Website Guru help needed

[993kimbo]

I am a web designer who has designed and managed many Squarespace sites.

I have a hotel client who would like their website redesigned and managed but it is currently being hosted by another website company on Wordpress, of which I know nothing about.

I'm not sure how to transfer their existing files and years of SEO to Squarespace without breaking/losing something valuable.

If you can't help, perhaps you could point me in the direction of a company who won't charge silly money and who are good to work with. I've fallen out with a few 'web designers' in the past who have been been total knobs.

Many thanks.

[akirk]

993kimbo said:

I am a web designer who has designed and managed many Squarespace sites.

I have a hotel client who would like their website redesigned and managed but it is currently being hosted by another website company on Wordpress, of which I know nothing about.

I'm not sure how to transfer their existing files and years of SEO to Squarespace without breaking/losing something valuable.

If you can't help, perhaps you could point me in the direction of a company who won't charge silly money and who are good to work with. I've fallen out with a few 'web designers' in the past who have been been total knobs.

Many thanks.

you can't

Squarespace is a hosted system - you use their code in the back end and it is designed so that it can be used at a non technical level by someone who doesn't want to learn to code. This allows businesses (or those who like you build websites in Squarespace) to concentrate on the look and the structure, the flow of the content and how it helps build the business, without having to worry about all the techie bits beneath the bonnet... In order to do that squarespace control the environment - they are not a hosting company, they are a product company - a bit like lego, you can build whatever you like as long as they produce the correct building blocks.

At the other end of the scale are companies like ours where we have a raw and empty server running various technical things such as PHP / MySQL / etc. and then we write the environment for each client individually - it is a bit more like a bespoke toy company - you can literally have anything you want as long as you pay us to make it for you...

Wordpress is slightly inbetween - on the surface it presents like squarespace (and if on their own website (wordpress.com) then it is quite like squarespace, there are limits to the changes you can make - you use their environment and that is it... however the difference is that they also produce code you can download and then put onto an empty server (so we can run wordpress sites on our server for clients if they wish) - and in that environment you are basically buying into (though generally free) the option of a shortcut - start with wordpress and then you can amend it... so they are a bit more like playmobile in being their own environment - though with more options to personalise / make bespoke...

and like the toys, you can't take a playmobile setup and put it into lego and expect it to fit - two separate enviromments and the two don't talk...

So to move a website from wordpress into squarespace this is what you do:

- take the content
- take the images / media / downloads
- throw away wordpress
- set up a new squarespace website
- add back in the content / images / media / downloads / etc.

i.e. you can only build from scratch and none of the underlying page structure or content can come across...

SEO is a more challenging question, because there are some things you can do and others you can't.

At the outset, you need to understand all the URLs used on the current wordpress website (and there can be lots of them - one for every blog / article / page / etc.)
Then use the guide here: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/... to show you how you need to set up redirects on the new squarespace account (bearing in mind that you can only do it once you have moved the domain across) - you want 301 redirects which effectively tell search engines etc that there has been a permanent move and to update their links...

Outside that - you need to look at how you structure the pages against the current search engine results to make sure that you don't lose what has gained the links - so if a page on baking is your main search engine result, but actually it is the paragraph on chocolate brownies that creates that level of interest, don't change the content to be only about tofu and vegetarian sausages - you will lose that search engine interest...

And then you need to actively look at who else links to your website and see if you can get them to update their links / you need to start a new SEO campaign, you effectively need to market the new website.

Be aware that a major change in structure usually gives an SEO dip, but if you get it right it should then come back up - but use the opportunity to shout about the new website and that will help...

[993kimbo]

Wow, I really do appreciate that comprehensive answer. Thank you very much.

I've had a look at your website and you certainly know your onions.

It's too late in the day for me to start learning Wordpress or anything too technical so I would like to stick with Squarespace if possible and get someone like yourselves to make sure it all migrates across properly from their current web company and wordpress.

I guess this is something you'd be happy to do?

I've been asked by the Hotel to give a quote (which is very difficult) as I have no clue how long it would take or what's involved migrating stuff over, although I now have a better idea!

Shall we have a chat on the phone sometime?

I've run a creative agency for 20 years so I'm not a novice and aware of what things cost and timings.

Thanks again.

[akirk]

993kimbo said:

Wow, I really do appreciate that comprehensive answer. Thank you very much.

I've had a look at your website and you certainly know your onions.

It's too late in the day for me to start learning Wordpress or anything too technical so I would like to stick with Squarespace if possible and get someone like yourselves to make sure it all migrates across properly from their current web company and wordpress.

I guess this is something you'd be happy to do?

I've been asked by the Hotel to give a quote (which is very difficult) as I have no clue how long it would take or what's involved migrating stuff over, although I now have a better idea!

Shall we have a chat on the phone sometime?

I've run a creative agency for 20 years so I'm not a novice and aware of what things cost and timings.

Thanks again.

Happy to help - just send me a PM or go through our website contact form - happy to chat.
We don't tend to build in Squarespace (partly because we find that all too often clients needs go beyond what squarespace can offer), but would be very happy to work as a tag team - either advising on the more technical bits, or helping do those bits to support what you can do in squarespace...

lets chat...

[993kimbo]

Thanks very much.

Yes he knows his onions. I will certainly contact him.

Thanks PH.

Job done.

[CCCS]

What will a Squarespace site give them that they don’t have with a Wordpress site?

[RM]

A great, comprehensive answer by akirk.

CCCS said:

What will a Squarespace site give them that they don’t have with a Wordpress site?

Indeed, it seems a backwards step. If anything I would think they should be going to a custom site if they want to improve on their existing strengths in SEO (hateful term but you know what I mean).

[DSLiverpool]

akirk said:

you can't

..

Wow!

I’ll keep that explanation if you don’t mind - surely you had that ready made?

[Si1295]

If it’s like for like then you’ll need to copy across

All images with permalinks, titles and alt-tags. You’ll probably want to copy the exif data too, just in case they have some funky stuff for local.

All written content with internal & external links and formatting kept the same, especially bold and heading tags

Any schema markup on all pages

Either keep the permalinks the same or 301 redirects setup in the htaccess file to the new pages

Meta titles and descriptions for search results

It’s probably worth speaking to an SEO consultant/agency to see if there’s anything you can improve whilst building the new site and putting that to the client.

It’s good to see you’re taking advice. Someone at a company I’m involved in commissioned a new website and visitors fell from ~2,500/week to ~500/week

[DSLiverpool]

Si1295 remember we’re replatforming to Squarespace - it’ll be far worse and most SEO guys won’t touch it.

[993kimbo]

Thanks for your help - all sorted now.