You can leave Squarespace without losing your Google rankings if you keep the content that works, match old page addresses on the new site or redirect them, and keep your business details consistent. Rankings fall after a move for one main reason: old addresses suddenly lead nowhere and Google loses the pages it had ranked. Handle the addresses and your position should hold. It often improves later, because you are usually moving to a faster site with more control.
I will not invent a ranking chart for anyone who has moved. The method is the same either way. Squarespace has a few address quirks of its own. Those are the bits to treat carefully.
Why do rankings drop after you leave Squarespace?
Google ranks specific pages at specific web addresses. When you change platform, those addresses can change. If the old ones are not preserved or redirected, Google and old links arrive at a dead page. The ranking you earned goes with it.
Squarespace likes folders. Blog posts often live under /blog/post-name. Tags and archives can exist too. A rebuild that only copies home and contact, then leaves the journal behind, throws away URLs that may have been earning.
Squarespace does not hand you a portable site. You rebuild, then you map. A weekend “cut over the domain and hope” is how people lose a year of search. SEO on Squarespace is capable enough (is Squarespace good for SEO). Leaving is not an upgrade by itself. Leaving badly is a hole.
What should you record before you rebuild?
Before anyone designs a new page, list what you already have.
- Every public URL: home, services, about, contact, locations, products, the blog.
- Which of those Google already sends people to. Search Console shows this. Protect those pages.
- The title and first paragraph of anything that ranks or brings enquiries. Tidy later. Do not replace proven copy with slogans.
- Your images, and the domain registrar login. The domain stays in your name.
Skipping the inventory is how a business bins its best page because it “looked dated”. Oilfire Heating in Uckfield had already been through Squarespace (and Wix). Ruby’s Bakery and Sindall came from Wix. Same shape of client, no invented traffic percentages. The URL list matters more than the old vendor.
How do you handle Squarespace blog URLs?
Treat the blog as a set of addresses, not as a diary you can abandon.
In Search Console, see which posts get impressions. Carry those across. Improve them if you like. Do not replace a useful answer with a “welcome to our blog” stub. Put each old path on a 301. Matching /blog/post-name is simplest. If you change the path, the redirect still has to exist. Thin tag archives can point at the blog index.
Abandoning a back catalogue is a common, costly mistake. Posts can rank for questions the home page will never win. If you never wrote a blog, skip this and be grateful. Do not invent a journal for its own sake.
What redirects do you actually need?
Redirects are the heart of a safe move. On the new site, either:
- Keep the same paths where you can, so Google sees continuity, or
- Send each old path to the matching new page with a permanent (301) redirect.
Every important old address should land somewhere sensible, not a generic 404. Dumping everything on the home page is better than a 404 and worse than a proper match. Use it only as a last resort.
Test trailing slashes, www versus the bare domain, and any /blog/ or vanity URLs you shared on the Business Profile or a van. Leave Squarespace live until the new site is signed off, then point the domain. Switching DNS first is how you get a week of nothing.
The service version is move from Squarespace. The wider process is website migration.
What else must stay consistent through the move?
Your business name, address and phone number. Identical on the new site, the Business Profile, and the main directories. A rebuild is when someone “tidies” a phone format. Do not tidy. Lock them. Keep the same domain if you can. Changing domain and platform in the same week stacks risk. Tidying copy is fine. A full rewrite of every earning page is how you lose the words Google already associated with you.
What do you check after launch?
Click the important old URLs on a phone and a laptop. Resubmit the sitemap in Search Console. Watch for coverage errors and a collapse in clicks on a URL you forgot. Update the Business Profile if the website field changed. Keep Squarespace until the map is proven, not the morning after launch.
A brief wobble as Google recrawls is normal. A steady fall usually means a missing redirect. Fix the map. I will not quote a number of days that “rankings settle”. A few weeks is typical.
Should you do this yourself?
If you are comfortable with 301s, Squarespace folders and Search Console, a small site is a manageable DIY move. If those rankings pay for jobs, paying someone who has done it is usually cheaper than a quiet month of lost calls. A one-page Page Forge site is £99 and £29 a month, or £299 a year. A site with a real blog is quoted, because the map is the work.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose my Google ranking if I leave Squarespace?
Not if you migrate carefully. Keep useful content, match or redirect every important old address, carry ranking blog posts, and keep name, address and phone identical. Rankings drop when old links lead nowhere. Done well, a move often holds and then improves on a faster site.
What happens to my Squarespace blog posts when I move?
Bring across the ones that get traffic and redirect their old /blog/ addresses. Squarespace journal URLs need that mapping. Abandoning ranking posts is a common, avoidable way to lose visibility. Thin tag pages can usually be dropped or pointed at the index.
How long before rankings settle after moving off Squarespace?
Usually a few weeks. A short wobble as Google recrawls is normal. A continued fall points to a problem, most often a missing redirect or a page that no longer matches the old query. Find it and fix it. Do not wait a quarter hoping it “comes back”.
Do I have to keep the same domain?
You should if you can. The domain is the identity Google and customers already know. Changing platform and domain together stacks risk. Keep the domain in your registrar account either way.
Can I move and redesign the words at the same time?
Light tidying is fine. A total rewrite of earning pages is how you lose the match to queries you already won. Rebuild the template. Keep the facts. Improve clarity in a second pass if you need to.
Is a Squarespace move different from leaving Wix?
The ranking rules are the same: map URLs, 301, keep content, keep NAP. The Squarespace-specific work is folder paths and the blog. Wix has its own mess: preview domains, language folders, apps that created pages. Same discipline, different inventory.
If you want the site moved off Squarespace without gambling the rankings, that is ordinary work for us. See move from Squarespace or website migration in Sussex. Bring Search Console if you have it. It makes the map honest.