Squarespace · Free website check
Why your Squarespace site isn’t showing on Google
Most of the time it’s one setting, or just a wait. The free check reads your site for common search and sharing problems and shows what it finds, with the Squarespace steps to fix it.
Check these first, most likely first
Start at the top. Each one says where to find the setting in Squarespace.
The site is on a trial, or its plan has ended
Squarespace only lets search engines list a site with a paid subscription. A trial, expired or canceled site stays out of Google.
The whole site has a password
A site-wide password puts a lock screen in front of every page, and search engines can’t get past it.
- Open Settings and remove the site-wide password if one is set, then Save.
- Open your home page in a private browser window to see what visitors see.
A page is hidden from search results
If only some pages are missing, each page has its own switch, and a page with its own password stays out as well.
- Open the page’s gear icon and the SEO tab.
- Turn off “Hide page from search results”, then Save. If the whole site has a password, remove it under Settings.
Squarespace help: page settings
The free check reads this from your page.
A noindex line was pasted into Code Injection
Squarespace lists code in the site-wide or home page Code Injection as another reason pages stay out. A leftover line saying noindex hides the pages it is on.
- Open the Code Injection panel in your site’s settings and look in the Header box for a line containing noindex.
- For one page, open its gear icon, then the Advanced tab, and look in Page Header Code Injection. Remove the line, then Save.
Squarespace help: using code injection
The free check reads this from your page.
The site isn’t in Google Search Console
Google finds a site faster when it has been told where its sitemap is.
- Squarespace publishes /sitemap.xml for you.
- Verify your site in Google Search Console and submit sitemap.xml.
Squarespace help: SEO checklist
The free check looks for your sitemap and tells you if it is missing or points elsewhere.
See whether Google has listed your site yet
- Search Google for
site:yourdomain.com, using your own address. Pages in the results are on Google. No results does not prove the site is absent: this search can omit indexed pages. Use URL Inspection below to check a specific page. - To check one page, open Google Search Console (free), paste the page’s address into the box at the top and read the answer: “URL is on Google” or “URL is not on Google”. Open “Page indexing” to see why.
- If the page isn’t on Google and nothing is blocking it, press “Request indexing”. Google says this usually takes a day or so, can take much longer, and isn’t guaranteed.
A new site can take a while: Google says anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks, and suggests allowing at least a week after you submit a sitemap.
Google: check a page with URL Inspection Google: why a page might be missing from search
What the free check looks at
- Whether the page asks search engines not to list it (a noindex tag or header).
- Whether robots.txt shuts search engines out.
- Whether the site publishes a sitemap, and whether it points at your own pages.
- Whether the page names another address as its main one.
- Whether the www and non-www addresses both work.
- The search settings of up to 10 other pages.
It only reads public pages. It never signs in, and nothing on your site changes. It can’t see Google’s own list, which is why the steps above matter. How the check works.
A noindex switch that someone turns back on is an easy way for a site to drop out quietly. DeployPost Watch runs this check on your page every day and emails you when something looks different. See DeployPost Watch.
More for Squarespace
Does a shared link show the wrong picture? Squarespace: link preview picture.