You've probably heard the news. Squarespace is increasing their subscription prices. And for a lot of people, that's not a small ten dollar bump. It's a huge jump compared to what it used to be, and it's got a lot of people thinking about leaving Squarespace.

But this isn't just a Squarespace thing. If you're on Wix, Webflow, WordPress, or something else entirely, chances are your platform has already raised prices or is about to. So even if you're not on Squarespace, this is worth reading.

This year I moved my own website from WordPress to Webflow. So I wanted to share a few things that are super important to know BEFORE you make the final decision to move.

1. You will have to recreate your website from scratch

When it comes to moving a website some people might picture it like moving a Word document. You save it, open it up somewhere else, and it looks the same. But websites don't work like that.

Every platform is built differently, and the way you build websites on each one is different too. Which is why every platform will force you to rebuild your website page by page.

So it's less like moving houses and more like building a new house using the blueprint of your old one as a direct reference.

2. It takes time. Probably way more than you think

"I'll just knock this out over a glass of wine on a Saturday afternoon." Famous last words.

It's not going to take a weekend (unless you have a one-page website).

For me, because I also went through a rebrand at the same time, it took more than six months to fully migrate my website. My website is also more complex than most. I have a lot of pages, a lot of blog posts, and all of my funnels live on my website. Basically, my philosophy is that if I'm gonna pay a subscription for a website I'm gonna use the hell out of it, instead of using tools for things that my own website can do.

So if you have five pages or one page, this is going to be so much simpler for you. But if you've got a complex website with a lot of blog posts, a lot of pages, and funnels running through it, that's a completely different beast.

So here's what I'd tell you: This isn't something you knock out in a weekend. Give yourself a few months. If you're in a slow season with fewer clients and less going on, you might get it done in under a month. But the more complex your website is, the more time you should expect it to take.

3. There's no such thing as the perfect platform

As a web designer, I see people constantly debate about which website platform is better.  I'm going to tell you right now, having used multiple platforms in my own business and built websites for clients across different ones: there's no such thing as a perfect website platform.

Every platform comes with trade offs. There will be something you miss about your old platform, and you'll find things about the new one that you love, things your old website couldn't do.

So the goal isn't finding a platform with zero flaws. It's finding one that makes sense for your business. What you need is going to look completely different depending on what you do. For exmaple, selling physical products calls for a different website platform than selling digital products.

4. Some platforms will try to hold you hostage

Most website platforms make it really easy to import your information and get you through the door, but almost impossible to export it if you ever want to leave.

That's why two of my favorite platforms have been Webflow and WordPress. They make it a little easier to leave than other platforms do. Other platforms make it genuinely difficult, especially if you also bought your domain name (www.yourbusinessname.com) through them.

(Sidenote: If you read this and thought "Crap, I bought my domain through my website platform", it's not too late, you can move your domain now and my personal favourite platform to move your domain to is Namecheap. I've been using them for the past 6+ years and I've had zero issues)

So definitely do some homework to compare which platforms make it easier or harder. Cause you don't want to jump to a platform that makes it super stressful to leave if you change your mind down the line.

5. If you don't want to lose your spot on Google, you need a plan

If you've spent years working on your SEO, whether you hired someone or did it yourself, and you've got clients finding you through your blog posts on Google or through ChatGPT, you need to preserve that work. If you just move from one platform to another with no plan, you will lose it.

So there is a way to preserve it through doing research using a combination of YouTube videos, blog posts and AI chat tools.

So what about building your website with AI instead?

You might be wondering if you could skip all these platforms altogether and have AI build your website for you. That's an option now for everyone. But it's not the right fit for everyone. It really depends on what you need your website to do. And how much time you have on your hands

If you have a simple website, think one page or five pages with a contact form and no blog, this can work really well for you. There's not much ongoing content to manage, so

the simplicity works in your favor. But if you blog consistently, that changes things.

Personally, I love using website builders like Webflow, Squarespace, and Wix because I don't have to think too much about the technical stuff behind the scenes. With AI, you have to be more tech savvy and you have to be willing to put in the time to learn how to do it properly.

But for me, one of the reasons I moved away from WordPress was because I no longer wanted to spend time maintaining my website or in the back-end of my website.

So if you're a techy person who's comfortable getting your hands dirty to learn new things, this could be perfect for you. If you don't want to be techy and you don't want to spend time figuring out how things work behind the scenes, a platform like Wix or Squarespace is probably a better fit.

One last thing to consider:

Some predictions say AI is going to get more expensive over time, not cheaper. So if you've got a complex website, a tight budget, and you're planning to rely on AI for every change you need to make, you could end up right back where you started, or worse, the exact spot you're trying to leave.

So, here's a quick recap:

• Moving your website is a bigger job than it looks like from the outside.
• You'll be rebuilding from scratch and it'll take longer than you expect
• No platform is perfect
• Some platforms make leaving harder than others
• You need a plan to maintain your SEO and
• AI website builders are worth considering but aren't the right fit for everyone.

If you need someone to help you come up with a migration plan, or you need someone to actually do the migration for you, don't hesitate to reach out. I'd love to support you.

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