Skip to content

Verify your Squarespace mailing list before you send

Integration Forms and websites

Squarespace email verification in three steps: export a mailing list, verify the file in PricklyMails, then remove the addresses that cannot receive mail.

There is no native Squarespace connector: you export the list, PricklyMails verifies it, and you bring the result back into Squarespace. New addresses can go through the API before they ever reach Squarespace.

Verify for free

Step by step

Clean your list in three steps

  1. In Squarespace

    Export a mailing list from Squarespace

    1. In the Contacts panel, open Lists & Segments.
    2. Click ... next to the mailing list you want to verify, then click Export.
    3. Unzip the downloaded file: it holds three .csv files, for the subscribed, unsubscribed and cleaned users.
    4. Keep the file of subscribed users: the other two hold addresses already removed from your mailing lists.

    Tip

    To verify all your subscribers at once, whatever mailing list they are on, export the Subscribers smart segment the same way: it also holds the people who signed up without a mailing list selected, and comes out as a single .csv file.

    Tip

    PricklyMails only needs the addresses: if the file holds other columns, keep the email column alone in a spreadsheet before moving on.

    SourceSquarespace's official help center
  2. In PricklyMails

    Verify the file in PricklyMails

    1. In the dashboard, open Batches and click New batch.
    2. Drop the file you exported from Squarespace: a .csv or .txt with one address per line, no header row and no quotes. A header row would count as an address in the estimate, though it is never billed, and a quoted address would not be verified: the report lists both as malformed. You can also paste the list.
    3. The dashboard counts the addresses and shows the estimated cost in tokens before anything is sent, then you click Submit batch. A batch holds at least 20 addresses, and your plan sets the largest list it can hold.
    4. The list is verified in the background. Once the batch is done, open it and click Download report: you get a CSV with a row for each address of your file, giving its verdict, its reason, its score and its recommendation, with the dashboard's labels.

    Note

    Download the report from the browser that sent the list: that browser is what keeps the addresses, for the 16 most recent batches at most. Our servers, in Germany, only keep a one-way fingerprint of each one.
    What the report says

    Every address gets a recommendation: the action to take. The report writes it with the dashboard's label; the API returns a short form of it.

    Send
    The address is valid, or hosted by a large provider that accepts every address without confirming any. Send as usual.
    Review
    A domain that accepts any address (catch-all), a generic address such as contact@, a full mailbox, or a server that never answered, or refused to. Take a look before you send.
    Remove
    The address does not exist, its domain cannot receive mail, or it is disposable, mistyped or malformed. Take it out.

    Note

    A malformed address is never verified: the batch counts it under "Malformed addresses", and the report still lists it, with the verdict "Invalid", the reason "Malformed address" and the recommendation "Remove", so you take it out of Squarespace with the others. A duplicate, counted under "Duplicates removed", appears only once.

    Behind each recommendation sit a verdict (Valid, Risky, Invalid or Not verifiable), a reason and a score from 0 to 100, each in its own column of the report. When a server never answers, the address comes back "Not verifiable" and the checks that got no answer are refunded.

  3. In Squarespace

    Bring the result back into Squarespace

    Open the report in a spreadsheet and filter the Recommendation column.

    Remove

    They come off the mailing list, so your next campaign to it no longer reaches them.

    Squarespace cleans an address from your mailing lists itself once it hard bounces; removing yours ahead of time spares you the bounce.

    1. Open the Lists & Segments panel and click the mailing list.
    2. Type an address to remove in the search field.
    3. Select its contact.
    4. Click Remove from list, then click Remove.
    5. Repeat from the search field for each address to remove.
    Review

    They deserve a look before your next campaign. To gather them, find each one with the search of the Contacts panel, select it and click Add tag: enter a tag such as review, click Add new tag the first time, then Update. The Tags filter, under Filters, then lists them all.

    Send

    They stay on your mailing list: nothing to do.

    Warning

    An address you remove yourself comes back if you import a .csv file that holds it into the list again: take the addresses to remove out of any file before you import it.

    Tip

    An address on several mailing lists? Removing it from one leaves it on the others. Opt it out of email marketing instead, from the Subscribers smart segment: Squarespace sends marketing only to the contacts who consented.

    SourceSquarespace's official help center

Verify each address before it reaches Squarespace

Does your signup form or backend add contacts to Squarespace through its Contacts API, with the Create contact (opens in a new tab) call? Ask PricklyMails first. If the recommendation is remove, don't create the contact.

One call starts the verification and already flags a likely typo, a second one reads the verdict. Depending on your plan, a signed webhook can also send it to you as soon as it's ready.

Request
curl -s https://api.pricklymails.com/api/verify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_9f3a..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "email": "ana.silva@gmail.con" }' \
  | jq '{job_uuid, suggestion}'
Response
{
  "job_uuid": "8f1c2a9e-4b7d-4e2a-9c61-3d5f0b7a2e18",
  "suggestion": "ana.silva@gmail.com"
}
Request
curl -s https://api.pricklymails.com/api/verify/$JOB_UUID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_9f3a..." \
  | jq '.verifications[0] | {status, reason, score, recommendation}'
Response
{
  "status": "invalid",
  "reason": "no_mx_records",
  "score": 0,
  "recommendation": "remove"
}
Read the API docs

Frequently asked questions

Squarespace already cleans bounced addresses, so why verify first?

Squarespace removes an address from your mailing lists once it hard bounces, which its help describes as an email sent to an address with no inbox behind it: by then your campaign has already gone to it. Its help also reads a low delivered rate, the share of addresses that received a campaign, as a sign that the list held fake addresses. Verifying before you send takes out the addresses that cannot receive mail before they bounce.

SourceSquarespace's official help center

Why does Squarespace refuse to import my mailing list?

When an import ends on an Upload Failed message, Squarespace's help says the list holds addresses that may cause high bounce rates and spam reports, and its support can't troubleshoot the contents of a mailing list: you clean it yourself. Its best practices describe a healthy list as one without invalid, incorrectly formatted or fake addresses, ask you to remove the unsubscribed and cleaned addresses of your previous provider before the import, and suggest a list cleaning service for a large list that isn't performing well. Verification does not replace consent: Squarespace asks you to add only people who opted in.

SourceSquarespace's official help center

Should I remove, opt out or delete the addresses to remove?

It depends on how far they should go. Removing a subscriber from a mailing list only takes it off that list: it stays on your other lists and in the Contacts panel. Opting a contact out of email marketing, from the Subscribers smart segment, takes away its consent, and Squarespace sends marketing only to contacts who consented. Deleting a contact cannot be undone: its orders turn anonymous, an unpaid invoice of its own is canceled, and its customer account and product reviews are deleted. A contact with an active subscription cannot be deleted, and the Contacts panel deletes up to 1,000 contacts at once.

SourceSquarespace's official help center

Should I verify a mailing list or all my Squarespace contacts?

Verify what your next campaign goes to: you pick one or more mailing lists in the Email tab of a campaign draft, and Squarespace sends marketing only to contacts who consented. The Contacts panel holds more: your customers, donors and members, the clients you invoiced or who booked an appointment, and the form submitters who did not accept marketing. To verify them all the same way, click ... at the top right of the Contacts panel, then Export all contacts, then Confirm.

SourceSquarespace's official help center

Does PricklyMails connect to Squarespace directly?

No, there is no native connector: you go through a file export, as above. You can also call the PricklyMails API from your own code before an address reaches Squarespace.

These trademarks belong to their respective owners. Naming them implies no partnership.

Check your list before your next send.

1,000 tokens free when you sign up, no credit card. After that, you only pay for answers.

Verify for free See pricing