Moving from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 7.0 – Squarespace 5

Squarespace 7.0 is our newer interface, designed to make building and managing your site more intuitive. Moving from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 7.0 requires migrating your content from our older platform to a completely new product. This means you'll be redesigning your site using a Squarespace 7.0 template and then importing your content. You'll need to recreate any content that can't import through the import process.

This guide walks you through moving your site content and getting it set up on Squarespace 7.0. If you get stuck at any point, reach out to our Customer Support team for help.

Tip: For hands-on help migrating your site, hire a Squarespace Expert. Click Get Matched to answer a few questions about what you need, and ensure you select Site Migration as your project type.

Should I move to Squarespace 7.1 instead?

We released Squarespace version 7.1 in early 2020. While we still support version 7.0, version 7.1 has an improved editing experience and more flexibility. For example, you can add page sections and banner images to any page, enable site-wide animations, use auto-layouts to arrange sets of content, create section-specific styles, and use Fluid Engine, our latest content editing experience.

It's not currently possible to migrate directly to Squarespace 7.1, so if you need to import a large amount of content from your Squarespace 5 site, such as many blog posts, Squarespace 7.0 has a built-in migration tool.

If you're able to move your content manually, however, we do recommend you choose version 7.1. To learn more, visit Moving from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 7.1.

What imports

This content will import to your new Squarespace 7.0 site:

HTML pages
Journal pages and blog posts
Blog post comments
Images (as Code blocks)
Picture galleries

This content won't import, but the steps below explain how to add it manually:

Files uploaded to your file storage section
Content added to headers, footers, and sidebars
Blog content using Markdown language

This content won't import:

Discussion, Drop Box, FAQ, Guestbook, and Links pages
RSS Widgets
Information from Traffic Overview
Style settings
Billing details

1 - Start a Squarespace 7.0 trial

To start a Squarespace 7.0 trial you need to create a new account, rather than logging in with your Squarespace 5 credentials. You can use the same email address for both accounts.

To create a trial, visit our version 7.0 template store and start browsing templates.
Hover over a template and click the Preview link to see more. Popular templates include Bedford, Brine, and Five. If sidebars are important for your site, choose a template that supports sidebars.
When you find a template you like, click the Start With... link. You can always switch templates later.
Enter your name, email address, and the password you'll use to log into your site. If you already have a Squarespace 7.0 account, use the same email address and password you used previously. This adds your new trial site to a menu you can use to switch between sites.

By default, your new site is private, and not visible to search engines or visitors. You'll make it public when your site is ready and you select a billing plan, at the end of this guide.

Note: By signing up for a free trial, you agree to our Terms of Service.

Get to know the new interface

Squarespace 7.0 has a different interface than Squarespace 5. When you log into your site, your website appears on the right, and a panel area displaying the Home menu on the left. Your website has some pre-populated demo content, which you'll replace with your own content later on.

Tip: If you don't see the left panel after logging in, click the expand arrow in the top-left corner of your site.

Your Home menu looks something like this:

The left panel is where you make all the changes to your site's structure and style. We'll walk you through using it in the steps below.

When you click an option in the Home menu, it opens in the left panel. You can also press the / key on your keyboard to search for any panel name. To get back to the Home menu, double-click the navigation arrow above any panel.

2 - Import your content

You can import blogs, pages, comments, and galleries directly from your Squarespace 5 site into your Squarespace 7.0 site.

Open the Import & Export Content panel ↗ on your Squarespace 7.0 site.
Click Import.
In the Import Site menu, select V5.

In the Account URL or Login field, enter your login, which is the first part of your Squarespace 5 URL. For example, if your full Squarespace 5 URL is https://yoursite.squarespace.com, you'll enter yoursite.
Enter your password in the Password field. If you don't remember it, visit Changing or recovering your password.
Click Begin Import. Your content import will begin. You'll see a Processing label and a progress bar. The length of time this takes depends on how much content your Squarespace 5 site has.

When the process is complete, you'll see a Success label:

Troubleshooting the import

If the label says Failure, click Clear, then click Import. Try the import again, making sure of the following:

Use your account name in the first field, not your site's URL or your email address.
Ensure your password is correct. The password is case-sensitive.

If you're still having issues with this step, contact our Customer Care team.

3 - Enable your content

Your content has been imported into your site, but it won't show up until you enable it. To enable each page:

Open the Pages panel ↗. This is where you'll organize the content of your site, similar to the Architecture area in Squarespace 5.
Scroll down to the Not Linked section to see the pages you imported. If you don't see your pages, refresh the page.

Hover over the page name and click the to open page settings.

Click the Enable Page toggle on.

If your imported Squarespace 5 page has the same full URL (example: www.yoursite.com/about) as a demo page on your Squarespace 7.0 site, change the slug of the Squarespace 7.0 page. Your site won't allow two active pages with the same URL.
Click Save.

You should also set one page as your homepage while you're in its page settings. This creates the landing page for your site. You can change it at any time.

To display any page as a link in your navigation, drag each page to the Main Navigation section in the Pages panel. To learn more, visit Moving pages around your navigation.

Enable blog post comments

If you imported a blog that had comments on it:

Open the Blog preferences panel ↗ on your new site.
Click Comment Settings, then check Enable Comments Globally.
Update the comment settings if needed.
Click Save.

Your imported comments should now appear on all blog posts.

4 - Replace your images

Images on pages and posts have imported to your new site, but they've imported as Code blocks instead of Image blocks.

We recommend replacing all Code block images on your site with Image blocks, because:

Any images you added through its direct file storage URL will disappear when you cancel your Squarespace 5 site
Image blocks have many built-in features (such as shapes, captions, and animations) that Code blocks don't have

Check images

To check if an image was added through its direct file storage URL and must be replaced:

In your Squarespace 7.0 site, go to the page or post with the image.
Double-click the image, twice. This opens the page editor and then the Code block editor.
If the code includes your V5 site's URL, the image needs to be replaced. If you don't replace it, it will disappear when you close your Squarespace 5 site.

Replace images

Your images are saved in your site's Asset library. To replace any Code block image on your Squarespace 7.0 site:

Go to the page or post with the image and click Edit to open the page editor.
Click the Code block image and press the trash can icon to delete it.
Click the + symbol on the page and click Image to add an Image block.
In the Image block, click the + symbol, then click Select From Library.
Select the image and click Add.

5 - Manually add remaining content

Content on pages, picture galleries, and journal posts have transferred to your new site, but you'll need to add any remaining content manually.

Files from file storage

Squarespace 7.0 doesn't have a file storage area. Instead, upload files to links within text, navigation, and clickthrough images. To learn more, visit Uploading and managing files. You can also embed PDFs.

If you have a lot of files in file storage, you may want to download them all at once with third-party software like DownloadThemAll (Firefox) or Chrono Download Manager (Chrome). Note: Third-party services fall outside of the scope of Squarespace support.

6 - Set up URL formats and redirects

To make the transition to your new site seamless, it's important to set up your site's URLs. This will prevent your visitors from seeing dead links and "Page not found" error messages.

To learn how to update your URL slugs (the part of the URL after your root domain), visit Changing URL slugs. That guide shows how to set your default blog post URL format, so that all your imported blog posts can have the same format that they had on your Squarespace 5 site.
To forward visitors away from pages that don't exist to pages that do exist, you can set up 301 redirects. That guide also explains how to set up batch redirects for multiple blog posts, events, or products.
You can also create a custom 404 error page in case any of your visitors find a dead link.

Tip: To help improve your site's ranking, add a site description and page descriptions. For more tips, visit our SEO checklist.

301 redirects and SEO

Redirects are a key way to keep your site search engine optimized through the transition to a new content management system. Although moving a site to a new platform might cause a temporary dip in search ranking, setting up redirects is the best way to reduce the effect of the migration. To learn more, visit Maintaining your SEO ranking after moving to Squarespace.

Note: If you have a custom domain, the URLs won't work until you've moved the domain.

7 - Customize your site

Click the links in the left panel to navigate to all your new site's options. To get back to the Home menu quickly, double-click the navigation arrow in the top-left corner of any panel.

The options available for your site depend on your template family. To get the most out of your site, we recommend you know what template family your site is in and review that template family's guide.

Follow the tips below to design your header, add new content, delete demo pages, style your site, optimize for SEO, and update your built-in domains.

Design your header

The site header displays at the top of all pages on your site. Follow these steps to customize your header:

Add your site title - Your site has a default title of "Your Site Title." To update this, or to replace the site title with a logo, follow the version 7.0 steps in Adding a site title.
Add navigation links - Create a navigation menu from pages on your site, and use folders to create drop-down menus.
Style your header - How you'll style your header depends on your template. Review your template family's guide for more help.
Tag line - Most version 7.0 templates support a tagline.

Add new content

To add pages to your new site, click the + icon in the Pages panel ↗ next to any navigation area. You'll see the following page types:

Page - Add a Layout page to build your own page layout.
Products - Squarespace 7.0 supports integrated commerce features for all sites.
Cover page - Use a Cover page to create a landing splash page for your site.
Folder - Create drop-down menus in your navigation.
Album - Add an album of audio files to your website.
Index - Index pages organize content from multiple pages into a single location. They are available in certain templates. Similarly, some templates support an Info page or Project page.
Blog - Create a blog and populate it with posts.
Gallery - Showcase images and videos.
Events - Add a calendar or list of events to your site.
Link - In addition to any pages you've added directly to your navigation, you can add additional links.

Delete demo pages

To delete pages, such as the auto-populated demo pages, go to the Pages panel ↗, hover over the page and click the trash can icon.

Style your site

On Squarespace 7.0, the equivalent of Style Mode is Site Styles. The available tweaks depend on your template family. To learn more about your template family's style options, identify your template family and then visit its template guide.

To access design tweaks, first navigate to that page from the Pages panel. Then, return to the Home menu in the left panel and click Design, then Site Styles.

Similar to Style Mode:

Site Styles only shows tweaks (style options) specific to the page you're viewing. For example, if you're on a blog page when you navigate to Site Styles, it will show tweaks specific to Blog pages, but won't show tweaks for Store pages.
You can click elements on your page to see their relevant style tweaks

Optimize for SEO

To make your site friendly for search engines, you may also want to update these site settings:

To edit the description that appears in search engine results, go back to the Home menu and click Settings, Marketing, and then SEO. Enter the description in the Search Engine Description field.
In the Pages panel ↗, click the to add a page description for each page.
If yours is a business website, add your business information in the Home menu by clicking Settings, then Business Information.

Update your built-in URL

Your Squarespace 5 and Squarespace 7.0 sites each have a built-in domain. A built-in domain is a URL that includes an account name (site ID) and ends in .squarespace.com, like this: accountname.squarespace.com. To learn about formatting your built-in domain, visit Changing your account name.

The account name in the built-in domain is a unique identifier, and you can't use it on more than one site. To use that account name for the built-in domain on your Squarespace 7.0 site, first update the Squarespace 5 site's to free it up.

On the Squarespace 5 site, change the account name. To keep it easy to remember, we recommend you change it by adding -old to the end, as shown in the screenshot below.

Note: Changing your account name changes how you log into your Squarespace 5 site. In the example screenshot below, you'd now use youraccountname-old to log in.

On the Squarespace 7.0 site, change the built-in URL.

8 - Launch your new site

When your Squarespace 7.0 site is ready to launch, upgrade it to make it visible to the public, then move your custom domain. This way, your custom domain's URL always directs visitors to an active site.

Upgrade your site

When you're ready to upgrade your new site to active billing, click Upgrade now in the banner at the bottom of the screen. We recommend reviewing the different plan options before upgrading to ensure you choose a plan that has the features and number of contributors you'll need. To learn more, visit Upgrading to paid service.

Note: If you registered a free custom domain on your Squarespace 5 site, the domain only remains free if you choose an annual plan.

Move your custom domain

Next, move your custom domain so that the URL directs visitors to your new site. How you move the domain depends on how you registered it:

If you bought a domain from a third party site, like GoDaddy, follow these steps.
If you registered your domain through Squarespace 5, follow these steps.

Move a third-party domain

If you have a domain from another provider connected to your Squarespace 5 site:

Log into your Squarespace 5 site and click Website Management, then click Custom Domain.
Hover over your domain name and click Unlink. For more help, visit Disconnecting a domain.
After the domain is unlinked, follow our steps to connect it to your new site.

Move a Squarespace Domain

If you registered a custom domain through us on Squarespace 5, first ensure you have an email set in your Squarespace 5 administrator account:

Log into your Squarespace 5 site.
In the Website Management bar, click Member Accounts, then click your name.
In the Member Information section, ensure the email shown in the Email field is correct.

Click Save Changes.

Next, contact us and we'll move the domain to your new Squarespace 7.0 site. Include the following information:

Subject: Move domain from 5 to 7.0
The custom domain (Example: www.yoursite.com)
The Squarespace URL for your original Squarespace 5 site (Example: yoursite.squarespace.com)
The Squarespace URL for your new Squarespace 7.0 site (Example: yourothersite.squarespace.com)
The full name and last four digits on the credit card(s) used to pay for each site

After contacting us, you might receive a domain verification request email. Follow the steps in that email to verify the domain.

9 - Cancel Squarespace 5 billing

Note: If you have sub-accounts, reach out to our Customer Support team for help with this step.

Once you're ready to exclusively use your Squarespace 7.0 site, you can cancel your Squarespace 5 site to avoid paying for two sites simultaneously.

To cancel your Squarespace 5 account:

Log into your Squarespace 5 site and click Website Management, then click Billing & Account.
Click Cancel Account and enter your password.
Confirm by entering the word CANCEL, then click Cancel Account.

For more help, visit Cancelling service.

If you have an annual or bi-annual plan, remove your account to receive a prorated refund for unused time.

Next steps

Congratulations, your Squarespace 7.0 site is now live! We hope you're starting to feel comfortable with the new interface, and we encourage you to explore our help site to learn about all the new features you have available. You might want to start with our Next Steps video series, to learn how to encourage visitor interaction and help build your audience.

Here's a cheat sheet of terms to help you learn the new interface.

Tip: Within the Squarespace 7.0 interface, press the / or ? key to search for a panel, setting, or help guide. Visit our shortcuts guide for more tips.

Squarespace 5 feature	Squarespace 7.0 equivalent
Account Center	Billing & Account panel
Architecture	Pages panel
Blog Importer	Import / Export panel
Content Mode	Click Edit on any page
File Storage	Different areas depending on the file
Insert Script	Code block
Journal	Blog page
Member Accounts	Contributors and Member Areas
Picture Galleries	Gallery pages and Gallery blocks
Preview Mode	Click the expand arrow
Social Profiles	Connected Accounts
Statistics	Analytics
Structure Mode	Pages panel
Style Mode	Site Styles
URL Shortcuts	URL Mappings panel
Website Management Bar	The Home menu
Widgets	Blocks