6 Tips On Squarespace Blogging
Are you thinking about blogging on Squarespace? Squarespace is a great platform for any blogger, but sometimes it can be a little intimidating to start a new blog. That is why the Brad Good team put together 6 best practices when it comes to blogging on the Squarespace platform.
These are some tips that have worked for us and ones that learned about from other bloggers, but if you have any tips that you would like to share, please do in the comment section below!
1. Always Include Thumbnail Images
The thumbnail image in Squarespace plays a number of different roles that are important for social sharing, RSS app previews, using summary blocks and more. One of the first things that you should do when you create a blog post is select a thumbnail image that you would like to go along with that post.
I always say go for original photography if you have a quality camera, but if not, I would recommend going after some stock photography. There are websites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Burst that are free and provide some great options.
2. Add Categories
Categories are always super important to add to your blog posts, especially when you have many different topics that you are writing about. This will allow you to organize your content in a much more friendly way, especially when you want to add summary blocks that only pull from certain posts.
3. Add An Excerpt
The excerpt are the words that pop up under your thumbnail and before a 'read more' button. This gives your reader just a small preview of what your blog post is all about. It is also important to write a compelling 2-3 sentence excerpt to hook your potential readers into reading your full post. Just like the thumbnail, the excerpt is the preview that will show up when you blog post is shared on social media or other embedded links.
4. Customize Your Blog Post URL
In the same place you'd update a thumbnail image and add an excerpt is a place for you to customize the post URL of your blog post. Your blog post URL should relate to your blog post title. It is best practice to use at least a couple keywords that would help your blog post pop up under a Google search.
5. Add A Summary Block To The End Of Each Blog Post
This is an important step to follow if you have a lot of similar blog content that you want your readers to click on. An example of this might be if your blog post is about 5 cooking essentials, at the very end of the post, there would be a summary block that would pull similar blogs based on this topic.
Some templates already have this feature built-in with a sidebar where you can link to related content of your blog. Learn more about the types of blogs that have this and other features here.
6. Turn On The Pin It Button
Don't underestimate the value of Pinterest, a lot of online users search that website daily for inspiration on a number of topics, and might stumble upon one of your blog posts there. There is an option to have your readers pin your images to Pinterest. If you go to Settings > Marketing > Pin It buttons. Beyond just turning this on, make sure that there is an image in your blog post that is pinable so that your readers will know that they can pin it to their Pinterest account.