Looking to migrate your website from Squarespace to WordPress? In this article, we’ll show you how to properly move your website from Squarespace to WordPress.
Here’s a list of steps we’ll cover in this guide:
- Installing WordPress
- Exporting Squarespace Content Using the Built-in Export Tool
- Importing Content to WordPress
- Importing Images
- Fixing Permalinks
- Importing Content Manually From Squarespace to WordPress
Installing WordPress
If you have an account with us you can follow this guide to get your WordPress install created. If you do not have an account with us, you will first need to sign up and purchase a hosting plan to begin.
Exporting Squarespace content
Firstly, you need to export your website data from Squarespace. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to export everything you have automatically. This means you will have to copy/paste some parts of your website to WordPress manually.
List of content that cannot be exported:
- Index, event, album and product pages
- Folders
- Audio, video and products blocks
- Style changes and custom CSS
What can be exported:
- Blog (only one blog)
- Basic and gallery pages
- Text and image blocks
- Text in embedded blocks
Now to export your content, navigate to your Squarespace account and click on Settings » Advanced » Import/ Export menu.
Then click the Export button to continue.
This will trigger a popup where you’ll be asked where you want to export your content. Simply click on WordPress.
When the export file is ready, you’ll be given an option to download the file. Click Download.
Importing Content to WordPress
The next step is to import the content you’ve downloaded from Squarespace into your WordPress site.
Log into your WordPress dashboard and head over to Tools » Import.
You won’t find Squarespace in the list of platforms on the Import page. Since Squarespace has exported your content in a WordPress-compatible XML file, click the Install Now button below WordPress.
After the plugin is installed, click Run Importer.
You can now choose the XML file you just downloaded from your Squarespace account and then import it into your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress can also import Squarespace users and add them as subscribers on your WordPress site. You can then choose an existing admin user as the author or even create a new user.
Although there is an option to import attachment images, we found that this option did not work properly during a test migration. Click Submit and WordPress will start importing content from your Squarespace file.
Once it’s done, you’ll see a success message. You can now visit the pages and posts within WordPress to review the imported content.
Importing Images
By default, Squarespace doesn’t allow you to export images through their built-in export tool. You’ll have to manually import the files into your WordPress site.
Fortunately, there are a lot of WordPress plugins in the repository that allow you to easily import external images into your site. In our tutorial, we’ll be using the Import External Images plugin.
To import your image files into your newly installed WordPress site, install and activate the Import External Images plugin.
After activating the plugin, visit the Media » Import Images page to import images.
Now, all you have to do is click the Import Images Now button.
For more detailed instructions, you can read the tutorial on how to import external images in WordPress 6.
Fixing Permalinks
In this step, our goal is to set up the link structure similar to your Squarespace website. Squarespace uses year/month/day/post-name as the link format for blog posts. It also uses a prefix like blog or blog-1 in the post URLs.
Here’s what a blog post URL looked like on your Squarespace platform:
https://www.example.com/blog-1/2018/3/6/post-title
To set up your WordPress permalinks, go to Settings » Permalinks. Now, choose the Custom Structure option and insert the structure below in the appropriate field:
1 /blog-1/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/
Then click Save Changes to set up your new permalink structure for your blog posts.
You may still encounter 404 errors on your WordPress site after migration. Learn how to track 404 pages and redirect them in WordPress.
Importing Content Manually From Squarespace to WordPress
Since Squarespace comes with limited export functionality, you’ll have to import some content manually like eCommerce and event pages, audio and video files, etc. to your WordPress site. This can be tedious depending on how much content you have hosted on your Squarespace platform.
If this is more than you would like to take on, Reclaim does offer Migration Assistance starting at $25/site in which we can handle everything for you. Happy Reclaiming!