Building Business Websites with Squarespace 7电子书

Building Business Websites with Squarespace 7

Table of Contents

Building Business Websites with Squarespace 7

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgments

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

Why choose Squarespace

About this book

What this book covers

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the support files

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Setting Up for Success – Your Website Toolkit

Understanding the process of making a website

Understanding website concepts

Structure

Functions

Content

Aesthetics

Writing a website plan

About your business

Business overview (the "elevator pitch")

Slogan (a.k.a. tagline or strapline)

Brand image

About your audience

Your customers (the site's target audience)

Primary purpose

About your website

Goals

Functions

Content

Integration

Site management

About this project

Project team

Project timelines

Project budget

Gathering materials, ideas, and inspiration

Creating idea boards

Website inspiration

Other resources for inspiration

Creating a sitemap

Don't make your customers work hard

Break it down

Keep it simple

Consider action words

Include notes or wireframes

Gathering raw materials

Branding

Logo

Colors

Fonts

Text content

Photos

Downloads

Videos or audio streams

Summary

2. Getting Started with Squarespace

Signing up for a Squarespace account

Finding your way around Squarespace

Understanding the Site Manager interface

Understanding Annotations

Using the Home Menu

Using the Pages area

Using the Design area

Using the Commerce area

Using the Metrics area

Comments

Settings

Logging in and out of Squarespace

Logging in

Logging in by pressing Esc

Accessing your site's login page

Logging in via the Squarespace site

Adjusting basic site settings

Adding Basic Information

Setting your site's language and region

Setting up the SEO options

Keeping your site private until its launch

Setting up your subscription plan and billing

Choosing the right subscription plan

The Personal plan

The Professional plan

The Business plan

Setting up your billing information

Summary

3. Working with Squarespace Templates

Understanding Squarespace templates

Characteristics of a Squarespace template

Page structure

Canvas

Header

Body

Footer

Sidebar(s)

Visual style

Special features

Different homepage

Secondary navigation area

Index page

Variable header images

Promoted Blocks in blog posts

Fixed navigation

Choosing the right Squarespace template for your site

Selecting the best template for your needs

Step 1: Consider the site's primary purpose and important functions

Step 2: List the special features that you want

Step 3: Identify the page structure you like best

Step 4: Refer back to your brand and content

An overview of the different Squarespace templates

Browsing templates

Important points to remember when browsing templates

Using the template's Read Me page

Trying out a new template for your site

Installing and previewing a new template

Choosing your final template

Fullscreen preview

The Style Editor

The Pages panel

Applying your chosen template to your site

Making a template live

Summary

4. Creating Your Site Framework: Pages, Items, Collections, and Navigation

Understanding Squarespace pages

Standard page

Collection Pages

Cover Page

Page cluster

Special properties of Collection and Index Pages

Adding pages to your site

Using the Pages panel

Understanding your template's unique way of displaying page elements

Using demo pages to create new pages

Standard page settings

Navigation Title

Page Title

The Enabled checkbox

Page Layout

Page Description

URL Slug

Password

The Thumbnail Image

Page Controls

Page Settings action buttons

Creating new pages

Collection Page settings

Blog Page Settings

Gallery Page Settings

Events Page Settings

Index Page Settings

Products Page Settings

Album Page Settings

Adding items to Collection Pages

Configuring the item settings

Blog post settings

Event settings

Gallery image settings

Gallery video settings

Product settings

Album track settings

Organizing items in Gallery, Products, or Album Pages

Moving Blog posts

Deleting items

Creating a Cover Page

Setting up your Cover Page

Organizing your site's navigation

Folder Settings

Creating an Index

Index Settings

Rearranging pages

Adding pages to a Folder or Index

Opening and closing Folders or Indexes

Adding pages to a secondary navigation area

Removing pages from your site

Disabling pages

Storing pages for later

Deleting pages

Moving pages to the Recycle Bin

Restoring a page from the Recycle Bin

Adding external site links to your site navigation

Adding social media profile links

Adding links to third-party sites

Summary

5. Adding, Editing, and Arranging Content in Your Web Pages

Understanding Blocks

Adding and removing blocks

Adding a block

Removing blocks

Adding basic content to your pages

Adding and formatting text using Text Blocks

Adding images using Image Blocks

Using stock images from Getty Images

Arranging blocks on the page

Moving a block to another position on the page

Canceling a move or other adjustment

Understanding fluid layouts and responsive design

Responsive design, image sizes, and screen resolutions

Adjusting the size of blocks and columns

Adjusting the width of columns, adjacent blocks, or wrapping blocks

Using Spacer and Line Blocks to fine-tune layouts

Adjusting the height of a Spacer Block

Adjusting images in Squarespace

Cropping and zooming images with LayoutEngine

Adjusting the Focal Point of images

Using the Aviary Image Editor

Adding content to sidebars or footers

Adding or editing content in a footer

Adding or editing content in a sidebar

Enabling a sidebar

Adding links that point to web pages or files

Assigning a link to word(s) in a Text Block

Assigning a link to an image

Creating a Button on your page

Summary

6. Using Blocks to Add Functionality, Rich Media, and Special Features

Adding images – beyond the standard Image Block

Gallery Blocks

Adding a Gallery Block

Adding galleries from external photo-sharing websites

Adding a gallery from Flickr, Instagram, or 500px

Embedding video into your pages

Adding a Google Map to your site

Capturing data and handling enquiries on your website

Using forms

Adding a form to your page

Using the Build section in the Form Editor

Setting the Storage preferences in the Form Editor

Customizing the Advanced settings in the Form Editor

Using Newsletter Blocks

Using content blocks to improve internal navigation and highlight content

Adding a search box

Displaying lists of tags, categories, authors, or dates

Displaying a list of tags or categories as a cloud

Displaying date-based lists in a calendar format

Using Content Link Blocks

Using Summary Blocks – the most powerful of blocks

Creative ways to use Summary Blocks

Featuring and filtering content

Bypassing template design restrictions

Summary Block design options

Grid

List

Carousel

Wall

Summary Block filtering and display options

Inserting sales or donation blocks to make transactions fast and easy

Using Amazon Blocks

Displaying a price list

Using Menu Blocks

Adding audio to your website

Using the Audio Block

Additional settings for podcasting

Using the Soundcloud Block

Adding a Twitter feed

Other types of blocks

Summary

7. Selling Online or Taking Donations with Squarespace Commerce

Setting up your Squarespace Commerce store

Prerequisites for Squarespace Commerce

The physical location of your business

The right Squarespace subscription plan

Gathering your store content

Configuring your store

Store Settings

Connecting to Stripe

Other Store Settings

Taxes

Setting up a new country tax rule

Setting up a new state/province tax rule

Setting up a local area tax based on postal/zip codes

Email Settings

Shipping

Creating and managing products

Product types

Adding product items

Removing or rearranging products

Importing products from Big Cartel, Etsy, or Shopify

Managing products using Inventory

Testing your store

Handling orders

Processing orders quickly or in bulk

Using Order Summary

Promoting products and offering discounts

Using Product Blocks to enable quick purchases from anywhere on your site

Using Summary Blocks to showcase featured products

Offering and promoting discounts

Coupons

Using the Announcement Bar to highlight discount codes

Setting up and managing donations

Adding a Donation Block

Testing donations

Viewing and exporting donations received

Handling transactions without Squarespace Commerce

Summary

8. Tailoring Your Site's Look and Feel

Understanding Squarespace template customization

Finding your way around the Style Editor

Selecting an element for adjustment

Saving changes in the Style Editor

Testing your template customizations

Resetting the template

Switching templates with customizations applied

Working with fonts and typography

Choosing fonts

Using fonts on your website

Other typography settings

Applying typography changes to your template

Easier ways to find, compare, or match fonts

Using Google or Adobe Typekit font-finders

Google Fonts

Adobe Typekit

Finding fonts that are similar to other fonts

Adding or creating a logo in Squarespace

Creating a text-based logo in Squarespace

Designing your own logo using Squarespace Logo

Adding an image-based logo to your site

Adjusting logo size and positioning

Adjusting your website's color scheme

Tools and resources for choosing colors

Color picker tools

Resources for color schemes and color inspiration

Controlling the color and opacity of page elements

Using background or header images

Other ways to adjust header or banner images

Adjusting an element's size, position, visibility, or other options

Controlling element visibility and other options

Adjusting Cover Page styles

Summary

9. Going Live with Your Website and Driving Traffic to It

Connecting to social media accounts

Setting up Connected Accounts

Displaying social icons

Using a Social Links block

Showing or hiding individual social icons

Enabling social sharing on your website

Adjusting the final details in your site settings

Adding a Browser Icon (Favicon)

Using Google Analytics with your Squarespace site

Adjusting SEO settings: description, title, and URL formats

Configuring blog settings

Testing your site before launch

Verify that your site works at all sizes

Fine-tune your site and page elements with SEO in mind

Thoroughly test all of your site functions

Ensure your media files look the way they should

Look out for broken links

Double-check your tags and categories

Verify that your social blocks are automatically pulling in fresh content

Making your website live to the public

Removing the site-wide password protection

Setting up a custom domain

Registering a new domain through Squarespace

Using an existing domain name

Moving from an existing website to Squarespace

Transferring a Squarespace 5 domain

Using custom email addresses with your custom domain

Managing your domain and URLs

Driving traffic to your website

Making your website visible to Google and other search engines

Using social media to drive traffic to your site

Automatically promoting news or blog posts

Enabling the push option

Pushing a blog post to a social site

Displaying a Squarespace page or Gallery in your Facebook page

Summary

10. Managing Your Squarespace Website

Monitoring visitors and activity on your website

Understanding your website traffic

Finding out where your visitors came from

Learning how visitors search for you

Finding out what's popular on your website

Other metrics reports

Managing comments on your blog

Approving comments

Replying to comments

Deleting comments

Handling flagged comments

Giving other people access to edit, monitor, or administer your website

Adding a Contributor

Modifying, canceling, or resending a contributor's invitation

Modifying or removing a contributor's permissions

Recommendations for all content editors

Adding a Basic Author

Using floating bars on your website

Using an Announcement Bar to highlight important information

Making it easier for mobile site visitors to reach you

Using Squarespace mobile apps

Blog

Metrics

Portfolio

Note

Summary

11. Moving beyond Standard Squarespace Tools

Understanding advanced customization options

Using the Squarespace Help Center for customization

Types of code customization

Code Block

CSS Editor

Sitewide code injection

Per-page code injection

Finding Squarespace designers and developers

Summary

A. Getting Help with Squarespace

Knowledge Base

Community Answers

Open a support ticket for 24/7 e-mail support

Live Chat

B. Squarespace Templates in a Nutshell

C. List of Online Resources Used in This Book

Index