Setup guide

Squarespace, including old Google Domains

If you bought your domain from Google Domains, it lives at Squarespace now. Google sold that whole business in 2023 and every registration moved across. So this is your page even if you have never touched Squarespace in your life. Here is how to give me the access I need to put your site live, without giving me your login.

Takes about five minutes.

First, which kind of Squarespace domain do you have?

There are two setups and they need different instructions. Sign in at account.squarespace.com/domains and click your domain name.

If you see a panel called Permissions with a button that says Invite domain manager, you are on Path A. Most people are, including nearly everyone who came over from Google Domains.
If clicking Permissions sends you into a Squarespace website's contributor settings instead, your domain is tied to a Squarespace site. That is Path B, further down.

Path A: invite me as a domain manager

Sign in to your domains dashboard
Go to account.squarespace.com/domains. Google Domains people: Continue with Google, using the address you used at Google.
Click your domain, then click Permissions
The panel opens on the side of the screen. It shows who currently has access to the domain, which right now is just you.
Squarespace, your domain
Domainsyourbusiness.comPermissions
DNS
Permissions
Your side panel lists a few more items than this. Permissions is the one you want.
Click Invite domain manager
Permissions
Domainsyourbusiness.comPermissions
You, Domain owner
Invite domain manager
You stay Domain owner. Inviting me does not change that.
Enter my name and email, then send it
Name: LocalCraft Digital. Email: jake@localcraftdigital.com. That exact address, please. It is the one my Squarespace account sits on, and an invite sent anywhere else will land in a mailbox I cannot open.
I accept the invitation, and then it is live
I get an email with the subject Domain Manager Invitation from plus your name, and I click Accept invitation. Nothing is active until I click it, so if I go quiet for a day, that is the step that has not happened yet. Poke me.
You do not need to set anything up for me. If I need a Squarespace account, I make a free one at that point. It costs you nothing and it does not touch your billing.
I add two records, then we wait for the internet to catch up
I add one A record and one CNAME and I change nothing else. Squarespace says DNS changes take 24 to 48 hours to work everywhere. It is usually much faster than that, but I would rather you knew the real number than texted me at hour three.

What domain manager actually lets me do

Squarespace has one delegated role for a domain, not a menu of them. Domain manager is the narrowest thing that exists here, and I would rather you hear the full shape of it from me than find it later.

It lets me change domain settings and DNS records. That is the part I actually need.

It also lets me transfer the domain away from your account, and add other domain managers. I do not need either one and I will not use them. There is no switch to turn them off. Squarespace does not offer a DNS-only role, so this is the smallest key on the ring.

It does not let me touch your billing, change auto renew, delete the domain, or get into a Google Workspace account attached to the domain.

You stay the domain owner throughout, and you can take my access back in one click without asking me: same Permissions panel, the dots menu next to my name, then Remove domain manager. If it makes you more comfortable, remove me the day the site goes live. The records stay where they are.

Path B: your domain is attached to a Squarespace website

If your domain shares billing with a Squarespace site, the domain manager invite is not offered. Squarespace sends you to the website's Permissions & Ownership screen and the Invite Contributor button instead.

If you would rather do it yourself

Completely fine, and on Squarespace it is genuinely low risk. You are adding two records. You are not deleting anything.

Before you change anything, photograph the list
Open your DNS records and take a screenshot of the whole list, scrolling if you need two. Pay special attention to any row whose type is MX. Those rows are your email. Squarespace says it in their own help docs: do not delete MX records, deleting them could interfere with your email service.
If anything ever looks wrong later, that screenshot is how we put it back in five minutes instead of five days.
Open your domain and click DNS
Squarespace will ask for your password, or your two-factor code, a second time even though you are already signed in. That is normal. It does that on every DNS edit.
Add the A record
Type is A, Name is @, and the value goes in the field labelled IP Address. The @ means your bare domain, the version with no www on the front.
Add a record
Domainsyourbusiness.comDNS
Type: A
Name: @
IP Address: the value I send you
Squarespace calls the A record's value field IP Address. On a CNAME the same field is called Data.
Add the CNAME record
Type is CNAME, Name is www, and the value goes in the field labelled Data.
Type Name / Host Value
A @ the IP address I send you
CNAME www the hostname I send you
The two values are different for every site, so I send you yours rather than printing them here. Copy them exactly, including any trailing dot.
Squarespace will not let you put a CNAME on @, which is why the first record has to be an A record. That is expected, not a fault.
Send me a screenshot, then give it time
Screenshot the two new rows and send them over so I can check them before we both start waiting. Squarespace's own stated window for DNS changes is 24 to 48 hours.

Type	Name / Host	Value
A	`@`	the IP address I send you
CNAME	`www`	the hostname I send you

The one change that can take your email down

Do not change your nameservers

Squarespace has a setting that replaces its nameservers with someone else's. Do not use it for this, and do not let anyone talk you into it as a shortcut.

Squarespace's own warning is that it disconnects a linked Google Workspace account from your domain, which means you may not be able to send or receive email. Every record sitting in your Squarespace DNS panel also stops applying, so your MX and DKIM records have to be rebuilt by hand somewhere else. It also wants DNSSEC switched off first, and it can take up to 48 hours.

This one bites Google Domains customers hardest, because so many of you run Google Workspace email on this same domain. I do not need any of it. Two records added in place do the same job with none of the risk. If anyone ever tells you to point your nameservers somewhere, call me first.

If you get stuck

If a screen does not look like the one on this page, or you get two steps in and would rather someone else drove, text or call me on (314) 246-9224 or email hello@localcraftdigital.com. I will get on the phone and we will do it together in about five minutes. This page exists to save you a call, not to refuse one.