The single biggest factor in whether a Squarespace-to-WordPress move preserves your rankings is 301 redirects — one for every URL that changes. Skip that step, or do it partially, and it doesn’t matter how carefully you migrated the content itself. A 10-15% traffic dip for a few weeks after launch is normal while search engines re-crawl and process the redirects. A drop that’s bigger or doesn’t recover after about three weeks means something in the migration was missed.
Quick Verdict
This is a real, doable migration if you follow the steps in order and don’t skip the unglamorous parts — meta tags and redirects, not just moving the visible content. Most of the risk is self-inflicted: matching URL structure where you can, redirecting everywhere you can’t, and rebuilding SEO metadata that doesn’t transfer automatically.
How to Migrate From Squarespace to WordPress
What Normal Traffic Fluctuation Looks Like
Expect roughly 10-15% traffic fluctuation for about three weeks after launch, while search engines re-crawl the site and process your redirects. This is normal and expected, not a sign something went wrong. What isn’t normal: a drop larger than that, or one that hasn’t started recovering after three weeks — either of those points to a missed redirect, broken metadata, or a technical issue worth auditing directly rather than waiting out.
Why People Make This Move in the First Place
The most common reason isn’t dissatisfaction with Squarespace’s day-to-day usability — it’s hitting a ceiling on what the platform allows for SEO at scale. Squarespace restricts direct server-side access: no custom .htaccess rules, no custom robots.txt beyond what Squarespace exposes, and no ability to install SEO plugins the way WordPress allows. For a small brochure site, that ceiling rarely matters. For a site trying to compete seriously in organic search, it becomes a real, structural constraint no template setting can fix.
Once you’re on WordPress, the hosting choice matters as much as the platform choice — see our hosting comparison before picking a host, since WordPress performance and reliability depend heavily on where it’s hosted, unlike Squarespace’s all-in-one model.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I definitely lose some traffic during the migration?
Some short-term fluctuation (10-15%, lasting about three weeks) is normal and expected as search engines re-process the site. A larger or longer-lasting drop usually means a step was missed — most often incomplete redirects or metadata.
Does Squarespace’s export bring over my SEO settings?
No — the XML export brings your content and structure, but meta titles, descriptions, and other SEO settings need to be manually recreated in WordPress using a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast.
Do I need to redirect every single page?
Only pages whose URL actually changes. If you successfully match the old Squarespace URL structure exactly in WordPress, no redirect is needed for that specific page — matching URLs is actually the simpler path where it’s possible.
How long should I wait before judging whether the migration worked?
Give it the full three-week window search engines typically need to re-crawl and re-process redirects before drawing conclusions. Checking rankings a few days after launch and panicking is a common, avoidable mistake.
Is WordPress actually better for SEO than Squarespace?
For most sites with serious organic-search ambitions, yes — WordPress allows plugin-based SEO tools, custom server-level control, and technical optimization Squarespace’s closed platform doesn’t expose. For a simple site where SEO isn’t the priority, that advantage may not matter enough to justify a migration.
How We Assessed This
These migration steps reflect widely-documented Squarespace-to-WordPress migration practices and Squarespace’s own current export documentation, checked as of September 2026. Disclosure: this page contains no affiliate links.
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