Leaving Wix or Squarespace: what you can take with you

Short answer: You can take your content, your domain and your search visibility with you, but not your design, and not everything exports automatically. Squarespace exports a WordPress-format XML file covering standard pages, one blog and some blocks; Wix lets you export products and CMS collections to CSV but, as of November 2026, not blog posts. Plan the move in five stages (inventory, export, rebuild, redirect, switch over) and keep the old site running until the new one is live and checked.

Why people leave, and what to expect

Usual reasons: the site needs features the builder can't do well (complex booking, custom integrations, a client portal), costs creep up with add-ons, or the business wants full control of its code and hosting. Whatever the reason, accept one thing early: builder themes don't travel. You'll rebuild the look on the new platform. What you're really moving is words, images, products, URLs and the domain.

Stage 1: Inventory

Before touching any export button, list what you have. A spreadsheet with these columns is enough:

Every page URL (your sitemap, usually at /sitemap.xml, is the quickest list).
Page type: standard page, blog post, product, event, gallery, form.
Whether it gets traffic (check your analytics or Search Console for the last 12 months).
Forms and where their submissions go.
Integrations: booking tools, newsletter sign-up, payment, chat, maps.
Domain: where it's registered (bought through the builder or elsewhere?).
Email: is your business email connected to the domain through the builder (for example Google Workspace bought via Squarespace)?

Mark each page keep, merge or drop. Migration is the best chance you'll get to cut dead pages.

Stage 2: Export

From Squarespace

Squarespace exports to an .xml file in WordPress format, according to its help centre. Content that exports includes layout pages, one blog page with its posts (and up to 1,000 comments per post), text and image blocks, and gallery pages. Content that doesn't export includes store pages and product blocks, album, index, portfolio and event (calendar) pages, video and audio blocks, page-specific headers and footers, drafts, style settings and custom CSS. If you have more than one blog, only the one you select exports. The site must be published and public, and you can't export from a trial site. Squarespace also notes that some exported items, like linked PDF files, won't import into WordPress.

Practical upshot: blog content comes across reasonably well; store, events and anything built from fancy blocks will need manual work. Download images separately where needed, and copy product data by hand or via your new shop's import tool.

From Wix

Wix's help centre lists what you can export, and the gaps matter:

Store products: export to CSV with their data, ready to map into a new shop's importer.
CMS collections (structured content such as team members, listings or projects): export to CSV from the collection's "More Actions" menu.
Blog posts: Wix states that it's currently not possible to export blog posts to other platforms (marked as a feature request). Posts have to be copied across, manually or with a scraping/migration tool, then checked.

Pages, layouts and forms don't export; you rebuild them.

Stage 3: Rebuild

Set up the new site on a temporary address or staging area, not on your live domain.
Rebuild key templates first: home, service page, blog post, contact.
Import what exported, then fill gaps by hand. Re-upload images in sensible sizes with descriptive file names and alt text.
Rebuild forms and test them end to end, including where notifications go.
Reconnect integrations: booking, newsletter, analytics, payment.
Write new titles and meta descriptions where the old ones were weak.

Stage 4: Redirect plan

Builder URLs rarely match the new platform's structure exactly, especially for blog posts and products. Every old URL that has traffic or links pointing at it needs a permanent (301) redirect to its closest new equivalent.

Google's guidance for site moves with URL changes is to prepare a mapping from old URLs to new ones, redirect the old URLs, then monitor both. It also notes that 301 and other permanent redirects don't cause a loss of PageRank. Using your Stage 1 sheet, add a "new URL" column and fill it for every kept page. Dropped pages should redirect to the most relevant remaining page, not all to the home page.

Stage 5: Switch over, in this order

Freeze content on the old site so nothing new is added.
Check the domain lock and timing. On Squarespace, a domain bought or transferred in within the last 60 days may be locked; you can point it at the new site while the lock runs. Transfers need the authorisation code, which Squarespace emails to the domain's registrant contact. For .uk domains leaving Wix, the process uses an IPS tag change rather than an authorisation code.
Protect email first. If Google Workspace or another mail service is attached through the builder, note your MX and other mail records before changing anything. Squarespace explicitly warns to update MX records at the new domain provider after transfer to avoid an email interruption.
Point the domain (DNS) at the new host. You can transfer registration later, once everything is stable.
Turn on redirects at the moment the new site goes live.
Test: every form, payment, booking and the top 20 old URLs.
Submit the new sitemap in Search Console and watch for errors over the following weeks.
Keep the old builder plan for a month in case you need to retrieve something, then cancel.

FAQ

Will I lose my Google rankings?

There's usually some movement during a migration. Good redirects, matching content and a clean new site keep it short. Missing redirects are the most common cause of lasting losses.

Can I keep my Wix or Squarespace domain?

Yes. It's your domain; you can point it elsewhere or transfer it to another registrar, subject to any lock periods.

Should I move the domain registration at the same time as the website?

It's safer to change DNS first and transfer the registration later. Doing both at once adds risk on launch day.

Is it worth migrating a small brochure site?

Only if the builder is holding you back. If it does everything you need, improving the existing site may be the better investment.

If you're planning to leave a website builder and want the redirects, email and launch handled in the right order, list the pages you can't afford to lose.