Three Things to do Immediately on your new Squarespace Site

I’ve looked at hundreds of Squarespace websites. As a support agent for their office in Portland, I got used to seeing the same mistakes over and over again. Here are my top three annoyances you can avoid with your new Squarespace site:

Remove “Powered by Squarespace” in your site’s footer

Contrary to what some users believe, you do not need to keep this wording in your footer. It detracts from your design and makes your website look less professional. Ideally, someone should only know you’re on Squarespace by examining your site’s code.

Follow these steps to remove “powered by Squarespace” from the bottom of your site:

Hover over your footer at the bottom and click Edit.

  1. In the footer editor, click and drag the "Powered by Squarespace" Text Block into the trash icon that appears. Or click to edit the text and delete it with your Delete key.

Consider replacing it with an official © (your name / your business name) 2019 instead. Use option+g on a mac or ALT key + 0169 on a pc to create the symbol.

Update your built-in Squarespace URL

You’re likely planning to purchase or map a custom domain name to your site, but there are several reasons to update the built-in URL you are randomly given when the site is created. For starters, any file you update to your Squarespace site, such as photos, PDFs, and audio files, will use the built in domain URL. This is problematic if those files become indexed by search engines, as they often do. Additionally, users will see the URL when viewing the file in a new window and may become confused.

To edit your site ID and built-in domain:

  1. In the Home Menu, click Settings, and then click Domains. You can also press ? while any panel is open and search domains.)

  2. Under Built-In Domain, click the domain.

  3. Change the domain name. I recommend your business name or full name. If it’s taken, consider something a bit longer like sara-shepherd-website-consulting.squarespace.com

You (and any other site contributors) will receive a confirmation email that the domain has changed.

Password protect the site and customize the lock screen

While you are working on your new site, you won’t want visitors or search engines to stumble on your half-baked website. Back in the old days (2017), new Squarespace sites were not password protected by default. This meant that example content and content created by users during construction was often indexed by search engines and could remain in search results for months!

Your new site should be password protected by default, but make sure it is. I also recommend customizing the password lock page to represent your brand, especially if you’ve already linked your custom domain name.

how to customize your squarespace lock screen:

  1. From your Squarespace Home panel on the left site, click Design, and then click Lock Screen.

  2. Click Change Layout to select a new layout for your lock screen. You can change the background image later, so right now focus on the placement of the text and password box.

  3. Once you select a layout, you can update the branding and text, then add imagery.

  4. Click save and enjoy your branded, “under construction” page. Squarespace also has a video on how to do this, if you need more instructions.

There you have it. These three basic steps will set you up nicely to avoid the pitfalls of new Squarespace users and begin building a fantastic website. For more help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.