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Choosing images for your website can be a fun, yet daunting, task. You need to decide how you want to present your brand to potential customers. You can choose to keep your website imagery focused solely on your actual product, or open it up to some more varied imagery. 

Showing people and faces in your images can be a powerful tool. They can serve as visual cues so that your visitors will ‘look where they look’, guiding visitors through your website’s information. This kind of image can provide context for your products, or even lend more authenticity to your About or Testimonial pages. Others can find the inclusion of people and faces distracting, particularly if the images are very obviously staged stock photos. 

Where do you land on using people in pictures? Have you noticed their impact or lack thereof? Share your learnings in the comments below!

Hi there,

To achieve this, your best bet might be to embed your showcase as a playlist into a Gallery Block. This would require a Plus plan on Vimeo, you can see the different features available per plan in their guide: Showcases.

You can learn more about adding videos to pages and posts to choose the right option for you.

Keywords are essential for generating traffic from search engines. But which keywords should you use? And how do you brainstorm your ideas? Let’s go through some ways to generate ideas and different types of keywords you can use.

To get started, there are tons of organizational note apps that lend themself to a personal brainstorm, so play around and see what works for you! I personally use Google’s JamBoard as my virtual sticky note go-to. This way I can visualize the contents of my site and see what keywords make sense for which pages. For my example photography business, I decided to break it up into the different types of photography I’m involved in and some potential keywords that would relate: 

Some questions to ask yourself when brainstorming:
 

• Who is your target audience? 
• What sets you apart from your competitors? 
• What synonyms can you utilize? 
• For example: New York photographer and NYC photography are two different keywords.
• And what other words does Google autofill? 
• Type the words you've come up with in Google and see what else pops up!

When determining types of keywords, there’s “Head” and “Long-tail”, and there are benefits to using both types. Head keywords are short, usually one-word keywords that catch a wide audience like ceramics, tapestry, and shoes. Long-tail keywords are Multi-word phrases that are more specific, such as engagement photography, NYC shoe designer, and LA dog cafe. Head keywords can catch a more general audience who might not be specifically looking for you, whereas long-tail keywords cater to those who search with the intent of finding a specific product or service.

How did you brainstorm your keywords? Any tools or tricks that aided you in the process? Share your thoughts and tips in the comments below!

Congratulations, the first big step has been taken - you launched your website! 

Now, it’s time to check how it is doing. Monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your site will help you determine its performance, uncover optimization opportunities and ultimately assist you with converting your visitors into actual customers. 

Squarespace Analytics is our website reporting tool, designed to empower users with a wide range of insights including pageviews, conversion, sales, referrers, and bounce rate, that can offer a clear picture of how your site is performing. Set yourself up for success thinking through what exactly you want to measure, why you are measuring it, and what actionable steps you’ll be able to take. And through the Squarespace App you can have this info accessible on the go! 

The most relevant and useful metrics to track are certainly dependent on your website and business goals. Nevertheless, there are some claimed key website KPIs that should require attention like conversion rates, mobile vs desktop traffic, or traffic sources. Which are your top ones and why? Tell us about them in the comments below.

Sliders AKA slideshows are revolving carousels in a website showing products or photos. Often they’re displayed as a banner at the top of the webpage and occupy the full width of the browser window. 

They create a dynamic browsing experience and offer visitors a taste of your brand, your work, or offerings. With Squarespace you can create sliders using Gallery Sections, Summary Blocks and Gallery Blocks. 

While their usage is very popular and they can be helpful to consolidate content so more is visible on one screen, some find them more often distracting than attracting, due to the fact of several messages being delivered at once which can lead to the focus being lost. Deciding if including carousels is the right choice for you will depend on your business, audience, and goals. 

What are your feelings on using sliders and what are some examples where you feel folks have used them intentionally and effectively? Share in the comments below!

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool for managing the address and information that appears for your company in Google Search and Maps. Is it worth listing your business? The short answer is: yes. You can either set this up directly in Google, or within your Squarespace website you can manage Google My Business via the Marketing > Location Management panel.

Having an additional avenue for your customers to call, email, visit your website, and engage with your business can help boost your search rankings. You can engage with customer reviews, list your contact and business information, and gain insights into local search performance.

You may be asking: what if I don’t have a physical address to list for my business? Well, there are several options available if you want to use Google My Business.

• You can list “I deliver goods and services to my customers" to hide an address
• The post office can assign a physical address to a P.O. box upon request
• You can rent a mailbox at a private delivery company that offers the same option

Have you leveraged Google My Business for your own website? Any insights gained from it’s additional analytics? Let us know in a comment below how GMB has worked for you!

Note that Location Management is a Premium feature available in Business and Commerce plans. Only site owners and contributors with Admin permissions can make changes to Location Management.

Hi @sallygregg,

You can change your notification settings by navigating to the drop down menu in the top right-hand corner and selecting Account Settings. There's a box on the right-hand side with Notification Settings. Here you can enable email notifications by clicking into any of the categories you're interested in. 

Let us know if you have any other questions!

SEO is all about doing what you can to ensure your content is a top result in searches for relevant keywords. Solid SEO copy helps your intended audience find  your site in the first place, pulling in those most likely to engage with your content and convert from visitors into customers. Working on your SEO copywriting is a great way to ensure your site ends up in front of the people who need or want it the most.

Ultimately, you want to create content that is useful to your customers. An easy way to get started is by researching what customers are asking you specifically (via your customer service or socials) or what people are asking Google about your keywords. You can do this by searching a related keyword and looking at the ‘People also ask’ box.

Once you know what information would be most useful, take the time to outline your content. This will help you keep your writing focused and avoid losing your readers through superfluous tangents. Consider using questions as headers where you can, to enforce the idea that you are providing answers. 

What have you found most impactful when tackling SEO copywriting? Share your favorite tips in the comments below!

Promotional pop-ups are a great way to grab someone’s attention when they visit your website. You can let potential customers know about exciting sales or the launch of a new product. Pop-ups can also be used for more ‘housekeeping’ purposes like conducting surveys or asking visitors to verify their age for any age-restricted content you might have.

On Squarespace you can tailor a variety of aspects of your pop-ups to maximize their impact. You can choose the layout, deciding between a subtle placement in the bottom right corner or going for a more dramatic, full page design. You can also customize the timing and frequency that they display. Learn more in creating a promotional pop-up.

How have you used promotional pop-ups on your website? Which settings have been the most impactful for you? Share in the comments below!

Call to Action (or CTA) is a buzzword in the Marketing and Web Content fields these days. But, what actually is a CTA? Simply put, you’re inviting your visitors to take a desired action. It can range from two words (“Buy Now”) to two sentences, and its end goal could be anything - getting email subscribers, trial sign-ups, conversions, etc.

A well crafted CTA can determine not only whether people take the desired action, but also how many. For an effective CTA, you need to consider both the design and the placement. For the design you can consider questions like how long should it be? How do I want to format it so it pops? When it comes to placement options, you can choose to put it at the top of your website for maximum visibility. Or you might find that placing it after some contextual info makes it that much more impactful. 

Do these decisions sound familiar to you? Tell us all about your learnings, tips and best practices on how to design powerful CTAs for a website and where to place them in the comments below!

 ‘Above the fold’ traditionally refers to print media, specifically the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. There is some debate amongst web designers as to whether the concept of ‘the fold’ applies to digital content. 

Some believe that given device context, such as viewing a website on a mobile device, scrolling is an agreed upon action. As long as it looks like there is a reason to keep scrolling, visitors will continue to do so. 

Others believe that even if the exact location of the fold changes between devices, it still very much exists. Visitors will only continue to scroll if the content above the fold is promising enough to encourage them to do so. Clear indicators of the content to come, like anchor links or engaging imagery, will let your visitors know they have arrived at the right page and encourage them to keep scrolling.

Do you think of the fold when designing your website? Has it affected how you structure your content? Tell us all about it in the comments below!

Colors can be used throughout your website to tell the story of your brand. They are a key part of the experience the customer has with you, as colors are often what a customer remembers most. Colors are also an opportunity to direct your visitor’s eye towards important buttons or calls to action (CTAs).

While it’s tempting to stick to your brand colors throughout your website, we find that choosing a different color for these buttons and CTAs helps them stand out. Think of your brand colors as your ‘passive’ ones and choose an ‘action’ color for all of your links and buttons. 

What are your color preferences for your website? Do you like the contrast of ‘action’ colors or prefer to keep it all within your brand color palette? Tell us about how you use color in the comments below.

There are many exciting ways to grow your business beyond traditional marketing, including being proactive about creating an outreach list to generate buzz for your business. 

Your outreach list can include social media influencers, industry bloggers, traditional reporters for industry publications, or even the owners of similar businesses. Networking in these groups can help you reach and connect with your target audience on a variety of fronts!

How did you build your outreach list? Did you develop a standard pitch to send? Tell us all about how you tackled the outreach process and what you learned along the way in the comments below.

As a small business owner, you have an exciting opportunity to personalize the customer experience, like answering promptly or following up on solutions provided, in a way that big companies don’t. You could also have a detailed FAQ page to address commonly asked questions, or maybe a generous return/exchange policy. Having an action plan for every avenue of communication, or potential scenario, from the beginning can help you make sure your customers feel happy and supported. Great customer service can lead to repeat business and referrals!

How have you set yourself up for success in providing quality support to your customers? What tools do you use on or in conjunction with your website? What scenarios did you think through? Which policies have come in handy?

Share your customer service tips in the comments below!

Hi @queenslanderaviaries,

The Afterpay logo appearing on the product details page is currently only available for merchants using Squarespace 7.1. We know how important it is to all merchants to have this feature so we have logged it with our development team. We can't guarantee implementation or a timeline but it's on their radar.

Backlinks are links from one website to another. For example, if a cooking blog references and links to your website in their blog post, that’s a backlink. Growing your backlinks over time can have a significant impact on your website’s SEO ranking, as they reinforce the quality of the content on your site. The question then becomes, how can you generate backlinks to your website? 

Best practices include writing guest posts on other publication sites or developing shareable content that your audience posts to their social media. With a variety of places to start from, what advice would you give to someone embarking on their backlinking journey? What strategies have you found most successful? Share in the comments below!

Your website’s navigation might not be the first thing you think about when setting up your website, but it is a key aspect of your customer’s experience with your brand. A smooth navigation setup can really make an impact and encourage repeat visitors.

A common goal for navigation is making sure your visitors don’t have to click more than 2-3 times to get from one section of the website to another. Some achieve this by sketching their site out on paper first. Others put everything in first, then let their analytics do the talking. Everyone has different strategies to achieve their perfect site navigation.

What has been most helpful to you when setting up your website’s navigation? Share in the comments below!

Your website and brand’s personality is established by your overall styling choices like fonts and colors. But it’s through the imagery you choose that your website’s tone and message can really shine.

You can take your own photos or use stock images, or you could choose to use infographics instead. Whichever you decide to do, choosing compelling images can help further your business goals. 

What are ways you’ve used imagery on your website? What kind of impact did it have? Share in the comments below!

There are a variety of details to consider when setting up your online store, all in service of the ultimate goal: helping your customers find what they’re looking for and complete checkout smoothly. 

Get a head start by brainstorming tags, categories, and subcategories so customers can quickly find what they are looking for and browse related items. Think early on about which shipping options and potential discount codes might serve you best. These kinds of  decisions can have a direct impact on performance.

How do you make sure your online store is set up for success? Share in the comments below!

A nonprofit’s online presence is key in its success. A website provides the perfect opportunity to educate the public about your cause as well as allow visitors to show support to the mission. Creating an impactful website will encourage new and returning visitors to share your cause, donate, and even volunteer.

From strategically placed call-to-action buttons and Donation Blocks to striking the right balance between text and infographics, there are many ways to improve your website’s impact. 

What are your tried and true tips and tricks for launching an effective nonprofit website? Share in the comments below!

Hi all,

Afterpay, a similar 'buy now pay later' payment processor, is now available on eligible plans! Learn more about enabling Afterpay with our Help Guide: Accepting Afterpay. 

Thank you for your patience and feedback!

Hi all,

Afterpay, a similar 'buy now pay later' payment processor, is now available on eligible plans! Learn more about enabling Afterpay with our Help Guide: Accepting Afterpay. 

Thank you for your patience and feedback!

Hi all,

Afterpay is now available on eligible plans for merchants in the US, UK, Canada and Australia! Learn more about enabling Afterpay with our Help Guide: Accepting Afterpay. 

Thank you for your patience and feedback!

Hi all,

Afterpay is now available on eligible plans! Learn more about enabling Afterpay with our Help Guide: Accepting Afterpay. 

Thank you for your patience and feedback!

With 77% of internet users in 2019 reporting that they read blogs regularly, it’s no wonder starting a blog is such a popular endeavor. While seemingly simple and straightforward, blogs can often be more time consuming and require more effort than anticipated. 

Hindsight is often 20/20. What do you wish you knew before starting your blog that would’ve made the whole process smoother? What best practices can you share to help set others up for success?

Share in the comments below!