The Ultimate Guide to Moving Your Website from Squarespace to WordPress with StyleCloud

Thinking about moving your website from Squarespace to WordPress? You’re in great company. Many creative business owners come to a point where they want more control over their design, better performance, or more flexibility as they grow – and that’s exactly what WordPress with StyleCloud delivers.

In this guide, we’ll walk you step-by-step through how to move your website, rebuild it with one of our beautiful StyleCloud themes, and make the switch smoothly – all while keeping your existing Squarespace site live in the background.

Why Move from Squarespace to WordPress with StyleCloud?

Here are just a few reasons our customers make the move:

• More design freedom using WordPress’s block editor
• Access to StyleCloud’s library of stunning, mix-and-match sections
• Better long-term SEO and site speed performance
• You own your website and content fully
• Easy to add more functionality using WordPress plugins

“If you’ve outgrown the limits of Squarespace, WordPress with StyleCloud gives you the flexibility and polish to scale your business beautifully.”

What You’ll Need Before You Start

Here’s what to have ready before you dive in:

• ✅ A WordPress hosting provider (like SiteGround, Cloudways or Krystal)
• ✅ A StyleCloud membership (for access to themes + blocks)
• ✅ Your existing domain and Squarespace login details
• ✅ A bit of time and a good cup of coffee ☕

Note: If you’ve purchased your domain through Squarespace, you’ll also need to plan to transfer or repoint it at the end of the process. If you use email addresses linked to that domain, be mindful of how your email is set up so you don’t disrupt it during the transfer.

How to Move from Squarespace to WordPress with StyleCloud

Step 1: Choose Your Hosting + Set Up a Temporary Site

To keep your Squarespace site live while you build your new one, your hosting provider will give you a temporary URL (also known as a staging URL or subdomain) where you can build your new site without touching your live domain.

1. Choose a host and sign up for a plan (view our hosting guide here)
2. Install WordPress (most hosts have a one-click installer)
3. Make a note of your temporary URL – this is where you’ll build your new site

This setup lets you build your new site behind the scenes without any pressure to go live before you’re ready.

Step 2: Install the Kadence Theme and Kadence Blocks

We build everything on Kadence because it’s lightweight, fast, and incredibly flexible.

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes > Add New, then search for “Kadence”
2. Install and activate the theme
3. Next, go to Plugins > Add New and search for “Kadence Blocks”
4. Install and activate the plugin
5. You will see a suggestion to install the Kadence Starter Themes plugin – install that too.

Step 3: Install Your StyleCloud Starter Theme

Now for the fun part – choosing your look and feel!

1. Log into your StyleCloud account
2. Pick a starter theme that suits your brand from the StyleCloud Dashboard
3. Follow the instructions to import the theme into your WordPress site
4. You’ll now have a fully designed theme ready to customise with your own content

Step 4: Migrate Your Content from Squarespace

First, bring in your page & post content:

• Export your Squarespace site content: Go to Settings > Advanced > Export and download your content (this includes pages and blog posts)
• Import to WordPress: In WordPress, go to Tools > Import > WordPress and upload the file.

Note: this will import and create pages and posts in your WordPress website. After import, check your pages and posts carefully to make sure none are missing.

Now, import your images:

• Install the Auto Upload Images plugin: This tool automatically pulls in images linked from your Squarespace content
• Re-save each post/page to trigger the plugin and download images into your media library
• Rebuild galleries manually using StyleCloud gallery blocks for the best design control. If you’re a Pic-Time user, you’ll love that StyleCloud has a Pic-Time plugin that connects directly to your Pic-Time account, allowing you to easily import and recreate galleries with just a few clicks.
• Preserve your SEO: As you recreate each page, try to match the same URLs (also called permalinks) and headings where possible. This helps maintain your search engine rankings and avoids broken links. You can adjust permalinks in Settings > Permalinks, or manually on each page.

Step 5: Rebuild Pages Using StyleCloud Blocks & Layouts

You can copy and paste your content from your Squarespace site into the pages of your new theme. Or you can use the StyleCloud block library, to drop in stylish, flexible layouts:

• Rebuild your homepage, About, Services, and mix and match our beautiful sections into your template for complete design freedom
• Add testimonial sliders, sales pages, pricing blocks, contact forms and more
• Customise fonts, colours and spacing to match your brand

With over 350 layouts and blocks in the library, it’s like having a professional designer in your back pocket. You can try a demo site here.

Step 6: Connect Your Domain (and Email, if Needed)

Once your new site is ready to go live:

• Update your domain settings to point to your new WordPress hosting
  (your host will provide DNS records to update)
• If your domain is currently registered with Squarespace, you can either:
  – Transfer the domain to a new registrar (like Google Domains or your new hosting provider)
  – Or simply update the DNS settings at Squarespace
• Check your email setup! If you’re using your domain for email (e.g. hello@yourdomain.com), double-check your MX records and provider settings before making DNS changes

Tip: If you’re not sure about your domain or email setup, your hosting provider or domain registrar’s support team can walk you through it.

Step 7: Connect Google Tools & Test Everything

• Connect to Google Analytics and Search Console using Google’s official free plugin, Google Site Kit
• Add the free Yoast SEO plugin to set site and meta-descriptions across your site
• Submit your XML sitemap in your Google Search Console to ask Google to crawl your new site
• Test your contact forms, buttons and links

Step 8: Go Live and Celebrate!

• Turn off any “Coming Soon” plugin or maintenance mode
• Make sure that the Settings > Reading checkbox isn’t checked to discourage search engines
• Create stylish launch graphics using the Canva templates included with StyleCloud
• Share your new site on social media and email and in the StyleCloud Community on Facebook
• Submit your website to our StyleCloud Showcase.
• Watch your traffic grow and enjoy your new creative freedom ✨

💸 Squarespace vs WordPress + StyleCloud: Price Comparison

Feature / Service	Squarespace	WordPress + StyleCloud
Website Hosting & Platform	Included (£180 per year – Business Plan)	From £60- £120 per year (via your hosting provider)
Design Flexibility	Limited to built-in templates	Full freedom using Kadence + StyleCloud blocks
Template Access	Basic included	Full access to all StyleCloud starter themes + block library
Ongoing Support	Email support only	Priority support from the StyleCloud team
Blogging & SEO Tools	Basic built-in tools	Advanced SEO plugins + Google integration
E-commerce (optional)	Add £240+/year (Commerce Plan)	Use WooCommerce (free) or plugin of choice
Total Estimated Annual Cost	£180 – £420+	£130 – £250+

Note: These estimates are based on common setups and may vary depending on your hosting provider or optional plugin upgrades.