Three Tips For an Optimized Squarespace Website
So, you’re looking to create a new website for your business, buuuuuut don't have much experience with development or coding?
Good news! We are living in an exciting time of no-code websites, meaning your ‘make a website for my business’ checklist just got easier and less stressful.
There are several platforms to consider, but Squarespace is my fave. As someone who's new to the world of website design, Squarespace offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to build and update your website yourself.
With its drag-and-drop functionality, custom templates and themes, and built-in SEO features, Squarespace gives you all the tools you need to create a professional-looking website that can rank well in search engines (👈 which is how people find you in the great big land o’ Google!)
One of the key benefits of using Squarespace for your website design needs is its flexibility. Whether you're creating a personal travel blog or a yoga studio website, there are plenty of ways you can customize your site for your specific needs.
Tip 01: Customize Your Website's Style & Layout
Squarespace's customization options can be used to make your website stand out.
If you’re designing the website yourself, you can take advantage of Squarespace's pre-designed templates. These templates are cleanly designed and easy to customize. You can change your fonts and colors to make them match your brand's style.
And since the templates are mobile responsive, they will look good on any device (with a little tweaking from you) - whether it's a desktop or a smartphone.
Fun fact - mobile devices made up just half of all web traffic worldwide in 2022, and that number grows every year. So you really want to make sure you optimize for mobile while you’re designing your website!
COLORS
When it comes to color selection, choose 5 colors that go together.
✍️ TIP: If you have something like a photo collage of your ideal client or a screenshot of your overall brand vibe, you can upload a photo into the Canva color palette generator here (it’s free!). It will give you the matching Hex code colors. Pretty neat!
Using no more than 5 colors will create a consistent theme throughout your site.
Important for accessibility: pay attention to contrast. Ensure text is easy to read against background images by using contrasting colors or adding shapes behind the text.
FONTS
Font selection is easy to nerd out about - or to get lost in the weeds. 😅 Whatever font pairings you use, make sure they’re available in both Squarespace and any other design platforms you might be using (like Canva or Adobe Illustrator).
Selecting appropriate fonts can help establish your brand's personality while making content easy to read for your website visitors. General advice is to select no more than three fonts; you want a cohesive feel for your virtual guests.
Read more here:
CSS
Another way to add uniqueness to your Squarespace site is by using custom CSS code. This is a little more advanced, but Squarespace makes it easy to do things like add color to your navigation links, add extra font options (popular ones are handwritten scripts), change button colors, and more.
Read more here:
Tip 02: Use High-Quality and Optimized Images
As a business owner or freelancer, you absolutely want to create a website that looks beautiful. But you also need a website that is strategically designers and functions well.
Read more:
You want your visitors to enter your website and think “Oh yeah. I like it here.”
One of the best ways to enhance the visual appeal of your site is by using high-quality images. Using high-quality images enhances the overall design aesthetic of your website.
With crisp and clear visuals, your site can look more polished and professional. It can also improve user experience by making it easier for your website guests to understand your content and navigate through your pages. This can lead to increased engagement and ultimately higher conversion rates. 🙌
And important to note - when you take or use photos with your phone, the quality can look grainy or blurry on a desktop setting. If you can’t hire a photographer in the beginning, no worries! You can also download free stock images from sites like Unsplash or Pexels.
✍️ TIP: You can also sign up for Haute Stock’s email list (affiliate link) and get around a dozen of stock images emailed to you for free - these are a little higher quality and you might not see them on as many other designer’s websites.
Using high-quality and optimized images helps with SEO
Google search engines prioritize websites with high-quality images when determining rankings in search results pages. So if you want to get noticed by little Mz. Google, using high-quality and optimized images helps you get there.
Why finding and optimizing images is so important for SEO:
Optimizing images helps to improve the loading speed of your website. Large, uncompressed images can slow down page load times and make it more difficult for users to navigate around your site. By compressing and properly sizing your images before uploading them to Squarespace, you can ensure that your pages load quickly and efficiently.
Optimizing images helps search engines better understand what your site is all about. Adding a title to every image you put on your website - and adding alt text to every image - helps Google know what the theme and purpose of your site are.
By taking the time to carefully choose & optimize your images, you can improve the overall user experience of your site while also boosting its visibility in search results.
Tip 03: Optimize Your Website's Navigation and User Experience
Easy navigation and user experience are essential for a successful website.
Whole careers are built around this design aspect (like UX Design), and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re just starting out. But I gotcha. Here are some tips to get you started.
Easy Navigation and User Experience: Why it Matters
When your client lands on your website, they want to quickly find the information they are looking for. If a website is confusing, difficult to navigate, or hard to use, your visitors may become frustrated and leave the site without finding what they need. We don’t want that!
This can lead to high bounce rates, low engagement, and ultimately, a loss of potential customers or clients. 😬 Therefore, easy navigation and user experience are essential for a successful website.
Tips for Designing Clear Menus, Links, and Calls to Action
Keep the navigation menu simple and easy to navigate
Keep the menu items limited and organized in a logical hierarchy.
Use clear and descriptive labels that make it easy for visitors to know what they will find when they click on each menu item. Try to limit your upper navigation to no more than five pages.
Use descriptive and relevant link text: Links should be clearly labeled so visitors know what they will find when they click on them.
Use text that accurately reflects the content of the page it is linking to. For example, don’t use ‘Enid’s Interesting Journal’ when ‘Blog’ will do.
Avoid using generic phrases like "click here" or "read more."
Use clear and visible Calls to Action
A call to action (CTA) is a button or link that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, scheduling a free consult call, or making a purchase.
Make sure your CTAs are clear and visible on the page, so visitors can easily find and click on them.
Use responsive design for mobile devices
Over 50% of global traffic access websites on mobile devices rather than desktops. Make sure your website is designed with mobile users in mind. Use responsive design to ensure that your website looks good and is easy to use on any screen size.
These three tips will help you create an optimized Squarespace website that looks *chef’s kiss*, has a clean user experience, and attracts and engages your website visitors.
Okee! So there we go.If you got through this and realized, ‘Ermmmm, Janessa this was helpful, but now I don’t want to spend the time having to think about this. I want to spend my time actually focusing on my business, not building a website,’ then you can schedule a free consult with me here ↓
