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Public website, pages, blog, forms, and optional commerce

Rebuild a Squarespace site with its search history and business connections in view.

Squarespace is primarily a public website platform. A move to Patsy usually centers on page structure, copy, portfolio media, forms, search visibility, domain settings, and connected services. A content export is not a complete design or integration backup, so the current site should remain available during review.

Before deciding

Know what the current platform is doing well.

A move is justified by a specific improvement, not by temporary frustration with one screen or one price increase.

Read Patsy vs Squarespace
  • Squarespace does not offer a continuing free site plan. Confirm the renewal date and leave enough overlap for review and domain work.
  • Templates, block layout, custom CSS, styles, forms, commerce, member areas, scheduling, and third-party integrations are not one portable package.
  • Squarespace documents limits when importing WordPress content, including gallery images, captions, plugin content, and styles. The same general lesson applies to migration planning: content transfer and visual recreation are different tasks.
  • Changing a domain before email and DNS records are documented can interrupt services that have nothing to do with the website.

Collect before starting

The account is not the backup.

Create an independent record of files, active client promises, business data, settings, links, and ownership before cancellation becomes a deadline.

  1. A crawl or spreadsheet of every public URL, page title, description, heading, internal link, image, caption, and form
  2. Original logo, fonts, color values, icons, photography files, written copy, downloadable files, and favicons
  3. Blog posts and categories, including publication dates, authors, images, excerpts, and current URLs
  4. Form fields, destinations, autoresponders, mailing-list connections, scheduling links, commerce settings, and member content
  5. Custom CSS, code injection, analytics, tracking pixels, cookie tools, embeds, and scripts the studio still needs
  6. Registrar access, a full DNS record list, business email details, search verification, analytics access, and renewal dates

Staged migration plan

Move the lowest-risk work first. Move the domain last.

Each phase has a result to verify before the next phase begins. Keeping the systems overlapped costs more briefly and can prevent much larger client-facing failures.

1. Crawl and classify the site

Decide what should be preserved, improved, consolidated, redirected, or retired.

  • List all indexable pages and high-value inbound links.
  • Mark pages that generate inquiries, rank in search, answer client questions, or hold legal and policy information.
  • Inventory hidden pages, landing pages, downloads, redirects, and links used in email or social profiles.
2. Rebuild from approved source material

Plan a stronger Patsy website direction without copying accidental limitations from the old theme.

  • Give Patsy source photographs and copy rather than relying on compressed screenshots.
  • Review structure, visual hierarchy, mobile crops, accessibility, forms, and photographer-specific conversion paths.
  • Preserve page intent and useful URLs where practical, then plan redirects for changed addresses.
3. Reconnect services

Restore every real business dependency before launch.

  • Test form destinations, calendar or scheduling links, email marketing, analytics, search tools, pixels, and consent settings.
  • Recreate only integrations the studio still uses and document any replacement behavior.
  • Test with real submissions and a non-administrator browser session.

Be carefulA page that looks correct can still fail if its form, tracking, email, or privacy behavior was not tested.

4. Change DNS with a rollback record

Launch without losing business email or the ability to diagnose a problem.

  • Save the original DNS record set and verify who controls the domain.
  • Confirm the new hosting records and preserve unrelated mail and verification records.
  • Monitor the site, forms, email, analytics, indexing, and priority redirects after the change.
Review manually

Data that rarely behaves like a simple file copy.

  • Layout, animations, mobile behavior, custom CSS, code injection, fonts, and image focal points
  • Forms, autoresponders, email list connections, scheduling, member areas, products, discounts, and customer records
  • Blog formatting, image captions, galleries, embeds, downloadable files, and author or category relationships
  • Page titles, descriptions, canonical behavior, structured data, alt text, redirects, and index settings
  • Domain registration, DNS, business email, analytics, search verification, pixels, cookie tools, and privacy notices
Cutover checks

Evidence that the replacement is ready.

  • Priority pages preserve their purpose and every changed high-value URL has a tested redirect.
  • Contact, inquiry, newsletter, and scheduling paths reach the correct destination and produce the expected confirmation.
  • Business email sends and receives after DNS changes.
  • The new site is usable on a phone and photographs are sharp, correctly cropped, and not unnecessarily heavy.
  • Analytics and search verification are active, with a plan to monitor traffic and indexing after launch.

Platform sources

Patsy and PA Digital Studio are not affiliated with Squarespace. Export tools and platform policies change, so confirm current documentation and account options before planning the move.

Ready when you are

See the replacement before moving anything out of Squarespace.

Build and review the public direction first. Keep the existing site, account, client galleries, and domain untouched until you deliberately approve a change.
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