What Really Happens When Your Squarespace Website Expires (And How to Protect Your Content)
Letting your Squarespace website lapse might seem harmless—but it can have real consequences for your content, your audience, and even your future search visibility. If you’re managing a time-limited project or a site with fluctuating funding, this guide will help you make smart decisions that protect your work and minimise disruption.
Case Study: VERP, a Time-Limited Research Project
VERP was a research project designed for a small, invitation-only audience. It needed to function brilliantly while the project was active, and also host secure GDPR-compliant data collection, plus video and audio files.
When the 2024/25 project closed and funding ended, we had to decide: What happens to a website when you no longer need it every day, but don’t want it to disappear?
This checklist is for you if you’re in a similar position.
When a Squarespace Subscription Expires
Your website will eventually become inaccessible. Anyone visiting your URL will see a “Site Not Found”message which is never great for user trust or search engine performance.
Squarespace holds your site for around 30 days. During this time:
Visitors can’t see your content
You can still log in
You can safely renew without losing anything
After the grace period, Squarespace can permanently delete your site and its contents.
Squarespace emails expiry notices to the address on your account, so do make sure it’s up to date on your records.
If You Don’t Want Your Site Deleted
Renew your subscription. This instantly restores your site. You can also switch to a cheaper Personal plan (just note that some features won’t be available).
Back up your content. If you don’t plan to renew, export everything you can:
Pages
Blog posts
Text and images
Some elements—like product pages—must be saved manually, so don’t leave this until the last minute.
Hello Lovely Design and Co has tools to speedily export content, get in touch to find out more.
If You Don’t Renew Within the Grace Period
Your website and content may be permanently deleted
Your Squarespace account becomes limited
You could lose all site data, including images, files, and custom code
Additional Things to Watch Out For
Your domain name. If your domain is registered through Squarespace and you don’t renew it separately, you could lose it. Once it’s released, someone else can buy it.
Connected services. Integrations like Google Workspace, email campaigns, and scheduling tools may stop working.
SEO impact. If your site is offline for an extended period, your search rankings can drop—meaning you’ll have to work harder to regain traffic later.
Hello Lovely Design & Co Recommends…
Track your renewal dates for both the website and domain
Keep your account email updated so you never miss important notices
Consider annual billing if monthly payments become overwhelming. Hello Lovely Design & Co clients receive around 20% off the annual plan
If you have questions—or need help deciding what to do with your own site, I’m here to help.
