Help! I can’t poInt/redirect my Squarespace domain! 🥺
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Hello,
Squarespace renewed my domain purchase today, but I’ve been having issues with the site itself. For six years I had the url redirect to my WordPress site but now it states…
“ This site can’t be reached
server IP address could not be found.
Try:
Checking the connection
ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED”Squarespace states…
“ I was able to review your domain further, and I can see that it is actually using WordPress nameservers, instead of the Squarespace nameservers. This means that your DNS records are in fact already hosted through WordPress. See screenshot for reference:
You can learn more about nameservers here:
Making changes to nameservers
In this case, your domain is already set up to point to WordPress by using their nameservers, but you’ll need to check with their support team to ensure that the proper DNS records are actually in place on their end.
I recommend contacting their team and providing this information so they can assisst promptly.
No other changes are required via Squarespace, unless you decide to reset everything back to default.”
And so I chatted with the WordPress bot and it said I needed a paid plan to fix this, in essence? But when I explained the issue of me having had this pointing/site redirection for almost a decade, it then said that that shouldn’t be the case re: me switching to a paid plan.
Please help me rectify this. I greatly appreciate any help anyone has on this really frustrating situation.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Help! I can’t poInt/redirect my Squarespace domain!
I checked the website, and it is on WP.com, I suggest try these steps once.
Your Squarespace domain is using WordPress.com nameservers (ns1.wordpress.com, ns2.wordpress.com, ns3.wordpress.com), which means all DNS management, including site redirection, must be done from your WordPress.com dashboard, not Squarespace.
The “ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED” error is happening because your domain is pointing to WordPress.com, but either:
- The DNS records on WordPress.com are missing or not set up correctly.
- Your site plan or domain mapping on WordPress.com may have expired, disabling the connection.
Here’s how to fix this:
- Log in to WordPress.com.
- Go to Upgrades → Domains or Domains in your site dashboard.
- Click your custom domain (blackmarketwit.com) and check the DNS records.
- Make sure your paid plan (or domain connection upgrade) is active, expired plans will break the redirect.
- If records are missing, you may need to reconnect your domain using WordPress.com’s Connect a Domain guide: WordPress.com support guide.
- Changes can take up to 72 hours to go live.
If your current plan does not allow DNS management, you may need to upgrade to at least a paid plan to get full DNS settings.
Once your DNS records are correctly set and the plan is active, your domain will work again, and you should not need to change anything at Squarespace.
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thanks for the swift reply!
this is all that’s listed under domains, alas.
“Primary site address
Your site plan doesn’t allow to set a custom domain as a primary site address. Upgrade your plan and get a free one-year domain registration or transfer with any annual paid plan. Learn more.
Primary site address
blackmarketwit.wordpress.com
Email-
Expires / renews on
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Status
Active”
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You can’t use the wordpress.com nameservers unless you have a paid plan, you can only redirect your custom domain to your wordpress.com subdomain.
To set your custom domain as your primary address, you must buy a paid plan. To avoid problems in the future, I strongly advice to transfer your custom domain to wordpress.com
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Hey there @blackmarketwit, the bot is correct. In order to have your custom domain registered with Squarespace appear as the primary address on your WordPress.com website requires a paid upgrade plan. There’s no other way to do this. Here’s a guide that explains in detail:
If you own a domain name with Squarespace, you can use that domain with your WordPress.com site. This guide will show you how to connect a Squarespace domain to your WordPress site on WordPress.com. In this guideOverviewStep 1: Add the DomainStep 2: Configure Your DomainUpdate the Name Servers YourselfContact Squarespace SupportStep 3: Wait for the Changes to UpdateStep 4: Set -
Hi @blackmarketwit, as mentioned earlier, to set a custom domain as primary, a paid plan is required. I also couldn’t find any connected domains on your account. Could you please share the domain name you’re referring to so we can assist you better?
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thanks for the quick replies, everyone. Much appreciated!
the squarespace URL is blackmarketwit.com
did they change the requirements in the last few years? Because for many years, I’d always been able to have the URL redirect to the blackmarketwit WordPress site.
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did they change the requirements in the last few years?
No, AFAIK WordPress.com has always required a paid upgrade to connect a custom domain registered elsewhere to a free WordPress.com website.
Any chance you were forwarding your domain instead? That explanation helps understand what it is, but the instructions given are for domains registered here. Squarespace has their own domain forwarding instructions.
Keep in mind that visitors clicking on your custom domain will land on your underlying WordPress.com website URL, and navigating any internal site pages will display the WordPress.com URL, not your custom domain. Staff have previously advised (a long time ago) that domain forwarding can cause issues with some themes and even stats. YMMV
Hope that helps.
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Poking around at the Internet Archive, it looks like you were forwarding your Squarespace domain. Here’s a screenshot from the last crawl in December 2024.
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Hi @blackmarketwit,
As @2020testjj mentioned. It’s possible that you were redirecting your domain instead of having it connected to your WordPress.com website. You’re welcome to contact your registrar for further information on this.
That being said, we would recommend connecting or transferring a domain to use it with your WordPress.com site. We have a support guide with more information on transferring a domain here: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/incoming-domain-transfer/. Along with the support guide on connecting domains: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/connect-existing-domain/.
As previously mentioned, a paid plan would be required to use your domain as the primary site address. You can view the different plan options here: https://wordpress.com/pricing/.
Please let us know if you have any questions on this!
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