Moving off Wix or Squarespace without losing your Google ranking

Moving off Wix or Squarespace without losing your Google ranking comes down to keeping your domain and redirecting each old address to its new one. Google's own guidance says to expect some ranking movement while it recrawls, so plan for that.

When the builder stops being enough

A website builder is a sensible way to start. It stops being enough when the site needs to do something the builder won't, like pass enquiries straight into the system you quote from. If you're torn between rebuilding and patching, read website care plan vs rebuild.

Neither builder hands you a site you can host elsewhere. Wix's help centre says a Wix site has to run on Wix's servers, though the content you build belongs to you. Squarespace says some content won't export, because many features rely on its own JavaScript and CSS. So the design gets rebuilt. What you can carry across is the content and the data.

What moves across, and what doesn't

• Pages and design: On Wix, the site itself can't move to another host. Squarespace exports an .xml file (built for WordPress) that includes layout pages, text and image blocks, but not album, index, portfolio or store pages.
• Blog: Squarespace's export includes one blog page with its posts. Extra blogs don't export. On Wix, check what the help centre currently offers for blog posts before you plan.
• Images: Squarespace says images and videos can't be exported in bulk, only downloaded one at a time from the Asset library. Keep your original photos somewhere you control.
• Form submissions: Wix lets you export submissions from its submissions table as a CSV file. Squarespace exports a form block's submissions to CSV, though uploaded files aren't included.
• Contacts: Wix exports up to 50,000 contacts at a time as a CSV, and only the site owner can do it. Squarespace exports contacts to CSV, as separate mailing lists or in bulk.

Export the data first, while your plan is still active.

Keeping your domain and your data

Keep your domain if you can. A new domain makes it a bigger move, with Change of Address requests in Search Console on top of the redirects. If you bought the domain through the builder, you can transfer it out.

On Wix, you choose Transfer away from Wix under Domains, and Wix emails a transfer code (the EPP code) to the domain's registrant contact. Wix's help centre notes that, under ICANN rules, a domain can't be transferred within 60 days of registering it, changing the registrant contact details or a previous transfer. If you hit that lock, Wix says you can keep the domain there and point it at your new site in the meantime.

On Squarespace, you switch off Domain Lock in the domains dashboard and click Request transfer code. Squarespace emails the code to the domain's contact details, and says it should arrive within 24 hours.

Both depend on that contact email reaching you, so check it before you start. Once the domain moves, both help centres say its DNS settings are managed at the new provider. If your email runs on the domain, copy the records it depends on before you switch anything.

Redirects: your 301 map

If moving off Wix or Squarespace without losing your Google ranking is the goal, this map is the part to get right. Google's site-move guide says to list your old URLs, starting with your sitemap, then decide where each one should go on the new site. A spreadsheet works: old address in one column, new address in the next.

Google recommends server-side permanent redirects, such as a 301, from each old URL to its new one. Its redirects documentation says a permanent redirect tells Google the new page should be the one shown in search. The site-move guide also says 301 and other permanent redirects don't cause a loss in PageRank. That isn't a promise your positions hold, and Google warns of fluctuations for a few weeks or more.

Two things trip people up. First, don't send lots of old pages to the home page. Google says that can confuse users and may be treated as a soft 404, an error page in disguise. Second, the redirects have to live on the new site, because once the domain points there, the old builder no longer answers. Google suggests keeping them for at least a year.

If you keep the same domain, you don't need Search Console's Change of Address tool. Google says that tool is for moving to a different domain; for pages moving within your site, add redirects and update your sitemap. Then submit the new sitemap in Search Console and watch for errors.

How we handle a move

We build and look after websites designed around your brand. That includes domain registration, hosting, branded email on your own domain, and the page titles, descriptions, sitemaps and structured data search engines read. When we replace an existing site, the addresses people already use keep working. If budget is the first question, this guide to website costs in the UK covers it.

Send us your current site address and we'll tell you what can come across and what will need rebuilding. Talk to an engineer before you cancel anything.