Going Live Guide
Point your Squarespace domain at your site
Squarespace will ask for your password again part way through, and its records are slower to change than most, so it is worth doing carefully once.
🔑 Your Squarespace login
⏱ About ten minutes
📍 Section: Custom Records
← Back to the main guide
You do not transfer anything. Your domain stays with Squarespace, in your name, with nothing unlocked or moved. You are adding two settings, and your email is not affected by either of them.
Both records are type A, and both point to the same place:
| Type | Host | Points to |
|---|
| A | @ (the address itself) | 88.208.226.236 |
| A | www | 88.208.226.236 |
1Open your DNS screen
- Sign in and open your domains dashboard.
- Select the domain name.
- Select DNS in the side panel, then DNS Settings.
- Scroll down to Custom Records.
2Add the two records
- Select Add record.
- Squarespace will ask for your current password, or for your two-factor code if you have that switched on. Enter it and select Continue.
- Add an A record for the address itself pointing to
88.208.226.236, then a second A record for www with the same value.
- Leave the TTL at its default of four hours unless we have asked you to change it.
3Deal with the records already there
- If records for the address itself or for
www already exist, hover over the row and select the pencil to edit rather than adding a duplicate.
- Squarespace warns that editing a record changes how your domain connects to a site or an email service. For the website records that is exactly what you want. Leave every other record alone.
Things Squarespace does differently
If you have a Squarespace website on this address
Repointing these records is what takes visitors off the Squarespace site and onto the new one. That is the intended outcome, but it is a real switchover, so read the note below about replacing a live site before you start, and do it at a quiet time.
If the DNS screen is missing or read only
Squarespace can only edit records for domains registered with them, or connected through Nameserver Connect. If yours came from somewhere else, the records live with that other company instead. Tell us who it is and we will point you at the right screen.
Why this one is slower
Squarespace sets a four hour TTL by default, so a later correction can take longer to show up than at other providers. Getting it right first time saves a wait.
If you already have a website at this address
Add the records at a quiet time of day. While the change spreads, some visitors reach your old site and some reach the new one, and both work. There is also a short window while your security certificate is issued when the address may not load properly, which is why the evening beats mid-morning. Your dashboard tells you when it is finished.
When you are done
That is your part finished. We watch for the change and handle the rest: the secure padlock, making sure search engines see the right address, and email from your own domain.
Your dashboard shows the progress and tells you the moment it is complete. You do not need to keep the page open, and you do not need to check anything at Squarespace again.