Guides · The Promptable Sites team · Updated October 2026

How to Move Off Squarespace Without Losing Google Rankings: The Redirect Checklist

Short answer: Before you leave Squarespace, list every address on your site. Keep as many as you can exactly the same. For each one that changes, add a permanent (301) redirect to the closest matching new page. Then test every redirect, before and after launch. Keep them for at least a year. That’s what protects your rankings.

Download the redirect map template (CSV)

This checklist is part of our guide to Leaving Squarespace in 2026.

Why this matters

Google ranks pages, and pages live at addresses. When an address disappears, Google treats the page as gone. Any standing it earned (links from other sites, a spot in search results) goes with it.

A 301 redirect tells Google “this page moved permanently, here’s the new address.” Google then moves that standing to the new page. Google recommends keeping redirects in place “for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year.”¹

Missing, wrong, or broken redirects are among the most common causes of ranking drops after a move.

The checklist

Step 1. Take a “before” snapshot

You need to know what’s working now, so you can protect it and check it later.

• Connect Google Search Console to your site, if it isn’t already.
• In Performance › Pages, export your pages for the last 3 months. These are the pages Google sends people to.
• In Links, note your top linked pages. These are the pages other websites point to.
• Save both. They go into the “Traffic” and “Links in” columns of your redirect map.

Step 2. List every address on your site

Squarespace’s export doesn’t give you a full list of addresses. Build one from several places, because each one misses something.

• Your sitemap. Squarespace makes one at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.² Copy every address.
• Search Console pages from Step 1. These can include older addresses Google still knows about that aren’t in your sitemap anymore.
• Your top linked pages from Step 1.
• Your existing Squarespace redirects (Step 3).
• Files people download, such as PDFs, price lists, or lead magnets. Check your own emails and social posts for links to them.
• Blog feeds, if people subscribe to your blog or podcast in a reader or podcast app. Squarespace blog feeds end in ?format=rss.³ Cloudflare’s _redirects file can’t match addresses with a ? in them, so feeds need a Cloudflare Redirect Rule instead. Ask Claude to set one up.⁴

Paste them all into the Old URL column of the template. Remove duplicates.

Step 3. Copy your old Squarespace redirects

If you’ve ever renamed a page, you may have added redirects in Settings › Developer Tools › URL Mappings. They live inside Squarespace,⁵ so they stop working the moment you leave.

• Copy the full contents of URL Mappings into a text file.
• Add each one to your map.
• Fix chains. If an old map sends /a to /b, and /b is now moving to /c, point /a straight to /c. Each extra hop slows visitors down, and Google’s crawler follows at most 10 hops.⁶

Step 4. Decide where each address goes

For every row, choose one:

• Same. The page keeps its exact address on the new site. Best option. No redirect needed. Your domain stays the same, so most pages can stay exactly where they are.
• Redirect. The address has to change. Point it to the closest matching new page.
• Retire. The page is gone on purpose and has no close match. Let it return “not found.” This is fine for truly dead pages.

Rules that keep rankings safe:

• Redirect to the closest match, not your home page. Google may treat redirects to an unrelated page, like the home page, as missing pages.¹
• Watch the small differences. /about and /about/ can count as two addresses. So can www and no www. Pick one version and redirect the other.
• Keep your blog and shop addresses if you can. Squarespace adds a prefix to collection pages, like /blog/post-name.⁷ Rebuild with the same prefix and those pages need no redirect.

Step 5. Add the redirects on your new host

How you add them depends on where the new site lives. Most modern hosts use a simple text file. On Cloudflare, it’s a file called _redirects, with one line per redirect:

/our-old-services-page   /services   301
/blog/old-post-name      /blog/new-post-name   301

• Use 301 (or 308). Both mean “moved permanently.” Don’t use 302, which means “moved for now.”⁸ Always end each line with 301. If you leave the code off, Cloudflare uses 302.⁴
• Check your host’s limits. Cloudflare’s _redirects file allows 2,000 simple redirects and 100 pattern-based ones. Larger sites need its Bulk Redirects feature.⁴
• Put simple, exact redirects above pattern-based ones. On Cloudflare, the first matching line wins.⁴
• Update links inside your site to point to new addresses directly, so visitors don’t bounce through redirects.

Step 6. Test every redirect, twice

This is the step people skip, and it’s where most problems hide. Test on a private preview before launch, then again on the live site.

For every row in the map, check:

• The old address redirects (a 301 or 308).
• It lands on the right page.
• That page loads (it returns “200 OK,” not an error).
• It gets there in one hop, not a chain.
• It doesn’t loop back on itself.
• It works with and without a trailing slash, and with and without www.

Mark the “Tested before launch” and “Tested after launch” columns as you go.

How to test: for a handful of pages, a free online redirect checker works. Paste in the old address and it shows each hop. For more than a few dozen, use a crawler that reads a list of addresses, or have someone script it. Testing by hand in a browser isn’t enough, because browsers remember old redirects and can hide problems.

A real example of what goes wrong. One owner who moved their site from Squarespace with Claude wrote up their cleanup.⁹ Clean addresses like /portfolio showed “not found.” Their sitemap listed addresses the redirects didn’t cover. And their host’s own address rules fought with their redirects, creating an endless loop between /portfolio and /portfolio.html. Each one is easy to fix once you see it. A full test pass is how you see it.

Step 7. After launch: watch, then wait

• Submit your new sitemap in Search Console. Make sure it lists only new, live addresses, never ones that redirect.
• Check Indexing › Pages in Search Console weekly for a month or two. Look for new “Not found (404)” pages, and add redirects for any you missed.
• Compare your traffic to your Step 1 snapshot. Google says rankings can go up and down for a few weeks or more while it revisits your old addresses and swaps in the new ones.¹
• Keep Squarespace running for a few weeks as a safety net. Save your images and files before you cancel.¹⁰
• Keep your redirects for at least a year. On a site you own, there’s no cost to keeping them forever.

You don’t need Google’s Change of Address tool if your domain stays the same. That tool is only for moving to a new domain.¹

Common mistakes

The template

The free redirect map has one row per old address and these columns:

Download the redirect map template (CSV)

Rather not do this yourself?

This checklist is exactly what we do on every move, plus the build itself. We list every address from your live site, keep every address we can, map and test every redirect, and send you the finished map as part of your report. If a redirect fails within 30 days, we fix it free.

Questions owners ask

Do I need redirects if I keep my domain? Only for addresses that change. Keep the same domain and the same paths, and those pages need no redirect. Most moves still have some addresses that change, like files, feeds, and old Squarespace redirects.

How long does Google take to notice the move? Google says it can take a few weeks or more for a medium-sized site. Expect some ups and downs in that time.¹

Can I redirect my images? Usually not. Squarespace serves images from its own servers, which you don’t control, and those image links stop working when you close your site.¹⁰ Save every image and host it on the new site.

What’s the difference between 301 and 302? 301 means “moved permanently.” 302 means “moved for now.” For a move, use 301 (or 308, which also means permanent).

How many redirects is too many? There’s no ranking penalty for having a lot. The problems are chains, loops, and wrong targets, and your host’s limits. Cloudflare’s redirect file allows 2,100 in total.⁴

Sources