Tips, Tricks, and Checklists
Tips & Tricks
If you manage a Squarespace website or are just getting started, it can be overwhelming to navigate its features. Even if you have the basics down, like adding blocks and laying them out, there is so much more under the hood: settings, styles, metadata, and on and on.
To help you dive a little deeper, I’ve put together this guide with a few ways you can make a big difference on your website.
Accessibility
You don’t get to opt-out of accessibility. If you don’t think about how your site can be used by individuals who are blind, visually-impaired, Deaf, hard-of-hearing, or who use assistive devices, you’re still conveying your values (in many cases, that your site deprioritizes people with disabilities!).
There are five ways you can improve your site’s accessibility.
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This developer tool is built into Google Chrome and can be used to evaluate accessibility and SEO.
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Your page content should form an outline with its headings. Each page should have a single Heading 1, followed by headings 2 (sections) that each have nested headings (subsections h3, h4, h5).
This is beneficial to everyone, not merely individuals who use screen readers. It allows the page to be skimmed more easily, in addition to having a clear layout and consistent visual style.
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You could display a link two ways:
But the second one is superior! Links should be descriptive, that is, understandable without context. Generic phrases like “learn more,” “click here” or “visit page,” aren’t just boring — they’re inaccessible!
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There’s a lot of misinformation about alt text, often from able-bodied folks who have never used a screen reader (or who try to use one, and in doing so, use it incorrectly). Read this article to learn about alt text and how it can be used.
Harvard: How to Write Helpful Alt Text
Harvard’s Accessibility office created this guide on writing alt text.
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Contrast Checker extension for Chrome
With this Chrome extension, you can evaluate the contrast between two colors according to WCAG standards. You should aim to pass the AAA standard!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You’re probably not aiming to be discovered via Google search, but this is still important. SEO is part of your website’s digital hygiene, and it’s used not only by search engines, but also social media platforms. In other words, greater SEO will also optimize your social sharing on social media (like Facebook, X, and BlueSky), and other platforms like iMessage, WhatsApp, etc.
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These tools are built into Squarespace for SEO.
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When editing in Squarespace:
Always, always, always edit the mobile layout.
Eliminate or reduce any overlap of blocks.
When trying to fine-tune vertical spacing, use the vertical align options for blocks.
When trying to fine-tune horizontal spacing, adjust the editing grid in the section settings.
Pre-built Squarespace sections will speed up your editing, especially with mobile styles.
Save your own sections and reuse them across the site. This helps with consistency.
Section settings are important, particularly the height (padding), “fill screen” option, the content vertical alignment, background, and colors.
It’s always a good idea to click the cogwheel/settings icons when they are listed. Lots of treats inside.
Honestly, one of the best things to do is to spend time clicking around! Set up an inactive test page and experiment around.
Blog versus Portfolio collections
If you have a set of items that you’d like to keep together—like sermons, reports, announcements, or posts—you can use a collection in Squarespace. There are two types of collection pages: blog and portfolio. The former includes:
Tags
Categories
Other metadata (author, date, etc.)
Standard, single-column layout (technically you can create multiple columns, but it’s geared toward single-column layouts!)
Style changes affect the entire collection
Portfolio pages are:
More flexible
Identical to regular Squarespace pages (i.e., uses the drag-and-drop grid)
Independent of each other, i.e., style changes only apply to one page
However, portfolio pages lack tags, categories, authors, and other metadata.
Case study
Let’s say you’re setting up a collection of sermons. Should you use a blog or portfolio collection?
My opinion: use a blog! By using a blog collection, you can add a sermon date, tags, and categories (children’s sermons, sermons with video, manuscript only). Users can easily find a particular date, or if congregants don’t remember the date, they can filter sermons with any of the metadata (themes, topics, scripture, dates, etc.)
Checklists
Sitewide Checklist
For your site, check:
Site title
Site SEO description
Social sharing image
Favicon
Social sharing icon
404 page (if different than default)
Design Checklist
Remember: consistency is king.
On each page, check:
Mobile layout
Sufficient style contrast with typography (size, weight, color, etc.)
Sufficient palette color contrast
Clear page structure (headings, subheadings, etc.)
For text-heavy pages, sufficiently narrow width
Consistent design motifs and layout
Few, if any, overrides to typographic and color palette
Goldilocks blank space (not too much, not too little)
No overlapping block boundaries
Proper vertical alignment set for block content
Basic Accessibility Checklist
For every page, check for:
Sufficient color contrast for typography
Sufficient text sizing and style contrast (e.g., no thin, extra-small text)
Alt text for all non-decorative images
Semantic heading order (H1 element = title, then H2-H4 for subheadings)
Descriptive link text
SEO Checklist for Pages and Collection Items
Page title
Page description
Social sharing image (if different than default)
No AI 🙂
