35: Squarespace Simplified: The Ultimate Nerdy Glossary for Squarespace Users
Ever felt like you're grappling with a foreign language while setting up your Squarespace site? In this episode of Think Inside the Square, we'll dive deep into the world of Squarespace lingo, making sense of those confusing terms you keep seeing online. We'll break all that techie jargon down in a way that's easy to understand. From computer basics like browser, server, and domain, all the way to Squarespace specifics. You'll learn what "config" means, where to access your hamburger, and so much more. So, ditch the confusion and stop feeling lost in translation! Hit play on this episode of Think Inside the Square and join your host, Becca Harpain, on a jargon-busting adventure. By the end, you'll be speaking Squarespace like a pro and ready to conquer your website building goals.
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A few weeks ago I was packing up our camping gear, getting ready to head out for a trip, and I literally said, we can upload the cooler to the back seat. Because I'm a nerd. I think in computer terms, when I'm sitting down to chat with other Squarespace ers, it seems like we're speaking another language.
So in this episode of Think Inside the Square, I wanted to give you an audio download of the terminology you should probably know when working with Squarespace. 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. I'm your host, Becca Harpain, Squarespace expert and creator of InsideTheSquare.co
In this episode, I'm sharing some of my favorite Squarespace er slang. To help you Google the right thing, find the right support in the forum, and make you sound really cool at your next business conference. For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast.
The term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace Incorporated. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace Incorporated.
Squarespace is so much more than a website development platform. We have campaigns for email management, commerce features, analytics, and sometimes it seems like you have to learn a new language to find the right answer in the forum.
In this episode of Think Inside the Square, you'll learn the important Squarespacer slang that can help you sound like a nerd. Before we get into too many Squarespace specifics, I do want to talk about just some general web terms that I think you should know. This'll be really quick, so if you're not new to the internet, stick with me here anyway.
First up, let's talk about a browser. That's a program that you use to browse the internet. We're talking Safari, Chrome, Firefox Whatever program you open on your computer or your mobile device to explore the internet That's a browser. When you're on that browser, you'll type an address into the address bar That address is your domain.
The domain is the internet address for your website, for the content that you create Now you can purchase a domain through Squarespace, you can buy one from a third party and connect it to Squarespace, however you get that domain, the content of your website lives at that internet address that you type into the address bar on the browser.
Now your website itself is hosted on a server. Don't worry too much about the technical details there, because Squarespace takes care of all of that stuff for us. They manage the servers that your website is hosted on, but those are two important terms to know, host and server. Now, let's say someone tries to go to your domain, they type that into the address bar, but they get something wrong on the back end.
Maybe they say inside the square. co forward slash garbage, which is not a URL that's on my website. They're gonna run into a 404. A 404 is internet slang for an error. That means the file wasn't found, it can't find that page anywhere. Inside Squarespace, you can set up a custom page to be served anytime someone goes to your domain, but goes to the wrong page, finds the wrong spot on your domain.
I'll have a link in the show notes for this episode with information on how to set up a custom 404 in Squarespace. Again, those show notes are at insidethesquare. co forward slash podcast. Another term that's not Squarespace specific, but is used a lot when talking about Squarespace, is responsive.
Squarespace is a responsive website. Program. That means it's going to change the layout of your website content, like adjust how things are organized and arranged and the size of some of your content based on the screen size, it's responding to the size of the browser window. So when you look at Squarespace on your computer versus your mobile device, you'll notice that the layout is different.
Now, there are some places in Squarespace that we can manually adjust the layout for smaller screens, but a lot of the content is resized for us automatically, which is what makes Squarespace a responsive website builder. It responds to the size of the browser window that you're using to look at your website.
Alright, one last thing I want to talk about that is internet specific, but really applicable to Squarespace, and that's your website template. I want you to think about this template as a pre built website layout. It's got the sections already designed, but you can personalize it with your own content, your text, your colors, your images.
Squarespace has templates, and that's how most of us start a website. Other designers also sell Squarespace templates, pre made designs that they created in Squarespace that you then customize. But I'll let you in on a little secret. Anything built on version 7. 1 can do the same thing. That's the latest version of Squarespace.
All of these templates can be customized to look like whatever you want them to be. These templates are just time savers for your design. Pick a template that you like the style of, and you'll be able to spend more time on the content, and less time Fussing over the layout. So template, that's another word that's important to learn when you're working with Squarespace.
Oh, one last one I should probably share that isn't Squarespace specific, but is very important for anyone building a website. SEO. This stands for search engine optimization. It's all about optimizing the content of your site so that Google will serve it for the correct search results. It's making sure your website shows up higher in search results when people type in keywords and phrases related to the content of your website.
I have a ton of content about SEO. You can find more links in the show notes for this episode. Alright, let's get into some Squarespace specifics. That was the point of this one, right? Starting off with one of my favorites, config. C O N F I G. When you're logged into Squarespace, and you see your menu on the left, and your site preview on the right, you are in config.
Take a look at your browser address bar. It'll have your root domain followed by forward slash config. Config means you're in Squarespace. You're in the program. You're not just browsing your website. Menu on the left, site preview on the right. That means you're in config. Config. Now while you're in Squarespace and you want to work on the design of your website, you want to access your design menu.
You'll click the paintbrush icon on the top right hand side, but in a lot of blog posts, tutorials, and other articles online, you'll hear people call that site styles. The design menu used to be called site styles, and a lot of us Squarespace ers still use that term. So if you ever hear site styles, that means your design menu.
Now talking about your website, how about we start at the top? Your website header, the header of your website holds your site title or logo, and then all of the links. Those links are in your main navigation, but the header is talking about the whole thing. Your site title or logo and all of the links.
Now you can also toggle on header elements like a button or a shopping cart or social media icons. Those are header elements. And they'll be displayed with your main navigation and with your site title or logo and all of that lives in the header. Now, when you reach a specific screen size, Squarespace will change your header and add your mobile menu icon, replacing your main navigation with that mobile menu icon.
Clicking on that icon opens up your mobile menu, and that icon is often referred to as a hamburger. So if someone says hamburger menu, that's what they mean. Now, on your page itself, you've got a lot of content there, and we've got some very important Squarespace specific terms to cover here. I do have a full list of these in the show notes for this episode, but I also have one more link I should mention, and that's my glossary.
I have an entire page on my website dedicated to Squarespace terms. Find that at insidethesquare.co/glossary okay, let's get into this content here. We have the page of your website. This page can be a standard page, a collection list, a collection page, or an auto layout. And here is what I mean.
A standard page is made up of page sections. A collection list shows a list of items in that collection. Here's a great example. A blog with blog posts. The collection list is the blog. The collection item is the blog post. Following so far? Awesome. Now inside Squarespace, we have standard pages, then we have those collection pages, and I said one more, auto pages.
These are pages automatically created by Squarespace, like a search results page or a shopping cart page. This shopping cart page, it's gonna change based on what people add to their cart. So that is automatically created. You're not gonna find your shopping cart in your pages menu. Your pages menu is where you'll find pages and you'll find collections.
Now, on these standard pages, you'll have different page sections. This is in the latest version of Squarespace known as 7. 1. These page sections. can be auto layouts, fluid engine, or classic editor. Nowadays, it's really hard to grab a classic editor section, but they're still in there. But we also have fluid engine sections.
Those are the main type of sections in auto layouts. When you're adding a page section, you'll see a little eye icon on the top right hand side of a section preview. That indicates an auto layout, like a list section or a gallery section. Those don't have content blocks, but fluid engine and classic editor do.
Here we go. Another term, content blocks. This is the bulk of what will make up your Squarespace website. Content blocks include things like a text block, an audio block, a calendar, a form. A contact form, a newsletter form, an image block, content blocks make up the bulk of the content of your website. That content block lives inside a page section that lives on a page that's on your domain.
Now when we're talking about page sections, I said auto layouts, those are list sections and gallery sections. There are different ways to manage your content there. Then we have fluid engine sections. How do you know if you're in a fluid engine section? When you're editing your squarespace website in config, look at me dropping these new terms on you You're editing your squarespace website because you're in config And you're looking at a page and you're looking at a page section on the top left hand side that says add block That's going to be a fluid engine section If it says upgrade that means it's classic editor and it wants you to stop using that it wants you to upgrade to a fluid engine section Fluid Engine was released in July of 2022, we've been using it for a while, it's just a different way of editing the content blocks of your Squarespace website.
And you know what a content block is, it's an audio block, it's a text block, it's a contact form, a newsletter form. Any block of content you want to add to your Squarespace website. Now let's pull back a little bit and talk about the structure of your Squarespace website. When you log into your config and you're looking at the Squarespace program, on the left hand side you have your main menu.
This is how you navigate the program. And if you click into website, that's how you navigate your pages. On the top part of your pages menu, you're going to have all the pages in your main navigation. Then you can have member areas. Squarespace allows you to create password protected folders of your website that hold exclusive content that only members can access.
You can add any type of page in there, a collection page, a standard page, any type of content that you want to a member area. But only people with a login can access that content. Now on this pages menu, underneath your pages and underneath member areas, if you have those enabled, you'll see the not linked section of your site.
This is where a bulk of the content of InsideTheSquare. co lives. In this not linked section, this is where I have pages that I don't want on my main menu, but they're really important pages. This is where I have my sales pages. This is where I have terms and conditions and my privacy policy, important pages that I'll want to link to that don't need to be a part of my main navigation.
This is also where I have landing pages. Ding, ding, ding, new word, landing page. This is a specific page on your site designed for a specific purpose, like capturing an email address or promoting a special product. It's like a dedicated page for that specific content. Sales pages are landing pages. And I've got a lot of freebies on my website.
I love sharing free content. So I have well over 20 landing pages. Now technically, that's not a Squarespace specific term. You can have a landing page in all different kinds of programs. But it's one I really wanted to share because it's an important one to know when you're building out your Squarespace website.
Now here's another general term that we Squarespace ers use a lot, and that's CTA, which stands for Call to Action. Your CTA or your call to action is where you literally tell someone to take action on your website. It can be as simple as submit for a contact form, it can be enroll now for a membership.
Your call to action is literally telling people what you want them to do next. They're often associated with buttons. Now, a call to action is a great thing to include in an announcement bar. Here's a Squarespace specific one for you. Under website, website tools, you'll find some messaging features, including your announcement bar.
This is a bar of text that you can place at the top of your website that will show up before the rest of your content. A lot of people love to use this announcement bar to announce new content or an upcoming session. Sale or a special event. You can do all kinds of creative things with it. Inside Squarespace, it's built to just have text to display text and then be clickable.
But thanks to custom code, you can do all kinds of things with your announcement bar to really make it unique, which brings me to our next term, my favorite term Custom. C-S-S-C-S-S stands for Cascading Style Sheet, and every single website on the internet has a CSS file. Squarespace writes your CSS for you based on what you choose in your design menus.
What fonts you select, what colors you decide to work with, Squarespace writes your CSS for you. And we Squarespace ers can add custom CSS. We can add custom CSS website, and Squarespace will place that at the end of our cascading stylesheet file. So when we go to our domain, In a browser and load our website, we can have our own custom styles added to Squarespace.
This is how you can get really creative making sure that the Squarespace template you started with is uniquely yours. Custom CSS is not necessary for every website, but I think it's a really fun way to get extra creative with Squarespace. When I'm building a Squarespace website, I try to do anything and everything I can to make it look amazing.
And then Add a little sprinkle of custom css to make it even more unique If you want to check out my landing page to get a free guide on css Head on over to inside the square. co forward slash learn I was a little worried when I started recording this podcast That'd be a little too jumbled and all over the place because I knew as I started talking i'd think of more terms And it just happened again So when I said my landing page inside the square.
co forward slash learn, that word learn is a URL slug. A URL slug is text that is added to the end of a domain. It'll come after a forward slash symbol. And that's how you can access pages inside your Squarespace website. Now, every page on your Squarespace website, aside from the homepage itself, your main domain, Every page will have a URL slug.
I did it again. I said another term. Your home page! When you assign something as your home page as Squarespace, that's the page that people will see when they go to your domain. Alright, let's pull back, do a quick review of some terms here. You ready? Let's do this recap. When you're using a browser, a program that you use to browse the internet, like Safari, Chrome or Firefox, you type your domain into the address bar.
That domain is your website's address on the internet that's hosted on a server by Squarespace. When you go to that domain, people will see your website content. At the very top of the page will be your website header, that is your site title or logo, your header menu, and any elements you've decided to include in your header, like your social media icons, or a shopping cart, or a call to action button.
If someone's looking at your website on a mobile device, like a phone or a tablet, they won't see your main navigation or elements, but they'll see a hamburger or mobile menu icon. Clicking on that icon will show the mobile menu. Now let's say they're exploring the content on your website by clicking on a page within your main navigation.
Underneath the header, they'll see the page content. Standard pages are made up of page sections, and inside those page sections you have content blocks full of content. Those content blocks can be text, they can be images, they can be audio blocks. There's all kinds of stuff you can add using a content block in Squarespace.
Some of those page sections have automatic layouts, like list sections or people sections. And underneath all of that, you'll find the footer of your website. This is where you can link to important pages, like your terms and conditions or your privacy policy. These pages will be in the not linked section.
Important pages like those can live in the not linked section of your site. They won't be seen in your main navigation, but they still exist on Squarespace when someone goes to the specific URL slug that you've given to that page on your domain. Some of the pages on your website are standard pages, but some of them might be a collection list, like a list of blog posts.
And when someone clicks on the blog post, they're viewing the collection item page. That collection item page might have some specific content on it that you modified with custom CSS, that you added a square space to change the style of your website only using it to change things that you can't adjust using your design menu, which used to be referred to as site styles.
How was that for a recap? I think I brought it all together. But we covered so many terms in this episode today, and I want you to have a copy of them all.
I've published this glossary on my website, insidethesquare.co/glossary
there, you can browse all the terms we covered today and so many more that are going to be helpful for you to know when working inside Squarespace.
Again, that's insidethesquare.co/glossary
thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Inside the Square. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please subscribe to this podcast wherever you happen to be listening to this episode. Thanks again for listening and most importantly, have fun with your Squarespace website.
Bye for now.
For the full list of terms, check out the Squarespace Glossary at insidethesquare.co/glossary or use the form below to get access to a PDF of all the content covered in this episode and more!
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