Here is the conversation we have on roughly every intro call with a custom builder running on Wix or Squarespace. "We know the site is outdated. We know we need per-model pages. We know we should have schema. But if we replatform we'll lose our rankings and our lead flow goes to zero for three months." The fear is rational and the math behind it is wrong. Below is the six-week migration playbook, including the redirect discipline that preserves rankings and the structural lift that adds the depth the old site never had.
Week 0: the audit and the redirect inventory
Before we touch anything, the free audit prints three artifacts. First, a Lighthouse and isitagentready.com snapshot of the current site so we have a performance baseline. Second, a redirect inventory of every URL currently ranking with its corresponding traffic from Google Search Console (or estimated if you don't have GSC connected, which is itself a finding). Third, an AI citation count from cite-met.com across six engines, which is usually zero pre-migration. This is the baseline we measure against post-launch.
Week 1: information architecture and the data file scaffold
The first week of build is the structural decisions. How many model lines do you actually carry. How do they break out by community or enclave. Where are the FAQ patterns that belong on FAQPage schema. We scaffold the TypeScript data files: models.ts (one row per model), communities.ts (one row per enclave or service area), faqs.ts (one row per real buyer question). The site is roughly half-built at the data layer before any visual design happens, which is the inverse of how Wix and Squarespace work.
Week 2 to 3: build out the core routes and the model pages
The 17 core routes (homepage, about, process, financing, contact, FAQ hub, community hub, blog hub, plus the individual community pages and the model overview) get built first. Then the per-model pages generate dynamically out of models.ts. At Starlit, 12+ model pages came out of one data file with the Ausable Bluffs Enclave running Vega, Lyra, Orion, and Draco models plus the Zenith Bespoke collection. The Product schema with additionalProperty entries gets wired during this phase. By end of week 3 there's a working site at a staging URL with all the routes and all the schema.
Week 4: the building-science blog seed and the redirect map
The first nine blog articles ship in week 4. Thermal bridging, ERV mechanics, radon mitigation, ACH standards, hybrid heat pump comparisons, sub-slab insulation, blower-door interpretation, HRV maintenance, NetZero versus Net Zero Ready. These are the seed content for the topic depth. Simultaneously we build the 301 redirect map from the old URLs to the new ones, with every existing URL getting a target. URLs that don't have a clean new target redirect to the topic parent (a Wix blog post on heat pumps redirects to the new heat pump article, not the homepage).
Week 5: schema validation and AEO infrastructure
HomeBuilder, Product, HowTo, CollectionPage, FAQPage, and BreadcrumbList all get validated through Schema.org and Google's Rich Results test. llms.txt gets written. The AI-bot allowlist (Anthropic, OpenAI GPTBot, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) gets explicitly permitted in robots.txt. Cite-met monitoring gets configured. The sitemap.xml gets generated for the full new URL list. This is the AEO infrastructure layer that most agencies skip and that drives the citation lift post-launch.
Week 6: cutover and the 48-hour watch
The DNS cutover happens on a quiet weekday morning. The 301 redirect map fires immediately. Google reads the redirects within hours and starts re-indexing the new URLs against the old ranking signal. We watch GSC for 48 hours for any redirect failures or crawl errors and fix them in real time. Lead-form testing happens on day one because the multi-step Supabase contact form is wired differently than whatever Wix had. The old Wix or Squarespace subscription gets cancelled on day 7, which saves the roughly $400/mo platform tax.
Week 7 to 12: the citation flywheel
The 8 to 12 weeks post-launch are where the math becomes obvious. The 301 redirects preserve the existing ranking signal. The new schema and topic depth add ranking signal the old site didn't have. The AI engines start picking up the model pages and the building-science articles within 4 to 6 weeks. By week 12, most custom builders we migrate are seeing roughly 2 to 4x the search traffic of the pre-migration baseline plus AI citation events that didn't exist before. Starlit hit this pattern on the standard Story plus Lite shape.
What about content we don't want to migrate?
Roughly 20 to 30% of the content on a typical Wix or Squarespace builder site is worth migrating intact. Another 20 to 30% gets rewritten with the building-science vocabulary and the per-model rigour. The remaining 40 to 60% gets dropped, usually because it's marketing fluff that wasn't ranking and wasn't converting. The audit prints the keep, rewrite, and drop list before we touch anything. Most builders are surprised at how much they're paying to host content nobody reads.
What if we have a CRM or financing tool wired into the old site?
Most custom builders we work with are running HubSpot or Salesforce on the CRM side and Manulife or BMO connections on the financing side. The new Supabase contact form pipes into the existing CRM via webhook, so the lead flow doesn't change for your sales team. Financing widgets and mortgage calculators are typically iframe embeds that move cleanly. Loom-to-blog pipelines for build progress updates are an addition, not a replacement.
What about cross-trade buyer journeys?
If you have referral relationships with luxury AV installers or HVAC contractors, the migration is also a moment to wire the cross-trade buyer journey at the schema layer. The same family commissioning your NetZero build is often commissioning the AV install and the heat pump install at the same kitchen-table meeting. Our AV installer hub and the HVAC sub-hub are built on the same structural rigour, and the cross-citation lift compounds.
The rule of the house
The audit is free, we print the migration gap, and we quote below what you're currently paying for Wix or Squarespace plus your agency. The 301 redirects preserve what works, the new schema and depth add what was missing, and the 8 to 12 week post-launch window is when the math becomes visible. Get the free audit here.