Can you back up your Squarespace website?
I am a massive fan of Squarespace but like everything, it is not 100% perfect. And one area where it’s a bit ‘meh’ is if you want to back up your site. Unlike WordPress, which has automatic backup plugins, Squarespace backup requires a more manual approach. But don't worry, there are some straightforward methods to ensure your website is safe and sound, should disaster ever strike (which is very unlikely!)
Duplicate Your Website: The simplest way to back up your website is to duplicate it. You can do this by clicking on the three dots next to your website in the Squarespace dashboard and selecting "Duplicate Site." This will create an exact replica of your site, but with a new in-built Squarespace url that gets created for every new site on Squarespace. If you ever wanted this duplicate site to become your actual site, you’d need to connect it to your domain (and disconnect the old one, if you still have access to it). You’d also have to pay another Squarespace subscription to use this duplicate site.
Additionally, you can duplicate individual pages by clicking on the gear icon next to the page name in the pages panel and choosing "Duplicate Page." This creates a backup of individual pages, but should the whole site disappear for some reason (which will never happen!), you’d lose these pages too. Duplicating individual pages is a good way to work on new page layouts or updates, without upsetting the existing live page. You can then swap one for the other when the new page is ready to go live. There are a few steps involved here:
Head into the settings of your new page and update the page title & navigation for SEO purposes
If it’s not already on, toggle on the enable page button to make the new version of the page discoverable
Update the URL slug so that it exactly matches the old version of the page to ensure all past links to that page still work.
There’s one problem with this method of duplicating pages, however, and that is that you can’t duplicate collection pages, (blogs, event pages, portfolio pages, album pages, shop, gallery or index pages, and folders)
But it is possible to duplicate individual items or pages within any of those collection pages, and most of them can be easily moved between collection pages or dragged and dropped under a new folder or index page.
Remember also that if you should accidentally delete a page, you can find it in the Deleted Pages bin for up to six months.
Keep an Extra Copy of Your Content: To safeguard your blog posts and website content, consider writing them in a separate programme like Google Docs, Word, or Pages if you use a Mac, before copying and pasting them into Squarespace. This way, you'll always have a backup copy.
Download Your XML File: Your XML file serves as a transferable backup of your site content. You can export it from Squarespace and import it into other platforms like WordPress, but keep in mind that not all content types will transfer. You can export text only, really, not images or any other data like page titles and descriptions from your SEO menu. To download your XML file, go to Settings > Advanced > Import/Export and click on "Export."
Save Your Images: Unfortunately, you can't import images directly from Squarespace to a self-hosted WordPress site for example. To safeguard your images, save an extra copy on your hard drive or Google Drive.
Export Products to a .CSV File: If you have products listed on your Squarespace website, you can export them as a .csv file to preserve the raw data. Although it might not directly import into other website builders, having the data is valuable. To do this, go to Commerce > Inventory and click on "Export All."
Download Your JSON File: The JSON file is helpful if you accidentally change or erase your style settings and need to restore them. For Squarespace 7.0 users, go to Design > Site Styles, scroll down to the bottom of the style panel, and click on "Export Style Pack (Beta)." Note that in Squarespace 7.1, native downloading of the site styles file isn't available, but you can use external tools like the SquareWebsites Tools Extension Pro.
Copy Your Code Injections and CSS: If you've added custom code injections or CSS to your Squarespace website, keep an extra copy in a plain text editor like Sublime Text or TextEdit (for Mac). This way, you can quickly restore any modifications if needed by pasting these into a new site.
Take Screenshots of Your Website: You can capture full-page screenshots of every page on your website (excluding blog posts) using tools like the Full Page Screen Capture Chrome extension. This will provide visual references in case you need to rebuild your site.
While backing up your Squarespace website might seem like a bit of a hassle, it is something to bear in mind if you want to be sure to protect your content. These methods will prepare you for the more likely scenario of human error causing data loss and give you peace of mind knowing your site is secured.
Have I ever backed up my site? To be honest no, but for peace of mind it is a good idea.
