Gumbalaya

On 4/9/2024 at 1:42 PM, Ziggy said:

You would have to put certain blogs on a different blog page within a members area:

https://www.squarespace.com/ecommerce/membership-sites

Thanks, this is what I have done but I want to stay within the same blog structure. Kind of like a Newssite where you can read 5 articles and the 6th is blurred, you can unlock by subscribing right there.

I would love to give users the option to read a certain number of blog posts, pages, view certain numbers of gallery images, and if exceeded, they can subscribe (and pay).

Is this somehow possible or in the making?

On 2/21/2024 at 2:24 AM, BreeEinfalt said:

Hey everyone, 

Adding to this thread in the hopes that by providing a templated email (feel free to edit), the Squarespace Community can collectively use the Support Email feature to voice their frustrations. I've also found in past when I've had issues that taking to social media and tagging @Squarespce also prompts direct action from their customer support team. Hopefully, we can implement some real change by expressing our dissatisfaction, frustrations and lack of support to the C-Suite at Squarespace so they become aware of this and fix it as soon as possible!

TEMPLATE EMAIL:

I am writing to express my profound concern regarding the persistent issues surrounding Core Web Vitals, specifically Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and the performance of your Content Delivery Network (CDN) that are adversely affecting our website's SEO rankings. This matter is not isolated but rather a widespread challenge that a significant portion of Squarespace users, including ourselves, are grappling with.

The absence of an option to upload images in the WEBP format further exacerbates this problem, leaving us without a viable solution to optimise our site's loading speed effectively. This limitation not only hinders our ability to enhance user experience but also our site's visibility on search engines, which is paramount.

I have come across a forum where numerous users share similar frustrations, indicating a critical need for Squarespace to escalate its efforts in addressing these SEO visibility impairments caused by unresolved Core Web Vitals issues. The discourse clearly illustrates a growing discontent among your clientele, who are considering alternative platforms for their website needs due to these ongoing shortcomings.

[Forum Reference: https://forum.squarespace.com/topic/169854-core-web-vitals/page/7/]

We seek concrete solutions and transparent communication from Squarespace on how you plan to address these critical issues. Specifically, we urge you to:

1. Implement functionality that allows users to upload and utilise WEBP images, enabling us to optimise our visual content more effectively for speed and performance.
2. Enhance the efficiency of your JavaScript and CSS loading, focusing on optimising site loading times, especially for mobile users, to meet the evolving standards of web performance.
3. Provide a clear and detailed roadmap outlining the steps Squarespace intends to take to ameliorate these Core Web Vitals issues. It is imperative that Squarespace acknowledges the impact these issues have on businesses' SEO rankings and demonstrates accountability through proactive communication and action.

Our objective is not to seek apologies but to obtain a definitive plan of action that will assist us and other Squarespace users in navigating these challenges effectively. The success of our businesses on the digital front is heavily reliant on these foundational aspects of web performance, and as such, we implore Squarespace to prioritize and expedite the resolution of these issues.

We look forward to your prompt response and are eager to see the steps Squarespace will take to address these critical concerns. Your commitment to improving user experience and SEO performance is crucial for us to continue leveraging your platform for our digital presence.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

Regards,

[Your Name] [Your Position] [Your Contact Information]

Sent, thanks for the boilerplate

Got the same issue today in all browsers.

On 12/24/2023 at 3:13 AM, tuanphan said:

You try adding some code like this to Website Tools (under Not Linked) > Custom CSS

.meta-description p {
    line-height: 1.8 !important;
}

 

Thanks, this increases line space for all text lines, not just for the paragraph breaks but I only want to increase the paragraph line size.

Image caption uses such a small paragraph break line size that it is hardly noticeable.

It uses Paragraph 2 style which features a big enough paragraph break gap in regular pages and text blocks but not in image caption description blocks.

Example image caption: https://thie.me/ai-image-stories/nthonis-de-rooere-bosch

Example page text: https://thie.me/artificial-intelligence-in-marketing-storytelling-and-as-an-art-form

Can I configure this universally anywhere?

On 12/20/2023 at 6:09 PM, Artcoast said:

I wrote to them today, here is their response:

 

I received the same canned response months ago. After I linked back to this thread here, they promised to hand it over to their development team but that was it. No follow up, no beep.

i think they’re ashamed and so they should be. Not for difficult technical issues but for ignorant behavior towards their customers.

10 hours ago, Ziggy said:

When adding a new image you just need to move it to the top of the gallery, there isn't a way to do this on the way you describe.

Thanks @Ziggy. Would be neat if ascending/decending order could be chosen but this works too.

I would like to show the latest image by date added as the starting image of the gallery in slideshow mode.

Purpose and Background: I create daily ai comics based on the news of the day. Users should see the latest image and move backwards in time when sliding.

Instead the first image is shown that I created. In a year that image will be a year old with many images in between that starting image and the latest one.

I could tell them to use the controls and scroll left but that's lame.

Is there a way to feature the latest image in gallery slideshow 7.1 template?

Thanks much!

From my galleries only 2-3% of images are shown in Google Images. The specific images vary somewhat though. It seems that Google knows a lot more images than it shows, alternating between the known stash. Weird but even there I don't think Google has more than 5% indexed. From all galleries though, some of them have hundreds of images and Google shows 2.

On 9/4/2023 at 3:28 AM, simon.stjohn said:

I want to add my voice to this appalling situation. After so many years and given the financial success of Squarespace, the fact they have not found a solution to the obvious flaws in their backend that cause most of these problems is unconscionable.

The most (un)helpful advice they give is to reduce image sizes, which I already do - but most of the problem, as highlighted by many more knowledgeable than myself in the comments above, has to do with issues like loading unnecessary libraries etc.

I will not be building my next site on SS. I know going to Wordpress will have its issues, but I can't stay in the same boat and continue financially rewarding a company that spends large amounts on marketing to expand its client base instead of investing in improving their system.

In the end, like it or not, the pressure we face as customers of Squarespace is that Google is marking down our sites for poor performance and it is hard to justify continuing to support a platform that devalues my efforts and sees my penalised by Google.

Anyone from Squarespace care to comment - in particular not to argue with the hundreds of comments here, but to tell us what you are doing to fix these deficiencies - or if you intend to keep doing nothing?

It keeps getting ignored. How much longer?

I guess until enough old timers move.

But with the influx of new users I guess SS would accept that price.

On 9/21/2023 at 1:39 PM, paul2009 said:

There are no plans to release a replacement for 7.1, so there's no need to worry about a new version coming out. All updates are incremental and are automatically added to 7.1 sites. No user action is necessary.

After scores of people had to rebuild their 7.0 sites to benefit from the new 7.1 features, SQ would do some real damage if they'd force their customers again this way.

On 7/26/2023 at 7:05 PM, WhatIf said:

Got the same problem... Maybe only Squarespace could help us....

Unfortunately, they have been unable or unwilling to help for over two years.

Fixes may go too deep into the core of the template code, so we may have to wait for SS8 and then (if history is any guide) rebuild all our work from scratch (like moving from 7.0 to 7.1).

This is MY ONLY frustration with SS, but it is a MASSIVE one. I used to run 21 sites on SS, I am back down to 1 and will be leaving soon if no fix is offered or the above switch issue happens.

Perhaps SS has concluded that the acceptance of this problem still outweighs the frustration and their bottom line is still in tact. Then it would be a business decision on their part and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

I have the same issue. 

Keyword density checkers find keyword combinations like "open menu" "close menu" but I never use these words anywhere. Where do the they come from (template code?) and will Google count them in or ignore them? 

Thanks, Jens

You can try HTTrack to at least copy structure/content so it's there. Recovery from that offline mirror will not be possible but some piece of mind to safe the content.