5 Mistakes Squarespace Blogs Make And How To Fix Them
If you're going to make an investment in your business by blogging on a regular basis, you want to make sure that your efforts are maximized.
Unfortunately, there are tons of little mistakes that bloggers make when using Squarespace. Some will make it more difficult for your blog posts to be found in Google search and others will hurt the overall user experience for your readers.
And some mistakes will even negatively impact both!
#1: Your homepage is too long
Your homepage should be short and sweet! It should be used to introduce yourself and give visitors a small taste of what they can expect when they start reading your blog posts regularly. But it shouldn’t include every single detail about you or your business — that’s what pages are for! The length of your homepage depends on your audience you’re using, but as a general rule — no more than 2-3 scrolls on desktop and 3-4 on mobile.
#2: Your sidebars are a disaster
A cluttered sidebar is not only bad for the design of your site, it’s bad for your biz. The sidebar is a great place to display your most popular posts and make signups easy, but the opposite happens if you have ads and other widgets that make it hard to navigate. You can fix this by:
Only displaying most popular posts or categories. Not both. If you have a lot of categories, consider narrowing down to the most important ones.
Moving ads into your blog posts instead of displaying them in the site’s sidebar.
Removing unnecessary widgets like network badges and social media buttons (they should be in the header instead!).
#3: Leaving “Powered by Squarespace” in your footer
If you’re using a Squarespace template with a footer and you haven’t paid for the $18/year Business account, it will show “Powered by Squarespace” in your footer.
This is an advertisement for Squarespace for their free service. It doesn’t do anything for you and thus it should be removed. I would suggest paying the $18/year to remove it because it just looks tacky otherwise.
#4: Your content is not skimmable
As a blogger, it's important that you make your content easy to consume. People have short attention spans and will often scan through your content instead of reading every word. Lists help break up all the text in your blog posts so readers can quickly scan through them and pick out the key points.
Think about it, we've been trained to scan content for information. We don't read everything on the Internet word for word — we skim content, looking for keywords or phrases that interest us. Lists and visuals make it easier for us to find what we're looking for because they break up content into bite-sized pieces and highlight the points you want to make.
#5: You don't have a lead magnet.
If you're not using your blog as a lead-generation tool, you're missing out on an opportunity to grow your email list. Why do you need an email list? Because it's the best way to create a relationship with potential customers and nurture them over time.
You can't expect someone to visit your site once and turn into a paying customer on the spot. You have to stay in touch with them over time, educating them about your products and helping them see how they can solve their problems.
The reasons why bloggers should use Squarespace are endless. From the ease of use, to the gorgeous templates, to the customer service, Squarespace is an all-in-one service for bloggers. You can start a blog with just one click and get your website up and running in no time.
The beautiful thing about Squarespace is that you can customize it without knowing any code. With a little extra time, you can make your website look like a professional designed it, even if you have no design experience. I have been using Squarespace for over two years now and I’m still learning new ways to improve my website!
A firm grasp on how to use Squarespace will enable you to do whatever you want with your website and blog. Building your brand with Squarespace is only limited by your creativity, and it’s important to remember that this platform is yours to do with as you please. If you feel like doing it yourself, you can make it happen. If you don’t, there are lots of experts who are super willing to help.
