Password Protection for Square Online Sites
Note: Using password protection requires an upgrade on your Square Online site.
The pages on your Square Online site are public by default, so anyone browsing the internet can find and view them. If you wish to make all or part of your website private, you can place your webpages behind a password to limit access.
For information on adding pages to your Square Online site first, learn more about how to create pages and navigation.
Note: Password protection is only available for standard pages, but you can use password protection to selectively hide items on your website to sell them exclusively. Learn more about selling hidden items with Square Online.
Enable and Disable Password Protection for Your Entire Site
To password-protect your entire site:
From your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Site Preferences.
Under Password Protection, select Change password protection and choose Password-protect entire site.
Select Save when finished.
Publish your site from the Square Dashboard to see the changes live.
To disable the password, you can turn it off by making All pages visible to public and republishing your site.
Enable and Disable Password Protection for Specific Pages
To password-protect only specific pages:
From your Square Dashboard, open the page you want to password-protect.
Select the gear icon in the editing panel to View page settings.
In the General tab of the “Page settings” pop-up window, select the drop-down menu and choose Password-protected – page level.
Publish your site to see the changes live.
If you haven’t already set up a password, use the link here to do so in your Square Online Overview page. Visitors who attempt to view these pages will be prompted to enter the password that you created.
If you want to disable password protection for a page, use the steps above and select the Visible to public option in the drop-down menu, then republish your site.
Change Your Password
To change the password for the password-protected site or pages:
From your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Site Preferences.
Under Password Protection, select Reset password to change the password.
Select Save when finished.
Publish your site from the Square Dashboard to see the changes live.
Live Experience
When your password is entered on your live website, a visitor can freely browse the password-protected areas. Only when the browser window is completely closed and reopened will the password be required again.
File and Image Content
While you’re able to have both public and private areas within your website, uploaded files and images aren’t password protected (even if they’re uploaded to a password-protected page). Password protection is useful for restricting access to the text embedded onto a webpage, but not any uploaded files or images. A visitor with the direct link to the file or image would still be able to view it.
Alternatives
Rather than password-protecting your website or pages to limit access, you can always unpublish your website to take it down.
Additionally, you can un-index your site or pages so they no longer appear in search engine results. Learn more about how to optimize your website pages for more information on un-indexing your site.