Squarespace Glossary
A collection of good-to-know info for anyone using Squarespace! Browse the content below and feel free to suggest any terms you want me to add to the list.
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This is a permanent redirect; it notes that a page has completely moved to a new URL. See 302, URL, redirect
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This is called a temporary redirect; it notes that a page is currently living at a new URL but will be back. See 301, URL, redirect
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A page that appears when a visitor tries to access a page on your site that doesn't exist, provides a friendly and helpful error message. There is an automatic one available in Squarespace, but you can also assign a custom one.
Related Resources:
5 Things Your 404 Page Needs: Turning Error Into Opportunity -
When speaking about Squarespace, 7., and 7.1 are referring to the version of the program the website is built on. Version 5 was replaced by version 7, which was replaced by version 7.1 in mid 2020. Version 7 consisted of separate themes that had unique structural features.
Version 7.1 is the most current version of Squarespace.
See template, theme, version
Related Resources:
How to figure out what version of Squarespace you are using
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When a visitor adds items to their cart but leaves without completing the purchase
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Accordion blocks display a list of titles with additional descriptions that can be revealed on a click. There are options to change the line thickness, font style and more inside Squarespace design menus.
Related Resources: -
Alt text, short for alternative text, plays a vital role in web accessibility. It's a brief description attached to each image on a website. This description helps users understand the image's content in several situations. For instance, if the image fails to load due to internet issues, the alt text provides context. Additionally, screen readers, which are tools used by visually impaired individuals, rely on alt text to convert images into audible descriptions. In essence, well-written alt text ensures everyone has a clear understanding of the visual content on a webpage.
Related Terms: SEO
Related Resources:
How to add alt text to an image in Squarespace -
The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. This term is used to describe any and all data tracked about your website traffic, including but not limited to where visitors came from, what pages they visited, how long they stayed on those pages, and when they left.
Related Resources:
Squarespace Analytics 101: 5 website metrics you need to track -
Anchor text refers to a word or set of terms that, when clicked on, will take you to a different location on the page or website.
Related Resources:
How to add an anchor link to Squarespace -
A customizable bar at the top of your website used to highlight important messages or promotions.
Related Resources:
Announcement Bar Customization Tutorials -
Archive blocks can help organize your collection page content, like blogs and products. You can create a clickable list of categories, tags, dates, or even blog post author.
Related Resources:
How to Customize Archive Blocks in Squarespace Tutorial -
Audio blocks let you add an MP3 or M4A file from your computer.
Related Resources:
How to add an audio block to Squarespace
How to customize the audio block -
Showcasing individual author profiles on your blog posts, providing information about the writers and their expertise.
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In Squarespace, an auto layout refers to a layout that organizes your content automatically, restructuring it for various screen sizes.
Commonly used to refer to a list section, gallery section, or collection list such as a blog.
Related resources:
Squarespace Page Sections -
Auto-pages, sometimes referred to as system pages, are pages on your website created automatically by Squarespace. These pages have limited options for controlling the content and display. These pages include search results pages, shopping cart, tag pages, and category pages.
See page, search block, search result page, category, system pages
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The Bandsintown block is an integration with the Bandsintown.com website. The content of this block is controlled by that website.
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A popular Squarespace 7.0 template family known for its flexibility and customization options, including a partial mobile menu and hero banner feature.
See template, theme, Brine
Related Resources:
Learn more about Squarespace themes -
A section of your website where you can publish articles and posts / An online journal with dated entries, usually made of mostly text with some supporting images or videos. Most blogs allow for other readers’ comments.
See blog post, collection list, author profile.
Related Resources:
Learn how to customize blogs in Squarespace with CSS
What is the difference between a blog & a portfolio in Squarespace?
What makes a good blog post great?
Squarespace SEO: Transform Your Squarespace Blog into an SEO Powerhouse
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A popular Squarespace 7.0 template family known for its flexibility and customization options, including index pages.
See tempalte, theme, bedford
Related Resources:
Learn more about Squarespace themes -
The program you use to access the internet, like Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.
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Button blocks are an important part of any Squarespace website. You can use them to link to another page on your site, anywhere on the world wide web, or even have the open a PDF on a new browser tab. There are standard button blocks that can be primary, secondary, or tertiary. There are also unique button selectors for newsletter forms, add-to-cart buttons, or even member signups.
Related resources:
Tutorials about customizing buttons
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Calendar blocks can display blog posts, products, images, and events that are scheduled or have already happened.
Related Resources:
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This is a term used commonly in advertising for what you want the people responding to your ad to do. Often referred to by its acronym, CTA, the possibilities are endless, and the most common range from “click here” to “share” or “buy now”
See button blocks, header elements
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The term cart can refer to multiple things in a Squarespace website.
In your website header, you can have a cart element, which is an icon that takes you directly to your shopping cart page.
Your shopping cart page is an auto layout created by Squarespace based on user activity. If you have a store collection page enabled on our site with active inventory, digital or physical, people an add that content to their cart.
See ecommerce, inventory, cart, digital product, collection list, collection item, header element
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Commonly used by blogs, posts can be tagged with categories, making it easier for visitors to explore topics they're interested in.
See blog, summary
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Chart blocks create an easy way to visualize data points directly on your Squarespace site.
Related Resources:
How to customize the chart block in Squarespace -
The process by which customers complete a purchase on your eCommerce site.
See e-commerce, store, product
Related Resources:
How to customize the checkout button in Squarespace -
Classic editor refers to the original type of page section in Squarespace 7.1, as well as blog post content and additional product details. Classic editor sections can have blocks of content, but they stick to a 12-column grid. They can only be resized horizontally or vertically with the help of spacer blocks. For mobile devices, you can not edit the layout of a classic section separately.
See page section, theme, fluid engine
Related Resources:
Learn more about Squarespace themes -
You can add HTML, Javascript, and CSS to an individual page on your Squarespace site using a code block.
That will load the code only on the specific page you place this content block on; this code will not load on any other page.
You can also toggle on the option to display the source code if you want to feature the code in plain text mode on your site.
See CSS.
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A Squarespace collection is a set of page types that use nested URLs. For example, a blog is a collection of blog posts, a store is a collection of products, and a portfolio is a collection of projects. Every collection has unique design settings to display the items within the collection. See nested url, blog, store.
Related Resources:
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A page within a collection that has a unique URL slug. For example, a blog post within a blog, a product within a store, or a project within a portfolio.
See blog, store, and collection list.
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A page that features a list of collection items. For example, a blog is a collection list of blog posts, a store is a collection list of products, and a portfolio is a collection list of projects.
See blog, store, collection item
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Nickname for the Squarespace editing interface where you see your website preview on the right and the menu for editing on the left.
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Any visitor can fill out the form and submit it to send a message to the site owner. Alternatively, it can trigger an automated email sequence.
Related Resources:
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Content Blocks are draggable elements that showcase content on your website. They empower you to personalize your pages with a diverse range of content, including text, images, buttons, and forms.
See classic editor, fluid engine, chart, text, audio, contact form, button blocks
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Content link blocks to add a clickable preview of a page on your site. This is a great way to display content in multiple places, like services or products that are related to a blog post. Version 7.1 content link blocks won't always display a page preview or description, but they will display a page title.
See anchor link.
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Certain regions require website owners to inform visitors of cookies that are being used on a website, and Squarespace does just that! I strongly recommend adding a cookie alert to your website, and seeking legal advice on what text to include and how to set up the confirm & deny options.
Relate Resources: How to customize your Squarespace cookie alert -
A single-page layout used for creating visually impactful landing pages or promotional content. These were a standard feature for Squarespace 7.0 and are not available in version 7.1. You can create one in version 7.1 by removing the main navigation using CSS.
See landing page, 7.0, 7.1
Related Resources: How to create a landing page in Squarespace
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👩🏼💻 CSS
CSS stands for cascading style sheet. It’s a simple code language that tells a computer browser how to display the style of a site, including which fonts to use, what color things should be, as well as the size of content displayed. All websites have CSS, and Squarespace writes your CSS for you based on the choices you make in your design menu. You can add custom CSS to Squarespace to personalize the design and appearance of your Squarespace website beyond the built-in options.
Related Resources: Free training on CSS basics for Squarespace -
Allowing customers to create accounts on your eCommerce site, making it convenient for them to track orders and save their preferences.
See online store, e-commerce, member area
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A domain is a unique name that identifies a website. It refers to the domain or authority this title has over all the pages under it. The domain name is what is between the ‘www’ and the ‘.com’ or other variations like .edu, .org, .biz, .me, .co.uk any many more.
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Donation blocks are a premium feature. You can have specified amounts, a title and description, and even a form to collect more information. The donation button will take the visitor to a checkout page.Adding prominent buttons that allow visitors to make quick and secure donations to support your cause or organization.
Related Terms: content block, premium feature
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The act of moving a file from the internet onto your hard drive so you can access it without the internet. or vice-versa.
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Drag and drop refers to the process of adding and rearranging content blocks on your Squarespace site by simply clicking and moving them around, or dragging and dropping them where you want to see them displayed.
See WYSIWYG
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Inside Squarespace, a digital product is content that requires a login to access, like a member area, course, or paid blog. Digital products like ebooks and PDF downloads are considered online products.
See e-commerce, product, online store
Related Resources:
How to customize the digital product block
How to enable a blog paywall
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E-commerce is the term used for conducting business transactions electronically. This means buying and selling products and services through online platforms like websites and apps. Imagine a giant virtual mall where you can browse storefronts, compare prices on everything from clothing to electronics, and even book vacations – all from the comfort of your own home. E-commerce makes shopping convenient, efficient, and offers a vast selection at your fingertips.
See checkout, digital products
Related Resources:
How to Sell Digital Products on Squarespace
Storefront custom code tutorials
Product custom code tutorials -
The ability to insert external content like videos, social media posts directly into your web pages. / When you embed content on a Squarespace site, the content that is displayed is usually from another source so elements inside of it can’t respond to CSS you add to your Squarespace site.
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The event content block is an integration with Tok.
See integration, collection page, content block -
A collection list designed to be an interactive calendar that helps you showcase upcoming events, workshops, or performances on your site.
See collection list.
Related Resources:
Learn how to customize events with codeHow to turn Event Calendar Links into Buttons
How to keep event info visible on a scroll in Squarespace
How to customize event date tags in Squarespace
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A page within an event list that has additional information about an event. Event pages have time, date, location, and add-to-calendar links. You can add content blocks to the event page using a form of the classic editor.
See event calendar, collection item, classic editor.
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A small icon that is displayed in the browser tab next to the page title. The recommended size is 200px by 200px, and the recommended file type is PNG. Sometimes referred to as a browser icon.
Related Resources:
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The bottom section of a web page that often contains additional links and information. In Squarespace 7.1 you can add multiple sections to your footer.
Related Resources:
Important Things to Include In Your Website Footer -
There are different ways to edit content block layouts in a page section in Squarespace. Fluid Engine is the newer and more flexible option, released in July 2020.
Fluid Engine page sections allow for content layers, side page alignment, and give us the ability to adjust mobile layouts separately.
See classic editor
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Gallery blocks are not the same as gallery sections.
Gallery blocks are added as a content block to a page section, blog post, event listing, or additional product details. There are four main gallery block styles that you can target with CSS. To change the design style of your gallery, double click on the galley block and select the design tab.
See content block, gallery section
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Gallery sections display a collection of images. These images can have descriptions/captions and they can each have their own link. See page section, auto layout.
Related Resources:
Overview of Squarespace Page Sections -
A system that helps align and organize content within a page. Squarespace 7 and classic editor areas are built on a 12 column grid system. Fluid engine sections are built on a 24 column grid system.
See classic editor, fluid engine
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The top section of your website that typically includes your logo, navigation menu, and other elements.
Related Resources:
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The top section of your website that contains your site title/logo as well as your main navigation links can also feature header elements. These elements include social media links, a button, a cart icon, and other features. These elements will also be visible on your mobile menu.
See CTA, social media links, mobile menu
Related Resources:
An overview of Squarespace header design features -
A hero banner, also known as a hero image or hero header, is a large and prominent banner or image displayed at the top of a website's homepage or landing page. It is usually the first visual element that visitors see when they arrive on a website.
See page section, video background
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The main page of your website that visitors see when they go to your domain address.
See domain
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Fluid engine image blocks have separate design settings and feature an image with an optional link. Classic editor sections feature image blocks with 6 available layouts, paying the image with headline, subtitle, and button options.
See gallery block, gallery section, content block, classic editor
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Optimizing image file sizes to ensure fast loading times and an efficient browsing experience for your visitors
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A versatile page type that allows you to stack multiple pages vertically, index pages are only available on legacy sites built on version 7.
See Brine, theme, version , 7.0
Related Resources: How to tell what version of Squarespace you are using
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Connecting your Squarespace site to external services or platforms, such as social media or email marketing tools. Integration blocks are difficult to customize in Squarespace; many of them respond to a separate style file and can not be edited with custom CSS installed on your Squarespace site.
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In the e-commerce world, a digital inventory system tracks how many of each item you have available, whether they're brand new or getting low in stock. Squarespace ecommerce can help you keep your digital inventory up-to-date.
See ecommerce, store, cart, abandoned cart
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This is a page on your website that is used for specific traffic or advertisements. It is considered a best practice to have a landing page for special promotional offers or incentives. It is also used for all ads about this piece of content.
Related Resources:
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The horizontal line in Squarespace is a simple border option. You can use CSS to change the color and size of your horizontal line.
See content block
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A link is a piece of text that will send you to a URL. A link can be anchor text, a redirect, or a shortened URL.
See anchor text, redirect, URL
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A list section is a type of auto layout section that organizes list item content based on your design settings and automatically restructures the content based on screen size.
See page section, auto layout
Related Resources:
Learn how to create & customize list sections
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The map block is an integration with Google maps. You can change the style of the map using the built-in options, or use CSS.
See content block, site map
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Markdown blocks can be used to add text and images to your Squarespace site using a different code language.
See content block
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Password-protected sections of your website with exclusive content. In Squarespace, this acts as a folder with specific pages that only members can access when logged in.
See member sign up, digital product
Related Resources:
How to set up a membership site using Squarespace -
When you create a Members Area within your Squarespace site, you can encourage people to sign up using the member sign-up block.
See member area, digital product
Related Resources:
How to set up a membership site using Squarespace -
A premium feature for business and commerce plans, the menu content block allows you to place a pre-styled menu into your Squarespace site. This menu can have pages, sections, and items. You can set it to display the content as a centered list of sections and items, or multi column which will separate menu items from each section into two columns automatically. The page titles will be displayed at the top of the screen and will act as links to display the page content without having to reload your entire site.
See content block
Related Resources:
How to change the background of a menu block in Squarespace -
Information about a webpage that helps search engines understand its content. Most Squarespace pages and collection items can have unique meta data including titles and descriptions.
Related Terms: SEO, page, collection item
Related Resources:
Learn all about SEO specifically for Squarespace -
The mobile information bar is a premium feature available on business and commerce plans. It's structured like a banner at the bottom of your site on mobile devices that shows up when the page loads. It shows your business info and provides quick access to contact details like address, phone number, and hours.
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Ensuring your website looks and functions great on smartphones and tablets making it easy for people to access your content from smaller devices.
See responsive
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How people move around on your website. The most common forms of navigation are done from a main menu, and a combination of main and submenus. Site maps also help with user navigation.
See header, menu, site map, content link, anchor link
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A URL slug for a collection item. Ex: domain.com/blog/post
See collection list, collection item, blog
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A feature that allows visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter for updates, promotions, and exclusive content. They currently integrate with Squarespace Email Campaigns, Mailchimp, Google Drive and Zapier.
Related Resources:
How to customize your newsletter block in Squarespace
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Opt-in is shorthand slang for selecting an option to receive information. To opt in means you agree to receive a specific form of communication, such as email newsletter or promotional offer.
See CTA - Call To Action, landing page, newsletter sign-up block
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A page section is a space in a Squarespace website that you can add content to. In Squarespace 7.1, these sections can be added to standard pages, above & below collection lists, and to footers (classic & fluid only). There are four types of pages sections: fluid, auto: list, auto: gallery, and classic.
See fluid engine
Related Resources:
Overview of Squarespace Page Sections -
Individual sections of your website, such as the homepage, about page, or contact page.
See collection list, collection page, auto layout, index page
Related Resources:
An overview of Squarespace Page Types -
Automatically generated links that help visitors navigate to the previous and next item in a collection, like blog posts and projects inside a portfolio.
See blog, portfolio, collection item
Related Resources:
Custom code tutorials for pagination -
A design technique where the background moves at a different speed than the foreground, creating an illusion of depth.
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Restricting access to certain pages or content on your website by requiring visitors to enter a password. This can be set on an individual page level or for the entire site.
Related Resources:
How to password protect your Squarespace website
How to password protect a single page on your Squarespace website
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Squarespace features that are only available for websites using a business or commerce-level Squarespace subscription.
Related resources:
Learn about the current premium features offered by Squarespace
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Product blocks allow you to showcase an item for sale in your Squarespace store.
See content block, ecommerce, digital product
Related Resources:
How to customize the Digital Product Block in Squarespace -
Different versions or options that are available for a particular product, such as different clothing sizes and different colors.
See ecommerce, inventory, product block
Related Resources:
How to customize product variant buttons in Squarespace -
Attention-grabbing windows that pop up on your website to showcase special deals, new products, or upcoming events.
Related Resources:
How to create a marketing popup in Squarespace
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When you add a product block to a standard page in Squarespace, you can enable quick view which will create a button over the product image on a hover, allowing the visitor to open a Lightbox with the quick view of the product details.
See Product Block.
Related Resources:
How to customize the product quick view in Squarespace -
Quote blocks display a special type of text content, separating the quote text and the quote source. Both of these respond to separate selectors, and in many versions of Squarespace, automatic symbols are added to a quote block like quotation marks around the quote content and a dash before the source.
See content block
Related Resources:
How to customize a Squarespace quote block
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When referring to websites, a redirect refers to a URL that redirects you to another one. This is common practice for getting people to pages that have long titles by using a quick name.
See 301, 302, URL slug
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Showcasing additional products or items that are related to the one a customer is currently viewing, encouraging them to explore more options.
See ecommerce, inventory, product block, product variant
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Designing websites to adapt and display properly on different devices and screen sizes. Squarespace is a responsive website development platform, but you can adjust the mobile layout for fluid engine sections separately from the standard responsive sizes.
See drag and drop, grid, WYSIWIG
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An automated process that shares newly published content from a website or blog with subscribers. RSS feeds are generally delivered by email when you opt-in.
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A scrolling marquee block can have multiple text items that scroll across the screen. You can change the direction, speed, content, and even the background color and text types using built-in features.
Related Resources:
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A tool that allows visitors to search for specific content or products on your website, making it easier for them to find what they're looking for.
You can add a search content block for your entire site, or specify a specific collection.
Related Resources:
How to add a site search bar above your Squarespace header -
The concept or process of making changes to a webpage to improve its organic search rank. These changes can include site structure and content. Often referred to as SEO.
Related Resources:
Squarespace SEO: 5 tips that will Boost Your Site's Visibility in searchSquarespace SEO: Transform Your Squarespace Blog into an SEO Powerhouse
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Squarespace automatically creates a search results page on every website with the URL slug /search. This page will be shown when a visitor uses a search content block. The content displayed on this page will be based on the content block settings.
See search block, URL slug, auto layout
Related Resources:
How to Customize the Search Results Page in Squarespace -
A physical data storage system that houses your website's data and makes it accessible online. Squarespace relies on multiple servers in different parts of the United States to keep your data secure.
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The order in which your pages are organized. Squarespace has a shallow site hierarchy, meaning that we can manually create nested URLs up to 3 layers deep.
See domain, site map, home page, url slug -
A file that lists all the pages on your website to help search engines index your content. Squarespace automatically creates a sitemap for you that you can access by ending .xml to the end of your domain.
See domain, site heirarchy, URL slug
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An older term used to refer to the design men in Squarespace, still found in version 7.0
See 7.0, themes
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Easily identifiable icons are linked to your social media profiles, making it effortless for visitors to connect with you on various platforms. You can enable social media links in the header of a Squarespace 7.1 website and you can add them as a content block.
See header, header elements, content link
Related Resources:
How to change the color of the social media icons in a Squarespace mobile menu -
Third-party plugins and integrations that expand the functionality and capabilities of your Squarespace site, allowing you to add extra features and tools with ease.
Related Resources:
List of current Squarespace Extensions -
SSL, which stands for Secure Sockets Layer, is a critical tool for protecting online communication. Imagine a safe passage built with advanced encryption technology. This secure tunnel scrambles the data traveling between your computer and a website, making it unreadable to anyone trying to intercept it. SSL is especially important for sensitive information like credit card details or login credentials. By using websites with SSL, you can be confident your data is protected as you shop and browse online.
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A popular payment processor Stripe, making it easy to accept credit card payments on your site.
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Summary blocks display content from collection pages, like blog posts, and products. You can filter the collection to only display content that is marked as featured or organized by a specific tag or category. You can choose to display different pieces of content in a variety of layouts by selecting different display options inside the Squarespace editor.
Related Resources:
How To Customize Summary Block Fonts in Squarespace
How to change read more links on summary blocks in Squarespace
How to create custom hover effects for Squarespace summary blocks
How to Customize Summary Blocks in Squarespace
How to create equal-height blog summary blocks in Squarespace
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The term shopping cart can refer to multiple things in a Squarespace website.
In your website header, you can have a shopping cart element, which is an icon that takes you directly to your shopping cart page.
Your shopping cart page is an auto layout created by Squarespace based on user activity. If you have a store collection page enabled on our site with active inventory, digital or physical, people an cadd that content to their cart.
See ecommerce, inventory, cart, digital product, collection list, collection item, header element
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System pages, sometimes referred to as auto page ,are pages on your website created automatically by Squarespace. These pages have limited options for controlling the content and display. These pages include search results pages, shopping cart, tag pages, and category pages.
See page, search block, search result page, category
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Tag clouds display categories or tags from collection pages, including blogs and products. You can sort them alphabetically, by weight, or by activity. You can display a minimum of 5 tags or up to 100.
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A pre-designed layout that serves as the foundation for your website design. Squarespace 7.1 website templates all belong to the 7.1 theme and all have the same features and functionality. Squarespace 7 website templates belong to a specific theme family. Templates within a theme family have the same features and functionality, some of which are unique for that theme.
See 7.0, 7.1, Bedford, Brine, theme
Related Resources:
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Displaying positive customer reviews and feedback on your site to build trust and credibility with potential clients or customers.
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In the Site Styles menu built into Squarespace, you can change the font family and color of a text block. You can also change the color of an individual text element inside the editor.
Related Resources:
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Squarespace 7.0 website templates belong to a specific theme family. Templates within a theme family have the same features and functionality, some of which is unique for that theme. Squarespace 7.1 website templates all belong to the 7.1 themes and all have the same features and functionality.
See 7.0, 7.1, Bedford, Brine, template
Related Resources:
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A thumbnail is a small image or small section of an image used as a preview; commonly used for blogs and events.
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A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the unique digital address of a website.
See domain, URL slug, URL redirect, 301, 302
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When referring to websites, a redirect refers to a URL that redirects you to another one. This is common practice for getting people to pages that have long titles by using a quick name.
See 301, 302, URL, URL slug
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Text placed after a forward slash that determines the location of a webpage. (Ex: domain.com/urlslug)
See domain, URL, URL redirect
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Adding videos as backgrounds to certain sections of your website to make them visually dynamic and engaging. Video backgrounds don’t work on mobile devices, but you can always upload a GIF as a mobile fallback image.
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A brand new feature for Squarespace that was released in January 2022, you can host collections of videos on your Squarespace site!
See digital product, member area
Related Resources:
An overview of video collections in Squarespace
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An acronym for What You See Is What You Get and it refers to the drag and drop process of building a website using a visual editor like Squarespace.
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