How to move your website off Squarespace
Squarespace templates do not travel. Your words, images, domain, and mail can, if you move them in the right order.
Owners leave Squarespace when the template is no longer the point, when they are tired of being the editor, or when a commerce fee and a brochure site have been bundled into one plan they do not need. The design you clicked together does not become a portable file. The business facts on the pages do.
We replace it with a fully custom site for $0 down and $249/mo hosting, live in less than a week, if the scope is a small business site rather than a store. How the products differ is in Artol vs Squarespace. This page is the move itself.
When it is worth leaving
Leave if you want someone else to write and maintain the site, or if the Squarespace plan is mostly paying for commerce features you do not use. Stay if you enjoy the editor, the template still fits, and you will keep the menu or the services current. A move is a project. Do it because the next site will be maintained, not because a template feels old on a Tuesday.
Commerce is the fork. If you sell a real catalog on Squarespace, say so before anyone quotes a brochure. Our $0 down offer is not a store. Packages is where that conversation goes.
The move, without skipping email
- Get into the Squarespace account and the domain account
They may be the same login. Write down who owns the login. A domain registered through Squarespace still has to be pointed or transferred. Do not cancel the plan to 'start fresh' before you can sign in.
- Copy the pages that are still true
Services, hours, policies, and the story of the business. Download original photos. Treat the template's layout as staying behind.
- Inventory the public addresses
Squarespace addresses often include a page name you have shared. List them. Each one that matters gets a redirect on the new site to the closest new page.
- Find the email before you touch DNS
Professional mail on the domain, including a Google Workspace mailbox you started through Squarespace, depends on records that are not the website. Changing the website and the mail in one careless step is how orders and clients vanish.
- Launch the replacement while the old site is still public
Build and review first. Then point the domain. An overlap beats a gap.
- Redirect, then update the profile
Redirects keep old links from dying. They protect rankings as far as a redirect can, which is not a guarantee. Point the Google Business Profile at the new address the same day.
- Check a form, a page, and an email
Submit the new inquiry form. Open a redirected address. Confirm mail still arrives. Only then decide whether to close the Squarespace subscription.
What Artol does on this move
We do not recreate your Squarespace template. A deep business audit decides the pages, competitive market research looks at who a customer would compare, and we write the site. You pay $0 down and $249/mo hosting. 12-month ownership terms: 12 months of hosting at $249/mo, then month to month. Leave earlier and the remaining hosting or a buyout of the build is due.
We connect the domain you already have, place the redirects you listed, and include Google Business Profile setup. We will not migrate your mailbox as if it were a page. If mail is on the domain, we flag it and leave those records in place unless a specialist is changing them on purpose. Hosting includes SSL and daily backups. We are 100% US-based, made in the USA, in Yardley, PA. We reply within one business day.
Two small content updates a month cover an hour change or a service line after you are off Squarespace. They do not cover rebuilding a shop. If that is the real project, we will say so before you cancel anything.
Questions we get asked
Does Squarespace give me the site as files I can upload elsewhere?
Do not plan on it. Save the text and the images, and rebuild. The template stays on Squarespace.
Will my search rankings move with me?
Redirects from old addresses to new ones are the protection you can actually set up. They are not a promise that every ranking stays.
What about my Squarespace email or Google Workspace?
Treat mail as separate from the website. Know where it is hosted before anyone edits domain records.
What will I pay Artol?
$0 down and $249/mo hosting, live in less than a week, for a small business site. 12-month ownership terms: 12 months of hosting at $249/mo, then month to month. Leave earlier and the remaining hosting or a buyout of the build is due.
