Important Squarespace Tips and Tricks for Website Performance Optimization

Having a wide range of designing options and mobile-optimized website templates, Squarespace is a perfect CMS for startups and large corporates looking to scale their websites and digital activities. 

Regular updates and improvements have made it one of the easiest tool for website management. In this article, I will discuss all its tips and tricks that Squarespace users could use to optimize the site for performance and conversions. 

 So, let's begin!

Squarespace Web Design  

As we are talking about website, design always plays an important role. Let's go over some of the things you should keep in mind while designing in Squarespace:-  

1. Limited Color Palette 

While designing your website, try to use a limited number of colors. You don't need to have too many variations, as it might confuse your website visitors. Most of the Squarespace users try to stick three or four fundamental colors. Apart from that, it has an awesome template section in its colors menu, so you can also stick with those options.  

2. Hero Images 

Heroes images are something that work perfectly with the theme of your website. Having these can have a long-lasting impact on your visitors, which can subconsciously persuade your visitors to come to your website again and again. For example, a hero image for a food-oriented website can be a close picture of a delicious healthy meal. That picture automatically creates a strong impression in the minds of visitors.  

3. Easy-To-Read Fonts  

Don't use too many font styles. The main objective of your forms should be that anyone visiting your website can comprehend each and every letter of your content.  If you want to seem modern, you should utilize a sans serif font throughout your website, and if you want to seem sophisticated, use serif fonts. Don't give it too much thought.

4. Social Proofs

Social proof is a piece of evidence that gives credibility to your products as well as your brand. Including 'Social proof' on conversion pages will develop confidence with your viewers and improves the conversion rates. For instance, you can consider including quotes from loyal customers, some client feedback, or even previous client logo cascades. 

5. Free Premium Photos  

Great photos are essential for a great website. You can stock photographs from one of two places:-

• Upsplash - Upsplash offers incredible lifestyle images that are completely free to use. Upsplash has a free Squarespace integration that allows you to effortlessly add images to your website.
• Pexels – Pexels features more stock images than Upsplash, giving you a wider range of options. Apart from photos, pexels also offer tons of free video clips which you can use for your website.  

6. Make Use of White Space

The most common mistake made by novice Squarespace developers is that they try to jam too much content into their pages. Always give your elements some breathing ground, while designing your websites.

7. Customizing CSS

It might seem a bit intimidating while customizing your CSS, but it can be done pretty easily once you get the hang of it. CSS is especially useful for creating custom styles, visual modifications, and functionality to your website. 

Novice web developers can use Google Chrome developer tools to customize and preview design changes. You can do this by clicking on

View > Developer > Inspect Elements

After that, look for the element you would like to change, and alter the values or the codes from the sidebar. Once you have decided what you want for your design, copy that piece and paste it inside the custom CSS area of Squarespace.

Squarespace Content

Now, that we have talk a bit about designing let's discuss what can you do about optimizing your website content:-

1. Single Call-To-Action 

While creating content for your website, you obviously will include a call-to-action. However, using two to three CTAs might be counterproductive. Instead, try to stick with a single type of CTA. It could be persuading your visitor to join a subscriber list, or downloading a complimentary eBook from your website. 

2. Simplistic Navigation

Several rookie Squarespace developers make the mistake of trying to cram too much information into their top navigation. This can become very confusing for your visitors, to see such much different information right at the start. Therefore, cut down on your navigational links. If you must add more than five links, then adding a drop down can be more beneficial.  

3. Using the Word "Free" in Your Navigation  

People have a subconscious attraction towards the word "Free", so attract their attention right at the start, use the word "free" into the navigational links your content. This will definitely improve your average time spent by your visitors. 

4. Customize Your 404 Webpage

If any of your website visitors click on a dead link, then they will be taken to the  404 page. However, the default 404 page of Squarespace isn't that great, you should make one according to the theme of your own website. You can always choose from the 404 page options available in Squarespace, but try to make one from scratch.  

5. Cultivate the Goal In The Headlines  

A headline is a short sentence that expresses the entire substance of a page. When writing an excellent header, you should try to incorporate the goal of your intended audience, or why they are reading your content in the first place. For instance, a fitness article can use a headline such as "Get Your Summer Body In These 5 Simple Steps" 

6. Choose Your Keywords  

The primary goal of your content is to provide valuable information to your customers. At the same time, your content should be focused on ranking higher in the SERP results. For that, you have to figure out your primary and secondary keywords. You can use tools like Google keyword planner or Keyword.io to get the most effective keywords for your content. Once you decide your keywords, try to use these keywords throughout your website. 

Squarespace Blogging  

In the previous part, we have discussed the general idea of constructing any type of website content. Now, let's dig deep into some of the things you need to keep in mind while creating and blogs or articles in Squarespace:- 

1. Bulleted Lists

While visiting any webpage, your viewers will not fully devote themselves to the content, unless they find your headlines and topics intriguing. Most individuals prefer skimming the headlines, photos, and bulleted lists instead. As a result, if you want any important message to reach your viewers, make sure to use them in your headlines. This applies to every page on your website. 

2. Rhetorical Remarks 

While writing your blogs, you need to make a connection with your target audience. One of the best ways to do it is by including some rhetorical remarks in your headlines or in your introductions. For instead, if you're into real estate business, you can try using "Want To Buy Your Dream House?" 

This will subconsciously build a positive response in the mind of your readers. This approach can get a lot of attention and will help you improve your web traffic.  

3. Write in Google Drive 

Squarespace does not store the progression of your blog as you write it. So, just to be cautious, you should compose your blog posts in Google Drive and then transfer them into Squarespace. The best feature is that the heading formats are preserved, which make the formatting of the content quite easy.  

4. Changing The Author  

Squarespace lets you create new author profiles, which can add to your contents.  

First you have to navigate to Settings>Permission. 

From there, you can choose either :- 

• Invite Contributor: For authors who are also engaged with other contents of your website.
• Basic Author: For authors, who will be responsible for writing only those blogs and articles.  

Moreover, you can change the author later from the post settings.  

5. Blog Titles

There are a lot of things you can do with your blog titles, here are are fundamental tactics you should keep in mind:- 

• Consider using some power word which can create an impact on your entire heading. 
• Many individuals get subconsciously attracted towards odd numbers, so try including them in your titles.  
• You must use some SEO terms to boost your rankings in the search results.  
• You should include the goal of the content; what your viewers will get after reading your blog or article.

For instance, if you're a health and fitness company, a perfect blog title can be "9 Effective Ways to Achieve Your Dream Body" 

Squarespace Customer Engagement 

The main priority should always be to create quality content for your visitors, which will help you to increase your website traffic. However, there are certain other things you can do to increase your overall customer interactions. 

1. Using A Freebie 

Giving out a freebie is among the most effective methods to increase your email list. Websites provide a variety of incentives, ranging from complementary training to attractive discounts on their products. If your freebie is attractive enough, you can also get the benefit of word of mouth, which will allow you to considerably grow your mailing list within a matter of weeks.  

2. Creating Pop-Ups

Pop-ups are an excellent technique to increase the number of people that subscribe to your website. For creating a pop-up in Squarespace, first navigate to "Marketing" and then click "Promotional Pop-ups". It can later be customized with beautiful visuals and linked to your email service provider. The freebie you are planning to offer should be featured in the pop-up. 

3. Social Media Platforms

Social Networking platforms will be an important part of your customer interactions. However, while using Squarespace the amount of audience will vary depending on the try of social media platforms. While you can undoubtedly establish a devoted fanbase on any social media platform if you are regular in your postings. However, YouTube and Facebook are proven to drive more website traffic in the case of Squarespace. So, it will be beneficial to start with those platforms.

4. Construct an Email Nurturing Sequence 

If anyone decides to join your mailing list, don't just send one email and remain dormant after that. Using an email nurturing series is an excellent technique to gain your customer's confidence. Although there is no precise recipe for nurturing sequences, there's a general structure every Squarespace user follows:

• On the first day, sent a welcome email. 

• On the third or fourth day, send something that can be valuable to your audience such as a free PDF about or an eBooks. 

• After a week, try to follow up with some quality content from your website, or link of an article thoroughly describing your products. 

• And after around two weeks, send an email with coupons  and attractive deals along with the link of your products. 

There are also various other structures, but this one has proven to be quite useful for numerous Squarespace users. 

Final Thoughts

Squarespace is a perfect web development platform that allows brands to quickly establish its virtual presence. If you're looking forward to building an attractive website for your company, make sure to employ the Squarespace hacks mentioned in this article. I've given you everything you need to develop a decent website; now it's up to you to figure out how to put these ideas to work for your company.