Almost all Squarespace users stumbled up the need to change their Squarespace template.

How to change template on Squarespace is not a big issue itself. However, everybody doing that step should take several precaution measures. These measures would assure that change Squarespace template would pass without any issues.

Thus, the most important question is how to change template on Squarespace without deteriorating the website.  

Among the possible deteriorating options from Squarespace template change could be loss of customers who got used to old template and design.

Loss of important content that were previously used by customers visiting. Destroying SEO optimization that were tuned up to bring solid flow of customers. Also, there could be a loss of some functions and features that were not transferred to a new template. 

To avoid all these and other issues let’s look at precaution measures we can take to safely change Squarespace template.

Loss of content while Squarespace template change.

One of the main reasons to change Squarespace templates is to update and add new contents that does not fit to the old website. However, it is necessary to check each page for amount and quality of content to be a match to the ones on the new templates.

Even if some content seems outdated or irrelevant it may still attract some visitors who are actively using it.

If some important became obvious for you, it does not mean that it became equally obvious to your customers. In addition, it the updated content could be one the magnets that is attracting people to your website.

 Removing this content could also negatively impact SEO even if you leave the actual hyperlinks intact.  Especially it is applied to websites that are older than two – three years. During this time links and texts got deeply infiltrated into engine search.  Any touch or movement of pieces of text could lead to severe loss of SEO results.

In order to avoid those issues, it is important to transfer the content to a new template on the same page and mind the placement of the content and its original forms.

Graphic and deterioration during change of Squarespace template.

It is not a secret for anybody that many customers love to visit and order something on website just because of the setup. Squarespace template change could turn away lots of customers that got used to the old templates.

Even some pictures could play a crucial role in retaining old and gaining new visitors. Pictures themselves contain alt tags today that are working as additional search engine meta titles. When you change pictures along with tags it wipes out all SERP features gained so far by old template.

Thus, in a worst-case scenario new graphic lay out and pictures of the fresh template could push off both old and new customers. To avoid these issues during Squarespace Template change you need to mind properly the alt tags of every picture. Even if you want to change the picture the best bet is to get a similar one with same alt tags. In this case search engines would not adversely react on a change. 

Preservation of styles over template change is another important aspect to keep the current customers happy. To cultivate loyalty among your visitors it is important to create a perception of update and evolvement rather than changes and distractions.

Broken SEO during Squarespace template change.

Another huge issue to pay attention to when thinking of how to change template on Squarespace is a broken SEO links that lead to the entire website falling out of search queue.

This is often omitted by the website owners who want achieve graphic and stylish excellence through getting a fresh template.  The issue consists of two major SEO damages to the website:

the internal optimization and external links building. Depending on how different your new template from the others both above parts can be severely damaged and reduce visitors flow to your website. Thus, you will fall in a trap when more admirable website would attract way less visitors than good old existing Squarespace template.

Internal SEO Links damage.

Depending on how you want to change Squarespace template there is a potential extent to which your internal interlinking may be damaged. For example, if the reason for your Squarespace template change is graphic update the impact may be not as bad.  Leaving the text content intact would preserve your internal search optimization and save all meta titles and tags. In other words, text linking for SEO would remain intact. The only change in pictures and lay out would be offset by new template over time.

At the same time if your update is connected with content change, the potential adverse impact is catastrophic. Without proper preservation of interlinking structure, you can lose at once all SEO gains that your website was gaining over years.

External SEO Links loss.

Same situation happens with external linking for SEO. The more your website exists the more links and domains are referring to different pages of that resource. Any content amendment could easily lead to breakage of those links that were hardly gained over years.

The issue here is that external links are mostly untraceable. What I am saying is that you can easily find which links refers to where on your website. However, it is impossible to say which pages and texts of your resource is used as link destination from external sources.

Thus, simple changing the texts on pages could lead to irreversible loss of important external links that were pumping up your website in SEO.

To avoid such adverse impacts on your SEO it is important to leave the old texts intact especially on pages that are serving as final SEO redirect pages.

Functionality changes.

Another problem of Squarespace template change is a loss of functionality that was available on a previous template.

Function disorders could distract some of the customers who got used to the good old functionality. For example, Squarespace 7.1 changes bring completely new lay out and functionality. Some users experienced hard time getting used to new functionality.  Even move of some function from one page to another could put a visitor at a loss. Nevertheless, the overall adverse impact of those changes is no match to the SEO ones.

Final thoughts.

 On a final note, I would like to say the best advice of how to change template on Squarespace is to do the amendments while controlling each step. It is something  that resembles car manufacturing control quality. At every step of car assembly, it is check if there are flaws.

You should apply the same technique while doing Squarespace template change.