How to Password Protect a Squarespace Website
If you want to restrict access to your Squarespace website* while you run updates or put your site into holiday mode, you’ll need to password protect your site.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to password protect a Squarespace website, both site-wide and adding passwords to individual pages.
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I. Open Site Availability
In your Squarespace dashboard, go to Settings > Site Availability.
II. Set Your Password
Switch from Public > Password Protected, then input your password.
Choose a password that you can remember (or write it down), and make sure it isn’t easy for visitors to guess it, as anyone with the password can access your site. Don’t use your Squarespace account password as your site password.
Lastly, click Save.
Now, anyone visiting your website will see a lock screen with a field where they can input the password if they have it (we’ll share more on how to customize this screen below). Without the password, they won’t be able to access any of your site’s content.
The Squarespace lock screen.
III. How to Password Protect Individual Squarespace Pages
Squarespace also lets you password protect individual pages.
You can do this by navigating to your Pages panel and hovering on the page you’d like to password protect.
Click the cog icon to open Page Settings > General > add your password in the Password field, and save your changes.
You can create different passwords for different pages.
IV. How to Customize the Squarespace Lock Screen
By default, the Squarespace lock screen has a minimal, grey palette, lock icon, and password field.
You can customize the lock screen by visiting via Pages > System Pages > Lock Screen.
From there, you can:
Add your site title or logo
Adjust fonts and colors
Add a background image
Add/change copy
Style the password field
However, lock screens have their own styling controls and don’t use the drag-and-drop builder, which means they’re not fully customizable and you can’t add sections or blocks.
An Alternative to Password Protection: Squarespace Member Areas
If you’re looking for gated content instead of password protection, Squarespace Member Areas* might be a good option. It’s an add-on feature with more advanced functionality, allowing you to:
Create member accounts and give each member their own login
Offer free, paid, and tiered memberships
Offer memberships on a subscription basis
Host courses and gated content
You should use this option if you’re offering content that needs a login or gated system.
FAQs
Can Google index a password protected Squarespace site?
When your entire site is password protected, search engines can’t index your pages. If the page was indexed before you added the password, it will continue appearing in search results until search engines recrawl it.
Will password protecting a page affect my SEO?
If your entire website is password protected, search engines can’t index your site. However, if individual pages are password protected, protected pages will be hidden, but public pages will be visible to search engines and able to rank on Google.
Can I remove password protection later?
You can switch your site back to Public at any time by going to Settings > Site Availability > Public > Click Save.
