Troubleshooting link issues

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Troubleshooting link issues

Last updated August 03, 2025 14:56

Most issues with links on Squarespace sites happen when there are errors with the linked URL. You can resolve many of these errors with the steps in this guide.

To learn about the different ways you can add links, visit Adding links to your site.

Here are some issues you may experience with links on your site. Use the steps below to resolve them.

If clicking a link or button leads to a login page, this means the link is leading to the editing area for your site. This usually happens when you used a URL that appears in a browser address bar when editing a page on your site. These links don't work for visitors. This URL looks like this:

https://example.squarespace.com/config#/pages/blog

Visitors, or anyone who isn't logged into your site, will be brought to a login screen when they click this link because the URL has the “/config#/” slug, which only displays to you when you're editing.

To resolve this issue, follow the steps below.

If you click a link containing your built-in domain, the logged-in version of your site might appear for you. This happens when you’re already logged into your Squarespace account on the same browser. The browser recognizes that you’re still logged in, and will redirect you to the editing side of your site.

If visitors access your site from your built-in URL, the logged-in version won't appear for them. Instead, the public version of your site will appear with your built-in URL in the browser bar. If you have a custom domain, you can prevent visitors from using your built-in domain by hiding it from search engines.

A link leads to a “Page not found” or 404 error

If a URL has changed or contains a typo, links pointing to this broken URL may redirect visitors to a 404 error page. Revisit the links on your site and use the steps below to fix the issue.

While we recommend manually updating all outdated links, you can also set up URL redirects to point visitors to new pages.

All Squarespace sites include a built-in domain, like example.squarespace.com. If a link directs to this URL, rather than your primary domain, reset this link by reselecting the page under URL in the link editor. Additionally, ensure that the domain you want to show in the browser address bar is set as your primary domain.

Note that your built-in domain will always display to you when you're editing your site as a security measure.

Links to imported content don't work

If you imported content containing links from another host, like WordPress or Blogger, there's a chance the older link structure doesn't match Squarespace's. You can resolve this by resetting older links with the new pages on your site. Search for the corresponding pages on your site in the link editor rather than manually creating the URLs.

You can also set up URL redirects to point visitors to new pages.

A web address link connects to URLs outside of your site. You can resolve issues in these links by following these steps:

  1. Visit the page you want to link to and copy the URL from your browser's address bar.
  2. Paste the URL in a Private or Incognito browser window to test it.
  3. Log into your site, go to the area containing the link, and open the link editor. This could be a clickthrough URL, button block, navigation link, cover page action, or text link.
  4. Paste the copied URL into the URL field and press Enter.
  5. In a private or incognito window, visit the page on your site with the link. Click the link to confirm it works correctly.

Fix broken site content links

A site content link connects to other pages on your Squarespace site. You can set these up in the URL field of the link editor by searching for the specific page or product on your site. You can troubleshoot issues using these steps:

  1. Log into your site, go to the area containing the link, and open the link editor. This could be a clickthrough URL, button block, navigation link, cover page action, or text link.
  2. Click the URL tab. Type in the page title or URL slug of the page or product you want to link. To link to other types of individual collection items, such as a blog post, use the complete URL as in the steps in the previous section.
  3. In a private or incognito window, visit the page on your site with the link. Click the link to confirm it works correctly.

A category or tag link connects to a specific set of collection items sharing the same category or tag. We recommend using our built-in method of adding a category or tag link to prevent issues, but if you set up your links manually, keep in mind that categories and tags are case-sensitive.

For example, if you add the category “Recipe” to some of your blog posts, but your category link ends in /recipe, it won't work. Instead, your category link will end in /Recipe to match your category's styling.

An anchor link, or “page jump,” is a special kind of link that directs visitors to specific areas on a page. Visit our guide on built-in anchor links for best practices and troubleshooting. If your site is on version 7.0, visit our guide on manually adding anchor links.

Fix broken QR codes

Quick Response codes (QR codes) are scannable barcodes that direct people to pages on your website. You can create a QR code for any layout page on your site. Because QR codes are static, they will break if you update the linked page slug after you generate the QR code. To resolve the issue, you can revert the URL slug to the original version linked to the QR code, create URL redirects to send visitors to the right place, or update the QR code and replace your existing marketing materials.

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Troubleshooting link issues