Squarespace from Signup to Launch E-Book

Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 387

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

You've heard about Squarespace; maybe you've even started a trial site, but you haven't gotten around to actually launching it yet. It looks simple enough and feels like it should be easy, so why is it such a challenge? Author and Squarespace expert Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling is here to help.
Squarespace from Signup to Launch a comprehensive guide to customizing the most design-focused and user-friendly website builder in the no-code world. More than a technical manual, the book will help you prepare to build a website, explain the foundational knowledge behind Squarespace 7.1 and Fluid Engine, and introduce you to a professional designer's mindset. Readers will learn how to build forms, use content blocks, optimize websites for mobile, build an online store, and become comfortable with Squarespace's built-in SEO, marketing, and analytics tools.
Learn from Squarespace experts Christy Price, Will Myers, David Iskander, Kristine Neil, Kathryn Joachim, Beatriz Caraballo, Justin Mabee, Shelly Price and more, with professional insights and resources in each chapter.
By the end of the book, you will have gained the confidence needed to build professional Squarespace websites with the developer's technical knowledge, project organization, and design intuition. You won’t just launch your site; you’ll be proud to share it with the world.

Leseprobe

Squarespace from Signup to Launch

Build, customize, and launch robust and user-friendly Squarespace websites with a no-code approach

Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Squarespace from Signup to Launch

Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

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Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Group Product Manager: Alok Dhuri

Publishing Product Manager: Himani Dewan

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First published: July 2023

Production reference: 1140723

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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B3 1R.

ISBN 978-1-80181-308-2

www.packtpub.com

To Zack and Jasper - you will always be loved and adored.

Foreword

I have had the pleasure of being both a friend and a business partner to Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling for the past 12 years. To say that Kelsey is an expert in Squarespace development is an understatement – she has been building on the platform for well over a decade. This is an impressive tenure considering the company was founded in 2003 and didn’t bring their products to the masses until later.

This book will take you on a journey from the conception of your website all the way through the launch on the Squarespace 7.1 platform. It’s a significant undertaking, but with Kelsey guiding you every step of the way, you’re in great hands. With her delightful tone and knack for instructing (Kelsey has been an instructor of multiple online courses such as Skillshare and SuperHi), you’ll breeze through even the most technical aspects of web design. Squarespace from Signup to Launch sets you up for success by starting with a foundational framework. It then shares a tried-and-true method to help you prepare and collect the items you’ll need to complete your website (she would know, as she helped develop the process for it at our company, Week of the Website).

In Sign Up to Launch, you’ll learn how to organize your website copy and prepare assets for design. With decision-making charts and visual examples, you will be well supported on your way, regardless of your learning style or problem-solving approach. Kelsey presents the honest truths and limitations you may encounter, but quickly provides guidance on the best next steps to take. Moreover, you’ll learn the technical skills required to successfully build and launch your site, get tips on creating a cohesive design throughout, and discover the best ways to optimize your site for launch.

Squarespace From Signup to Launch gives you access to a Squarespace expert—a web designer and developer who has built hundreds of websites—and someone who genuinely cares about setting people up for success. Kelsey has thoughtfully crafted this book as a love letter to her fellow developers and the Squarespace community, both of which you’ll soon be a part of.

This is the only comprehensive guide you need to support you on your way to realizing your website dreams and empowering your digital presence well into the future. So dive in and become the next great Squarespace website designer!

Mallory Ulaszek

Co-Founder, Week of the Website

Contributors

About the author

Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling is the co-founder of Week of the Website. Created in 2014 with Mallory Ulaszek, Week of the Website has reimagined the web design process to be transparent, creative, and joyful. Founded with solo innovators and small businesses in mind, the agency has evolved to bring high-touch efficiency to large scale projects and ambitious creatives alike. The former clients include driven entrepreneurs, best-selling authors, notable artists, non-profit organizations.

Kelsey is the co-host of the No Surprises podcast and creator of Better than Launched: Advanced Squarespace Tools, a course built in partnership with SuperHi. She has led panel discussions for Squarespace, General Assembly, and Apple. Kelsey lives in Chicago with her husband and son.

This book was made possible by the generosity of my wildly supportive community. Shelly, Justin, Alex, Molly and Jules- thank you for helping me feel confident in my words and ideas. My Squarespace community- thank you for sharing your expertise. Nithya, Deeksha, Akshay, Rohit and Harshal- thank you for all of your hard work. And of course, Mayank- thank you for finding me!

Most of all - Zack, Mallory, Chelsea, Tracey, John, Susan, Randy and our whole Gilbert-Kreiling family – thank you for helping me write this book and find myself again. I love you, always.

About the reviewers

Justin Mabee is a Squarespace designer, Expert, Authorized Trainer, and web designer. Having worked in Squarespace for over a decade, Justin brings a level of sophistication to every site he works on, whether a basic landing page or a membership site with several pages. His designs have helped businesses increase their online presence, attract customers to their services, and increase revenue exponentially. Justin’s work and his clients meet at the intersection of elevated design and consumer-friendly functionality. Justin provides full custom website design services, light graphic design, basic SEO, and third-party platform experience to give his clients the full package.

Shelly Morse is a versatile and innovative creative professional, specializing in web design and brand development. She holds a degree in Public Relations and Studio Arts from the University of Miami, where she received formal education that serves as the foundation for her expertise. However, it is her relentless pursuit of finding effective solutions for clients that has honed her skills with platforms like Squarespace. Shelly’s professional journey includes collaborations with numerous agencies and freelance clients, and since 2021, she has been an integral part of the dynamic Week of the Website team. She takes pride in doing good work for good people.

To the Squarespace experts and gurus who have paved a way for us, and have shared their knowledge to better this community and better other designers - you are the backbone of the Squarespace community and we would be nowhere without your stewardship.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: So, You Want to Build a Website on Squarespace

1

Choosing Your Platform – to Squarespace or Not to Squarespace

The evolution of Squarespace

Squarespace 5

Squarespace 6

Squarespace 7

Understanding Squarespace 7.1 and Fluid Engine’s features

Core features summary

Advanced features summary

Squarespace versus other website builder tools

Wix – the drag and drop competitor

WordPress – the leader in blogging

Shopify – commerce that scales

Webflow – animations and interactions

Comparing the cost of different site builder tools

Squarespace’s most significant weaknesses

So, why use Squarespace?

Professional insight – why do professionals choose Squarespace?

Resource – the Squarespace decision tree

Summary

Questions

Answers

2

Preparing to Build Your Site – Making an Outline and Gathering Your Assets

Technical requirements

Start with your why

The time has come to build an outline

Customer journey brainstorms

The three questions to ask about every page

Writing website copy

Digital assets – what do you need?

Creating your folders

Gathering design inspiration

Developing a color palette

Logo and type styles

Photos and video

Graphic design elements

Professional insight – what makes a good outline

Resources – website outline template and digital asset checklist

Digital asset checklist

Must have

Optional

Summary

Questions

Answers

Part 2: Design and Build Your Site

3

Setting Up Your Squarespace Site

Technical requirements

Creating a Squarespace account

Answering onboarding questions

Choosing a template

Previewing templates

Setting up your account

How does a trial work?

Professional insight – purchasing pre-built site templates

Resource – top templates in 2023

Summary

Questions

Answers

4

Getting Started – Creating and Editing Your Site Header

Technical requirements

What is a site header and how does it work?

Accessing your site editor

Adding a logo or site title

Using Pages to create a navigational structure

Creating folders

Styling and designing your navigation

Professional insight – understanding the impact of navigation on SEO – an interview with David Iskander of Launch Happy

Resource – five Squarespace page header examples to inspire your project

AFMKTG

Molly Each

Canvas

Coleague

Summary

Questions

Answers

5

Design Essentials – Color and Typography

Technical requirements

Why font selection and color choice matters

A site style overview

Choosing a typeface and adjusting font settings

Switching font packs and editing the base size

Editing headings, buttons, paragraphs, and miscellaneous

Assign Styles

Setting and editing color themes

Changing the colors in your site’s palette

Customizing your themes

Professional insight – an interview with Kathryn Joachim from Crème Brands

Resource – creating your style guide

Summary

Questions

Answers

6

Building Your First Pages and Sections

Technical requirements

Exploring what Fluid Engine is

Understanding pages and sections

Creating your first pages

Adding pages to your website

Types of pages

Building pages with sections

Building a page from a blank section

Using pre-built section templates

Using auto layouts

Professional insight – making small adjustments to create a big impact with Kathryn Bethard from Crème Brands

Keeping copy under control

Using high-resolution images

Keeping layouts fresh

Resource – populating placeholder content with ChatGPT and Squarespace AI

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

7

Using Content Blocks and Building Forms

Technical requirements

What blocks are and how they work

Opening the block menu and adding a block

Understanding each block option

Basic

Powered by Tock

Business

Filters and lists

Premium

Integrations

Using forms and newsletter signups

Editing content

Styling forms and newsletters

Connecting a source

Professional insight – your top five blocks

Resource – keyboard shortcuts for using blocks

Summary

Questions

Answers

8

Optimizing Your Site for Mobile

Technical requirements

Understanding mobile optimization and responsive design

What is responsive design?

Why optimize for mobile?

Visualizing websites on different screen sizes

Viewing and reviewing your website in mobile view

Device view

Resizing your browser window

Areas to consider when viewing on mobile

How does Squarespace determine the order of content on mobile?

How do I know when to check the mobile layout?

Editing site settings

Mobile header edits

Adding a Mobile Information Bar field

Editing page by page

A detailed breakdown of adjustments

Giving yourself space to work

Checking object spacing

Re-ordering blocks

Focusing on images

Professional insight – reviewing your navigation from a mobile-first perspective with Launch Happy’s David Iskander

Resource – using development tools to the check site experience

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

9

Using Custom Code to Enhance Your Website

Technical requirements

Custom code and Squarespace

Using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript

The world of snippets and plugins

The custom CSS editor

When to use this area

How to access the CSS Editor

Code injection

Adding code to pages

Code blocks

Embed blocks

Markdown

Common issues with custom code

Professional insight – getting curious about custom code with Will Myers

Resource – the best custom code resources and plugins

Online CSS, HTML, and JavaScript resources

Squarespace tutorials and education

Plugins and code snippets

Summary

Questions

Answers

Part 3: Give Your Site Superpowers

10

Commerce – Selling Items, Subscriptions, and Services

Technical requirements

Let’s make some money with commerce

A tour of the selling tools in Squarespace

Storefront

Detail pages

Your commerce dashboard

Cart and checkout

Checkout settings

Notification settings

Adding products to your store

Adding products

Details and images

Adjusting inventory, setting price, and creating variants

Organization – adding categories and subcategories

Other product types

Designing your shopping experience

Designing your storefront

Customizing product detail pages

Making your store live

Professional insight – using Squarespace add-ons with Squarespace commerce expert Kristine Neil

Resource – three add-ons to boost Squarespace commerce

Universal Filter plugin

LiveChat

AfterShip returns

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

11

Blogging – Sharing Your Ideas

Technical requirements

The value and power of blogging

Adding a blog to your website

Editing the format of your blog page

Creating a new blog post

Editing Blog Post Settings

Adding tags and categories

Editing the format of your blog posts

Blogging and search engine optimization

Using Summary Blocks to add blog posts to other areas on your website

Professional insight – making your blog stand out with Christy Price

Resource – adding an archive and a search bar to your blog page

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

12

Member Areas – Selling Your Knowledge and Protecting Your Content

Technical requirements

What is a Member Area?

How to access Member Areas

Setting up your first Member Area

Adding a video page

Adding a Member Area signup block to a sales page

Member Area settings

Adding a Login button to site navigation

Editing notification messages and styles

Managing user accounts

Member Areas pricing

Professional insight – Max Pete on common mistakes when building a community

Resources – member tool comparison chart

Summary

Questions

Answers

13

Scheduling – Selling Your Time and Sharing Your Availability

Technical requirements

What is Acuity Scheduling?

Why use a scheduling tool?

Turning on Acuity Scheduling

Setting up your calendar and availability

Setting hours of availability and calendar limits

Creating appointments

Creating a new type of service

Creating a new type of group class

Adding scheduling to your website

From the Squarespace pages menu

From the Acuity Scheduling menu

Connect to other calendars

Additional functionality

Resource – a scheduler setup checklist

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

Part 4: Launch Your New Website

14

Prepare to Launch Your Site

Technical requirements

Testing time – reviewing your site, page by page

Viewing your site on different devices and screen sizes

Sending it to a friend

Thinking about what’s missing

Adding SEO page descriptions and checking page titles and URL slugs

Page titles

SEO

Social images

Building your footer

Adding a footer

Important content to include in your footer

Copyright

Contact information

Social media links

Call to action

Privacy policy and Terms of Use

Makeing it a bit more special

Adding a browser icon and social sharing image

Adding a browser icon

Adding a social sharing image

Upgrading your site to a paid subscription

Professional insight – preparing for launch day with Christy Price

Resource – launch checklist

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

15

Connecting Your Domain and Making It Live

Technical requirements

You.com – how to choose a domain name

Setting up your domain with Squarespace

Connecting your domain name with other DNS providers

Transferring a domain

Using Nameserver Connect

Using DNS Connect

What happens after you have connected your domain?

SSL certificate setup

Hosting services

Social media debugging

Professional insight – why isn’t my domain connecting? The top seven things to check

Resource – help links for common DNS issues

Summary

Questions

Answers

16

Understanding Analytics and Setting Up SEO

Technical requirements

Analyzing the analytics page

Finding your Squarespace analytics

Key metrics

Cookie banners and data collection options

Other tools that you can use to understand user behavior

Five ways to use analytics to grow your audience

Completing your SEO checklist

Before launching

After launching

Professional insight – SEO expert David Iskander on the top 5 things to do to help your site be found

Resource – best DIY SEO resources list

Tools

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Answers

17

Keep Growing Your Site with Marketing Tools

Technical requirements

Keeping it fresh – how your website stays updated (hint – it’s you!)

Taking a whole-site view

Checking the details

Optimizing for mobile and SEO

When in doubt, duplicate and edit

Looking for new Squarespace updates

Integrating social media

Adding social media icons

Connecting accounts to push content updates

Adding an Instagram feed to your site

Additional content creation tools

Unfold

Bio.Sites

Squarespace Video Studio

Marketing Kit

Email marketing

Creating a mailing list

Creating a Sender Profile

Selecting an Email Template

Automations

Promotional popups and announcement bars

Popups

Announcement bars

Professional insight – using site audits to help clients evolve with Beatriz Caraballo

Resource – website launch marketing worksheet

Summary

Questions

Answers

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Squarespace is an incredible tool designed for users of all technical proficiencies. The objective of Squarespace from Signup to Launch is to teach you how to build websites with the technical knowledge of a developer, along with project organization skills and design intuition.

While there are other books on Squarespace, Squarespace from Signup to Launch focuses specifically on the latest versions of the platform, 7.1 and Fluid Engine. This book provides a comprehensive guide to building a website on the Squarespace platform, encompassing not only the technical steps required for any website creation but also a broader perspective.

As a web designer and agency owner, I am excited to provide you with exclusive access to the resources utilized by actual Squarespace experts. I have gathered insights from professionals who work with the Squarespace platform on a daily basis. Each chapter includes valuable perspectives gained from interviews with designers, developers, marketing specialists, and search engine optimization experts. This way, you can truly learn from the best in the field.

Who this book is for

This book is a hands-on resource for readers interested in building a website on the Squarespace platform, including its newest versions, 7.1 and Fluid Engine. Squarespace is an ideal platform for those who want to use their creative and technical sides. Maybe you’re a brand designer with little or no code experience. Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur who needs a website they can own and use, or you’re a designer versed in other platforms looking to expand your practice. No matter your entry point, this book will offer an understanding of the why and what of Squarespace, and a guide for how to use it.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Choosing Your Platform – to Squarespace or Not to Squarespace: Learn about the creation and evolution of the Squarespace platform, from dorm-room personal project to a 20 year-old platform with millions of users. Evaluate Squarespace’s features and determine if it’s a fit for your project.

Chapter 2, Preparing to Build Your Site – Making an Outline and Gathering Your Assets: Identify your purpose in building a new space online by following a process used by professionals. Then, build an outline with content and digital assets so you’re prepared to build along with the book.

Chapter 3, Setting Up Your Squarespace Site: Get started with building your site by choosing a Squarespace template and creating an account. Explore different template styles and learn how templates work on Squarespace 7.1.

Chapter 4, Getting Started – Creating and Editing Your Site Header: Build your site header and navigation, while learning about the best ways to direct your users to the pages and sections of your website.

Chapter 5, Design Essentials – Color and Typography: Learn how to use the tools to set color and type choices for your site and discover sites you can visit to find inspiration for your own brand.

Chapter 6, Building Your First Pages and Sections: Create your first pages, either by using a predefined page layout or by beginning from a blank page. Learn about section templates and collection pages as you build a dynamic website.

Chapter 7, Using Content Blocks and Building Forms: Become acquainted with the content blocks available in Squarespace including how they’re used and edited. Learn how to build forms to collect user information.

Chapter 8, Optimizing Your Site for Mobile: After creating the design for your site on a desktop or laptop, learn how to make adjustments to your site so it can be viewed optimally on any screen size.

Chapter 9, Using Custom Code to Enhance Your Website: Learn about the ways you can use HTML, CSS, and Javascript to enhance your website and discover how third-party plugins (paid and free) can help power unique features.

Chapter 10, Commerce- Selling Items, Subscriptions, and Services: Build a storefront, configure product pages, and design your shop experience to sell products, subscriptions, and services online.

Chapter 11, Blogging – Sharing Your Ideas: Learn how to create protected content by setting up a member area requiring an email and password.

Chapter 12, Member Areas – Selling Your Knowledge and Protecting Your Content: Set up your schedule and accept paid or free appointments, based off of your preferences and availability.

Chapter 13, Scheduling – Selling Your Time and Sharing Your Availability: Create a blog, learn how to design your blog page, and use archive and search tools to define a more dynamic view of your blog posts.

Chapter 14, Prepare to Launch Your Site: Complete a final audit of your new website and wrap up final details before sharing it with the world.

Chapter 15, Connecting Your Domain and Making It Live: Purchase a domain via Squarespace or connect a domain from a third-party service via DNS connect, Nameservers, or by initiating a domain transfer.

Chapter 16, Understanding Analytics and Setting up SEO: Learn how to analyze your website’s analytics and use site data to increase traffic. Optimize your site for search engine readability and complete an SEO checklist once your site is launched.

Chapter 17, Keep Growing Your Site with Marketing Tools: Once your site is launched, you’ll be able to use Squarespace’s built-in marketing tools, including email campaigns, to grow your audience.

To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book, you will already need a basic understanding of the internet. You’ll have an idea for a project, a desire to learn, a creative or technical background, and an interest in discovering a new tool. You’ll need a computer, a mobile device, and an email address if you plan to build along with the book.

Software/hardware covered in the book

Operating system requirements

Squarespace 7.1

Windows or macOS

Fluid Engine

Companion Site

Additional tutorial videos and a workbook for this book can be viewed at Signuptolaunch.com

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “A minimum of 300px wide, saved as a .jpg, .gif, or .png.”

A block of code is set as follows:

@font-face {     font-family: 'satoshi-regular';     src: url(urlofuploadedfont.woff); }

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

@font-face {     font-family: 'satoshi-regular';     src: url(urlofuploadedfont.woff); }

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Review and manage relationships with your customers, mailing list subscribers, members, and donors on the Profiles panel.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

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Introduction

You’ve probably at least heard the name Squarespace, the easy-to-use website builder. Maybe you’ve even started a trial site, or maybe you have a site ready to go, but haven’t gotten around to actually launching it yet. Using Squarespace seems simple enough, so why does it feel like such a challenge?

Welcome to Squarespace from Signup to Launch, your guide to building and customizing beautiful and useful websites. I’m excited to help you move through that challenge, getting to the joy and excitement of seeing your work live and online.

In this introduction, you will:

Meet your author and guide, Kelsey Gilbert KreilingLearn who should read this bookUnderstand the flow and structure of the book

Hi, I’m Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling

I embarked on my Squarespace journey as a novice, just like you. Fast forward over a decade, and I am now the co-founder of Week of the Website, a Squarespace web design agency that has successfully built and launched over 800 websites. Along the way, I have taught clients how to use the sites we’ve created, nurtured the skills of numerous Squarespace developers, and dragged and dropped so many blocks that it occasionally infiltrates my dreams. Similar to many trial users, I started my Squarespace experience with a fresh template. I entered my email address, set a password, and dove into the process of figuring it all out. My initial website was a simple personal portfolio site that still featured the “Built on Squarespace” link in the footer (but don’t worry, I’ll show you how to remove that).

After my first site, I became captivated by the possibilities that Squarespace offered. Eager to explore further, I offered to build restaurant websites for my then-employer. As my skills expanded, more clients sought my services. Eventually, I left the hospitality industry and co-founded an agency with Mallory Ulaszek. Since 2014, we have been the most beloved and trusted Squarespace agency for ambitious creatives, one Squarespace template at a time.

We have built websites for members of US Presidential administrations venturing into independent endeavors. We have crafted online platforms for Hollywood legends, social media influencers, New York Times bestselling authors, and influential nonprofit organizations. Although each project starts with the same process, our team treats each one as something special. Building a website goes beyond placing text and images on a page; it involves creating a living, breathing representation of your mission, brand, and ideas. Here’s the most important thing to remember as you embark on your Squarespace journey: everything related to websites is learnable.

In the beginning, it may feel challenging, but rest assured that none of the knowledge I have acquired and will share with you comes from a wizard or a secret to me. Like anything else, using Squarespace is a skill that you will develop and refine over time. Squarespace is constantly evolving and expanding as a tool, so it’s inevitable that some of the intricacies of how the product works may change between the writing of this book and the day you read it. However, my goal is to equip you with the theoretical knowledge you need to understand the most crucial aspects of building a site on Squarespace.

Just like any tool, there are common tools like hammers and nails, as well as those obscure little wrenches that you may never use until that one moment when you absolutely need them and can’t seem to find them. Every day, my team discovers new nuances of the platform, innovative approaches they had never considered before, or workarounds they hadn’t explored. While these discoveries can be exciting, for now, let’s set them aside. As you contemplate what you want to achieve with your first site, let’s focus on the fundamentals, which I will strive to explain as clearly and accessibly as possible.

How to use this book

I have designed this guide as a practical tool for those building a website. Each chapter is structured in a way that allows you to open it up to the specific area you are working on and find the resources you need to answer your questions. Recognizing that everyone learns differently, I have included various sections in each chapter to cater to different learning preferences. These sections include Theory, Practical Application, Build-Along Milestones, Professional Insights, and Resources.

Theory

The Theory sections provide an overview of the concept discussed in the chapter, explaining what it is, why it matters, insights from professionals, common challenges, and how to prepare to tackle the topic.

Practical Application

This section focuses on how the topic appears and functions within the Squarespace platform. It takes into account that content management systems evolve and highlights the core ideas of the feature or topic that will remain consistent.

Professional Insights

Learning from experienced professionals who work with the tools within Squarespace every day is invaluable. I have conducted interviews with talented and respected members of the Squarespace development community to gather their perspectives on learning and utilizing Squarespace to create beautiful and functional websites.

Build-Along Milestones

For readers who wish to build a website while reading, each chapter establishes milestones to guide the creation of a sample site. Additionally, this book provides access to a companion website that offers additional tutorials and support.

Resources

Each chapter includes a range of resources, which is a unique feature of this book. These resources, such as tools, advice, and worksheets, are tailored to the lessons covered in the chapter to help you prepare for each concept.

While I have organized the book in a logical sequence, you are not bound to follow it strictly. Chapters may reference knowledge shared earlier in the book, but feel free to skip around if needed or go back and forth based on what makes the most sense for your learning style. I am providing blueprints, but ultimately, this book is your toolbox, and you have the flexibility to use it in a way that suits you best.

Why Include Professional Insights?

I would love to claim that I possess all-encompassing knowledge about every aspect of building on Squarespace. However, the truth is that while I have extensive knowledge and experience, the Squarespace community is vast, highly intelligent, constantly evolving, and always eager to share their expertise. That’s why I have assembled a special group of individuals to contribute their insights. You will find their contributions in each chapter, which you can revisit as you delve deeper into your Squarespace learning journey. These experts include:

Christy Price – Web designer and educatorDavid Iskander-— SEO expert and Owner of Launch HappyWill Myers — Custom code and plugin developerKristine Neil — Ecommerce guruKatherine Joachim — Creative Director of Crème BrandsBeatriz Caraballo — Squarespace Customization Geek

Each of these individuals has dedicated years of work to understanding their respective areas within the Squarespace ecosystem. Most of them started just like you: teaching themselves, absorbing knowledge, and gradually developing their skills.

How to use the resources in this book

The resources compiled in this book will serve as the foundation of your resource library. Similar to numerous tech products built over the past decade, there is a wealth of courses, tools, add-ons, and experts sharing their knowledge about the Squarespace website-building process. Every designer has a folder somewhere—a spreadsheet, Notion document, or a list of bookmarked resources—that helps them work smarter and faster. The resources in this book can be the beginning of your own collection.

Companion site, workbook, and links

To assist you on your journey, I have a few additional tools for further support. First, the companion site! Located at Signuptolaunch.com, this site offers additional tutorials and inspiration. It also includes a downloadable workbook containing all the build-along milestones and resources for each chapter.

Writing a book about an online tool without utilizing links to other online resources is nearly impossible. However, ensuring the functionality of those links over time can be challenging. That’s why I have used a tool called Permanent Link to monitor these links and ensure they remain active, no matter how long after publication you access them.

Lastly, as a Squarespace professional, I have an affiliate relationship with some of the tools I recommend. If you use the links I provide and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. Please be assured that I will only recommend products that I genuinely believe in and use myself.

Summary

So, let’s begin this exciting journey. We will delve into understanding why Squarespace is such a powerful platform and how to harness its potential. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to build websites with the technical knowledge, project organization, and design intuition of a professional Squarespace developer. Your site won’t just be launched; it will be something you can proudly share with the world.

Part 1: So, You Want to Build a Website on Squarespace

There’s no better place to start than the beginning! In Part 1, you will get to know the author (that’s me!). You’ll delve into Squarespace as a platform, explore its comparisons to other tools, and understand how it can support your project. You’ll prepare for website construction by gathering text, images, and other digital assets. Most importantly, you’ll define the purpose of your site and determine what you want your audience to gain from visiting it.

This part has the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Choosing Your Platform – To Squarespace or Not To SquarespaceChapter 2, Preparing to Build Your Site – Making an Outline and Gathering Your Assets

1

Choosing Your Platform – to Squarespace or Not to Squarespace

In my career as an agency owner and website designer, the question I have been asked the most is, “Why Squarespace?” The simplest answer is that the Squarespace platform is flexible enough to be customized by professionals, yet simple enough to be used by beginners. In this chapter, we’ll look at the origins and history of Squarespace, the problems it solves best, the competitors you may be considering, the features that make it most useful, and the limitations that are important to understand.

By the end of this chapter, you will:

Understand the evolution of Squarespace and why it exists todayLearn more about the current tools and features of Squarespace 7.1 and Fluid EngineAssess which platform best fits your projectBecome aware of Squarespace’s most significant limitations and weaknessesGained a better understanding of why professionals choose the platformUse a decision tree to analyze whether Squarespace is a good fit for your project

By the end of this chapter, It's my hope that you'll have a clear understanding of why professionals and individuals alike love using Squarespace. You also should have a clear understanding of whether or not the platform will meet your individual needs.

The evolution of Squarespace

In 2003, Squarespace.com changed hands from a United Kingdom-based pizza shop to a new website, promising “a new way of thinking about website publishing,” and Squarespace as we know it was born. Modern technology has a funny way of being built in unexpected places – garages, second bedrooms, and, in Squarespace’s case, a University of Maryland dorm room. Founder Anthony Casalena was frustrated that he had to use multiple tools and software to solve what seemed like a simple problem – building a website with a blog and photo gallery. In true engineer form, he built the first iterations of the Squarespace platform to solve his own problem, sharing it with fellow students and eventually changing the world of web design.

Squarespace 5

In 2004, the Wall Street Journal covered Squarespace and its innovative approach to building websites with a brick-based approach, analogizing the familiar concept of Lego, to share how anyone could build a professional site, bit by bit. With the dominance of the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) builders available today, it’s easy to forget that the world of drag and drop is relatively new, but it’s made website design and development accessible to much wider community.

In 2008, Squarespace 5 was released. Anthony Casalena described this version of the platform as a marriage of content management and content creation tools. The approach was focused on the idea of semi-structured publishing – a middle ground between the rigid home page designers that tools such as Yahoo or Tumblr offered at the time and the totally freeform flexibility of coding a site by hand.

Squarespace 6

In 2012, the Squarespace team released the platform's newest version, Squarespace 6, re-engineering the platform from the ground up using new technology that was faster, more flexible, and more visual. For the first time, the new site signup process included easy-to-use templates, with preset design choices and stock images that made it as simple as changing text to launch a site.

Layout Engine, Squarespace’s page-building tool continued to fulfill the promise of brick-like web page building (now called Blocks). Other features such as social integration, the ability to import content from other sites, and developer mode were released. Later that year, they even dabbled in creating other tools, such as Squarespace Note, a standalone app that enabled users to push notes directly to email, Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, and Squarespace.

Squarespace 7

In 2014, Squarespace 7 launched with a redesigned website manager interface, Getty Images, a cover page builder, integration with Gmail and Google Workspace, and 15 new templates designed for specific categories such as weddings, music, travel, and food. At this stage, template choice mattered significantly – some templates had more advanced features, and some were simpler. If you read a book about Squarespace predating 7.1, you’d have to make significant choices about design and functionality before even beginning the site. Brine and the Brine family of templates were by far the most technically robust and flexible from a design and customization perspective. By the end of the Squarespace 7.0 era, designers were building almost exclusively on Brine-family templates. Internally, we can only assume that this desire for one template that included all features began sparking the inspiration for its most recent iteration, Squarespace 7.1.

Slowly, Squarespace became much more than a Lego-inspired tool for DIY users. With 7.0, it began evolving into an all-in-one platform that serves needs from commerce to communication, while always focusing on high-quality design. By the early 2010s, people were choosing Squarespace because it sat at the intersection of design and usability. It could help people go far and look great with entry-level technical ability, while still offering a robust enough platform to be customized for experts. Although the technology used to do that has changed, the mission of making it easier to build beautiful, professional websites without the need to code has remained constant.

Squarespace now – 7.1 and Fluid Engine

So, what does Squarespace look like today? Since the inception of 7.1 in early 2020, and the arrival of its new drag and drop editor, Fluid Engine, in 2022, Squarespace focused on becoming the simplest way to express creativity online. They’ve taken inspiration from other modern design tools, such as Canva, Figma, and Photoshop, to bring movement, flexibility, and dimension to the web, cutting back even further on the need to use custom code to accomplish technical features and design elements that are popular today.

Squarespace 7.1 was first launched in March 2020 without the inclusion of Fluid Engine. This transition is a bit muddier, but the most significant differences between 7.0 and 7.1 focus on design and layout:

Individually editable page sections replaced indexes built from many pages strung togetherAuto-layouts were now availableAll platform functionalities became available on any starting templateStyling moved into categories and on the page in some instancesSection themes were introduced, allowing users to define and use color palettes across sections without custom code

The biggest challenge and the most controversial aspect of the 7.1 release was the requirement to rebuild on the new platform, rather than upgrade existing sites to take advantage of all new features. Today, many users still operate websites on the 7.0 platform. (This book will focus on 7.1 and Fluid Engine, as Squarespace is no longer significantly updating 7.0.) For any user building a new site, Fluid Engine and 7.1 are way more advanced and streamlined than previous iterations. The goal shifted from offering ease of use to giving the flexibility to adapt to creative ideas, while still maintaining the ability for individual users to use the site without code. Indeed, Fluid Engine has made it easier for users to follow design trends without knowing CSS and HTML.

In July of 2022, Squarespace shared its new vision for the platform – unbreakable creativity. The goal was to create a new way to use Squarespace, with enough structure to keep websites looking professional but a level of flexibility and creativity that was previously not available with Layout Engine. The goal was to give users more freedom, more ability to experiment, and more space to play, while bringing a grid structure to the design page to help show users more of the underlying structure that they build on.

In this book, we’ll dive into how to build on 7.1 and Fluid Engine. However, understanding the intention and purpose behind the platform as a whole can go a long way to helping understand some of the operational choices.

Understanding Squarespace 7.1 and Fluid Engine’s features

While we’ll explore each of the areas important to designing and building a website in depth throughout this book, it’s good to have an at-a-glance view of the most important features that enable this broad mission. I’ve created two charts highlighting Squarespace 7.1/Fluid Engine’s core functionality to help you understand where the product stands today.

Core features summary

The following chart includes the top features for websites, site-building tools, blogging, resources and support, domains, and SEO:

Websites

Site-building tools

Blogging

Resources and support

Domains

SEO

Customizable templates

Auto layouts

Customizable layouts

Circle community

Purchasing domains

Built-in SEO tools

Pre-built layouts

Scrolling block

Category/tag support

Hiring an expert

Seamless domain registration

Image SEO

Built-in mobile websites

Accordion block

Markdown support

Making IT blog

Connected third-party domains

Location management

Custom CSS

Image effects

Scheduled posts

24x7 email support

Free domains

Clean URLs

Duplicate pages and content

Image masks

Multiple author support

Live chat support

Transferred domains

Indexed and searchable

Design tools

Stylized headers

Email campaign integration

Help center

Google Workspace integration

Page titles

Universal asset uploading

Text highlights

Excerpt and source URLs

Community forum

Security and privacy

Automatic sitemaps

Multiple contributors and access levels

Image galleries

External link options

Webinars

Robots.txt

Uploading photos from mobile

Video blocks

RSS syndication

YouTube channel of tutorials

Automatic tagging

Passwords and page locks

Automatically responsive designs

RSS blocks

Canonical tagging

Table 1.1 – The core feature summary

Advanced features summary

This chart includes more advanced features, including commerce, portfolios, scheduling, connected services, marketing, and email campaigns:

Commerce

Member areas and courses

Squarespace scheduling

Connected services

Marketing

Email campaigns

Selling products, services, membership, subscriptions, and content

Selling access to content

Multiple calendars and calendar syncing

Easy importing

Email campaigns

Content integrations

Discounts

Managing your public and members-only content

Custom payment settings

Social links

Profiles

Site styles

Inventory and order management

Accepting an unlimited number of paid or free members

Automatic email and SMS reminders

Simultaneous posting

Squarespace Video Studio app

Asset library and free stock imagery

Mobile-optimized checkout

Customer accounts

Custom intake forms

Smart third-party service support

Instant marketing content

Customizable templates

Express checkout mode

Defined tax rules for member areas

Packages, gift certifications, and subscriptions

US Amazon associate support

Mailing lists

Mobile editing

Customer accounts

Member profiles

Custom API and CSS

OpenTable blocks

Social selling

Mobile-optimized designs

Product subcategories

Video and text-based content

HIPAA (BAA)

Zola for wedding websites

Banners and promotions

Integrated analytics

Shipping labels

Invoicing

ChowNow ordering for restaurants

Custom favicon

Mailing lists

Product quick view

Multiple time zones for staff/locations

Map blocks

Form blocks

Profiles

Afterpay

Video conferencing

Amazon blocks

Marketing analytics

Smart lists

Table 1.2 – An advanced Squarespace feature grid

Now that you understand why Squarespace was created and how it evolved, let’s explore how it stacks up against other similar tools.

Squarespace versus other website builder tools

Now, in the 2020s, Squarespace isn’t the only publisher offering a drag and drop experience, but there are clear reasons to choose it over the four website-building tools and content management systems that are most commonly brought up in comparison to Squarespace – WordPress, Webflow, Wix, and Shopify. They are website-building and management platforms, but their capabilities, features, and target audiences differ significantly from Squarespace’s.

I often consult with potential clients who are deciding between Squarespace and another platform. My first question is usually broad: “What are you trying to accomplish?