Welcome to your new website!
One of the great things about Squarespace is that you’ll be able to manage and maintain your website on your own.
To get you started, here is a selection of step-by-step guides and key Squarespace Knowledge Base articles to reference as you get more familiar with your website.
If you need support or help, the award winning Squarespace Customer Care team is at the ready 24/7. You can reach out at anytime here.
Accessing your site
You can access your site via squarespace.com/login.
If you are having log-in or password trouble, go here.
Account and billing
To update your address, change your credit card information, or switch your billing plan:
Home Menu > Settings > Billing & Account > Billing > Credit Card
For more details on Accounting & Billing, go here.
Adding a contributor
Squarespace allows multiple people to have access to a website. Each person is called a contributor and each contributor has a different level of permission.
The the most commonly used permissions are:
Site owner - There’s only one Site Owner, typically the account that created the site. Site Owners can manage all content and settings. They can also transfer the permission to a different account, which might happen if a designer creates a site for a client, or if someone new within an organization starts managing web content.
Administrator - Administrators can do almost everything the Site Owner can do, except change the site ownership.
This is a good permission level for collaborators who need full access to your site.Content Editor - Content Editors can add products, blocks, and other content to existing pages. They can’t add new pages or make style changes.
This is a good permission level for someone who updates your site regularly, but doesn’t make broad design decisions.Billing - Accounts with the Billing permission can change or cancel the site’s subscription and view invoices. They can’t add or edit content.
This is a good permission level for someone who manages your finances.
If your website has additional functions, these permissions will be available:
Store Manager - Store Managers can add products, reorder products, and fulfill orders. They can also add some content like blog posts and events.
This is a good permission level for someone who manages your online store and marketing efforts.Scheduling - The Scheduling permission level is only visible when your site is on a Scheduling trial or paid subscription. Contributors with Scheduling permissions can view and manage all content in the Scheduling panel, including all appointment and client information. Scheduling contributors don't have access to Scheduling billing plans unless they also have Administrator or Billing permissions.
Reporting, Trusted Commenters, and Comment Moderators have specialized permission levels. Since they're designed for very specific purposes, they only have access to a few areas.
Reporting
Comment without moderation
View Analytics
Don't receive email notifications about your site
Trusted Commenters
Comment without moderation
Reply to comments
Don't receive email notifications about your site
Comment Moderators
Comment without moderation
Receive email notifications for new comments
To give someone access to your website:
Home Menu > Settings > Permissions > Invite Contributor
Invited contributors are listed under ‘Invites Sent’.
Who receives email notifications
Contributors receive automated email notifications from Squarespace based on their permissions and what they typically need to see. To manage your subscriptions for these emails, visit the Notifications tab of your contributor profile.
Emails are sent to the address that displays in your profile. You can update your email address in the Account & Security tab of your contributor profile.
For more details on Permissions, go here.
Verify your site with Google Search Console
Verifying your site with Google allows you to manage your site’s presence in Google search results and see how visitors find you.
Connect your Google Search Console account
The Search Keywords panel shows how visitors locate your site. Connect and verify your site in this panel and return later to review the data:
Home Menu > Analytics > Search Keywords
Click Connect in the panel's pop-up.
Log into the Google account you want to connect to your site. If you have multiple Google accounts, ensure you select the correct one.
Review the permissions, then click Allow.
Wait 72 hours for the data to populate.
If you're having trouble connecting to Google Search Console, try authorizing through the Connected Accounts panel.
For more details on Verifying your Site with Google Search Console, go here.
General troubleshooting
If at any time your website performance seems slow or off and you want to read up on troubleshooting advice, go here.
If you’re new to owning a website, you might find yourself a bit overwhelmed by the jargon associated with the website building process.
I've compiled a list of some of the more commonly used web design terms to get comfortable with as you get started:
Jump to the topic you’re looking for:
The Home menu is the first menu that appears in the side panel when you log into your Squarespace site. It appears to the left of your site preview.
You can use the Home menu to access all admin areas of your site, called panels. Use these panels to find everything you need to manage and build your site.
By default, the Home menu shows these panels:
Pages — The Pages panel holds all of the pages and content for your site.
Design — The Design panel is where you can use site styles to change various elements of your site's design, like fonts, colors, buttons, and spacing.
Commerce — The Commerce panel is where you take important actions for running your online store, like fulfilling orders and managing customers.
Marketing — The Marketing panel is where you find tools for promoting your site and products. From here, you can build Squarespace Email Campaigns, create promotional pop-ups, and add Share buttons to your site.
Scheduling — The Scheduling panel is where you can use Squarespace Scheduling for booking appointments or classes.
Analytics — The Analytics panel holds your site's data reporting for measuring site performance and visitor information.
Profiles — The Profiles panel is where you can review and manage your relationships with your customers, mailing list subscribers, members and donors.
Settings — The Settings panel holds Permissions, Billing & Account, Domains, Connected Accounts, and more. If you sell products on Squarespace, you'll also find store setup options like Payments, Shipping, and Taxes.
Help — The Help panel takes you to our Contact page.
— Managing your pages
Home Menu > Pages
The Pages panel is where you create the structure of your site by adding and arranging pages. The Pages panel is organized into different sections:
Main navigation — Main navigation (sometimes called primary navigation or top navigation) is the main menu of your site. In most cases, the main navigation appears at the top of every page and has links to your most important pages. To make your site easy to navigate, the main navigation is the best place to put the pages you expect visitors will need the most.
Secondary and footer navigation — These create additional menus separate from the main navigation. Use these sections for pages visitors can navigate to but aren't the key focus of your site, like your terms and policies.
Not linked — Pages in Not linked don't appear in your site's navigation. Visitors can access these pages by way of direct URLs unless you disable or password-protect them. Not linked is a great place to store in-progress pages or content that doesn't need to go in a navigation menu.
The 5 most common items you will find in your pages panel are:
Page
Folder - Used to create drop-down menus in your navigation.
Link - Usually used to connect to external pages.
Blog - More on blogs here.
Gallery - To display images and videos in eye-catching layouts and styles.
To add a page:
Click the + icon next to Main Navigation. To add it to a folder, click Add page under the folder.
In the Create New Page menu, select the type of page you want to add.
Click Blank Page to start with a blank page, or click one of the other options to choose from a variety of layouts and collections.
Enter a page title in the text field and press Enter.
For more on adding pages to your navigation and the types of pages you can add, go here.
Removing a page from the navigation:
To delete a page, hover over the page you want to remove and click the trash can icon.
Deleted pages are kept in the Pages panel's trash can for 30 days. To restore a page you deleted:
In the pages panel, scroll to the bottom and click on the trash can icon.
In the trash can, hover over the page title and click Restore.
Click Restore in the confirmation message.
The restored page will appear in the Not linked section of your navigation. From here, you can click and drag the page to other navigation areas.
If you think you'll need the page later, you have other options besides deleting it. To keep it accessible to visitors but remove it from navigation menus, move it to the Not Linked section. Alternatively, you can disable the page to hide it from visitors without deleting it.
— Adding content
Pages and footers are built with customizable sections stacked vertically. You can add, delete, and move sections to arrange your content.
How you add and style content depends on the section. There are three types:
Block sections - Customize a layout with blocks.
Auto layout sections - Add sets of content and arrange them automatically into lists or galleries.
Collection page sections - Display collection items. For example, blog pages have a collection section that displays blog posts.
Adding sections
When you add a new page, it starts with at least one pre-built section, unless it's a blank page. To get started editing sections, go to the page, then click Edit in the top-left of the page preview.
Hover over a section to see its options:
To add a section, click Add Section.
To duplicate a section, click the duplicate icon. Collection page sections can't be duplicated.
To move a section, click ↑ or ↓.
To style a section, click the pencil icon.
To delete a section, click the trash can icon. After saving, sections can't be restored. Collection page sections can't be deleted.
Click Save to publish your changes. Changes don't auto-save.
There's no limit to the number of sections you can add, but we recommend adding no more than 20 sections to a single page, as pages with lots of content take longer to load. To learn more, visit My site is loading slowly.
Adding blocks to sections
Blocks are drag-and-drop features that display content on your site. You'll use them to customize your pages with a variety of content, like text, images, buttons, and forms.
In the Home menu, click Pages.
Select the page you want to edit and click Edit in the top-left corner.
Hover over the section where you want to add the block and click an insert point. The page must have at least one block section to add blocks. If you don't see insert points, click Add Section to add a blank section where you can add blocks.
In the menu, select a block. You can also search for blocks at the top of the menu.
The new block will appear on the page. Depending on the block, an editor may open where you can customize it.
You can also drag and drop a block if you know where you want to place it on the page:
Drag a block from the menu.
Guidelines and gray boxes will appear to show where you can place the block.
Drop the block to place it on the page. Depending on the block, an editor may open where you can customize it.
Insert points
Insert points are + icons that show where you can add blocks. They appear above and below existing blocks. This method is helpful if you’d like to choose the block’s placement before adding it.
In an empty blocks area:
Hover over the placeholder Text Block.
You’ll see two insert points to the left of the existing Text Block.
As you hover over an insert point, you'll see guidelines showing where a new block can be placed. You can move the block later.
Click an insert point and select a block.
If the area already has blocks:
Hover to the left or right of any block.
Click an insert point to add a new block.
The most commonly used blocks are:
Text - Add text, including headings, quotes, pre-formatted text, links, and lists.
Image - Add single images with captions in Card, Collage, Inline, Overlap, Poster, or Stack layouts.
Gallery - Add multiple images or videos in Carousel, Grid, Slideshow, or Stack layouts.
Button - Add buttons and calls to action.
Spacer - Add adjustable amounts of space or padding between blocks.
Line - Add horizontal lines to break up text or visually separate content.
Form - Add forms to collect information from visitors.
You may also need to use some of these blocks:
Calendar - Display items on your pages, like events, as a calendar sorted by day.
Donation (Premium feature) - Collect donations to your cause or organization. Requires a connected Stripe or PayPal account.
Embed - Add external content with links to tweets, videos, and more.
Video - Add externally hosted videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto, and Wistia.
Map - Add Google Maps with location pins.
Newsletter - Add newsletter subscription forms.
Instagram - Add posts from your Instagram account.
Social Links - Add icons that link to social media profiles.
For the full list of blocks, go here.
— Customising your layout
Note: You can move a block within the page content area where it was added. It's not possible to move blocks between pages or separate content areas, such as from a footer to a header.
When moving a block, black lines called guidelines appear to show you where you're placing the block. These are especially useful when you’re creating columns and rows.
As you drag blocks around, the guidelines change to show if the block will:
Span the full height of a page, creating a new column.
Span the full width of the page, creating a new row.
Match the height or width of another block, placing the block into an existing column or row.
Line Blocks and Spacer Blocks are useful tools for separating content into columns and rows.
Since Text Blocks often merge when stacked, you can use a Line or Spacer Block to divide text and prevent merging.
You can also use Line and Spacer Blocks to temporarily separate content while laying out a page or content area. Use a Line or Spacer Block to divide rows, then add blocks to create new parallel columns. After the content is arranged, remove the Line or Spacer Blocks, keeping in mind Text Blocks may merge after removing the Line or Spacer.
To create columns that are all the same width, you'll need to have one of these numbers of columns:
1
2
3
4
6
12
If you have a different number of columns, they'll have varying widths. This rule applies to all content areas of your site except sidebars and some footers.
To change a column's width:
Hover your cursor between two blocks until you see two arrows, pointing left and right.
Click and drag to expand and shrink the column.
This changes both the column width and the overall size of both blocks.
Repeat with the spaces between other blocks in the row as necessary.
For more on moving and arranging blocks, go here.
— Announcement Bar
The announcement bar is used to display a custom message above your site. This is a great way to announce a sale, promotion, a change to your hours, or other important updates.
The announcement bar appears on every page of your site. It can't be customized or enabled per-page.
To add or edit the Announcement Bar:
Home Menu > Marketing > Announcement Bar
Select Enable Announcement Bar from the drop-down menu.
Enter the text for the announcement bar in the field. You can make the text bold or italicized and create text links.
To make the whole announcement bar a link, enter a web address in the Clickthrough URL or click the gear to set up different types of links.
Click Save to publish the announcement bar.
For more details on the Announcement Bar, go here.
— Promotional Pop-up
To add or edit your promotional pop-up:
Home Menu > Marketing > Promotional Pop-Up
When you're ready to enable your promotional pop-up, switch the Display Pop-Up toggle at the top of the panel to black, then click Save.
To disable the pop-up, switch the Display Pop-Up toggle back to white, then click Save.
To style the pop-up: scroll down to the Style menu.
For more details on Promotional Pop-ups, go here.
— Blog
To learn more about the ins and outs of adding posts, RSS feeds, comments, and blog excerpts, go here.
To link your social media accounts:
Home Menu > Settings > Social Links > Scroll down to Add a social link or email field
Social Links Blocks are available anywhere that you can add a block. You can change the look of this block in its settings.
To learn more about adding new social media accounts or about pushing more content to your existing social media accounts, go here.
— Squarespace on Mobile
Squarespace sites are designed to ensure visitors can easily navigate your site on any device they choose, from desktops to tablets to smartphones.
All Squarespace sites adjust on smaller browsers and fit the format of a device.
Mobile Preview is a good way to test your site's responsive design from a desktop while you're editing. To open Mobile Preview, log into your site Click the mobilephone icon in the top-right corner of the site preview frame.
Mobile Preview gives you a general idea of how your site appears on a typical mobile browser, but it's not 100% accurate for every phone or tablet. Window sizes vary between devices, and some mobile features will look different on an actual mobile device than they do in Mobile Preview. So, it’s a good idea to visit your site on any device you can.
In general, content stacks vertically on mobile. This means that visitors can scroll to see all your content, rather than having to pinch, zoom, and scroll in many directions.
If blocks aren't lining up the way you want them to on mobile, you can move blocks using the scenarios in this guide.
Tips for keeping your site mobile-friendly
Click and drag the focal point to set the central focus area.
For images, change the focal point to control how the image centers.
Don’t use images that contain text: Instead, add text as a caption, overlay, or directly on the page. This will reduce cropping issues as fonts scale with the browser width. Search engines can also index it for results.
For more mobile best practices, go here.
— Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO refers to steps you can take to make sure your website shows up in search results for relevant keywords and your Squarespace website has many SEO elements baked right in.
To learn how to make the most of them, go here.
— Metrics
Squarespace makes it easy to keep track of your website’s performance through its Metrics tools. You can monitor website traffic, track popular content, and find out what percentage of visitors are browsing from their phones.
To learn more about how to use Metrics tools, go here.
— Social Media