Moving from Wix or Squarespace to a custom site without losing rankings

You can move off Wix or Squarespace onto a custom site without losing rankings if you export your content, map every old URL to a new one, set permanent 301 redirects, carry over your titles and metadata, and switch the domain only after the new site is tested and live. The platform change itself does not hurt SEO — search engines rank pages, not builders. Ranking drops come from broken URLs and lost content, and both are preventable with a documented plan.

Key takeaways

• Businesses usually leave Wix or Squarespace for lower long-term cost, faster performance, deeper SEO control and full ownership of their code and data.
• You can export text, images and blog posts, but designs, apps, forms and platform-specific features do not transfer and must be rebuilt.
• Crawl your builder site first so you have a complete list of live URLs before anything changes.
• Map each old URL to its closest new URL and set a permanent 301 redirect for every address that changes.
• Keep your domain, point DNS at the new host only after launch, and never let the builder site vanish before redirects are live.
• Monitor Search Console for four to eight weeks after the switch to catch any missed redirect early.

Why businesses outgrow Wix and Squarespace

Wix and Squarespace are excellent starting points. They get a business online quickly, look polished out of the box, and need no technical skill to launch. For a brand-new company that is often exactly the right choice. The trouble starts later, when the site has real traffic and real revenue riding on it, and the platform that once removed friction starts adding it.

The four reasons people move

• Cost over time. Monthly plans, premium apps and transaction fees add up. A subscription that felt cheap in year one can quietly outrun the one-time cost of a custom build across three or four years. Our breakdown of what a website costs in Canada compares the two models honestly.
• Speed. Builders load a lot of shared code every visitor has to download. A lean custom site is almost always faster, and speed is both a ranking factor and a conversion factor — see Core Web Vitals.
• SEO limits. Restricted control over URLs, redirects, structured data and technical settings caps how far you can push rankings. As competition grows, those ceilings start to bite.
• Ownership. On a builder you are renting. You cannot take the actual site somewhere else, and your presence lives on someone else's terms. Our guide on whether you truly own your website unpacks what that means.

None of this means builders are bad. It means the needs that made a builder ideal at launch can become the exact constraints that hold a growing business back. If several of these points sound familiar, you are likely at the natural moment to move.

What you can and cannot export

The single biggest surprise in any builder migration is how little transfers automatically. People imagine an "export" button that hands over the whole site. In reality you are moving the substance — the words, the images, the posts — and rebuilding everything else on a better foundation.

What comes with you

• Body text and page copy (usually by copying it out manually or from an export).
• Images and media, downloaded from your media library at full resolution.
• Blog posts, which Squarespace can export in a WordPress-compatible file and Wix exports in a more limited way.
• Your logo, brand assets and any documents you uploaded.
• Product and order data on e-commerce plans, often via CSV export.

What does not transfer

• The visual design and layout — these are tied to the builder's template system and are rebuilt from scratch.
• Apps and integrations from the platform's marketplace, which have to be replaced with equivalents.
• Built-in forms, booking tools and pop-ups, which are re-created on the new stack (see booking systems and contact forms that convert).
• Any custom code or embeds that relied on the builder's environment.
• URL structure — builders impose their own patterns, so your addresses will often change on the new site, which is exactly why redirects matter.

Treat the migration as a rebuild that reuses your content, not a copy-paste of your site. That framing sets the right expectations and, honestly, is where most of the value comes from — a chance to fix the things the builder never let you fix. If you have never taken stock of what content you actually have, start with our content preparation checklist.

Will a platform change hurt my rankings?

Not by itself. This is the fear that stops most businesses from moving, and it is largely unfounded. Google ranks individual pages based on their content, links and performance — it does not know or care whether a page was served by Wix, Squarespace, WordPress or a hand-coded site. What Google does care about is that the page still exists at a findable address with the same substance.

So the risk in a migration is never the technology. It is the mechanical stuff around it: a URL that changed without a redirect, a page whose text got trimmed to nothing during the rebuild, a metadata field left blank, or a domain switch fumbled at the DNS level. Every one of those is a process failure, not a platform failure, and every one is avoidable. The same discipline applies whether you are moving builders or doing a full redesign without losing SEO.

For a Canadian small business the stakes are practical. You probably do not have the domain authority to shrug off a lost month of traffic, and if you rank for local terms, a broken migration can hand those positions to a competitor. That is why the rest of this guide is a checklist, not a pep talk.

Step 1: Crawl and baseline your builder site

You cannot protect URLs you have not written down. Before a single page is rebuilt, capture a complete picture of the current site so you have something to redirect against and something to compare to after launch.

What to capture

• A full list of every live URL. A crawler such as Screaming Frog exports this in minutes; Wix and Squarespace also publish an XML sitemap you can read.
• Your top-performing pages and the keywords they rank for, from Google Search Console.
• Organic traffic and conversions per page, from your analytics — our note on analytics for small business covers setup.
• The current title tag, meta description and H1 for each important page.
• Which external sites link to which of your pages.

Sort that list by traffic and links so your most valuable pages sit at the top. Those are the pages you protect at all costs. If SEO is new to you, the SEO basics for Canadian businesses guide will give you enough grounding to read this baseline usefully.

Step 2: Map old URLs to new ones

Because builders impose their own URL patterns, moving to a custom site almost always changes your addresses. Squarespace, for example, often prefixes blog posts and puts pages under collection paths; a clean custom build will usually simplify those. Every address that changes needs a plan.

Build a redirect map

Create a simple spreadsheet with two columns: the old URL and the single closest new URL. Work through the entire crawl from Step 1 so nothing slips through. A few rules keep it clean:

1. Map each old URL to the most relevant new page — never send everything to the homepage, which Google often treats as a soft 404.
2. Use permanent 301 redirects so the authority a page earned transfers to its replacement.
3. Point each old URL straight to its final destination — avoid chains where one redirect leads to another.
4. Where a page is being retired, redirect it to the closest surviving topic rather than letting it 404.
5. Decide your trailing-slash and case conventions up front and apply them consistently.

The Wix and Squarespace redirect catch

Here is the part people miss. On a custom site you set 301 redirects at the server or host level. But the redirects have to live wherever the domain is currently resolving. In practice you set up the redirect rules on the new host, then only switch the domain to that host at launch (Step 5). If you plan to keep the builder live in parallel for a while, note that Wix and Squarespace let you add some redirects inside their own settings — useful as a stopgap, but the real map belongs on the new host.

If you are weighing what the new platform should be, our comparisons of custom code versus WordPress and AI website builders versus custom will help you choose before you build the map.

Step 3: Preserve content and metadata

A faster, better-looking site with thinner content often ranks worse than the builder site it replaced. The rebuild is a chance to improve the writing — not an excuse to gut it. Migrate the substance, then sharpen it.

Carry over what already earns traffic

• Keep the title tags and meta descriptions that earn clicks; refine wording rather than wiping them.
• Preserve your H1s and heading structure so topical relevance stays intact.
• Move body copy on ranking pages in full and trim only genuine filler.
• Keep image alt text and use descriptive file names when you re-upload.
• Re-create internal links between related pages so link equity keeps flowing.
• Rebuild any structured data the old site had, and add more — see schema and rich results.

This is also the moment to strengthen weak pages rather than replace them. If the old copy read like it was written for a search engine, rewrite it as copy that actually sells while keeping the keywords and depth. Expanding a thin page helps SEO; deleting the words that already rank is what causes drops.

Step 4: Rebuild features and test on staging

Because forms, booking tools and integrations do not transfer, the new build has to reproduce every function your business actually depends on — and often improve it. Do this on a private staging site so Google never crawls the half-finished build.

Feature parity checklist

• Contact and enquiry forms submit to the right inbox and record leads.
• Any booking, appointment or reservation flow works end to end.
• E-commerce products, cart and checkout function, with order data migrated — pair with our e-commerce conversion checklist.
• Newsletter sign-ups connect to your email tool (see email marketing for small business).
• The new site is genuinely mobile-first and meets accessibility standards.
• Analytics and conversion tracking fire on the new pages.

Pre-launch SEO checks

• Every redirect in your map resolves to the correct final URL — test a sample plus all top pages.
• No noindex tags or Disallow: / rules are left over from development.
• A fresh XML sitemap lists only canonical, indexable URLs.
• Titles, meta descriptions and H1s match your migration plan.
• Canonical tags point to the right addresses with no accidental duplicates.

Step 5: Hand over the domain and DNS safely

The domain is the one asset that carries all your accumulated authority, and it is the piece people mishandle most. The golden rule: keep your domain, and never let the old site disappear before the new one is live with redirects in place.

How the handover works

1. Confirm you control the domain registrar account. If your domain was bought through Wix or Squarespace, you can usually transfer it out to an independent registrar — do this so ownership is never in question. Our guide to domains and hosting in Canada explains the options.
2. Deploy the finished custom site and its redirect rules to the new host while the builder site is still live on the domain.
3. Lower the DNS TTL a day ahead so the switch propagates quickly.
4. At launch, update the DNS records (A or CNAME) to point the domain at the new host.
5. Keep the builder subscription active for a couple of weeks as a fallback — do not cancel it the moment DNS flips.

Choose a low-traffic window for the cutover so any hiccup affects the fewest visitors. Propagation can take anywhere from minutes to a day, during which some people see the old site and some the new — which is exactly why you keep both alive briefly. If security settings and certificates are unfamiliar territory, our website security basics covers the HTTPS side of the move.

Step 6: Launch, submit and monitor

Once DNS has pointed at the new host, the work shifts from building to watching. The first weeks tell you whether the migration was clean.

The first 48 hours

1. Confirm the live site is crawlable and every page resolves over HTTPS.
2. Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
3. Spot-check your top old URLs to confirm each 301-redirects to the right new page.
4. Use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing of your most important pages.
5. Confirm analytics and goal tracking are recording sessions and conversions.

The first eight weeks

Watch the Search Console Page Indexing report for a spike in 404s or pages dropping out of the index. Some ranking fluctuation in the first two to three weeks is normal as Google re-crawls the new site — do not panic at the first wobble. What matters is a sustained, broad decline, which almost always traces back to a missed redirect or deleted content. Caught early, most of it is reversible. This is also the moment to confirm the move actually improved things you can measure, from load time to leads — the tactics in getting more leads from your website and the framing in website ROI both apply.

Common migration mistakes to avoid

Most botched builder migrations repeat the same handful of errors. Keep this list visible throughout the project:

• No redirect map. URLs change and old pages 404 — the classic ranking killer.
• Cancelling the builder too soon. The old site vanishes before redirects are live, and traffic falls off a cliff.
• Redirecting everything to the homepage. Google often treats these as soft 404s and drops the equity anyway.
• Losing the domain. A domain bought inside the builder that never gets transferred out or properly re-pointed.
• Deleting ranking content. "Cleaner" copy that strips out the words that earned traffic.
• Skipping metadata. Title tags and descriptions left blank on the new build.
• No baseline. Without before-data you cannot tell whether you lost anything, or where.

How SK Designz handles builder migrations

When a Canadian business comes to us to move off Wix or Squarespace, we treat the migration as a first-class part of the project, not an afterthought. We crawl and baseline the existing site, export the content that matters, and hand-build a redirect map for every URL that changes. We rebuild forms, bookings and integrations so nothing your business relies on breaks, hold the new build to a speed and accessibility standard, and validate the whole thing on staging.

Then we manage the domain and DNS handover carefully — keeping the old site live until redirects are in place — and monitor Search Console after launch so any issue is caught in days, not months. You keep ownership of your domain, your content and your code from day one. You can see the scope on our services page and how it is priced on our pricing page, and if you want to talk it through, our guide to choosing a web design agency is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my Google rankings if I move off Wix or Squarespace?

Not if the move is done properly. Search engines rank pages and content, not the platform serving them. Losses come from URLs that change without a 301 redirect, deleted content, or a fumbled domain switch. Baseline the site, map every URL, redirect the ones that change, preserve your content and metadata, and rankings hold or improve.

Can I export my whole website from Squarespace or Wix?

No. You can export text, images and blog posts, and e-commerce data by CSV, but the design, layout, apps, forms and URL structure do not transfer. Treat the move as a rebuild that reuses your content on a better foundation, not a one-click copy of the entire site.

Do I keep my domain name when I switch?

Yes, you keep the same domain. If you bought it through the builder, transfer it to an independent registrar first so ownership is never in doubt. At launch you point the domain's DNS records at the new host. Keeping the same domain is exactly what preserves your existing authority and brand recognition.

How long does a migration from a builder take?

For a typical small-business site, expect a few weeks once content and design are ready, since the site is effectively rebuilt rather than copied. The redirect map, feature rebuild and testing take most of the time. Our guide on how long a website takes to build covers realistic timelines in more detail.

Should I keep paying for Wix or Squarespace after I move?

Keep the subscription active for a couple of weeks after launch as a fallback, then cancel once you have confirmed the new site is live, redirects work and rankings are stable. Cancelling immediately is risky — if anything goes wrong during DNS propagation, you want the old site available to fall back on.

Is a custom site really cheaper than a builder long term?

Often, yes. A builder charges every month, plus premium apps and sometimes transaction fees, indefinitely. A custom site is a larger one-time cost with lower ongoing hosting and maintenance. Across three to four years the totals frequently favour the custom build, and you also gain ownership, speed and full SEO control.