How to Create a Squarespace Duplicate Website Step-by-Step
A Squarespace duplicate website is a complete copy of your pages, design and content. To make one, open your account dashboard at account.squarespace.com, hover over the site, open the three-dot menu and choose Duplicate Website. You get a full copy of your pages, design and content as a new trial site. Your domain, billing, store data and analytics history stay with the original.
Why make a Squarespace duplicate website
Three reasons cover nearly every copy I make.
The first is a sandbox for a redesign. Testing a new layout or structure on a copy means the live site keeps working while you experiment, which is how I stage client redesigns without any downtime.
The second is a starting point you can reuse. If you build sites regularly, duplicating a previous build skips hours of setup.
The third is a snapshot before something risky. About to give someone else editing access, or make sweeping changes? A copy from five minutes ago is cheap insurance.
What copies over and what doesn't
The duplicate brings your pages, blog posts, layouts, images, site styles and custom code, so the whole design and content layer.
It doesn't bring your custom domain, which stays connected to the original, or your subscription and billing. Contributor permissions, analytics history and connected services don't come either, and neither does store data like products, orders and customer accounts. Scheduling and email campaigns stay behind too.
So a duplicate is a perfect copy of the design and an incomplete copy of the business. Good for testing, not enough on its own as a backup for a store.
How to duplicate a Squarespace website
Log in and go to your account dashboard, the screen that lists all your sites, at account.squarespace.com.
Hover over the site you want to copy and open the three-dot menu in the corner of its card.
Click Duplicate Website and confirm. Squarespace builds the copy, usually in under a minute, though image-heavy sites take longer.
Then rename it straight away. The copy shows up named after the original, and not knowing which one is live is how people accidentally edit production. Something like "Mysite REDESIGN SANDBOX" removes the doubt.
Using the copy for a redesign
Build on the copy as much as you like. It sits behind your login, so nobody can see it and Google won't index it, which means no duplicate content problem.
When the new version is better, you've two ways to go. For small changes, redo them on the live site during a quiet hour. For a full rebuild, upgrade the duplicate to a paid plan and move your domain across in Settings, Domains. The swap takes minutes and the old site stays intact as a fallback you can point back to.
If the redesign changes any URLs, set your redirects up before you switch. The same rules that protect a migration apply to relaunching on the same platform.
The catch with trials
A duplicate starts life as a trial site, and trials expire. An expired one isn't deleted immediately and can be revived, but "I've a backup" and "I've a trial that ran out in March" aren't the same level of safety.
For proper coverage, also export your content as XML under Settings, Import and Export, and keep your original images somewhere you control. The duplicate protects your design and the export protects your words.
Frequently asked questions
Is duplicating a website the same as backing it up?
Close, but not the same. It's a very good snapshot of your design and content, but it starts as an expiring trial and leaves out store data and domains. Pair it with an XML export for real coverage.
Does duplicating copy my blog posts?
Yes. Posts, pages, images, styles and custom code all come across. Products, orders, analytics and connected services don't.
Can I duplicate a site into a different Squarespace account?
Not directly, since duplicates land in the same account. Duplicate it first, then invite the other person to the copy and transfer ownership from the site settings.
Will a duplicate hurt my SEO as duplicate content?
No. Trial sites sit behind the Squarespace login and never get indexed, so Google never sees the copy.
Planning a redesign and want it staged safely on a copy, with the live site untouched? That's how my redesign projects run. Book a free call and we can talk it through.
