Website Archiving and Digital Preservation Services

Websites change constantly. Content is rewritten, products are removed, research programmes end and software dependencies become obsolete. If your only record of a site is the latest version on the live server, important historical information may already have vanished.

TwoSquares helps businesses, publishers and project teams plan and carry out practical website archiving. The aim is to capture what matters, record where it came from and make recovery or future reference more reliable. A good archive is an organised record, not simply a folder of screenshots or an untested backup.

When website archiving is useful

A business preparing for a rebrand may need to keep a permanent record of previous service pages, terms, brand assets and customer-facing information. A publication may need a searchable inventory of its article URLs. An organisation closing a grant-funded project may want researchers to continue finding its outputs. An open-source community may be concerned about disappearing release notes or legacy documentation.

These situations share an issue: once the original system is gone, recovery is more uncertain and more expensive than preservation performed in advance.

What our archiving work can cover

Website and URL inventory

We identify important pages, subdomains, files, redirects and publication paths. A URL inventory captures both human-readable pages and assets other people may cite directly, including PDFs, presentations, technical documentation and downloadable packages.

Content and asset capture

Depending on access, ownership and technical suitability, the capture may include exported CMS content, raw files, database backups, structured data, static page snapshots or web archive files. Authenticated services and dynamic content may need special treatment. We record exclusions and known capture gaps.

Provenance and integrity records

An archive should identify the collection date, source location, original path and any subsequent transformations. Checksums can help verify file integrity. Where historical documents are involved, rights information and distinctions between originals and newly authored material are essential.

Search and reference continuity

If a site is moving or closing, we identify which public URLs deserve permanent, relevant successors. Some documents should retain stable file addresses; others may need bibliographic landing pages. Unrelated redirects are not an appropriate replacement for missing material. See our website migration and SEO recovery service.

Recovery instructions

We document the practical steps required to retrieve an archived copy and identify the systems or accounts needed to rebuild the website. When possible, a sample restore should be tested. An archive that nobody can open is a liability, not a safeguard.

What website archiving cannot do by itself

A public web capture will not necessarily preserve account data, transactions, payment records, custom APIs or private databases. It may miss interactive interfaces and externally hosted assets. It also does not establish permission to republish third-party material.

For websites that have already disappeared, start with website restoration. That work establishes what can still be recovered before deciding how a stable successor should be published.

A sensible website preservation policy

Every organisation should know:

What is essential? Identify core content, business records, research outputs, media and dependencies.
Who owns each asset? Record domain registration, code, image licences, data rights and publication responsibilities.
How is material captured? Specify which exports, backups or crawl methods are used.
Where are copies kept? Avoid a single point of failure and understand provider access and retention terms.
How is integrity checked? Maintain a log of verification and recovery tests.
How long should it remain accessible? Set retention and public access rules that fit legal and organisational obligations.

This policy can be lightweight for a brochure website and more detailed for a research archive. The important thing is that it can be followed and tested.

Our perspective: preservation is part of good web development

A website is often judged by what launches today. We think it should also be judged by what can be retrieved tomorrow. Maintainable URLs, portable content, sensible ownership, backups, accessible documentation and transparent handover make a site more resilient.

Our digital preservation editorial hub explains the underlying principles and links to recognised sources, including the Community-Owned digital Preservation Tool Registry. For a concrete discussion of historic software documentation, read the GNU Telephony preservation project record.

Frequently asked questions

Is a website archive the same as a normal backup?

No. A backup aims to restore a system; an archive aims to preserve content and context for future reference. Some projects need both.

Can you archive a site we don't own?

Publicly accessible material can sometimes be captured for legitimate research or recordkeeping, but access, reuse and redistribution remain subject to applicable law and rights. We assess scope and permissions before any publication or rehosting.

Can archived pages remain indexed by search engines?

Potentially, if they are published as useful, accessible pages with accurate canonical URLs and appropriate rights. Search indexing should be intentional; private backups do not belong in public search results.

Plan your website archive

Contact TwoSquares with your domain, the reason for preservation and any forthcoming migration or closure date. We can discuss the appropriate level of capture and the documents needed for a responsible handover.