085: How to Connect A Parked Domain to Your Squarespace Website

Did you purchase a domain name on Squarespace just so that you could secure it now and use it later when you are ready for a new website? Or you have a website already with a it’s own domain but now you want to direct to it a second domain that you had previously purchased on Squarespace?

In either case, if you have a “parked” domain name, a domain name sitting in your account but not being used anywhere, and want to connect it to a new or existing website, then this blog + step by step video will help you get that done.

Click to Watch Video:

To connect a domain you’ve already purchased, the first thing you might do is go into Settings and Domain and click on “Use a Domain I own”. You might then type in your domain name and click continue. Then you realize, “huh, what’s going on? How do I connect it. All I see are these instructions but now button to click.”

But because you now are watching this video, you will know that you don’t start at the website that you want the domain to go to. Rather you start with the domain that you’ve already purchased with Squarespace.

Step 1 | Go to Your Parked Domain in Your Squarespace Dashboard

So you go to your Home Panel, then click on your avatar on the very bottom and go to your Squarespace dashboard. This is where your website and your domains can be accessed from. Now you see on the upper left corner of the screen, you see the tab called Domains. Click into it and you should see your parked domain.

In my case it’s this domain: millionairewebdesigner.com which is a training program for new Squarespace Web Designers (Update 2023 - this program has been retired. Checkout the latest courses and offerings in the top navigation or drop me a line). Now you see the three dots on the very right of your domain name. Click into it and from the drop-down, select “Manage Domain Settings”. You should then see something like this. Again, this is for a domain name you’ve already purchased from Squarespace and it was just parked until you are ready to use it.

 
Now I see here that the there is a red line next to my domain and it’s tell me that email verification is required. So I know that’s something I will need to take care of and later I will show how to do that. But first I click into it and then scroll down to click on “Move Domain to Another Site”.

Step 2 | Select the Squarespace Site that this Domain Should Connect to

What you will see next all your Squarespace Sites if you have more than one. Now what is left to do is select the site where you want your domain name to connect with. Next, you will see a screen like this one. Where it will ask you to confirm that you want to move your domain to the Squarespace site you just selected. You can double check that it’s the right one by looking at the Name of the Site and the internal url of that site. Next click confirm.

You will see this notification that your domain has been moved.

Step 3 | Make It A Primary Domain

Next, click into the domain name here and select “make primary domain”. You wouldn’t do this if you have another domain as a primary domain obviously. But in my case this is the only domain connected to my site and I want to make it primary - the main domain name for my site. And you can also check the Lock Domain circle here so this domain cannot be transferred unless you want that in the future and then you can uncheck it.

If you want to look at the Advanced Setting, you can click here but you don’t have to do anything here. And if you want to look at the Registration Information to make sure everything looks correct, you can do that as well.

Step 4 | Verify Your Email

And finally, I see that there’s a red line next to the domain and it is informing me that an email verification is required. So just click into that now. And click resend verification email. I then go to my email and see this message has come in. All I need to do is click “Verify Now”. And return to account dashboard.

Now I am quickly going into incognito to check if the domain is loading correctly. And yes, it does. As soon as I purchase a plan and publish the site, it will no longer say Private Site. And that all you’ve got to do.

I hope this was helpful and easy to follow!

You have a dream to build your web design business. You can make it happen.

Peace,
Sophia