Migrating from Squarespace to Turtini Builder

Moving your website off Squarespace and into Turtini Builder takes 30-90 minutes depending on how many pages you have. The result: a Builder site you fully own, exportable to GitHub, with optional Turtini hosting at your domain.

What we import:
• Pages — Squarespace pages turn into Builder pages with their content broken into Turtini blocks (text, image, columns, etc.) where the conversion is unambiguous.
• Blog posts — mapped to Turtini Articles (the Articles module activates if it isn't already, in import-only mode).
• Images — every image referenced on your site is downloaded and re-hosted in Turtini Storage. URLs in the page content are rewritten.
• Site theme — primary color, font choices, and logo come over. Custom CSS is preserved as the site's customCss field.
• Navigation — main menu structure (top nav and footer links) maps onto a Builder Navigation block.
• Forms — Squarespace forms become Turtini Form blocks with the same fields. Submissions land in Turtini's /website_submissions stream.

What we don't import (and why):
• Squarespace e-commerce checkout — you'll set up Stripe Connect in Turtini (Settings → Integrations) and re-add products via the Products module. The visual product blocks do convert.
• Member areas / paid memberships — Turtini's member auth model is different; rebuild member pages using Builder's gated-page feature.
• Squarespace Scheduling integration — replace with Turtini Booking blocks (Builder → + Add block → Booking).
• Custom code blocks with scripts — the script content imports into Embed Code blocks (sandboxed iframe). Script-tag widgets like Calendly continue to work; deeply custom JS may need adjustment.

Step by step:
1. In Squarespace, go to Settings → Advanced → Import / Export → Export and download the .xml file.
2. In Turtini, /setup/migrate → find Squarespace → click "Connect & import".
3. Upload the .xml file. (Squarespace XML doesn't include images by reference; the importer fetches them live from your existing Squarespace site, so keep that site live during import.)
4. Pick a Builder site target — "Create new site" or pick an existing empty one.
5. Click "Run import". Progress shows in /setup/migrate/imports.

After the import:
• Builder → your imported site — open the home page first. Walk through every page and tighten anything the auto-conversion got wrong (block widths, image crops, column counts).
• Theme — Builder → Site Settings → Theme — verify primary color, fonts, and logo look right. Adjust if needed.
• Articles — if you imported blog posts, Articles → review. Posts default to "draft" so you can verify before publishing.
• Forms — open each form block, verify the fields, set the notification email + auto-reply if you want them.
• SEO — Builder → site settings → SEO. Verify the site title, default OG image, and per-page meta descriptions imported correctly.

Domain cutover (the scary part, broken into safe steps):
1. Don't change DNS yet. Publish the new Turtini site on its preview URL (orgslug.turtini.com/sites/sitename) and click around — make sure it works end-to-end.
2. Turtini → Builder → Site Settings → Custom Domain → enter your domain (e.g. example.com). Turtini provides exactly the DNS records to add at your registrar (usually CNAME for www and an A record or ALIAS for the apex).
3. At your DNS provider, add the records BUT keep your existing Squarespace records active — change the TTL to 300 seconds first, wait an hour, then make the actual swap. This way if anything breaks you can flip back fast.
4. Wait 5-10 minutes after the swap and verify the domain serves Turtini. Use https://www.whatsmydns.net/ to check propagation.
5. Squarespace's Custom Domain → "Disconnect domain" once Turtini is serving cleanly. Cancel Squarespace on the next renewal.

Cloudflare integration:
If you connected Cloudflare to Turtini before this step, custom-domain DNS records are added automatically — no manual DNS work needed. See "Cloudflare Domains" in the Integrations section.

Common issues:
• "Some pages look wrong after import" — Squarespace's pixel-perfect block layout doesn't translate exactly to Turtini's semantic blocks. Most pages need 5-15 minutes of cleanup. Builder's live preview makes this fast.
• "Blog post images load slowly during import" — Turtini fetches them from Squarespace at import time. Once import completes, all images are served from Turtini Storage and load fast.
• "Forms don't show up in submissions" — verify the form's notification email is set in the Form block editor; submissions are in the /website_submissions stream as well as emailed.

Bonus — go further than Squarespace:
After migration, you can:
• Export the entire site to a GitHub repo you own ("Exporting a Builder site to GitHub").
• Add modules Squarespace can't do — full CRM, accounting, HR, scheduling, lab environments, etc. — alongside the same site.
• Use Wally to draft new pages, blog posts, and email campaigns that auto-pick up your brand and tone.