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1 Site, 2 Domains, 2 Designs.... possible?

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I'm not sure where to put this, so if anyone has a better suggestion, please feel free to let me know. I've not been able to find the answers I need. It's possible I may be missing something in the various plan details.

I'm helping with a special project for an art gallery that already has a fairly new basic Squarespace site. They plan to upgrade soon and add a shop for their artists to sell their work online.

They do a special event every year, which always had it's own separate & temporary (6 months +/-) website (elsewhere), with a separate domain name. It was hosted together, but not at a DIY web builder.

For the upcoming event, they would like to attach itself to the gallery's main site, and use it's shop (once established). But I see a couple potential issues that I'd like to work out in advance. I hope I can explain it properly

1. The event has it's own domain name, which would go directly to that site. I understand that we can use multiple domain names, but would name2. com go to the main site's home page, or can it be set to go directly to the event's home page?

2. The event pages have always been a bit different, in that they use a different logo, and some of the committee likes it more splashy. I don't see a way to change things like navigation and other design elements without it being global across the site. Is that right? Are there ways to work around it?

3. The event site has a number of pages, and as the event progresses,  pages are added, pages are removed, content is changed... some committee members like a clear navigation menu right there, as opposed to having all the pages in a submenu of the EVENT. Is navigation global across the site? (One workaround I've considered is hiding the main menu and adding buttons, but this looks bulky and terrible to me).

4. Is it possible to have the two separate websites on one plan? The shop would be shared, it would just have different things in it for a month or so.

Thanks in advance for any answers you can give.

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Technically a site can have only one home page, but it isn't all that hard to make one site perform like two. There are a number of ways to go about it. My suggestion is to create two groups of pages,  one in the linked section of your site, the other in the unlinked section. The pages in the linked would show up on the home page nav bar, one domain assigned to it, the second you would build your own nav bar in the header of the page that becomes the faux 'home page" and the second domain can be pointed at it.  The only thing I don't know for sure is how you would point the second to that page's url using SS as opposed to a third party domain server but it can be done one way or the other. Logos and headers that are unique to each site's pages, that is going to take a bit of coding to accomplish. But folks here have done that already, for different reasons such as wanting some pages to have a different color logo, background color, fonts, ECT. Two seperate sites on on one plan, no , one account, using same means to pay yes. 

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23 hours ago, ineedhelp said:

1 Site, 2 Domains, 2 Designs.... possible?

Whilst it is "possible", I don't recommend it.

You'll be able to achieve everything you need with two separate sites, and the subscription cost of the additional site is likely to be less than the cost of your time to try to style headers and footers differently.

In answer to your first question, the secondary domain name will always be redirected to the primary. You won't have a separate landing page for other domains.

About me: I've been a SQSP User for 18 yrs. I was invited to join the Circle when it launched in 2016. I have been a Circle Leader since 2017. I don't work for Squarespace. I value honesty, transparency, diversity and good design ♥.
Work: I founded and run SF.DIGITAL, building Squarespace Extensions to supercharge your commerce website. 
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Thanks Paul. I'm thinking I can set up the shops on the main site, and just link from the event site. I don't think they'll mind paying the extra $$$ for the second site.

Now to figure out how to make it flashy, yet classy. (I'm new to using Squarespace).

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Take your time choosing a template. SS 7.1 is just one template with multiple starting desings, any one can be made to look like any other using design options. 

7.0 template families are all very unique from each other and making one family member look like a template in a different family member cannot be done easily if at all without a new build out.  So, look at them for awhile, that is what the trial is for. That is what we are for as well.  One of the best template families in my opinion is Brine with 40 starting designs.  I would look there first and see if that works for you, and you can always ask here if something has a particular look and feel and will work for a particular application. 

https://www.squarespace.com/templates 7.1 starting designs. 

https://www.squarespace.com/templates?onboarding_v7_1_0819=control 7.0 template families and starting designs. 

I have built three sites using the 7.0 Avenue Template, one of the oldest but very classy. I have two on Brine and one on Wexley. I have no published sites using 7.0 but am familiar with it having built a number of them for myself in my "lab" so to speak. 

my random views derrick Lee parker

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Thanks for the help, Derrick.

I made a free sample site about a month ago for them to look at , when they first asked about doing it. Even after warning that they had only 2 weeks to give me feedback, they didn't get around to it, and it expired.

I'm trying to get them to decide on key things in advance before I try again. In the meantime, I do have access to the main site, but do not want to mess with anything that I might not be able to fix.

Before I tell them it's OK, would you know if it is allowable for their second site (with a 2nd paid, but basic plan) to share the shop with the gallery's main site after they upgrade?

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Yes, exactly that. The shop(s) would be on the gallery's main site, and I assume they'd have items in there year 'round.

But during the month or so that the special show is going on, there would be an additional shop containing all the pieces in that show. This  show would have  200+ unique artworks, by nearly as many separate artists. If SquareSpace allows it, and to save the gallery some $$$ I think the way to do it would be to have the event site link to the shop.

My question is less about the technical aspects of linking, and more about sharing one account's site features, even though they are actually the same company. It would be money squarespace would not be getting.

I don't know how clunky it would be. I anticipate having to double up on data entry if I need to do shop entries o one site, and a slideshow/gallery or whatever they decide they would like. 😕

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Derrick, I took a look at the Brine Demo site, along with a few others. I  love the way they look, I like the way the shops look. The gallery uses Montauk, and while it's classy and clean, I wonder if the shop pages are all they could be. Maybe the event account needs the shop, and the main gallery can use that!

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Sounds good, simple to link one site to another, same as one site linking to itself by using a drop down folder (which I do on my site) or buttons or image links, Can be made to look quite transparent. Just remember that under a personal plan that site  needs to be built  using the sites built in features, since css code needs a business plan. I would make the site with the business plan the largest site that carries the heaviest load so to speak. 

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