When building websites, it’s essential that you create backups regularly – this will reduce the risk of losing content – something every creative has experienced at least once!
To create a backup, simply click the heart icon within a page section – this will prompt Squarespace to save that section and back it up.
Copying
Duplicating old pages in Squarespace is the easiest way to preserve them without disrupting live websites, providing an excellent option for anyone wanting to update content without disturbing existing visitors. However, it is vital that users understand how this process should be completed correctly to avoid any complications or mishaps.
To duplicate a page in Squarespace, navigate to the page you’d like to copy and click its gear icon. From here, click DUPLICATE PAGE; your new page will appear with a slug that ends with “(copy). Rename the new page appropriately so visitors don’t get confused by its content.
Use the same method to duplicate type collection pages such as product or portfolio pages. Doing this can help when it comes to moving data between sites or importing information into Squarespace from outside sources – though this process might take more time and less risk than copying single pages directly.
If your website contains a lot of content, it’s wise to monitor its migration as you go. Doing this will allow for simpler creation of URL redirect rules if there are pages with no exact match on the new site as well as easier identification and repair of broken links that arise during migration.
To best protect your Squarespace website, it’s wise to regularly create backup copies. By doing so, you can restore it in case of an emergency and all methods available to do so are fairly easy and simple – such as Duplicate Site which offers fast backup solutions with excellent security features or third-party tools such as Get Collection Data which allow for data extraction from collections and backup.
Duplicating
Although Squarespace doesn’t feature automatic save features, you can take steps to safeguard your work and protect it. One such measure is duplicating pages, blog posts, products and other content – this saves both time and can come in handy if something goes amiss when editing your site – duplicating takes only minutes!
Duplicating pages, blocks, blog posts, products, events or portfolio items works much like creating regular pages: all content remains the same and settings match. In fact, duplicated items may even serve as templates for other pages or blog posts that you create later.
Duplicating can be an excellent way to save your design work without taking the risk of losing it all. Duplicating is also useful for products or events where it may save duplicating identical pages twice; just remember that if using one as a template page you should update its page titles, navigation titles, and URL slug.
Another effective method for safeguarding your work is using the “section favorites” feature, introduced in 2022 and rapidly adopted by users worldwide. This method is especially helpful if designing pages/sections takes longer than anticipated and you want to minimize risk of forgetting to hit “Save” during bathroom/coffee/cupcake breaks.
To utilize the Section Favorites feature, navigate to a page you’d like to edit, click its gear or settings icon, and click “Save section as Favorite.” Once saved, this section will appear on the left sidebar editor where it can be reused elsewhere on your site; even moving it directly between pages if desired! Note: Keep in mind that its saved status won’t update itself automatically with browser refreshes or browser reloadings.
Moving
Moving pages between websites can be time-consuming, particularly if you’ve been adding and editing content over an extended period (including coffee/bathroom breaks). But doing it can reduce the risk of losing something that took considerable effort – using a spreadsheet will make redirecting permalinks simpler later.
Manual copy-and-paste of content can be the quickest, least effortful method. This works for pages and blog posts alike and using an appropriate browser extension should make the task effortless. Also consider doing this for any third-party plugins or apps installed on your site that might need editing.
Once that is accomplished, export and import the XML file onto your new site. Make sure to enable pages you just imported by clicking the gear icon and selecting “Enable.” After doing this they should appear in your navigation menu and be visible to your audience.
Once again, another essential step in migrating websites is copying over any external API keys used on the older one, including Google Analytics IDs and ReCaptcha codes. Furthermore, if your stylesheet includes extensive custom CSS like Wolf & Wild does (with over 2000 lines of custom CSS!), saving a backup version on your computer would also be wise.
Finally, if your old site links or buttons point towards pages on your new one, redirects will need to be set up using either 301 for permanent content loss and 302 for temporary replacement of content – see Squarespace’s help center for instructions. This will prevent broken links or missing content from showing up in search engines like Google and will prove beneficial for both your customers and yourself!
Restoring
If your website has been backed up, restoring it should only take one click. Squarespace takes great care in backing up content regularly across both primary and secondary servers so that if anything should accidentally delete or get lost it can quickly be recovered if that should occur.
However, taking additional measures to safeguard your work and reduce the chances of missing content in the future is still prudent. One such method is saving images and media files to your computer before uploading them to a website; this creates a separate copy that you can easily access in future. Alternatively, you could use Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine which allows you to search any webpage publicly available ever before it becomes visible online.
An effective way to prevent work loss is ensuring you regularly save changes, which will protect your content even in case of connection loss or system crashes. Squarespace offers an auto-save feature which automatically backs up changes as they happen – an extra safeguard.
Before creating content for Squarespace, it is recommended that you utilize a markup editor like Ulysses for editing purposes. This can help prevent formatting issues such as extra lines between paragraphs. I recommend this particular editor since it was specifically developed to work efficiently with this platform.
As part of these strategies, it’s also essential to remember that Squarespace is constantly developing new features. Recently they introduced a page layout enabling multiple blog posts on one page – this will allow you to create an immersive storytelling experience for visitors that increases engagement and conversions.
As such, it’s wise to explore various page layouts and templates provided by Squarespace prior to making a definitive choice. Doing this will give you a better sense of how each option will appear before committing yourself; and if the results don’t meet with your expectations, simply switch back or create something entirely new!
