How to Easily Backup Your Squarespace Website
Squarespace is your online presence, whether it is for business, blogging, or e-commerce. Unlike typical website platforms, Squarespace doesn’t have a built-in one-click backup option. This means that you risk losing valuable content if anything goes wrong—accidental deletions, unwanted changes, or platform issues.
Why back up your squarespace website? First, a backup of your squarespace website means that you have a copy of your data to back up, which makes it easier to copy your site. Even though Squarespace offers some quality of protection, your site being safe on its system isn’t sufficient. That is why having a proper backup strategy is critical.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to easily back up your Squarespace website in different ways. We will take a deep look at why you should keep exporting content up to date in your website data and methods from exporting content manually, through third-party tools, and the best methods. Let’s dive in!
Duplicate your website
This option will copy all of your existing Squarespace content and keep it in your account dashboard. It is also worth mentioning that duplicating your site is not the perfect solution when migrating to other platforms, it is also not applicable for sites with more than 100 pages. But it is a useful tool for things like NOT having that accidentally removed portion of your site back in place when you could use the quick restore.
To get started, go to your account dashboard and find the site you would like to duplicate. Then click on the ellipsis (…) icon and select “Duplicate website”. You will be able to find your duplicated site in your account dashboard. a
Understanding Squarespace’s Built-in Backup Options
Backups are an important cushion when it comes to website security. Unlike some website builders, Squarespace does not provide a one-click backup solution to restore your website. Instead, it comes with functionalities at a basic level that offer a fair bit of data protection, but there are caveats.
Does Squarespace Automatically Backup Your Website?
Squarespace keeps internal backups of all websites on its platform in case of system-wide failures. That way, if Squarespace has a technical problem on its side of things, it can revive sites from its internal backups. These backups can save you a lot of time, but users don’t have access to them, nor are you able to restore your website from these backups should you make changes or delete content by mistake.
Limitations of Squarespace’s Backup System
Although Squarespace does provide a level of protection to hosted sites, it doesn’t offer:
No Manual Backup Access – Users are unable to download or restore complete site backups.
Version History – There is no way to go back to a previous version of a page or design.
Recover Deleted Content –After deletion, a page or blog post cannot be retrieved unless it was previously saved somewhere else.
Create A Site Map
Before you dive into constructing your Squarespace website, I strongly advise starting with a visual sitemap. This initial step provides a clear outline of the necessary pages and ensures a smooth user experience as visitors navigate through your site.
As your website evolves, periodic updates to your sitemap every 3-6 months will maintain an up-to-date layout reference.
Several tools are at your disposal to assist in sitemap creation, and the best part is that some of these tools are entirely free:
Mindmeister
FlowMapp
Bubble.us
Utilize these resources to design your sitemap effectively.
Download Your XML File
The XML file plays a crucial role in moving your Squarespace content to WordPress, but it's important to note that this process has some limitations. If you're migrating to a self-hosted WordPress site, only the text will be transferred. However, if you opt for a WordPress.com website, both text and images will make the journey.
Here's a breakdown of what your XML file includes:
Layout pages
Gallery pages
Project pages
A single blog with all its posts
Blog comments
Text blocks
Image blocks (compatible with WordPress.com)
However, certain content types won't make the transition, such as:
Product pages
Folders
Index pages
Event pages
Album pages
Cover pages
Extra blogs or their posts
Audio and video blocks
Product blocks
Drafts
It's important to keep in mind that migrating from Squarespace to WordPress can be a complex process. Additionally, Squarespace 7.1 does not offer the option to export an XML file. To obtain your XML file, navigate to Settings > Advanced > Import/Export and select Export.
Back Up Your Website's Content
Utilize Google Drive or Dropbox to centralize all your website assets, including content, images, and videos. Organizing your digital content into a structured hierarchy ensures you always have a comprehensive backup. Here's a glimpse of my process:
Folder Structure:
Website
Subfolders: Home Page, About, Hire Me, Store.
Each subfolder contains:
Google Docs with structured website content.
Meta Descriptions.
Images/Videos.
For blog posts, an integral part of my marketing strategy, I maintain a dedicated 'Blog Posts' folder. Each blog post has its own subfolders that encompass:
Written content in Google Docs (complete with meta descriptions).
Multimedia elements like images, videos, or GIFs embedded within the blog post.
Supplementary images tailored for social media promotion.
By crafting blog posts within Google Drive and subsequently publishing them on Squarespace, you inherently safeguard your website with minimal additional effort. This process adds an extra layer of security to your valuable web content.
Store Your Visual Elements
As you can't directly transfer images from Squarespace to a self-hosted WordPress site, it's advisable to maintain an additional copy of your images. You have the flexibility to store them on your local hard drive or in your preferred cloud storage location, such as Google Drive.
Save a Copy of Your Code Injections and CSS
In the event that you've incorporated custom code injections or CSS into your Squarespace site, it's prudent to maintain a spare copy to prevent accidental deletion or alterations. I personally employ Sublime Text for code writing and preservation, but Mac users can also utilize TextEdit, and nearly any plain text editor will suffice for this purpose.
Capture Screenshots of Every Page
Just make sure you screenshot every page on your site except your blog posts if you are short on time or resources. This visual reference will be crucial if you ever need to recreate your website. For this, I use the Full Page Screen Capture Chrome extension.
I know that protecting your Squarespace site can be really challenging. I really hope Squarespace simplifies everything and makes it easy. But that’s the state of play right now.
In case your site met an untimely demise or even if there was a catastrophic incident that made your site crash, having this data will help you to reconstruct it on Squarespace or anywhere else. But it doesn't have to be a simple or short-term fix: it's just a backup that helps you prepare for the more likely situation that a human being makes a mistake that does something on your site that will ultimately be unintentional.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Does Squarespace have an automatic backup feature?
No, Squarespace does not offer an automatic backup feature. You need to manually export your content or use third-party tools to back up your website.
2. What content can I export from Squarespace?
You can export blog posts, basic pages, and some text-based content in an XML file. However, images, design settings, custom CSS, and certain features like products require manual or separate backups.
3. Can I back up my website’s design settings?
Squarespace doesn’t allow design exports. You’ll need to manually document your style settings, including fonts, colors, and layouts. Take screenshots or note down the details for future reference.
4. How can I back up my images from Squarespace?
You can manually download images from your Image Blocks or File Manager. Alternatively, use website downloader tools like HTTrack or SiteSucker for bulk image downloads.
5. Is it possible to back up my online store products?
Yes, you can back up your product data by exporting it as a CSV file from Commerce → Inventory. This will save product names, descriptions, prices, and stock levels.
6. Can I recover deleted content from Squarespace?
Deleted content can be recovered within 30 days by accessing the Trash section in your Squarespace account. After 30 days, the content is permanently deleted.
