Squarespace → Next.js · Updated
Squarespace to Next.js Migration
A Squarespace to Next.js migration starts from the Squarespace XML export, which carries layout pages, one blog and text and image blocks, then fills the documented gaps by capturing store, portfolio and media content from the live site. The design is rebuilt in code and every earning URL is redirected one-to-one.
Who this migration is for
- Brands that built on Squarespace for the templates and now need custom layouts, faster pages and structured data.
- Businesses with more than one blog, a store or portfolio pages, which the export does not fully cover.
- Owners who want to leave the platform without losing the content they wrote there.
What Squarespace lets you export
Taken from the vendor’s own documentation, linked below. We do not promise an export the platform does not provide.
Documented export
- Squarespace documents an export to an .xml file "formatted for WordPress" that includes layout pages, one blog page with its posts (up to 1,000 comments per post), text blocks, image blocks, and gallery pages.
- Text from embed and Instagram blocks exports "with minimum structure".
Not exported or stops working
- Per Squarespace, other page types do not export: album, cover, index, info, calendar, portfolio and store pages.
- Content in page-specific headers, footers and sidebars, dropdowns, audio, product and video blocks, drafts, style settings and custom CSS do not export.
- Only one blog exports; if you have several you choose a primary one. Images may remain as reference links that break after cancellation.
Source: Squarespace Help, Exporting your site. Accessed October 2026.
What we rebuild rather than import
- Store, portfolio and index-page content is captured from the live site and modeled as structured content, since the export skips those page types.
- Design and templates. A migration is a rebuild of the presentation layer; we do not try to convert a theme or builder output into React.
- Forms, lead routing and spam protection, wired to your CRM or inbox and tested end to end.
- Structured data: one Organization node, Service and FAQ markup that mirrors the visible page, validated before launch.
- Analytics, consent and conversion events, so the first month after cutover is measurable.
Want to know what your Squarespace site would keep?
The free audit inventories your URLs and traffic and tells you what a migration would have to preserve.
How rankings are preserved
Squarespace-specific notes first, then the eight steps every migration follows.
- Squarespace blog URLs often carry a date or collection path; each is mapped to a clean path with a single redirect.
- Images are downloaded and self-hosted before cutover so the documented reference-link problem cannot occur.
- Secondary blogs that do not export are captured page by page so no post is lost.
- Store pages do not export, so product pages are captured from the live site. On the Linen & Oak Event Rentals rebuild, all 211 Squarespace product URLs were redirected to their new pages.
- 1
Inventory every URL that exists and every URL that earns
Crawl the live site, pull the sitemap, and export the Search Console Pages and Performance reports. The union is the redirect map input; the Performance rows decide what must be preserved exactly.
- 2
Decide the new URL structure before building
Keep paths where they are sane. Change them only where the old structure was a liability, and record the change in a one-to-one map. No wildcard redirects to the homepage.
- 3
Carry metadata field by field
Titles, descriptions, canonicals, Open Graph and existing structured data are exported with the content and loaded into the new pages, then diffed against the live site.
- 4
Rebuild structured data from one identity
One Organization node with the real address, phone and founder; Service, Article and FAQ markup that mirrors the visible page; validated before launch.
- 5
Preserve internal links and images
In-body links are rewritten to the new paths rather than left to bounce through redirects. Images are self-hosted so nothing depends on the old platform staying up.
- 6
Test the redirect map against the inventory
Every old URL is requested and must return one 301 to a 200 page. Chains, loops and 404s fail the launch.
- 7
Cut over and submit
DNS switch, new sitemap submitted, IndexNow ping, and a full crawl of the new site within the first day.
- 8
Monitor index coverage for a month
Indexed versus submitted, crawl errors, redirect-reported URLs and the top earning queries are checked weekly. A migration is done when coverage matches or beats the old site, not when the new one is live.
Why coverage is the finish line: our index coverage research. How AI agents read the result: which AI crawlers visit your site.
Why businesses make this move
- Server-rendered HTML. Search engines and the search-type AI agents read the page as delivered, not after a browser runs scripts.
- No plugin or app layer to patch, which removes a class of security and performance regressions.
- Content modeled as data, so the same facts feed pages, schema and llms.txt without drifting apart.
How the engagement runs
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Goals, constraints, what the current platform does well, what it blocks. Access to analytics, Search Console and the admin. |
| Inventory | URL list, content audit, export of everything the platform allows, capture of everything it does not. |
| Content model and design | Document types and fields, page templates, components. Approval before build. |
| Build | Next.js frontend, CMS setup, content load, forms, schema, analytics and consent. |
| Redirect map and QA | Old to new URL map, automated redirect test, page-by-page content diff, accessibility and performance checks. |
| Cutover | DNS switch, sitemap and IndexNow submission, first crawl, old platform kept read-only until coverage is confirmed. |
| Monitoring | Weekly index coverage, crawl errors and query checks for a month; fixes shipped as found. |
Common questions
What does the Squarespace export actually include?
Squarespace documents an XML file formatted for WordPress containing layout pages, one blog with its posts, text and image blocks, and gallery pages. Store, portfolio, album, cover, index and calendar pages, product, audio and video blocks, drafts and styles are not included.
I have a Squarespace store. Can it move?
The products do not come through the site export, so they are exported or captured separately and rebuilt either on a headless commerce backend or as structured product content, depending on whether you sell online or only list products.
Do I have to import into WordPress first?
No. The export is WordPress-formatted but it is XML; we read it directly and load the content into the new site, skipping WordPress entirely.
Will my images break?
Squarespace warns that imported images can remain reference links that stop working after cancellation. We download every image and host it with the new site before the old one is cancelled.
Related
- WordPress vs Squarespace
- Wix vs Squarespace
- Squarespace to Framer migration
- Wix to Next.js
- Case study: Linen & Oak (Squarespace to Next.js)
Other migration paths
Planning a Squarespace move?
Tell us the page count and what the site has to keep doing. We will come back with what can be exported, what has to be rebuilt, and a dated plan.
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