Site navigation typically displays at the top of your site, or in a sidebar. (You can adjust where it displays in the Banner & Navigation section of the Style Editor.)
If you don't want a link to display in navigation, there are two options:
- Hide the link - Add a page to a hidden section to remove its link from the navigation. The direct URL for the page will still work.
- Disable a page - Disabling page removes it from the navigation on your live site. A greyed out link will still appear when you're logged in. The direct URL won't work.
Note: For more options for styling your site’s navigation, upgrade your site to Squarespace 7. To learn more about the benefits of upgrading, visit Squarespace 5 vs. newer versions.
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Hide a navigation link
Adding a page to a hidden section removes its link from the navigation. The direct URL for the page will still work, whether or not you're logged in.
From Website Management, click Architecture in the Structure section. Here you can click Hide on any section to hide all links in that section. Or you can create a new, hidden section to hide individual links:
- Below one of the Sidebar areas, click Insert Section.
- Add a title and click Save. The section appears in the sidebar area. In this example, we've given the section the title "hidden nav pages."
- Drag the link or links you want to hide into the new section.
- Click Hide.
Tip: For a similar effect, add pages to sections that don't display in your site layout. For example, if your layout only has one sidebar, sections in Sidebar 2 won't display on your site. The direct URLs for pages you add to Sidebar 2 will still work.
Hide links on specific pages
To display a section of links only on certain pages:
- In the Website Management bar, click Architecture in the Structure section.
- In the top of the section, click Modify.
- Choose Display Only When Specific Pages Are Active or Display Only When Specific Pages Are NOT Active.
- Use the filters that appear to choose which pages your section will appear on.
For more help, visit Editing sidebars.
Disable a page
When you create a new page, it's automatically set to Disabled. This enables you to keep a page hidden until you're ready for others to see it.
- Disabled pages are invisible to the public.
- The direct URL for a disabled page doesn't work on your live site, and its link doesn't display in the navigation.
- When you're logged in, you can see the page content and navigation link, even in Preview mode.
- Site members can't see disabled pages, even when they're logged in.
To disable a page:
- Enter Structure mode or go to your site's Architecture area.
- Hover over the navigation link and click Disable.
To enable a page, follow the same steps and click Enable.
Note: Because the direct URL won't work for disabled pages, it's not a good idea to disable a login page. Instead, hide the login page using the method above.
If visitors try to access the direct URL for a disabled page, they'll see an error message.
Hide pages from search engines
Disable a page or set a password to prevent it from being indexed by search engines.
You can also disable indexing and archiving for your whole site in Website Settings:
- Log into your site and open the Website Management bar.
- Click Website Settings under Structure, and go to the Search/Indexing tab.
- Uncheck Allow External Search Engines to Index Site and Allow External Search Engines to Archive Site.
Note: If search engines indexed your site prior to adding a password, or prior to disabling indexing and archiving, your site will appear in search results until it's indexed again.
If Google is still finding your content after trying these steps, request a reindex by verifying your site with Google Search Console.
Add a password
If your Squarespace 5 site is on the Unlimited billing plan, you can set passwords to hide the content of a page without hiding its link. To learn more, visit Password-protecting pages.