A Squarespace duplicate site is made from the account dashboard: go there (the screen listing all your sites), click the three dots on the site, and choose Duplicate Website. A copy appears at the top of the list with “(Copy)” after its title, on a fresh 14-day trial, with pages, sections, styles, code injection and collection items intact. Domains, orders, contributors, integrations and saved sections do not copy. That is the site-level Squarespace duplicate; there are also page, section and block duplicates inside a site, each with its own rules. Here are all of them, what carries over, what you have to redo, and the three situations where duplicating a site is the right move.
How do you make a Squarespace duplicate site?
- Log in and open the account dashboard, where every site you own or contribute to is listed.
- Hover over the site, click … (three dots), then Duplicate Website.
- Wait; large sites take a few minutes. The copy appears first in the list, titled with “(Copy)”.
- Open it, rename it under Site Title, and edit as a normal trial site. Upgrade to a paid plan when it is ready to go live.
You need owner or administrator permission on the original. Squarespace’s duplication guide lists what transfers and what does not; the table below is the working version.
What copies over, and what does not?
| Copies | Does not copy |
|---|---|
| Pages, sections, layouts and blocks | Domains and domain subscriptions |
| Collection items: blog posts, products, events, portfolio projects (with altered URL slugs) | Orders, discounts, subscriptions and other selling settings |
| Site title, logo, languages and regional settings | Contributor permissions; basic authors carry over but are not attached to posts |
| Style settings and template | Third-party integrations needing authentication: connected accounts, API keys, Mailchimp, Google |
| Code injection | Analytics, billing plan, contacts |
| Member sites | Blog comments, audio files in audio blocks, files uploaded through the link editor |
| Text and images used on pages | Licensed stock images; unused Asset Library items; saved sections |
Two of those bite. Duplicated collection items get random characters added to their slugs, so a blog with 200 posts needs every slug fixed by hand if the copy is going to replace the original at the same domain. And forms and newsletter blocks come across with no storage connected, so every form on the copy has to be reconnected before launch or submissions vanish.
When should you duplicate a site?
| Situation | Duplicate? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Redesigning a live site without breaking it | Yes | Build on the copy, then move the domain across at launch |
| Starting a second site with the same branding | Yes | Duplicate, strip the content, keep the styles |
| Extending a trial that is about to expire | Yes | The copy gets a fresh 14 days |
| A designer reusing their own base build for a new client | Yes | Circle members do this routinely |
| Making a backup | Partly | A snapshot of design and content, but it is a trial site that expires unless upgraded; Squarespace has no true backup export |
| Moving to a new owner | No | Transfer ownership under Permissions and Ownership instead |
| Testing a change | Usually no | Duplicate the page or section within the site instead |
How do you duplicate a page?
- Open the Pages panel and hover over the page.
- Click the settings cog, scroll down and click Duplicate Page, then Confirm.
- The copy opens with “(Copy)” in the title and a slug ending in a number on 7.1 (
/about-1) or “copy” on 7.0. Rename both before publishing.
Layout pages and cover pages duplicate, per Squarespace’s page duplication guide. Collection pages (blog, store, events, portfolio, gallery, videos), index pages, dropdown folders and info pages do not; the workaround is to create a new collection page and duplicate the items into it one by one, or to duplicate the site. Blog posts duplicate from the three-dot menu next to the post; products from the duplicate icon in the product editor; events from the three-dot menu.
How do you duplicate a section or a block?
- Section (7.1): edit the page, hover over the section, click the duplicate icon. The copy appears directly below. Block sections, gallery sections and auto layouts duplicate; collection sections do not.
- Block (Fluid Engine only): click the block, then the duplicate icon in its toolbar, or press
Cmd+D/Ctrl+D; copy and paste withCmd+CandCmd+Valso works, including between pages. Classic editor sections and 7.0 sites cannot duplicate single blocks. - Reuse a section on other pages: the heart icon saves it; saving and reusing Squarespace sections covers that and its 250-section limit.
How do you replace a live site with a duplicate?
This is the redesign workflow, and the order matters:
- Duplicate the live site; build the redesign on the copy.
- Fix collection slugs on the copy so every blog post and product URL matches the original. This is the tedious step and the one that protects rankings.
- Reconnect forms, newsletter blocks, analytics, Search Console and any integrations on the copy.
- Upgrade the copy to a paid plan (a new subscription; the old one is cancelled after the switch).
- Move the domain: on the old site, disconnect or transfer the domain; on the new site, connect it. Squarespace-registered domains move between sites in the Domains panel. Changing a Squarespace domain covers the DNS side.
- Check every URL from the old sitemap resolves on the new site; add URL Mappings for any that changed.
- Cancel the old site’s plan once traffic has settled, keeping it a few weeks as a fallback.
For a small brochure site this is an afternoon; for a blog or store it is a day of slug fixing, which is why on those sites I usually redesign in place with saved sections and a hidden work-in-progress page rather than duplicating. The choice is part of scoping any Squarespace project, and the trial extension options decide how long the copy can sit unpaid while the work happens.
Frequently asked questions
From the account dashboard, click the three dots on the site and choose Duplicate Website. The copy appears as a new 14-day trial site with “(Copy)” in the title; rename it, reconnect forms and integrations, and fix collection slugs before using it.
No. Domains and domain subscriptions stay with the original. Connect or move the domain to the copy manually when it is ready to replace the original.
Not directly. Duplicate it in your account, then invite the other person as an administrator and transfer ownership under Permissions and Ownership.
Pages panel, hover over the page, click the settings cog, scroll to Duplicate Page and confirm. Layout and cover pages duplicate; collection pages, index pages and folders do not.
Not the blog page itself. Create a new blog page and duplicate posts into it from each post’s three-dot menu, or duplicate the whole site, which copies all posts with modified slugs.
Only partly. It captures design and content as they are, but the copy is a trial that expires unless upgraded, and it misses orders, comments, form storage and integrations. Squarespace has no full-site export.
