WordPress is an excellent platform for creatives, but it may not be the best option since it lacks robust functionality. With such a platform, beautiful pictures can be displayed without fiddle with plugins or codes– this 's where Squarespace comes in.
Squarespace helps you create stunning image-rich websites in an easy drag-and-drop interface. If you’re wondering how to transfer a domain from WordPress to Squarespace, worry no more. This post will cover all the steps you need to switch from WordPress to Squarespace.
Transferring a website is a serious decision. Before starting any of the processes below, you must be sure you want to transfer your website. The process takes a few weeks since it involves preparing your WordPress site and setting up your Squarespace site.
Expect to lose some web traffic during the migration and your SEO rankings to dive slightly. However, as long as you prepare everything correctly, your site will be up and running.
To transfer your WordPress site to Squarespace, follow these steps:
List down on a spreadsheet or use a tool like Google Search Console to prepare a site map of your existing site. You need to capture the titles, descriptions, and slugs of every page on your site.
This will help you create the correct redirects to ensure visitors don’t get lost when navigating to your site, especially from an external source.
Check your site’s links and pages and remove any duplicates. Edit slugs that aren’t user-friendly and check if pages are still relevant. Don’t hesitate to remove or repurpose content.
Transferring to Squarespace is a chance to update your site structure to represent your business better. Review the site layout and determine if this is still relevant or needs updating.
Once you’ve cleaned and prepared WordPress, it’s time to set up Squarespace. The website builder offers a 14-day trial to check its features.
Signing up for Squarespace is easily accomplished within minutes. You can select various templates suited for your business as soon as you're in. If these templates are too generic, you can always purchase premium ones.
Customize your Squarespace site with your branding elements and import your WordPress content automatically using migration tools.
Note that some items might break, especially when dealing with blog posts, but these should be easy to fix later. You can’t import galleries, so you’d have to download and then re-upload them manually.
Now that you have your old content on your new site, you can start building the rest of the missing pages and style your site. You can use the site layout you created as a guide.
Ensure to build all the pages you need, like the About, Services, Portfolio, and Contact Us page. Start uploading your galleries and checking that everything is working with your blogs.
After building your site, you should review the links you’ve mapped from Step 1. Check that they are using the duplicate URLs as before, and if they have changed, then set up 301 redirects. Squarespace treats blog links differently than WordPress, so ensure to create redirects for all your blog posts.
Review the titles and descriptions of the pages and ensure they match what you had before.
Choose a plan from Squarespace’s wide selections and purchase it. Remember that site hosting will now be the courtesy of Squarespace, and you must pay for it before launching the website.
Once your new site is ready, you can transfer your domain from your current registrar, like GoDaddy, to Squarespace. This process takes 1 to 15 days, but the new site has launched as soon as the transfer is complete.
At this point, you can now stop paying for any WordPress-related expenses like hosting and domain registration. Be careful to check that everything has been transferred and there are no 404 redirects on your site. A 404 redirect means that there’s a broken page you need to take care of.
If you’re thinking about transferring a domain from WordPress to Squarespace, you can see above that it’s a simple process. In reality, WordPress is just a CMS platform that relies on hosting sites and registrars, while Squarespace is an all-in-one solution that acts as the registrar, hosting, and CMS.
For more helpful articles like this, visit our resources at Page Kits.
After conducting his fair share of research and gaining relevant experience, Gab put up Page Kits to help others who were in his position grow their e-commerce stores and thrive.
