespace, have the site owner approve representative pages and complete the real business actions: sending an enquiry, making a booking, buying an item, or accessing paid content as applicable. Retain the source material and export so a missing page can be recovered without reopening the entire migration.