Move from Wix, Shopify or Squarespace to WordPress Without Losing SEO or Email

If you are running your site on Wix, Shopify or Squarespace and feel you have outgrown their limitations, moving to self-hosted WordPress is a very logical next step. You get full control over design, plugins, performance and hosting architecture. But there are two sensitive areas you absolutely cannot afford to break during this move: SEO and email. Organic traffic took months or years to build. Losing rankings because of bad redirects or broken sitemaps is painful. And if email stops working for even a few hours, you can miss orders, support tickets and leads. In this guide, we will walk through a practical, no-drama migration plan from Wix, Shopify or Squarespace to self-hosted WordPress on your own hosting account at dchost.com. We will focus on URL mapping, 301 redirects, DNS and MX records, and all the little checks that keep Google and your inbox happy while you upgrade your platform.

Step 1: Decide Why You Are Moving – And What Must Not Break

Before touching DNS or installing WordPress, be clear on why you are leaving Wix, Shopify or Squarespace and what is mission-critical to preserve. This will dictate your hosting choices, URL strategy and timing.

Common reasons to leave Wix, Shopify or Squarespace

• More flexibility: Advanced themes, custom plugins, complex forms, membership sites or learning platforms.
• Performance and scalability: You want more control over PHP, database and caching for better Core Web Vitals.
• Cost control: Predictable hosting costs instead of higher per-site platform fees or app subscriptions.
• Infrastructure control: Ability to choose server region, PHP version, database engine and caching stack.

List what must not break

Create a short, concrete list of non-negotiables. For most businesses this includes:

• SEO: All important URLs must 301 redirect correctly; search traffic should remain stable or gradually improve.
• Email: No lost messages during DNS changes; MX, SPF and DKIM must continue working.
• Orders and leads: Contact forms, quote forms, checkout and payment flows must work on day one.
• Existing content: Blog posts, pages, product data and media should migrate with minimal manual work.

Write this list down and treat it as your migration contract. Every technical decision should be tested against it.

Step 2: Choose the Right Hosting and Domain Architecture

Moving away from a website builder means you now control the entire stack: domain, DNS, hosting, SSL and often email. The good news is that with a solid hosting plan, this is easier than it sounds.

Pick a hosting plan that fits your WordPress site

At dchost.com we host a lot of WordPress sites that started on Wix, Shopify or Squarespace. A simple brochure or blog site usually runs comfortably on a high-quality shared hosting plan. Larger stores or high-traffic blogs often benefit from a VPS or even a dedicated server.

If you are unsure about sizing, our guide on how many vCPUs and how much RAM you really need will help you estimate CPU, RAM and disk according to your traffic and plugin stack.

Understand domain, DNS, website and email separation

On Wix, Shopify and Squarespace, many of these layers feel blended together. On self-hosted WordPress, they are separate pieces that you connect:

• Domain registrar: Where you registered your domain (not necessarily where you host your site).
• DNS: Where your nameservers live and A/MX/TXT records are edited.
• Web hosting: Where WordPress files, database and SSL run (for example, your hosting at dchost.com).
• Email: Can live on your hosting account or on a separate email provider.

These can be at the same provider or at three different places. That is normal. Our article on how domain, DNS, server and SSL work together dives deeper into this separation if you want a refresher.

Check domain ownership and access now

Before starting any migration, ensure you have:

• Login access to your domain registrar.
• Login access to your current DNS control panel (if different from registrar).
• Login access or admin rights to your email provider (if you use hosted email already).

If your domain is registered by an agency or ex-employee, fix that now. Our guide on domain and hosting ownership explains what to check so you do not discover ownership problems in the middle of a DNS change.

Step 3: Map Your Existing Site – URLs, SEO Data and Content

To keep SEO, you must understand exactly what you have today. This is where many migrations fail: people launch a nice new WordPress site but forget dozens of high‑value URLs that Google already knows and users still hit.

Export a full URL list from Wix, Shopify or Squarespace

You can use one or more of these methods:

• Crawl the site with a desktop crawler (for example, any generic SEO spider) to get a CSV of URLs.
• Export blog content using platform export tools (RSS feeds, blog export options or built‑in export to CSV/JSON where available).
• Export store data on Shopify: products, collections and pages can usually be exported from the admin panel.

Combine these sources into a single spreadsheet of existing URLs. Include:

• URL
• Page type (home, blog post, product, category, landing page)
• Organic traffic estimates (if available from analytics)
• Any special SEO notes (backlinks, ranking keywords, etc.)

Capture titles, meta descriptions and headings

For important pages, also record or export:

• Title tag
• Meta description
• H1 heading
• Canonical URL (if set explicitly)

You will recreate these on WordPress with an SEO plugin such as Rank Math, Yoast SEO or similar. Reusing well‑performing titles and descriptions helps stabilize rankings in the short term.

Decide your URL strategy on WordPress

Where possible, configure WordPress permalinks to match your existing URL structure, especially for blog posts and pages. You can set this under Settings > Permalinks in WordPress.

If you must change URLs (for example, Shopify product URL patterns are different from WooCommerce), you will handle it with 301 redirects in a later step. Our in‑depth article on SEO‑safe URL structure changes with 301 redirects explains how to do this safely on Apache and Nginx.

Step 4: Build Your WordPress Site in a Safe Staging Environment

Never build or test the new WordPress site directly on your live domain while Wix, Shopify or Squarespace is still serving traffic. Instead, use a staging or temporary domain.

Options for staging

• Subdomain on your main domain, such as staging.example.com, pointing to your WordPress hosting.
• Temporary domain provided by your hosting account (for example, a system domain at dchost.com) until cutover.

If you are on a cPanel‑based plan with us, you can follow the steps in our WordPress staging guide for shared hosting to set up a clean staging environment.

Protect staging from being indexed

You do not want Google indexing the staging site and creating duplicate content problems. At minimum, you should:

• Enable the WordPress option “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”.
• Block the staging subdomain in robots.txt.
• Optionally add HTTP authentication or IP restrictions.

We cover robots, passwords and IP restrictions in more detail in our article on noindex, password and IP restriction strategies for staging environments.

Step 5: Migrate Content from Each Platform to WordPress

The exact export/import process differs between Wix, Shopify and Squarespace, but the goal is the same: get pages, posts, products and media into WordPress with as little manual copying as possible.

From Wix to WordPress

• Blog posts: Often accessible via RSS. You can import RSS into WordPress using the built‑in RSS importer. Then clean up formatting and categories.
• Pages: Most Wix pages must be rebuilt manually in WordPress using a theme or page builder (Gutenberg, Elementor, etc.), copying over content and images.
• Images and media: Download or right‑click save from your live site, then upload into the WordPress Media Library. For sites with many images, consider batch‑downloading via a crawler.

This is also a good moment to optimize images (convert to WebP/AVIF, compress, rename files with useful keywords). For deeper image performance topics, see our guide on image SEO and hosting infrastructure.

From Shopify to WordPress (usually WooCommerce)

For Shopify stores, you typically move to WordPress with WooCommerce. Your tasks include:

• Export products from Shopify (CSV) and import them into WooCommerce using the built‑in importer or a specialized migration plugin.
• Export customers and orders if needed for reporting or historical access. Orders can sometimes be kept in Shopify for history while new orders go to WooCommerce.
• Rebuild collections and menus as product categories and custom menus in WordPress.
• Recreate store‑specific content such as About, FAQ and Policy pages as standard WordPress pages.

Because e‑commerce performance is very sensitive to hosting quality, it is worth reviewing our guides on best hosting for WooCommerce and safe CDN and caching settings for WooCommerce once your store is live.

From Squarespace to WordPress

• Blog content: Squarespace usually allows blog export to an XML file. WordPress can import that XML, bringing in posts and some images.
• Pages and layouts: Complex layouts need to be rebuilt with your chosen WordPress theme or page builder. Use this as a redesign opportunity while keeping core content similar.
• Portfolios or galleries: Export images and recreate galleries using WordPress blocks or gallery plugins.

After importing content from any platform, go through a quality‑assurance phase on staging: check formatting, headings, internal links and forms. The fewer changes you have to make after launch, the safer your SEO and user experience will be.

Step 6: Design a 301 Redirect Plan That Protects SEO

Your redirect map is the heart of an SEO‑safe migration. It tells Google, browsers and backlinks where each old URL should now go.

Create an old → new URL spreadsheet

Take the URL inventory you created earlier and add a column for the new WordPress URL. For each row, decide:

• Exact match: Old and new URLs are identical (ideal case).
• Direct equivalent: Old URL redirects to a new WordPress page with the same content and intent.
• Consolidation: Several thin pages are merged into one stronger page (all old URLs redirect to the new consolidated one).
• Retired content: If a page is truly obsolete, decide whether to redirect it to a related page or return 410 (gone). Do this sparingly.

Implement redirects on your WordPress hosting

Where to implement depends on your stack:

• Apache / .htaccess: Add 301 rules directly in .htaccess for precise and high‑performance redirect handling.
• Nginx: Use nginx.conf or per‑site conf to set 301 rules with return 301 or rewrite directives.
• WordPress plugins: Suitable for small sites or when you prefer a graphical interface, but be mindful of performance on very large redirect sets.

Our dedicated article on 301 redirects in .htaccess and Nginx includes practical code examples for many common patterns (folder changes, trailing slash, language folders and more).

Handle www vs non‑www and HTTP → HTTPS

If you are changing canonical domain (for example, from example.com to www.example.com) or enabling HTTPS for the first time, combine those redirects into your plan:

• Choose a single canonical domain (www or non‑www) and redirect all variants to it.
• Redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS once your SSL certificate is installed.

We explain these decisions step by step in our guides on www vs non‑www canonical domains and in the full HTTP to HTTPS migration guide with HSTS and canonical settings.

Step 7: Keep Email Working During DNS and Hosting Changes

SEO problems are visible; email problems can be silent and worse. A common trap: moving DNS or hosting and accidentally changing or deleting MX, SPF or DKIM records, causing messages to bounce or land in spam.

First, find out how your email is currently set up

Check your DNS zone (wherever your nameservers are pointing) and note:

• MX records: Which provider handles your email now?
• SPF (TXT) record: Which servers are authorized to send email for your domain?
• DKIM (TXT) records: Any keys related to your current email provider.
• DMARC record (if present): Policies for handling failed SPF/DKIM messages.

If you plan to keep the same email provider and only move the website, your main job is do not accidentally change these records. Our article why domain transfers break email (and how to avoid it) goes through the real‑world scenarios that cause email outages.

Scenario A: Only website hosting changes, email stays where it is

This is the simplest and safest option for a first migration:

• Update only the A (and AAAA) record for your domain to point to your new WordPress hosting at dchost.com.
• Leave MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC untouched so email continues exactly as before.

In this case, you are not changing nameservers, only the IP that serves the website. Email downtime risk is minimal.

Scenario B: You also move DNS to new nameservers

If you switch nameservers (for example, moving DNS management to us or to another provider), you must carefully recreate all existing records in the new DNS zone:

• Recreate MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC exactly as they are today.
• Add the new A/AAAA records for your WordPress hosting.
• Double‑check any CNAME or TXT records used for verification (mailing lists, CRMs, analytics, etc.).

To reduce risk during cutover, lower DNS TTL values a day before (for example from 3600 seconds to 300 seconds). Our guide on DNS TTL best practices and the TTL playbook for zero‑downtime migrations explain how and when to shorten TTL safely.

Scenario C: You also move email to your new hosting

If you want to move email to a cPanel mailbox on your dchost.com account at the same time as the website:

1. Create the same email addresses in cPanel first.
2. Use IMAP migration tools or mail clients to copy existing mailboxes into the new accounts where possible.
3. Update MX to point to your hosting server (after mailboxes are ready).
4. Update SPF, DKIM and DMARC to authorize the new sending server.

Our introductory guide on setting up business email on your own domain plus the SPF/DKIM overview in SPF, DKIM and DMARC basics for small businesses are good companions for this step.

Step 8: Launch Plan – DNS Cutover, Final Checks and Monitoring

With content migrated, redirects ready and email plans in place, you can schedule the actual switch from Wix/Shopify/Squarespace to your new WordPress site.

Before DNS changes

• Verify SSL is installed and working on the staging environment (even if it uses a temporary domain for now).
• Ensure WordPress URL settings (Site URL and Home URL) are ready to be updated to the real domain at launch.
• Test all critical pages on staging: home, key landing pages, top blog posts, product pages, cart/checkout and contact forms.
• Run a quick SEO crawl of the staging site to catch broken internal links or image paths.

Do the DNS cutover

On launch day:

• Update A/AAAA records (or nameservers, if that is your chosen path) to point the domain to your WordPress hosting.
• Update Site URL and Home URL in WordPress to the live domain.
• Confirm your 301 redirect rules are active and working for a sample of old URLs.
• Check that MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC still match your plan (no accidental changes).

If you are also changing domain (for example, rebranding during the move), combine the guidance in this article with our detailed guide on rebranding domain migration without losing SEO or email.

After launch: first 48 hours

Once DNS has propagated, spend a couple of days in “hyper‑care” mode:

• Monitor server logs for 404 errors and add redirects for any missed URLs.
• Use Google Search Console to check for crawl errors (they will start appearing over the following days).
• Test sending and receiving email from every important address.
• Ask a few trusted customers or colleagues in different networks to test the site and forms.

For a more structured review of errors, our guide on 404 management on hosting and DNS explains how to treat 404s strategically instead of reacting in panic.

Step 9: SEO and Email Follow‑Up in the Weeks After Migration

An SEO‑safe migration is not “set and forget”. The first 4–8 weeks are important for fine‑tuning the new setup.

SEO follow‑up checklist

• Submit sitemaps from your new WordPress site to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Ensure robots.txt exposes the correct sitemaps and does not accidentally block important paths. For details, see our guide on setting up robots.txt and sitemap.xml correctly.
• Monitor impressions and clicks in Search Console – small fluctuations are normal, big drops may indicate redirect issues.
• Check Core Web Vitals and TTFB. If your site is slow, our hosting‑side optimization guides can help you tune PHP, database and caching.

Email follow‑up checklist

• Verify that all DMARC reports show SPF/DKIM alignment is healthy after any changes.
• Check that transactional emails from WordPress (form notifications, order emails, password resets) are delivered and not going to spam.
• Adjust SPF records if you add new sending services (newsletter platforms, CRM, etc.).

If you notice deliverability issues, our articles on SPF, DKIM and DMARC for cPanel and VPS email and why your emails go to spam provide a practical deliverability checklist.

Putting It All Together: A Calm, Controlled Migration Path

Moving from Wix, Shopify or Squarespace to self‑hosted WordPress is not just a design change; it is a full platform migration that touches DNS, hosting, SSL, email and SEO. The key to doing it without drama is to separate the move into clear phases: plan your architecture, inventory every important URL, build and test in a staging environment, design a precise 301 redirect map, and treat email records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) as critical infrastructure, not afterthoughts. At dchost.com we see the same patterns again and again: projects that respect this process migrate smoothly, keep their rankings and often improve performance and flexibility within a few weeks.

If you are preparing such a move and want a second pair of eyes on your hosting plan, DNS strategy or redirect map, our team is happy to help. We can host your WordPress site on shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers or even colocation, and guide you through DNS and email changes so that your visitors – and your inbox – barely notice the migration day. When you are ready, reach out to us with your current setup and goals, and we will help you design a migration that keeps SEO and email exactly where they should be: quietly working in the background.