How to migrate from Wix or Squarespace to Next.js (UK guide 2026)

Wix and Squarespace are excellent — until you outgrow them. If your site is the front door to a £50k–£500k UK pipeline, the page-load speed, SEO ceiling and design flexibility you started with are now actively costing you deals. This guide walks through how to migrate to Next.js cleanly, keep your Google rankings, and not blow up your business email in the process.

When you should migrate (and when you shouldn't)

Don't migrate just because Wix "feels limited." Migrate when one of these is true:

• You're running marketing campaigns and your landing-page conversion rate is being hurt by load speed (Lighthouse below 70 on mobile is a tell)
• You need custom functionality the platform doesn't support (calculators, bespoke search, integrated booking, gated content with logic)
• SEO is a primary acquisition channel and you're competing for keywords where the top three results all run on Next.js, Astro or static stacks
• You're paying for premium Wix/Squarespace add-ons that exceed Vercel + Supabase hosting cost
• You want full control over your URL structure, schema markup, and rendering strategy

If your site is a simple brochure with five pages and no acquisition pressure, stay where you are. The migration cost won't pay back.

Step 1: SEO audit before you touch a thing

Before migrating, pull every URL Google has indexed for your current site:

1. Log into Google Search Console — export the "Pages" report (indexed pages only)
2. Run a crawl with Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs) to catch anything Search Console missed
3. Pull top-traffic pages from Google Analytics or your existing analytics tool
4. Identify pages with backlinks pointing to them (Ahrefs free tier or moz.com)

The output is a spreadsheet with: URL, page title, monthly traffic, backlink count, current canonical, intended new URL (same or redirect target).

Step 2: Mirror your current design in Next.js

Don't redesign during a migration. One change at a time. Build the Next.js site to look identical to the current one — same hero copy, same sections, same images, same layout. The reason: if traffic drops after migration, you want to know whether it was the platform change or the design change. Mixing them is how migrations turn into eight-week catastrophes.

Use Tailwind for utility-first styling. Pull images directly from your Wix/Squarespace site, drop them in next/image. Use exactly the same fonts.

Step 3: Rebuild every URL identically

If your current URL is yoursite.co.uk/about-us, the new URL must be yoursite.co.uk/about-us. Same path, same casing, same trailing slash. Every change you make to URL structure costs you SEO equity unless you redirect perfectly.

In Next.js App Router, this means creating app/about-us/page.tsx — not app/about/page.tsx. The router matches file paths to URLs literally.

Trailing slash matters: Wix uses no trailing slash by default, Squarespace adds them. Set trailingSlash in next.config.ts to match what your current site has. Then every URL maps 1:1.

Step 4: Implement 301 redirects for anything that has to move

Some pages have to move — old blog posts you're consolidating, awkward platform-generated URLs like /page-id-12345, deprecated services. For every one of those, add a permanent 301 redirect in next.config.ts:

async redirects() {
  return [
    { source: "/page-id-12345", destination: "/services/web-design", permanent: true },
    { source: "/blog/old-slug", destination: "/insights/new-slug", permanent: true },
  ];
}

Permanent (301) tells Google "this page moved forever, transfer the ranking." Temporary (302) tells Google "come back and check tomorrow," which is the wrong signal during migration.

Step 5: Get the structured data right from day one

Wix and Squarespace generate schema.org markup automatically but you have no control over it. In Next.js you have full control — and you should use it.

Minimum schema for a UK business site:

• Organization (your company)
• WebSite (with SearchAction if you have site search)
• LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService (for local SEO)
• BreadcrumbList on every page
• Article schema on blog posts
• FAQPage schema on FAQ pages

Step 6: Test before DNS cutover

Deploy the new Next.js site to a staging URL (Vercel preview URL or a subdomain like staging.yoursite.co.uk). Run through every page on desktop and mobile. Run Lighthouse on the top ten pages. Test every form submission, every CTA, every contact form.

Common things that break during a Wix/Squarespace migration:

• Contact form submissions (Wix/Squarespace handled these natively; you now need Resend or similar)
• E-commerce checkout if you used Wix Stores (migrate to Stripe Checkout or Shopify)
• Embedded calendars or booking widgets (rebuild with Cal.com or similar)
• Newsletter signups (move list to Mailchimp, Buttondown or similar)
• Image alt text (often not migrated cleanly)

Step 7: DNS cutover — the careful part

This is the only step where you can blow up your business email. Do it carefully.

1. Log into your DNS provider (where your domain is registered — often Squarespace, Wix, or GoDaddy)
2. Note down every existing DNS record before changing anything (MX records especially — these are your email)
3. Update only the A record (or CNAME, depending on Vercel's instructions) for your root domain and www
4. Do NOT touch MX records — those route your business email and have nothing to do with your website
5. Do NOT delete TXT records — those include SPF, DKIM and verification tokens

DNS propagation takes 5 minutes to 48 hours depending on your TTL. Most users see the new site within an hour.

Step 8: Resubmit sitemap and request indexing

Once the new site is live:

1. Verify the new site in Google Search Console (if not already)
2. Submit your new sitemap.xml
3. For your top ten pages, use "Request Indexing" in Search Console
4. Watch the "Pages" report daily for the first week — any redirects not firing correctly will show as 404s

Realistic timeline

• Week 1: Audit, URL mapping, design mirror
• Weeks 2–3: Build pages in Next.js, implement structured data
• Week 4: Forms, integrations, third-party widgets
• Week 5: Staging review, internal testing, accessibility check
• Week 6: DNS cutover (Friday afternoon UK time), Search Console submission
• Weeks 7–8: Monitor traffic, fix any redirects, optimise Core Web Vitals

Cost

A standard 8–12-page UK business site migration off Wix or Squarespace to Next.js by a studio: £4k–£12k depending on form complexity, e-commerce involvement and design polish. Self-doing it: a developer week if you're already comfortable with Next.js.

Most of our migration clients break even on the first new lead generated through the better SEO and faster page-load speeds inside three months.