How to migrate a website without losing traffic or email

The goal: same domain, same traffic, nothing broken

Moving a website is less about copying pages and more about not losing things on the way: search rankings, email, form leads and old links people have bookmarked. Most problems in a website migration come from skipping one of the boring steps, not from the rebuild itself.

This checklist works whether you are leaving Wix, Squarespace, Hostinger or another builder, moving to or from WordPress, or switching hosts. Do the steps in order. Plan on one to three weeks for a small business site, most of it waiting and checking.

Before you start: what will move and what will not

Every platform exports a different slice of your site. Know this first, because it decides how much you rebuild by hand. The exit score is our 0-10 rating of how much you can take with you; see all scores on our exit scores page.

Step 1: Inventory every URL

Make a spreadsheet of every page on the current site. This list drives your redirects in step 4, so do not skip it.

1. Open your sitemap, usually at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, and copy every address.
2. In Google Search Console, open the Pages report and export the list of indexed pages. It often finds old pages the sitemap misses.
3. Add columns: old URL, page title, new URL, and action (keep, merge or drop).
4. Note anything that is not a page: PDFs, image galleries, booking widgets, forms, pop-ups, chat tools and tracking codes.
5. List every account tied to the site: domain registrar, email, payment processor, analytics, Search Console, and any paid apps.

Mark your most important pages, such as the home page, service pages and anything that gets steady search traffic. You will test those first.

Step 2: Export what you can

Pull everything the old platform allows, then download images and files by hand. Platform notes from each company’s own help pages:

• Squarespace: the export is a WordPress-compatible XML file with layout pages, one blog and up to 1,000 comments per post. Store, portfolio and index pages, style settings and custom CSS are not included. Images may not come across into self-hosted WordPress (only links do), and there is no bulk image download, so save images one at a time from the Asset library. Products export to CSV, and orders and contacts can be exported too.
• Wix: there is no full-site export, and Wix says blog posts cannot be exported to other platforms. Products export to CSV, up to 5,000 rows per file, but digital products cannot be exported. CMS collections can be exported one at a time. Plan to copy blog posts by hand.
• Hostinger AI Builder: a semi-automatic export to WordPress moves pages, text, images and files. It leaves out “website styles and layout, online store, integrations, forms, collected submissions, or SEO settings,” and store products are not included.
• Webflow: CMS collections, store items and user accounts export as CSV. Code export needs a paid workspace plan and gives a static snapshot; CMS pages, forms, store, search and password protection stop working outside Webflow.
• Framer: there is no official HTML export. CMS content can be exported with plugins as CSV or JSON. Redirects can be bulk exported.
• Shopify: products export to CSV, but images come only as links that stop working if the store closes. Download product images before you cancel. Stock per location needs a separate inventory CSV.
• WordPress.com: Tools > Export makes an XML file of posts, pages and comments, with links to media. Download the media library separately. Business and Commerce plans can download a full backup.
• Self-hosted WordPress: take a full backup of files and database through your host or a backup plugin, plus the XML export.
• Lovable, Bolt, v0: connect GitHub to get the code. In Lovable, database exports are limited to one every 24 hours, and users must sign in again after a backend move.

Step 3: Rebuild on the new platform

Build the new site where visitors and Google cannot see it yet. Most builders let you work on a free subdomain before you connect your domain. On WordPress, use a staging site from your host.

• Keep URLs the same where you can. If /services/roof-repair worked before, use the same address. Every unchanged URL is one less redirect.
• Import content, then fix it. WordPress imports the XML file through Tools > Import. Squarespace suggests importing its export into WordPress.com, which copies the images; you can then move that to self-hosted WordPress.
• Carry over page titles and meta descriptions. These rarely survive an export. Copy them from your spreadsheet.
• Rebuild forms and test that they deliver. Send a test entry to every form.
• Block search engines on the test site, and write a note to remove that block at launch.

Step 4: Map your 301 redirects

A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines that a page has moved for good. It sends visitors from the old address to the new one and passes along most of the old page’s search value. Any old URL that changes needs one.

Where to set them on the new platform:

• WordPress: in the server’s .htaccess file or with a redirect plugin such as the redirections module in Rank Math.
• Framer: redirects can be bulk imported; Pro includes site redirects.
• Webflow: 301 redirect settings in site settings.
• Squarespace: URL mappings.
• Shopify: URL redirects in the admin.

Two rules. Point each old page to the closest match, not to the home page. And avoid chains, where page A redirects to B, which redirects to C; send A straight to C.

Step 5: Plan the DNS cutover

DNS is the internet’s address book. It tells browsers which server your domain points to. “Cutover” is the moment you change those records from the old platform to the new one.

Lower the TTL first

Each DNS record has a TTL, or “time to live”: how long other computers may cache the old answer. A day or two before the move, lower the TTL on the records you will change to a short value, such as 300 seconds (five minutes). Then, when you switch, the change spreads within minutes instead of hours. Raise it again once things are stable.

You do not have to move the domain

Moving the site and transferring the domain are separate jobs. You can point DNS at the new platform and leave the domain where it is. If you do want to transfer it, do it after the site move, not on the same day.

• At Squarespace, you remove the transfer lock, get an authorization code by email and give it to the new registrar. Newly registered or recently transferred domains have a 60-day lock, transfers can take up to 15 days, and the free-domain offer does not carry over.
• Keeping your domain at an independent registrar makes future moves easier. Porkbun charges $11.08 to register and renew a .com; Cloudflare Registrar sells at cost with no markup; Namecheap renews at $18.48 a year.

Our guide to domains and hosting explains the pieces in more detail.

Step 6: Protect your email (MX records)

This is where most migrations go wrong. Your email is not part of your website, but it relies on the same DNS. If you switch nameservers (the service that holds all your DNS records) and forget to copy the email records, mail stops arriving.

1. Before changing anything, screenshot or export every DNS record at the current provider.
2. Note the MX records, which tell the world where to deliver your email, plus the TXT records for SPF, DKIM and DMARC that prove your mail is genuine and keep it out of spam folders.
3. Copy them exactly to the new DNS provider before you switch nameservers.
4. If you are only changing the records that point to the website, leave MX records alone.

Squarespace’s transfer guide reminds owners with Google Workspace to update MX records at the new provider. Also check whether your mailbox came bundled with the old platform. Hostinger, for example, includes mailboxes free for the first year only. If your email ends with the old plan, set up email hosting elsewhere first. Google Workspace Business Starter is $7 per user a month on the annual plan.

Step 7: Forms, payments and integrations

• Download old form submissions. Hostinger’s WordPress export leaves out forms and collected submissions, and Webflow forms stop working in exported code.
• Reconnect payments. Test a real checkout with a small amount and refund it.
• Move customer and order history. Export products, customers and orders to CSV where the platform allows it, and keep a copy even if you do not import it.
• Reconnect bookings, chat, newsletter sign-up and CRM tools, and update any webhooks or API keys.

Step 8: Analytics and Search Console

• Add your analytics tag to the new site and confirm visits register.
• Verify the site in Google Search Console. A domain property verified by a DNS record keeps working across platform moves, as long as you copy that TXT record.
• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
• If the domain itself changes, use Search Console’s Change of Address tool after your redirects are live.
• Write down the move date so you can compare traffic before and after.

Step 9: Post-move checks

Run these the day you switch, then again a week later.

• The site loads on https with a valid SSL certificate, with and without “www.”
• Your top 20 old URLs redirect to the right new pages in one hop.
• Every form sends, and the email arrives.
• Email comes in and goes out from your business address.
• The search-engine block from step 3 is gone, and robots.txt is not blocking the site.
• Pages look right on a phone. Mobile made up 49.1% of US web page views in September 2026, according to StatCounter.
• Speed is acceptable. Google’s “good” thresholds are Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 ms or less and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less.
• Search Console shows no new spike in “not found” errors over the next two weeks. Add redirects for any old URLs that show up.

Step 10: Cancel the old plan last

Once everything checks out, download one last full copy of the old site’s content, images and data, then cancel. Keep the files somewhere safe, ideally in two places. Check renewal dates so you are not billed for another year by mistake.

A sample timeline

What to do next

• Still deciding where to go? Read leaving your website builder and compare exit scores so you do not get stuck again.
• Moving to WordPress? Read our self-hosted WordPress review.
• Would rather hand it off? See builder vs WordPress vs hiring a designer, including questions to ask before you hire.