Yes, you can change your domain name on Squarespace. Go to Settings → Domains, connect or buy the new domain, then set it as your primary domain. The switch itself takes a few minutes.
The part that takes longer, and that almost nobody warns you about, is what happens to your search rankings afterwards. A domain change is a change of address for every single page you have ever published, and if you do not tell Google where each page moved, you start again from nothing.
Can you change your Squarespace domain name?
Yes, and there are three different things people mean by that question:
| What you want | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| Use a different web address for the same site | Connect a new domain and set it as primary |
Change your free .squarespace.com address | Edit the built-in domain in Settings |
| Move a domain to a different Squarespace account | A domain transfer, which is a separate process |
The first is the common case and takes minutes. The third is genuinely a transfer and takes longer, with a waiting period.
How to change your primary domain, step by step
1. Add the new domain. Settings → Domains. Either buy one through Squarespace or click to connect a domain you own elsewhere. Connecting an external domain means updating its DNS records at your registrar, which typically propagates within a few hours, occasionally up to 48.
2. Wait for it to verify. Squarespace shows the connection status. Do not proceed until it confirms the domain is connected properly.
3. Set it as primary. In Settings → Domains, select the new domain and mark it primary. Squarespace automatically redirects your other connected domains to it, so the old address will forward rather than break.
4. Update everything that points at you. Google Business Profile, social profiles, email signature, directory listings, invoices, business cards. This is the tedious part and skipping it costs you traffic.
5. Tell Google directly. Add the new domain as a property in Search Console and submit your sitemap at newdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Squarespace generates that automatically.
The part that actually loses rankings
Here is what the support documentation does not emphasise: Squarespace redirects the old domain to your new homepage, but that is not the same as redirecting each page to its equivalent.
If your old site had thirty pages that Google had indexed, and every one of them now forwards to your new homepage, then thirty ranking pages have effectively been deleted. Google sees thirty URLs that no longer serve the content it ranked them for. Rankings collapse, and the drop appears weeks later when you have forgotten what caused it.
What you want instead is one-to-one redirect mapping: every old URL pointing at the new URL holding the same content.
olddomain.com/services/wedding-photography/ → newdomain.com/services/wedding-photography/
not
olddomain.com/services/wedding-photography/ → newdomain.com/
If your page paths are staying identical and only the domain is changing, Squarespace’s automatic domain-level redirect handles this correctly, because the path is preserved. The danger is when you change your site structure at the same time as your domain. That is when pages need individual mapping, and it is a very common combination because people redesign and rebrand together.
How to build the redirect map
Before you change anything:
- Export your current URL list. Visit
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xmland copy every URL. This is your inventory. - Check which ones have traffic. In Search Console, look at Performance by page over the last twelve months. Any page with impressions matters.
- Write the mapping. A two-column list: old URL, new URL. Every old URL gets a destination.
- Enter them in Squarespace. Settings → Developer Tools → URL Mappings. The syntax is:
/old-page-url -> /new-page-url 301One rule per line. The 301 tells Google the move is permanent and passes ranking signals to the new address, which is exactly what you want. Google’s own documentation on site moves with URL changes confirms this is the expected approach.
- Test them. Visit a handful of old URLs and confirm each lands on the right page rather than the homepage.
How long does recovery take?
Expect a temporary dip, then recovery over several weeks.
Google has to recrawl every page and process every redirect, and that does not happen overnight. A typical pattern is a noticeable dip in the first two to three weeks, followed by recovery to previous levels over one to three months, provided the redirects are correct.
If you are still down after three months, the redirects are usually wrong rather than the recovery being slow. The most common cause is exactly the failure above: everything pointing at the homepage.
You can speed the process along by submitting the new sitemap in Search Console and requesting indexing on your most important pages individually.
Transferring a domain to another Squarespace account
Different process, and slower.
This applies when ownership is changing, such as a client taking over a site a designer built. It involves unlocking the domain, obtaining an authorisation code, and initiating the transfer from the receiving account.
Two constraints worth knowing before you start: a domain generally cannot be transferred within 60 days of registration or a previous transfer, and the transfer itself typically takes five to seven days to complete. Plan around both.
What to do before you change anything
A short checklist that prevents most of the pain:
- Export your sitemap so you have the full URL list
- Screenshot your Search Console performance so you have a baseline to compare against
- Note your top ten pages by traffic so you know what must not break
- Write the redirect map first, before switching the domain
- Do not change domain and site structure in the same week if you can avoid it
That last one is the single most useful piece of advice here. Change the domain, let it settle, then restructure. Doing both at once makes it impossible to tell which change caused a problem.
The broader question of what Squarespace handles automatically and what it leaves to you is covered in is Squarespace good for SEO, and the on-page fundamentals in how to add keywords to Squarespace.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, if every old URL 301-redirects to the equivalent new URL. If the old domain simply forwards to your new homepage, you will lose the rankings of every individual page.
Temporarily, yes. Expect a dip for two to three weeks and recovery over one to three months with correct redirects. Without correct redirects, the loss is permanent rather than temporary.
Settings → Developer Tools → URL Mappings, using the format /old-url -> /new-url 301, one rule per line.
The switch itself takes minutes. DNS propagation for an external domain is usually a few hours and occasionally up to 48. Search recovery takes weeks.
Yes, by unlocking the domain and using an authorisation code. It typically takes five to seven days, and domains cannot usually be transferred within 60 days of registration or a previous transfer.
You can, and you generally should. Keeping it connected means the redirects keep working. If you let it expire, every link anyone ever made to your old address stops working permanently.
The short version
Settings → Domains, connect the new domain, set it as primary. That part is easy.
Before you do it, export your sitemap, write a one-to-one redirect map, and enter it under Developer Tools → URL Mappings with 301 rules. Then submit the new sitemap in Search Console and keep the old domain connected so the redirects keep firing.
Change the domain or the site structure, not both at once.
Moving a site and want the rankings to survive? Redirect mapping is the part most migrations get wrong. See how I work as a Squarespace website designer.
