6 commonly-asked questions about Squarespace websites
How do you backup your website?
Squarespace doesn’t have an actual “backup” option or even version control. If two website users or adminstrators are editing the same page at the same time, you may even end up overriding each other’s work. So getting back to the question, can you take a backup of your website? Hmmm, maybe not in the traditional way, but it is possible to make a (kinda but not really) copy of your website by duplicating it from your admin dashboard.
When you are on your Dashboard page, click on the ellipsis icon next to your website and click on “Duplicate”. This process should take a few minutes, depending on your website size. Please note that this process will not automatically update all the customizations done on your site using code. You would have to do update your code manually for your duplicated website as all the IDs will be different. The duplication process also does not carry over other information like the free images you added to your site from Unsplash or the email addresses linked to your contact forms.
I made too many edits to the Squarespace template I started with. Can I revert my changes and go back to the original template?
So you found the perfect template on Squarespace (please note that I am referring to templates provided by Squarespace and not custom templates created by other designers). After a rather creative design session, you realize that you liked the layout on the original template more than your new design. Can you go back to it? Unfortunately, there is no quick “reset” button for this problem.
To avoid this situation, my recommendation is that you create copies of the original template pages before you begin to make any changes. If you wish to use a section from the template earlier, you can always save that section using the handy “Save Section” button and add that to your new page from the Saved Sections in your page editor. Problem solved!!
How do I add/remove pages from the site navigation?
If you wish to include the new page that you created in your main header navigation on the website, all you need to do is drag and drop the page from the “Not Linked” section in the editor to the “Main” section. The reverse works too. If you want to temporarily remove a page from the navigation, you can drag and drop it in the “Not Linked” section.
If the page is in the “Not Linked” section, does that mean that the public can’t see it?
No. A page in the Not Linked section of your Squarespace website is not included in the navigation bar on your site, but anyone who has the link can still access the page. The page can also be indexed by search engines and appear in search results unless you have explicitly turned on the “Make my page hidden from search engines” setting for that page.
How do I change the order of my blog posts?
I wish there was an easier way to do this! Unlike portfolio items or gallery images, the blog collection doesn’t have a drag and drop feature to change the order of your blog posts. But there is still a workaround for this, though I must warn you that it’s a bit painful.
The blog posts on Squarespace are ordered by the date on which they were published, so if you want to move a blog, you can do that by changing the Published date in the Settings -> Options -> Status -> Published -> date picker of that blog post.
Can I hide a blog post?
Yes! All you need to do is to go to the Settings for that blog post by clicking on the ellipsis icon (three dots) that appear when you hover over that post in the left pane inside the Squarespace editor, go to the Options tab, and change the Status in the right panel to “Draft”. This way, the blog post is hidden from everyone, but you still have the content safely stored in case you wish to resurrect it later!