Moving From Wix or Squarespace to a Custom Website Without Losing Your Google Rankings

Moving off a website builder is common. Businesses outgrow their template, get tired of paying monthly for add-ons, or want a site that loads faster and looks like their own. The usual worry is losing the place they’ve earned on Google.

Handled carefully, a move can keep your rankings intact. Most drops after a move come from a few avoidable mistakes, above all old links that lead nowhere. This post walks through the steps in order.

Before you start: take stock

List every page Google knows about. Use Google Search Console if it’s set up, or search Google for site:yourbusiness.com. Wix and Squarespace also publish a sitemap, usually at yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml.

Note which pages bring in visitors. In Search Console, the Performance report shows which pages get clicks, and for which searches. Treat those pages with the most care.

Save your content. Copy the text and download the images you want to keep. Neither builder gives you a copy of your site that runs anywhere else, so plan to move the content by hand or with your designer.

Record titles and descriptions for your main pages, so the new versions start from what’s already working.

Keep your addresses, or redirect them

Every page has an address, or URL, and Google ranks addresses. If an address that ranks starts showing an error, its ranking fades.

Keep the same URLs where you can. If your services page is at /services, keep it at /services.

Redirect anything that changes. When a page moves to a new address, set up a permanent redirect (a 301 redirect) from the old address to the new one. Visitors and Google are sent along automatically, and Google treats the new page as the continuation of the old one.

Builders create addresses in their own patterns, especially for blog posts, products and galleries, so check each one rather than assuming.

Make a redirect map: a two-column list with the old address and the new address for every page. Don’t send everything to the home page. Send each old page to the closest new one.

Keep what’s working on each page

• Move the text of pages that rank well, and improve it rather than replacing it wholesale.
• Keep headings and titles close to the originals on pages that already rank.
• Keep the same business name, address and phone number, matching your Google Business Profile.
• Carry over image descriptions (alt text).

Watch the domain and the email

This is where moves go wrong in ways that have nothing to do with rankings.

Find out where your domain is registered. If you bought it through Wix or Squarespace, it’s managed in that account. You can leave it there and point it to the new site, or transfer it to another registrar. A transfer takes several days, and a domain registered or transferred within the last 60 days usually can’t be moved yet.

If your domain came from Google Domains, it’s now managed by Squarespace, which took over Google Domains registrations in 2023.

Don’t cancel the builder plan early. Keep the old site running until the new one is live and checked. If your domain or email runs through the builder, canceling can take them down with it.

Protect your email settings. If your business email runs on your domain, through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for example, the move must leave its MX records exactly as they are. Changing the wrong DNS records is an easy way to break email by accident.

Launch day

1. Put the new site live on your domain.
2. Switch on the redirects and test a handful of old addresses yourself.
3. Send a test through your contact form and check your email still arrives.
4. Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console, as Google’s guide to moving a site recommends.
5. Use Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to request indexing for your most important pages.
6. Update the website link on your Google Business Profile if it changed.

The weeks after

Rankings can wobble for a few weeks while Google recrawls the site. That’s normal. Check Search Console for pages reported as not found, and add redirects for any you missed. Compare clicks on your main pages with the weeks before the move.

Why businesses make the switch

A custom-built site gives you a design made for your business, pages that carry only the code they need, and no monthly add-ons for features you rarely use. Our comparison of Squarespace, Wix and a custom-coded website lays out the trade-offs.

We build every site in custom code, and you own it. A website is $2,000, with every page you need, and putting it online is free. If you’re moving off a builder, tell us about your business with your current web address, and we’ll plan the move with you.