GibbsStudios

Check out everything new that happened at Squarespace in June below. Which updates are you most excited about? 
Reminder for Circle Members: Circle Day is on August 24, 2023. Register here. 
Acuity Scheduling
Accept tips on mobile
You can now enable and disable tipping in the Acuity Scheduling Admin mobile app so clients can tip you after their appointment. 
Learn more about enabling tipping in the app. 
Bio Sites 
Dark mode available on the web editor 
Dark mode is now available on the Bio Sites web editor. You can enable dark mode in the settings menu. To turn dark mode on or off: 
Log into the Bio Sites web editor.  Click the gear icon.  Switch the dark mode toggle on or off.  Check out the Bio Sites web editor. 
Email Campaigns 
Send more emails during your trial 
Interested in trying Email Campaigns with a larger mailing list? We’ve increased the number of email addresses you can send a campaign to during an Email Campaigns trial from 500 to 5,000. 
Learn more about Email Campaigns trials. 
Learn more about Email Campaigns billing plans. 
Websites and domains
Squarespace AI in text blocks
With Squarespace AI, you can enter prompts or text you’ve written for help creating a first draft of text content on your site. To try it out, look for the lightning bolt in the text block toolbar. 
Please note, you should always review AI generated text. Because it is generated by a machine, it may not always be accurate, appropriate, or right for your website’s needs. Additionally, you should always edit the text to add your voice or details unique to you. 
Learn more about Squarespace AI in text blocks and best practices. 
  
Make images stand out with new block effects
You can now add image effects to image blocks in Fluid Engine. Some effects add an animation so the image is always moving, while others only appear as the visitor scrolls through the section. Effects include:
Liquid Film grain  Parallax Refracted circles Refracted lines  Learn more about image block effects.
 
Form block background color
You can now add a background color to your form blocks to make your forms more eye-catching on the page and to incorporate your site’s branding. 
Learn more about editing block background colors. 

Check out everything new that happened at Squarespace in July below. Which updates are you most excited about? 
Acuity Scheduling
Get notified when an invoice is paid
Administrators will now receive email notifications when clients pay their invoices. You’ll start receiving these emails automatically, but you can disable them by unchecking Get notified when invoice is paid in the Invoice Details panel. 
Learn more about invoice paid notifications. 
Commerce
Customer accounts now available on the Business plan 
With customer accounts, visitors can save their payment method, shipping addresses, shopping carts, and order information, which can encourage them to become repeat customers. 
Customer accounts can now be enabled on sites with the Business, Commerce Basic, and Commerce Advanced plans. Prior to this update, customer accounts could only be enabled on Commerce plans.  
Learn more about customer accounts. 
 
Shipping hazardous materials 
When purchasing a shipping label, you’ll specify whether the package contains hazardous materials. If this box is checked, the Shipping services will update to only display select services from USPS that can accommodate your shipment. 
Learn more about buying shipping labels. 
Websites and domains
Form submissions now stored directly in Squarespace 
To help you keep track of them, form submissions received after July 21, 2023 will be stored in the Profiles > Form Submitters panel when the email field is required in a form block. 
The email address, Google Drive, Zapier, and MailChimp options haven’t changed, so if you’ve opted to send submissions to those places, they’re still being sent there. Note that the form submissions will now also always be stored within Squarespace as a backup. There’s currently no option to remove them. 
Prior to this update, only third-party storage options were available for form submissions. We know many of you have been waiting for this update for a while! 
Learn more about storing form submitters on your website. 
 
Mobile blogging with the Squarespace App 
We’ve improved the blog editing experience on the Squarespace App for iOS and Android to make it more streamlined and focused. You can enable the new blog editor in Settings > Site Settings > Blogging when creating new blog posts..
Learn more about the mobile blog editor. 
 
Offset carbon emissions with the Sprout extension 
When you connect the Sprout extension, their team will plant a tree with each product sold or order received to showcase your commitment to sustainability. To add Sprout or browser all extensions, go to Settings, then All Extensions. 
Squarespace Extensions are vetted third-party tools that help you manage, optimize, and expand your site. 
Learn more about Squarespace Extensions. 
Browse all available Extensions.  
 
Rewrite text with Squarespace AI 
With this latest update, you can now highlight text you’ve already written and have Squarespace AI edit it. The following options are available: 
Fix Spelling and Grammar  Lengthen  Outline  Shorten  Simplify  Summarize  To test it out, highlight your text, then click the lightning bolt icon, and then choose the action you’d like Squarespace AI to complete. 
Please note, you should always review AI generated text. Because it is generated by a machine, it may not always be accurate, appropriate, or right for your website’s needs. Additionally, you should always edit the text to add your voice or details unique to you.  
 
Learn more about using Squarespace AI to rewrite existing text and best practices.

Hi @skateboardgeek,
Squarespace handles most things - it generates your sitemap, comes with an SSL (if you bought the domain via SS), comes mobile friendly and regularly updates automatically.
The things it doesn't do include:
Adding a structured data markup to your website - for example, it won't add an FAQ schema to your website, which helps you get featured in rich results (i.e. the FAQ section of Google). I use this tool to create them: https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/ - we may also add this feature into my Squarespace SEO plugin: https://www.roughwatermedia.com/squarespace-seo-plugin It also doesn't automatically connect you to Google Search Console - you can follow my YouTube video to do this:  In general though, you don't need to worry too much with Squarespace - one of the reasons it's such a great platform!

Couldn't agree more @boxhallmarketing!
I actually recorded a video on this exact topic: 
There are some limitations of Squarespace, however as long as you stick to the fundamentals, you can outrank a site on any website builder/CMS.
 

As an SEO consultant who specialises in Squarespace sites. 
I often get asked is "Squarespace actually good for SEO"? 
The answer is yes, 100%. 

My site (harryboxhall.co.uk) literally ranks for #1 Squarespace SEO Consultant as well as other competitive terms as well. 
It's not Squarespace itself that is often holding sites back. 
It's actually just making sure you have the three main important pillars solved of any SEO campaign solved. 
And that's i) On Page SEO, ii) Off Page SEO and iii) Technical SEO. 
Squarespace actually handles most of the Technical SEO for you and provides a lot of the tools for you to do a good job. 
Off Page is making sure you get the right links in (PR or a SEO consultant will be able to help you there).
Finally On Page SEO, everything you actually see on a site is down to you (or your SEO consultant) to make sure you rank for the keywords you actually want to rank for. 
So if a web client ever asks you - please don't feel like you are unsure - you can tell them yes. 

Updated: Some class names/ids for Announcement Bar, Header, Blog List, Cart Page & Fluid Engine. With Fluid, I haven't worked with it much, but I don't see much to write about 😕

We're thrilled to announce a new SEO webinar on November 9th at 1:30 PM ET. We'll go over SEO fundamentals and best practices, as well as your Squarespace site's built-in SEO and marketing tools. 
Our goal is for you to leave the webinar with a deeper understanding of how to leverage your content strategy to boost your site's discoverability on search engines. You'll leave the webinar with specific, actionable steps you can take on your site to improve its SEO performance. 
Be sure to reserve your spot for November 9th at 1:30 PM ET at the link below: 
Register