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41: Uncovering Hidden Gems: Lesser-Known Squarespace Features You Should Be Using · ThinkInsideTheSquare

• 0:09
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Launching your first Squarespace website is an exciting time, but with so much to focus on, it's very easy to miss a few key details.
• 0:17
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: In this episode of Think Inside the Square, I'll be sharing the top five settings that new Squarespace-ers often overlook to help you polish your site and make it truly feel professional.
• 0:28
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Welcome to Think Inside the Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a Squarespace website that you're proud of.
• 0:33
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I'm your host, Becca Harpain, squarespace expert and creator of InsideTheSquareco.
• 0:38
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: In this episode, I'm telling you about the five most commonly overlooked Squarespace settings that I think everyone should know about.
• 0:45
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: If you're about to connect your domain or you've already launched, this is important information to know.
• 0:50
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.
• 0:54
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: co/ podcast.
• 0:57
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace Incorporated.
• 1:00
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This content is not affiliated with Squarespace Incorporated.
• 1:04
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Before we jump into this list of the top five Squarespace settings that often get overlooked, I want to be clear that none of these are necessary for a functioning Squarespace website.
• 1:14
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: These are the little touches that take your website from amateur to professional, so let's dig in.
• 1:20
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The first on my list of five is the favicon, or browser icon.
• 1:24
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Have you ever noticed that little icon next to the website title or page title in your browser tab?
• 1:30
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: That is your favicon and by default, squarespace throws in this little gray cube.
• 1:35
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Not exactly a reflection of your brand, right?
• 1:38
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: It's also a dead giveaway that it's a Squarespace website that wasn't created by an experienced Squarespace designer, and it's so easy to update.
• 1:47
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Head over to settings and select favicon.
• 1:50
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Here you can upload a small one-to-one square ratio PNG images that can perfectly represent your brand.
• 1:56
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Think about it like a tiny icon for your website.
• 2:00
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This should be about 100 pixels in height and width and it's not a good place for text or complicated images.
• 2:06
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Again, think icon here.
• 2:08
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Okay, you also have the option to upload an alternative version for dark mode.
• 2:13
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This means you can upload a darker tone favicon for a lighter browser tab and a lighter version for a darker tab.
• 2:20
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Totally optional and not necessary, but I wanted to mention it.
• 2:25
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The second overlooked setting is a custom 404 error page.
• 2:29
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Have you ever typed in the wrong URL and landed on this generic page not found message?
• 2:35
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: That is a website 404 error page and Squarespace provides a basic one, but when I say basic, I really mean it.
• 2:43
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This default page is so boring boring and it doesn't have to be.
• 2:47
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: It is super easy to turn this mistake into a moment that shows off your brand's personality and you can showcase content that you want people to see.
• 2:55
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: In the not linked section of your pages menu, you can create a page that will serve as your 404 error page.
• 3:02
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Here you can include a fun message about why they're seeing the error, maybe a search bar to help visitors find what they're looking for, or even a link to your latest blog post.
• 3:11
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I have a full podcast episode with creative ideas for your 404 error page and I'll link to it in the show notes.
• 3:19
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Next up on our list of overlooked settings are the social links on your website.
• 3:23
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: You can have social media links as an element in your website header, maybe in the footer of your website or on additional pages where it makes sense that people will want to click on those links and interact with you on a social media profile.
• 3:36
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Now, when you add those social links to Squarespace, there's a default link that they go to.
• 3:41
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Some of them link directly to Squarespace's profile, and if you've updated the links in your website header, you still need to double check to make sure that all of them are, in fact, linking to your profiles.
• 3:55
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: You want to make sure your visitors land on the right page to connect with you and not with Squarespace.
• 4:01
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The fourth setting on our often overlooked list is also about social, but specifically your social share image.
• 4:07
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Whenever you share a link to your Squarespace website on social media, a preview image often pops up, a little thumbnail image.
• 4:15
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This is your social share image and guess what?
• 4:18
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: You can customize it for every individual page, blog post or even individual products.
• 4:24
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Head on over to the settings for that page, post or product and inside that settings menu you'll see a social image option.
• 4:31
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Here you can upload an image that truly represents that unique content on your website.
• 4:37
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I recommend uploading an image that's a 9 to 16 aspect ratio for best results here, but I want you to keep in mind that social media platforms display images in different sizes, while a 9 to 16 ratio works well for a lot of them.
• 4:52
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Make sure that your content is centered horizontally and vertically and don't leave important information near the edges.
• 4:59
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: There's also no need to add a URL here either.
• 5:02
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This image will be displayed with the active link, so think of it like a book cover and not a billboard.
• 5:08
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I also want to mention that if you add a new social share image for a link that was already shared on a meta platform like Facebook, you'll need to update their database so it knows about the new image.
• 5:20
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Otherwise it will keep using the old one.
• 5:22
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I'll share a link to their free debugging tool in the show notes.
• 5:26
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: We are on to tip number five, an often overlooked opportunity to connect with people who want to connect with you.
• 5:32
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: When someone fills out a contact form on your website, squarespace automatically displays a simple thank you message, but you can customize this message and even use HTML to add different text types or active links.
• 5:45
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Go to the content tab while editing your form and look for the post submit option.
• 5:50
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Here you can add your own basic text.
• 5:52
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Maybe consider a warmer welcome, like we're so glad you reached out.
• 5:56
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Here's something you can expect to hear from us.
• 5:57
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: But you can also use this space to offer valuable resources, maybe share a free downloadable guide or a discount code for someone's first purchase.
• 6:06
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Squarespace allows you to add basic HTML code within this post-submit message.
• 6:12
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: This opens the doors for creative customization, so you can use headers or display links to other content.
• 6:18
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I'll share an example of some basic HTML in the show notes for ep isode at insidethesquare.
• 6:24
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: co/ podcast.
• 6:25
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Again, to customize this post-submit message, all you need to do is click on the post-submit option in the content tab of your form, add a custom text message or any HTML you want to.
• 6:36
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: You can also redirect people to a completely different page after a post submit, but that's not always necessary.
• 6:43
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: A quick custom message is usually enough to create a unique experience for your website visitors.
• 6:48
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I hope you found these five tips helpful for your Squarespace project.
• 6:52
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Here's a quick recap on the five most overlooked settings that are technically optional but make a really big impact on how professional your site looks to the rest of the world.
• 7:01
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The first tip I shared was to customize your browser icon with a branded touch.
• 7:05
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I want you to upload a one-to-one ratio PNG image.
• 7:09
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: That's a simple icon-like design that represents your brand.
• 7:12
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: To add this image to your Squarespace website, select Settings and then select Favicon or Favicon However you decide to pronounce it.
• 7:21
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: That's where you add that image.
• 7:22
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The second setting I talked about was creating a custom 404 error page so you can direct people to content you want them to see, not just a generic, boring message.
• 7:31
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: I've got a lot more info about that in the show notes for this episode.
• 7:35
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: After you've created that page, head on over to your pages menu, select system pages, click on 404 page and here you can assign your own custom page to overwrite the default 404 error page that Squarespace wrote for you.
• 7:48
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The third, often overlooked setting is your social media links.
• 7:52
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: You need to make sure that all of them and I mean all of them point to your profiles and not the default ones.
• 7:58
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Please double check that information.
• 8:00
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Now, speaking of social, the fourth tip that I shared in this episode was to add a custom social share image to every individual page, post and product on your site.
• 8:10
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: That image will display when a link is shared on social platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn.
• 8:15
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Keep this image to a 9 to 16 ratio, but center the content, because different platforms will display this image at different sizes.
• 8:23
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: The last tip that I shared in this episode was to personalize the thank you message for your contact forms.
• 8:29
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: You can customize this text and even add some creative HTML if you want it to be really special.
• 8:34
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Those five settings can help you polish up your new website in a very professional way, and I hope you're inspired to hop into Squarespace and give them a try.
• 8:43
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Inside the Square.
• 8:46
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: If you enjoyed it and want to learn more about all the cool things Squarespace can do, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, wherever you happen to be listening to this episode.
• 8:54
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Thanks again for tuning in and, most importantly, have fun with your Squarespace website.
• 9:05
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: Bye for now.
• 9:07
  Squarespace Expert Becca Harpain: To learn more about how to make a Squarespace website that's uniquely yours,