Moving Off Wix or Squarespace? 6 Checks So You Keep Your Google Rankings

To move off Wix or Squarespace without losing your Google rankings, run six checks: inventory every live URL, map each old URL to its new home with a 301 redirect, carry over titles and meta descriptions, preserve the content that ranks, submit the new sitemap in Search Console on launch day, and monitor rankings and errors closely for 30 to 60 days.

Rankings drop after a migration for predictable reasons: URLs change and nobody redirects them, pages that ranked get "cleaned up" out of existence, or titles get rewritten from scratch. Almost all of it is preventable. A short, temporary dip while Google recrawls is normal. A lasting drop usually means one of these checks was skipped.

Quick facts

• Google ranks URLs. A new URL with no redirect from the old one starts from zero.
• Hosted builders use their own URL patterns for blog posts and products, which rarely match a new site's structure, so most sites need a full redirect map.
• The redirect map is the single most important document in the whole project.
• Keep your domain. Changing platform and domain at the same time compounds the risk.
• Plan on 30 to 60 days of active monitoring after launch.

1. Inventory every URL that exists today

Before anyone designs a page, build a spreadsheet of every URL on the current site. Pull from three places, because each one misses things:

• The site's own sitemap.
• A crawl of the live site with a site crawler tool (our AI tools directory rates options by category).
• Google Search Console's pages and performance reports, which show URLs that get impressions or clicks, including old ones you forgot about.

Add columns for monthly clicks, impressions and backlinks where you have them. That tells you which URLs carry the most value and need the most care. Blog posts, product pages and old campaign landing pages are the ones most often lost.

2. Build a 301 redirect map, one row per old URL

For every URL in the inventory, decide where it goes on the new site and record it: old URL, new URL, status. The rules are simple:

• Same content, new address: 301 redirect to the new page.
• Content merged into another page: 301 to the page that now covers it.
• Content retired with no equivalent: 301 to the closest relevant page, not the homepage by default.
• Never chain redirects (A to B to C). Point each old URL straight to its final destination.

A 301 tells Google the move is permanent, so the ranking value transfers. Redirecting everything to the homepage does not do that; Google tends to treat those as soft errors. The map then becomes the redirect list for the new site. Test every row after launch, not just a sample.

3. Keep titles, meta descriptions and headings on pages that rank

A redesign is when teams are most tempted to rewrite everything. Resist that on your top pages. If a page ranks for a phrase, its title tag, meta description and main heading are part of why. Carry them over as they are, launch, let rankings settle, and then improve them one page at a time with Search Console data in hand.

The same goes for image alt text, structured data and Open Graph settings. These may not come across in an export, so copy them into your inventory spreadsheet by hand for the pages that matter.

4. Preserve the content that earns traffic

"We will trim the copy on the new site" is how pages lose rankings. If a service page ranks because it answers questions in detail, a shorter, prettier version will likely rank worse.

Move the content first, then redesign around it. Keep the same core topics on each page, the same internal links where they still make sense, and the same FAQ content. If you want a sense of which pages every small business site needs regardless of platform, see the 6 pages every small business website needs to show up in Google and AI answers.

Watch for rendering problems as well. A page that looks fine in a browser can still be hard for search engines to read if key content only loads through scripts. Our Purple Lotus case study is about exactly that: product pages that were invisible to search until the rendering was fixed, which lifted organic revenue 58%.

5. Submit the new sitemap and verify in Search Console on launch day

On launch day, in this order:

1. Point the domain to the new site and confirm the SSL certificate is active.
2. Confirm redirects are live by testing a handful of old URLs in the browser.
3. Make sure the new site is not blocked from indexing (a common leftover from staging).
4. Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console, under the same property you already had.
5. Request indexing for the homepage and top service pages.

Keeping the same Search Console property means your historical data stays in one place, which is what you compare against in step 6.

6. Monitor for 30 to 60 days

Check Search Console every few days for the first two weeks, then weekly. Watch for:

• 404 errors on old URLs you missed in the redirect map. Add them as you find them.
• Pages marked "crawled, not indexed" or "duplicate without canonical."
• Queries where your position dropped sharply and stayed down past the first couple of weeks.
• Leads by source in your CRM, so you see a problem in revenue terms, not just rankings.

A short wobble is expected while Google recrawls. A drop that persists past the monitoring window points to a missed redirect, lost content or a technical issue, and the inventory spreadsheet is how you find which one.

A migration that kept its equity

The ReLeaf Shop migration case study is the model for doing this right. A premium cannabis retailer moved to Webflow without losing SEO equity, and the new site went on to support more than $22M in online orders, 40K active users and 304K search clicks. The migration itself was not where the growth came from. The point is that the business did not lose the SEO equity it had already earned.

Migration checklist

Copy this into your project plan:

• [ ] URL inventory from sitemap, crawl and Search Console, with clicks per URL
• [ ] Redirect map: every old URL has a final destination, no chains, no blanket homepage redirects
• [ ] Titles, meta descriptions, H1s and alt text copied for top pages
• [ ] Content moved before design changes, core topics intact
• [ ] Internal links rebuilt to point at new URLs directly (not through redirects)
• [ ] Indexing allowed, SSL active, domain unchanged
• [ ] Sitemap submitted in the existing Search Console property
• [ ] Monitoring calendar set for 30 to 60 days, with one named owner

Once the move is done, it is a good time to strengthen local signals. The 8 local SEO moves for a brand-new New England website apply to a freshly migrated site as much as a new one. And if you are still deciding whether to move to a custom build at all, read AI website builder vs. custom Webflow build: 5 questions to decide.

FAQ

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

You should not lose your rankings if you redirect every old URL, keep the content and titles that rank, and monitor after launch. A short dip while Google recrawls is common. Lasting losses usually trace back to missing redirects or removed content.

Is my site too small to need a redirect map?

No, even a site with a handful of pages needs a redirect map, because any old URL without a 301 starts from zero on the new site. A small site simply finishes the inventory faster. Blog posts and old landing pages are the ones most often forgotten, so pull from the sitemap, a crawl and Search Console even when the site feels small.

How much does a website migration without losing SEO cost?

A do-it-yourself migration mostly costs time: building the inventory, writing the redirect map and monitoring for 30 to 60 days. With JMK Ventures, the new site is a custom Webflow build that starts at $7,500 and takes 8 to 12 weeks. Page count, especially old blog posts and product pages, drives most of the difference.

How long does it take for rankings to recover after a website migration?

Recovery time varies by site size and how clean the migration was, so plan to monitor actively for 30 to 60 days. If a page is still down after that, check its redirect, its content and its indexing status in Search Console.

What is the biggest mistake in a website migration without losing SEO?

The biggest mistake is skipping the redirect map or pointing every old URL at the homepage. Google tends to treat blanket homepage redirects as soft errors, so the ranking value of the old pages does not carry over. Rewriting titles and trimming copy on pages that rank is a close second.

Should I change my domain name at the same time as my platform?

Avoid changing your domain and your platform at the same time if you can. Changing both at once adds a second set of risks and makes it harder to tell what caused any drop. Move platforms first, let rankings settle, then consider a domain change as its own project.

Where do I start a Wix or Squarespace migration?

Start with a URL inventory before anyone designs a page. List every live URL from the old sitemap, a site crawl and Search Console, with clicks per URL, so you know which pages carry the most value. Once your forms and pages are live on the new site, 5 AI automations to connect to your new website on day one covers what to wire up next.

Next step

A migration is mostly careful bookkeeping. If you want help with it, talk to us about moving your site. Our Webflow web development service handles the build, and our SEO optimization service covers the search side. When your new site is live and your team is ready to run more of it with AI, Massachusetts employers can get the state to help pay for AI training in 3 ways.