How to archive a page in Squarespace
There are two reasons I make archive copies of pages: as a memento of a past event or as a template for future page designs or content. The procedures for archiving a page as a memento for the public and archiving a page for your own purposes are slightly different. I’ll explain both procedures here.
Archiving a page as a memento
I often use this technique to archive information about past events for my non-profit and community organization clients. The technique would also work for any other kind of “historical, but still interesting” content that you aren't ready to remove completely, but don’t want to treat as important news anymore. Examples that come to mind are showing a completed renovation at your headquarters, listing last year’s accomplishments or sponsors, or recounting a background story of a special client or your experience in writing your book. There may be other reasons I haven’t thought of, but the idea is that you want to keep a page active on your website so visitors can look at the information but no longer want to give it high visibility.
Example
Your local hiking club holds an annual family hiking event. The page is named “Annual Family Hike” with the page’s URL showing as “family-hike.” It shows in the navigation menu as “Annual Family Hike.”
You’ll need to keep an active Annual Family Hike page, always to be kept with the URL “family-hike” and shown in the navigation menu. This is the active page that publicizes the event each year. But you want to archive this year’s page so families who went on the hike this year can look at photos and enjoy remembering the fun. Families who might want to join the hike next year will find inspiration seeing the photos and learning more about the experience.
These are the steps you’ll take:
Change the page name: Copy the page. Rename the page and navigation titles to be “Last Year’s Hike” and the URL to be “last-years-hike.”
Make needed text changes: Since this is an archive page, you may also need to use past tense to describe the event.
Make the page visible: Make it possible for people to find the archive page, either from the navigation menu, or with a new link on the Annual Family Hike page, on the Home page, or in the footer.
Details about the archiving procedure
Change the page name if needed
After copying the page, change the page title and navigation title to reflect its archive status if an active page must keep the old name. Also change the URL to be clear it’s historical, rather than active, if an active page needs to maintain its URL. Change text to indicate that this is a past event.
How: Change settings in the Page Settings for the archived page. Edit text directly on the page.
Ensure people can find the page
Establish the method for people finding the page through navigation or links.
How: Links you provide to the archived page determine how people can find the page. if you want it to have high visibility, add the archived page to the navigation menu. If you want the page to have lower visibility, add links on pages where people might be interested in going to the archive page, such as the active page you copied or on the Home page. Another alternative is adding a text link in the footer area.
Archiving a page for your own reference
When I know I’m going to need to refer to the design or the content of a page that is being retired, I make an archive copy so that it remains with the website, but is hidden from the public.
Archiving the design for similar pages
I archive a page to refer to its design if I’m going to be creating other similar pages in the future. For example, if I know there will be multiple Services pages eventually, but some are not ready yet, I’ll archive the first Services page. Then I’ll use its design as a template for creating subsequent Services pages when they are ready to be offered. That way, I know that each page is designed in exactly the same way.
Archiving the content
If I might need to re-use some or all of the content of a page (its text or its images), I’ll make an archive copy so I can see how something was worded or which images were used. For example, for organizations that hold an annual event, promoting it for a short time, then removing it from the website, I’ll archive the event page so it is no longer visible when the event ends. But I’ll have that archive page as a reference for promoting next year’s event.
Tip: If the content I may re-use is part of a larger page, such as the Home page, I’ll copy and archive the whole page.
Example
Your wellness business schedules appointments with individuals most of the time. But once a year you hold a workshop at your local library that helps people understand what you do and gives them self-help tips. The Event page is called “Wellness at Home” with the URL “wellness-at-home.” Three months before the event each year, you add the page to your navigation menu and also put a paragraph and link on your Home page. You also link to this Event page on your social media channels. When the event is over, you archive the page.
These are the steps you’ll take:
Hide the page on the website: Disable the page in Page Settings. Remove it from the navigation menu by moving it to the Unlinked section of your pages list.
Remove any links to the Event page: Remove any links that you had added to the Event page from the Home page or other pages on the website. You don’t want to have broken links to a disabled page. You may keep a short description of the workshop on the Home page or other relevant pages so people can look forward to signing up for the event next year when registration is open.
Hide the page from search engines: You don’t want this page to be found in searches until you start publicizing the workshop next year. You do that by hiding the page from search results. You should also add a 302 redirect instruction as explained below to take someone to your Home page or another relevant page until registration is open again.
Details about the archiving procedure
Copy the page (if an active page takes its place)
After copying the page, change the Page Settings so they don’t conflict with an active page.
How: In the Page Settings for the archived page, change the page title and navigation title to reflect its archive status if an active page must keep the old name. Also change the URL to be clear it’s historical if an active page needs to maintain its URL.
Hide the page from the website
You don’t want people to see the archived page. It should not be accessible from links or the navigation menu.
How: Remove the archived page from navigation by moving it to the Unlinked section of your pages list. Disable the page by opening Page Settings and for the Enable Page setting move the slider left to disable the setting. Also update your website to remove any text or image links that went to the archived page.
Hide the page from searches
You don’t want people to find this page in searches because they’ll get a 404 Page Not Found error.
How: Select “Hide this page from search results” in the SEO tab of Page Settings. If the page becomes active in the future, you’ll change this setting back to allow this page to be found in search results. You should also redirect any older search results that find the archived page to go to another appropriate page instead. If the archived page will never be visible, the redirect instruction will be a permanent 301 redirect. If the archived page will become visible in the future, the redirect instruction will be a temporary 302 redirect. Create URL redirect settings as explained in this article. Here are some examples:
/services-archive -> /services 301
/annual-workshop -> /home 302
What it all comes down to is being able to remember what you’ve done and use it for your future work. I don’t know about you, but I can use all the memory aids I can get!
