According to your needs, you have several options available for making a page private: hiding it from search engines and visitors, adding a password protection system or creating a membership area.
Photographers or creative professionals could utilize it for NDA protected content creation; businesses could create it as an internal resource library for both clients and employees.
How to Lock a Collection Page
Squarespace provides an easy and efficient way to password protect a page or collection of pages on your site, creating an effective gated content experience and helping build your email list or client contact database. Additionally, this could serve as an alternative solution if your content regularly updates (for instance workshops or personalized videos delivered over time) to paying clients.
To password protect a collection page, select it in the Pages panel and click the cog icon. Next, use the Password Protection option in the Settings menu to enter a password for access. After entering their credentials successfully, visitors will be taken directly to the page or gallery you specified; alternatively you can opt out and allow any visitor who visits your site access without entering a password.
If you wish to change the password, simply enter a new one and click Save. Depending on how often the page will be locked down in future updates, display/hide of lock symbol is optional as well as making necessary updates elsewhere online such as social media posts or search engine results which link directly back to it once locked down.
Add a Lock Screen tweak to your password protected page in the Design panel for further personalization. This feature allows you to choose a custom background color and text size, as well as whether or not to display the lock icon on screen. Use this customization feature to coordinate it with other pages on your site!
An alternative way of creating gated content experiences is using the no index meta tag to prevent search engines from indexing your page. This method ensures that it won’t appear in search results while still permitting visitors who possess passwords access and download your content if available. This works particularly well when providing exclusive freebie areas or tutorials.
How to Lock a Parking Page
If you are transferring a domain that’s currently connected to a parking page on your Squarespace site, it’s essential that it meets our transfer requirements. Otherwise, delays and complications with post-transfer troubleshooting could arise. For optimal results, we advise transferring the domain before creating or connecting new websites.
Squarespace makes it easy to add free or paid domains by visiting the Pointers & Subdomains panel and selecting “Park.” This setting directs visitors to a generic ‘parking’ page which may feature an “Under Construction” message and various links generated from third parties. Once you’ve set this option, be sure to save your changes for best results.
Lock your parked page on Squarespace so nobody else can access it, to protect both visitors and potential business. To do so, log into your dashboard and visit the Pointers & Subdomains panel; select Lock Packed Page then type a password before pressing Save Button to secure it.
Employing a locked page as a temporary home while your website undergoes construction or maintenance can protect its brand while encouraging visitors to keep coming back. Furthermore, locked pages can serve as an effective marketing tool that informs audiences that something exciting is in progress – and urge them to return later for updates.
Create your locking page by choosing your logo, branding text and color settings as well as background image to customize it until you choose to reset the lock screen. Your chosen content will then display on it until reset occurs.
For a new lock screen, to reset it click the arrow to the right of your current lock icon and choose Reset. When creating a new one, either replace with your uploaded image or use one from our sample image gallery as your starting point.
How to Set a Password
When creating pages on your site, password protection allows you to limit who can view them. For instance, if you’re building an incomplete website and seeking feedback from clients or colleagues via link sharing, adding a password allows only those with the appropriate credentials (ie clients) access. This feature can also come in handy when working on something private such as an ecommerce shop or blog that have yet to go public.
Your new page will display a password-protected icon in the address bar, requiring visitors to enter a valid password in order to view it. Using the Lock Screen tweak in Design panel you could also customize what shows up when someone visits its URL – for instance adding text such as “Coming soon” or “Under construction.”
Although Squarespace makes password protecting websites or individual pages easy, it is wise to consider its implications on SEO before deciding to do so. Password-protecting an entire Collection page could lock all of its pages behind a single password barrier – this can prove problematic if your project encompasses multiple pages where sharing links between pages might be essential for navigation purposes.
Password-protecting pages or sites prevents search engines from indexing them, which can help test new site designs or prototypes without fear of public consumption being exposed before their time comes. Furthermore, this technique not only makes your site more secure but can also increase performance in search engine results; for more information check out our tips for improving SEO (search engine optimization).
