How to Manage Page Visibility on Your Website
TL;DR:
- New pages go live automatically and appear in search results
- Disable pages to hide them while you're still working on content
- Pages can auto-disable when importing content or hitting plan limits
- Use 'Not linked' sections, passwords, or noindex tags for different visibility needs
When you create a new page on Squarespace, it goes live straight away. That's fine if you're ready to publish, but not so great if you're still building content or want to control when things appear.
Here's how to manage what visitors can see and when they can see it.
Enabling and Disabling Pages
The main visibility control is the enable/disable toggle. This completely hides pages from your site and search engines.
How to Enable a Page
- Open the Pages panel in your dashboard
- Hover over the page and click the settings gear
- Toggle 'Enable Page' to on
- Click 'Save'
How to Disable a Page
- Go to the Pages panel
- Hover over the page and click settings
- Toggle 'Enable Page' to off
- Save your changes
Disabling removes the page from navigation and search results, but doesn't delete anything. You can switch it back on whenever you need to.
Special Page Types
Different page types behave differently when disabled:
Collection Pages (like blogs or shop pages): Disabling affects everything within that collection. Your blog posts or products won't be accessible.
Store Pages: Customers can still buy items already in their carts, even if you disable the store page. To stop purchases completely, you need to disable individual products too.
Portfolio Sub-Pages and Dropdowns: You can't disable these individually. You have to disable the entire section or move the whole dropdown to control visibility.
For dropdown content, move pages to the 'Not linked' section instead of disabling them.
Other Visibility Options
Sometimes you need more control than just on/off:
Semi-private content: Move pages to 'Not linked' so they don't appear in navigation, or add password protection for specific people.
Hide from search engines only: Use the 'noindex' tag to keep pages accessible to visitors but invisible to Google and other search engines.
Work in progress: Keep pages disabled until they're ready, then enable them when you want to go live.
FAQs
Can I edit disabled pages?
Yes, disabled pages work normally in your dashboard. Only visitors and search engines can't see them.
What happens to shopping carts when I disable a store page?
Customers can still buy items already in their carts. Disable individual products if you need to stop all purchases.
How do I hide pages from Google but keep them accessible?
Add a 'noindex' tag in the page settings. The page stays live but won't appear in search results.
Jargon Buster
Collection Pages: Pages that group related content like blog posts or shop items
Portfolio Sub-Pages: Individual projects or items within a portfolio section
Noindex Tag: Tells search engines not to include the page in their results
Wrap-up
Managing page visibility gives you control over your site's user experience. Whether you're working on new content, testing changes, or managing access to different audiences, these visibility options help you show the right content at the right time.
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