How to add a site-wide Under Construction page to your Squarespace site
Today I’m going to show you how to create a site-wide Under Construction page in Squarespace. And before you think this tutorial is going to be exactly the same as the tutorial about how to create a Coming Soon page in Squarespace, let me just note, there are big differences between the two.
In the Coming Soon Page tutorial I teach you how to set up a ‘Cover Page’. This page is essentially just a page that says “Coming Soon” on it, with maybe some links out to your social, a newsletter or even a form. This is a great option for sites that are new.
The reason I suggest the ‘Cover Page’ method only for sites that are new is because the Cover Page is essentially just a homepage that says Coming Soon — it doesn’t actually keep people out of the other pages on your site.
So the issue is, if your site has been live for a while, you’ll likely have some pages floating around on Google or Facebook (or wherever else you post). If people click on those particular pages from Google etc, they will land on your site and totally bypass the Cover Page.
If you’re having a complete site redesign and someone lands on one of those pages, they probably won’t realize that your site is actually under construction, and it might be a total mess amidst the redesign.
This method I’m about to show you is great for sites that want to make ALL of their pages inaccessible, so if someone does click on a link through Google, they will still land on the Under Construction Page.
The Under Construction page will also be Password Protected, which means that no one can get in unless they have the password!
Also, this tutorial is super easy, so let’s get started!
Note: If SEO is an important factor for you, I imagine that putting your whole site behind a Password Protected page will be BAD for your SEO, as Google won’t be able to see or access your content, thus pushing it down the ranks. So if this is a big red flag for you, go ahead and use the Cover Page method. This will keep all your Blog posts accessible and indexable by Google. The only problem is if you’re having a complete site redesign, some of your content might look messy and confusing for visitors — I would suggest adding a pop-up or a note somewhere alerting your visitors that your site is currently under construction.
Step 1 : Design your page
The first thing we need to do is create the design of our Under Construction page.
In Squarespace, head to Design > Lock Screen
Note: Unlike Cover Pages, you can only have ONE Password Protected page design per site. So that means any pages you want to password protect on your site will always all have the same design. But if you’re creating an Under Construction page, then you can always update the design later when your site isn’t Under Construction anymore and you want to use a Password Protected page for something else.
Click ‘Change Layout’ and choose a layout. There’s on at the very bottom that is specifically designed for Under Construction pages which I prefer as the password isn’t so obvious, but any of these will work!
Then, click Branding and Text. Here you will have the option to add your Logo, a Heading and Body text. You can add all of your info that you want on the page here. I recommend writing “Under Construction” somewhere, and also adding an email address or social media link where they can contact you in the Body text area.
Note: Don’t worry about the formatting too much yet (fonts, colors, font sizes, logo size etc) as we can change this all in the Style Settings.
Depending on what Layout you chose in the beginning, you can click on Media and add a background image or a background video.
Then click Style and just work your way through the list of settings and make any style changes that you desire! If you’re not sure which setting controls what, just try it out and you will see it changing on the live preview page. Remember to click Save in the top left hand corner when you’ve finished.
That’s it for the design! Easy, right?
Step 2 : Set it live
When you’ve finished step one, back out into the main menu and then click on Settings > Site Visibility.
Change your site to Password Protected and set a password.
Make sure to click Save in the top left hand corner when you’re done.
That’s it! Once you site your site to Password Protected the design we just created will automatically be applied, and your site is now completely hidden behind a Site-Wide Under Construction Page.
Thanks for reading!
Want more Squarespace tips? Check out the blog posts below!
How to create a vertical line in Squarespace (7.0 & 7.1)
How to animate your links on hover in Squarespace 7.0 & 7.1
How to add a chatbox to your Squarespace site (for free!)
How to create a media library in Squarespace
How to Secure Your Squarespace Website & Why You Need to!
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