Training Tutorials for your website success

Videos specific to your Site

Using Squarespace 7.1 Fluid Engine- the basics

Get comfortable with editing and styling your site.

Learn how to use the new Fluid Engine editor and how to update your site on mobile

This is an important starting point for getting familiar with your Squarespace site!

All the Squarespace Tutorials

Squarespace has lots of amazing tutorials for every point of your website process as well.

I recommend this video series on getting started with Squarespace, but you can also explore all of the tutorial libraries to find any specific help you need.

Step by Step Guide to getting your site up correctly:

An important note about uploading photos to your website

All images that are uploaded to a website should be optimized for website viewing. This helps with your website load time. If you upload full size images your site speed will be greatly compromised and Google will penalize you in search results.

I recommend this tool for resizing photos easily: https://pixresize.com/

*Important steps to take for Search Engine Optimization

It won’t take long, but will make a huge difference!

At the bare minimum do steps 1 and 2

Watch this beginner video that is incredibly helpful on how to improve your Squarespace SEO

Just taking a few steps will go a LONG way in getting your site found by Google. Squarespace has an amazing checklist complete with videos to walk your through this here.

In the Home menu click Settings, then click SEO Appearance (under the Marketing section).

1/ Add a site description - Add a short (50-300 characters), relevant, readable description of your site to your SEO site description. This text may appear below your site title in search results, depending on what your visitors are searching for.

2/ Add SEO descriptions -
Ensure each page on your site has a unique SEO description. The text should be short and readable (50-300 characters), and describe the content of the page. You can also add SEO descriptions to individual blog posts, products, and events.

To access this description, go to the Pages panel, click on the gear icon beside the page your want to update and then select SEO. Scroll down till you see SEO Description. Enter in a description there for the page that describes what the page is about and uses keywords you want to be found for.

3/ Set up Google analytics and integrate it for more visitor tracking and reporting

4/ Image SEO

• Add alt text to images - In addition to increasing accessibility for visitors who use assistive screen readers, alt text also helps search engines identify the content of a page.

• Give your images readable file names - Image file names may also be used as alt text. Follow best practices when creating your image file names.

• Keep your pages nimble - To ensure your site loads well, Squarespace recommends keeping images under 500 KB and overall page size under 5 MB.

5. After publishing

To help surface your site and its content to search engines, Squarespace recommends doing the following as soon as your site is published:

• Verify your site with Google Search Console - After you've verified your site with Google, you can manage your site’s presence in Google search results and review how visitors find you.

• Request that Google index your site - This asks Google's bots to review your site and update search results with your new content.

• Verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools - Verify your site with Bing to manage your site’s presence in Bing and Yahoo search results.

• Connect to Google Analytics - Track visits and other reporting on your site through our built-in integration with Google.

Note: There is a brand new version of Google Analytics called GA4. This is the version you should connect to your Squarespace site. You can learn about it here.

FURTHER READING: Check out this guide for everything you need to know to prepare your site to be found by search engines

Steps to take to launch your site:

  • In the Home menu click Settings, then click Site Availability.

    Click on “Upgrade to Publish” then select the Business plan and proceed to pay.

    Once you have completed payment you can set the Site Availability option to public.

    Watch the video

  • In the Home menu click the gear icon (at the bottom right of the left hand menu), then click Social Sharing (located under the Website section).

    Upload an image that you want shown when you share your site on social media. Make sure it is compressed for web (<500KB). A landscape image works best.

    Once your site is live then you will need to run it through the Facebook Debugger tool.

    Type in your domain name (ie yoursite.com) and then select “debug” button. You may have to do it multiple times until it works.

  • In the Home menu click the gear icon (at the bottom right of the left hand menu), then click Browser icon.

    Upload a graphic to represent your site. (could just be your initials or any icon)

    The preferred format is a .png file that is between 100px × 100px and 300px × 300px in size, less than 100 KB

    You can try this tool for creating a favicon: Free Favicon maker or make it in Canva or some other program like that.

  • In the Home menu click the gear icon (at the bottom right of the left hand menu),, then click Regional Settings.

    Choose your Country and time zone

  • In the Home menu click Settings, then click Social Links.

    paste in any social link accounts you want there

  • What is a Site Title?

    The site title is the name of your site, which could be your own name, a business's name, the name of your blog, or your personal brand. The site title usually appears in the header or top corner of each page of your site. You can replace it with a logo.

    The site title may appear in browser tabs, search engine results, and social shares, depending on your SEO title format.

    How to Set the Site Title:

    • Click Edit in the top-left corner of your site preview.

    • Hover over the header and click Edit Site Header.

    • Click Site Title & Logo.

    • In the Site Title text field, enter a site title.

    • Click Save to save your changes and keep editing, or click Exit and then Save to close the editor.

  • This process differs quite a bit depending on where the domain was hosted and if the domain is already associated with another Squarespace website.

    You can start by clicking on Home menu then Settings, then click Domains. Click on “Use a Domain I Own” and type in your purchased domain. Squarespace will determine where the domain is from and provide instructions on how to connect it.

    Note: I am available to help you with this step as it can be complicated so please reach out if you need help!

  • Let me start off my saying I am not a lawyer so any advice or examples I give are not guaranteed legally. However, I have done enough reading to know that there are certain documents that are required legally on your website.

    This post has some very good information specifically for making Squarespace sites legally compliant.

    I recommend purchasing these documents from a  reputable online business or your own lawyer. The other option is to purchase the required contract on line for the fraction of the cost of hiring a lawyer.

    Here are some other sites where you can purchase these documents:

    https://www.shopcreativelaw.com/ (use code JODINEUFELD10 to save 10% off your purchase)

    https://rachelbrenke.com/product/online-storeblogger-bundle-of-forms/

    http://www.thelawtog.com/product-category/legal-forms/website-policy-templates/ 

    https://www.disclaimertemplate.com/

    Privacy policy

    Privacy policies disclose how your website gathers, uses and manages a customer or client data. It is used to protect a customer’s privacy. If you collect email addresses for a newsletter signup, collect analytics, or have a facebook pixel on your website these are all ways you are collecting customer information.

    If nothing else, you should definitely add a privacy policy to your website.

    There are some sites for generating your own Privacy Policy. You can use these sites to get one:

    http://getterms.io/

    https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/

    https://www.rocketlawyer.co.uk/documents-and-forms/website-privacy-policy.rl#

    https://www.shopify.com/tools/policy-generator

    https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/protection-racket

    What you put in your privacy policy will depend on what you are doing with your customer data. Are you planning on using Google Analytics? Having a shop with customer data retained? Using an email platform such as Mailchimp? Etc.

    You will want to think through what options you are using and tailor your privacy policy to cover the ways you are storing and using your visitors data.

    Here is an article from Squarespace which goes over this.

    Cookie policy

    With the legislation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the use of a cookie policy has become somewhat mandatory to avoid the chance of being fined. The GDPR established rules on electronic privacy in regards to email marketing and cookie usage and means that we have to require consent before storing cookies or adding people to our email lists.

    You can read more about cookie requirements here.

    Here is a source for more information about cookie policies and with an option to generate a cookie policy: https://www.termsfeed.com/blog/sample-cookies-policy-template/

    


    Terms and conditions

    Terms and Conditions for a website are rules which your visitors are asked to agree to in order to use your website. These rules protect you legally for technical problems and errors with your website, especially ones out of your control .

    If you sell a service, product or offer advice on your website you will want to protect yourself by investing in a Terms and Conditions document

    Here is a helpful infographic to determine what legal documents you might need on your website. 

    Here are some Terms & Conditions online generators:

    https://termsfeed.com/terms-conditions/generator/

    https://termsandconditionstemplate.com/generate/

    These are just the basic legal requirements that you may need for your website, but if you are doing things like advertising on your site or using affiliate links, for example, there may be other requirements or terms you need to add to your legal documents. I would suggest consulting a lawyer to make sure you are legally protected.

  • In the Home menu click the gear icon (at the bottom right of the left hand menu). Click Cookies & Visitor Data. Toggle on Cookie Banner then save.

    You can choose different styles and options from this panel for your cookie banner.

  • In the top right of your website when you are logged in you will see a mobile phone icon. Click on it to view your site on mobile and make sure everything is in the right order and not overlapping.

  • f your site has a store page, ensure it's ready for customers.

    Recommended:

    Add a payment processor so you can accept payments.

    Set any required tax rules and learn about collecting VAT or GST.

    Add at least one shipping option if you sell physical products.

    Run a test order to see what checkout is like for your customers. This is a good time to check how shipping options display and how your email notifications look.

    Confirm every product has the correct price, at least one product image, and a complete description.

    Disable test mode to prepare for accepting orders.

    Optional:

    Consider adding tags and categories to every product.

    Your store email notifications have default content you can use, but you can add custom information to them.

    Customize your checkout page. For example, you can require additional information and style it to match your brand.

    Prepare your first sale or discount to celebrate your new store.

  • Squarespace step by step guide to switching from 7.0 to 7.1 - since your site is already styled you can start with the step “Upgrade to paid service”

    **** After your Squarespace 7.1 site is live you can cancel your 7.0 site by clicking on the Billing option of the menu in your 7.0 site. Once you have done this you can contact Squarespace either in a chat window or email and ask for a refund on the rest of your 7.0 site plan. Since you have switched to 7.1 they will offer you a refund on the rest of the year of your 7.0 plan.

    Note: Squarespace chat is also very helpful in guiding you through the process if you want them to walk you through it

  • Make sure your forms are going to the right place by editing them and checking the “Storage” tab to see where they are going. Fill in your forms and test them (you must be out of edit mode to do this).