Why your Squarespace site is not showing up on Google

Search Google for site: followed by your domain. No results means Google has not indexed the site, and the checks below apply. Results mean the site is indexed, and the last section covers what to do next.

Squarespace’s help centre is plain about this: search engines do not find trial, expired or cancelled sites. A site has to be on a paid subscription and published before Google can index it.

A site-wide password keeps search engines out as surely as it keeps visitors out. Squarespace suggests the quickest test: open the site in a private browser window. If it asks for a password, so does Google’s crawler.

A password on the home page alone has much the same effect, because the home page is where a crawler starts. Remove the page password.

Each page has an Enable setting on the General tab of its page settings. A disabled page is not published, and Google cannot index it.

Each page also has an SEO tab with the option “Hide this page from search results”. With it ticked, the page tells search engines to leave it out. Check every page that matters.

Squarespace lists one further cause: noindex code added through code injection, for the whole site or for the home page. It is sometimes pasted in while a site is being built and forgotten. Remove it.

A page that belongs to a paid membership area is closed to search engines. Squarespace’s advice is to take the page out of the pricing plan if it should be found.

Verify the site in Google Search Console, then use it to ask Google to index the site. Squarespace notes that it does not control how quickly Google acts, and that it usually takes some time.

A site that passes every check has a ranking problem, and the platform’s settings will not solve it. Our guide to why your website is not showing up on Google covers that case, and is Squarespace bad for SEO? covers what the platform leaves to you.