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How to Use Squarespace Calendars

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Squarespace recently announced their new complete calendar system, which allows anyone to create a schedule of events, concert dates, appearances and more. This week we take a look at how to set up a calendar of your own in a handy how-to.​

Creating a Squarespace Calendar

Squarespace already offered a helpful calendar widget, but the new calendar feature is a full page type. ​To create one of your own, add a new page type to your navigation from within your administrative controls and select the Events page type. Select a name for your calendar and assign a URL to it. 

​Add a Squarespace event collection to your navigation by adding a page.

Adjust Your Calendar Page Settings

After your new page is up and running, adjust your Event Settings by ​selecting the button from your administrative controls for the page. 

Configuration options include:

  • Adjust your page title
  • Display your events as a calendar or list view
  • Set template-specific layout options for sidebars
  • Update your events page's meta description for search engines
  • Assign tags and categories
  • Advanced HTML insertion options

​Squarespace events pages include the ability to change between list and calendar view for your events.

Creating Your First Squarespace Event

Creating events using the Squarespace calendar system is much like creating a blog post. Click on Add Event from ​your event page and create a page that tells your fans about the who, what, where, when, and why of your event. 

Location options allow you to tell people exactly where your event will be and event map it using Squarespace's Google Maps integration. Your attendees can also add events directly to their Google or iCalendars. (Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.)

Enjoy Your New Squarespace Calendar

That's really all there is to it. ​When you're through you're left with an excellent option for managing your events. For advanced users, consider adding a contact form to collect registrations via email, a Google Drive spreadsheet, or even a MailChimp mail list. Squarespace's custom HTML code blocks also makes its event and calendar system immediately compatible with Eventbrite, Google+ Events, and just about any other custom events solution, too. 

What types of events do you plan on planning with the help of the new Squarespace calendars?​

​A Squarespace Calendar with a calendar-style, full-width layout.

How to Use the Squarespace Calendar Widget to Manage Your Events

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Event are common with small businesses, and yet the necessary website functionality for online event management can be complex and unwieldy. Sometimes you're best off paying for a third-party event solution, but Squarespace has you covered for most everything else.

The Squarespace calendar widget presents a lightweight, yet effective solution to most of your basic and moderate event management needs, and can be combined with other parts of Squarespace to support your entire event workflow.

Step 1: Create an Events Collection

The first step in using the Squarespace Calendar widget for event management is to create a collection on your Squarespace website that will be used to build each of your individual event landing pages. Create an events collection using a blog (free and paid events), products (paid events only) or possibly a gallery (special events) page type.

​Gallery, Blog, and Products page types can be used to support the Squarespace Calendar.

​Gallery, Blog, and Products page types can be used to support the Squarespace Calendar.

​In this example we'll create a blog page type called Events to build our event landing pages for an imaginary series of happy hours throughout the month of march. ​

Step 2: Build Your Event Calendar Page

Next up, create a new page on your Squarespace website to serve as your main events landing page that tells people about all of the events you plan to host. Include text and photo blocks to let people know what to expect at your events, and maybe a social media block to make sure everyone is connected.

​This event landing page promotes our happy hour series.

​This event landing page promotes our happy hour series.

I've created a page that promotes my happy hour series here. Now I'll need to add in the Squarespace calendar and events widgets.

Step 3: Add Your Squarespace Calendar to Your Event Page

Add a calendar block to your ​main event landing page (the Calendar block is in the Structure tab). In this example, I've located the Events​ blog page type I created earlier and selected it for use with my calendar widget.

​Drag a calendar block onto your event landing page and select the collection corresponding to your events pages.

​Drag a calendar block onto your event landing page and select the collection corresponding to your events pages.

​Position your calendar block to your liking. You can pull in other widgets from the Structure​ tab of the new blocks interface to your events landing page as well, including the Summary block. Take full advantage of LayoutEngine and your imagination when making your landing page so your events end up looking fun, inviting, and informative.

​A Squarespace event landing page using the calendar block.

Step 4: Create an Event

Now we're ready to create individual events. To draft the first event, I created a new blog post within my Events ​blog and included some text, an image gallery consisting of a few photos, a map widget configured to highlight my event venue, and a custom form with name and email address fields set to display. I set the publish date/time to correspond to my event date/time and then published the blog post. 

Now folks have an easy way to register on my blog for free events.

​A nifty Squarespace event page using the calendar widget.

Step 4 Appendix: Capturing Event Registrations

You'll want to send successful registrations to a place where you can use them later (e.g., email reminders and post-event surveys). The Squarespace form block configuration includes options to send your captured submissions to your inbox, a Google Drive spreadsheet, or a custom list in your optional connected MailChimp account.

In this example, I just need a simple spreadsheet to keep track of who is going to my events, so I decided to use a Google Drive spreadsheet.​

​Send registered attendees to your inbox, a spreadsheet, or MailChimp subscriber list.

​Send registered attendees to your inbox, a spreadsheet, or MailChimp subscriber list.

​Step 5 (Optional): Create a Paid Event

Not every event will be free. Sometimes you'll want to charge attendees, and Squarespace provides you with multiple options here, too. For paid events, simply create another blog post within your Events blog and add in all the vital information. When it comes time to collect payment for tickets, you can either embed registration details from popular services such as Eventbrite, or you can use the digital products product type in the new Squarespace commerce tool set.

​Create a paid event landing page using Squarespace commerce digital products for your online tickets.

​Create a paid event landing page using Squarespace commerce digital products for your online tickets.

The Future of the Squarespace Calendar and Events

In its current state the Squarespace calendar widget ​is versatile and lightweight, but may leave serious event planners wanting more. I hope Squarespace continues to build on to the already neat functionality the Squarespace calendar widget, and think they should completely build out their events solutions over time. A full-on partnership/integration with Eventbrite would be amazing, and isn't out of the question given the existing partnership between Eventbrite and MailChimp. 

What needs do you have for managing events and calendar-based content on your Squarespace website?

Squarespace 6 Fact Sheet [Infographic]

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Big Picture Web has been built on Squarespace for over three years, and we've put together this handy Squarespace 6 Fact Sheet​ to help you learn the facts about the web publishing platform. Thousands of websites are built on Squarespace. Check out these facts to learn why:

​Squarespace 6 infographic

Squarespace Competitors

As of March, 2013, Squarespace is rumored to have over 100,000 paying customers. Squarespace doesn't have a free version of the product, so it makes sense that they have a smaller, yet growing fan base than some of the other platforms out there. Wordpress is rumored to have over 62 million installs while Tumblr reports 96 million blogs, but these aren't quite direct Squarespace competitors. Squarespace dominates similar content management systems (CMS).

Squarespace Fun Facts

Some of the most compelling reasons to make your website a Squarespace website include:​

  • ​Squarespace recently released their new e-commerce platform. Squarespace Commerce comes with everything you'd expect to sell physical or digital goods online. 
  • Need reliable hosting? Squarespace provides rock-solid hosting, content management tools, and even domain registration for annual accounts. ​Even Hurricane Sandy couldn't bring a Squarespace website down.
  • Squarespace comes with a bunch of built-in design features that make your website look great. Whether you want to design your site using only the drag-and-drop controls, or if you are a CSS pro, Squarespace has your design needs covered. ​
  • Analytics are an important part of any website's performance. Squarespace boasts its own robust onboard analytics, and it even integrates with other web analytics platforms such as Google Analytics. ​
  • Squarepace integrates with all of the important social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and more. Post status updates automatically, publish galleries to your Facebook page, and even integrate Google+ authorship.​
  • Search engine optimization is a lot easier with Squarespace's baked-in SEO support. URL canonicalization, title tag customization, and even on-board Google+ authorship support demonstrate the in-depth level of care Squarespace builds into every page of your website.​

​Have you given Squarespace a try? Start by checking out their broad selection of website templates (which happen to be fully responsive, and mobile-friendly). Chances are you'll end up wanting to start your two-week trial before too long. After that, soon you'll likely be a customer. In that case, come on back for more Squarespace 6 facts and tips.

Squarespace Themes: 6 Advantages for Creating Effective Small Business Websites

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Small business owners demand many tools in a content management system in order to build a website that will bring in new customers and keep the ones you already have. And even when you find a platform you can work with, you also need customizable templates that help your business stand alone.

The many Squarespace themes, or templates, are incredibly business-friendly, and offer six major advantages for small business owners considering their web publishing options.

1. Squarespace Themes are Built for Business

Every Squarespace template is different, and each offers a unique combination of highly configurable options to support the creation of web pages, image galleries and portfolios, product pages, and more. Use drag-and-drop controls to build each page with intuitive tools. 

Each Squarespace theme supports every standard widget block.

Each Squarespace theme supports every standard widget block.

2. Squarespace Integrates with Small Business Tools

You can either invest in a website that requires thousands of dollars in custom integrations, or you can go with Squarespace, which includes simple, out-of-the-box connections with small business tools such as Google Docs, Mailchimp, Google Maps, Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, Disqus, Amazon, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, and more. 

Squarespace integrations include many plug-and-play connections with popular small-business services.

Squarespace integrations include many plug-and-play connections with popular small-business services.

3. Squarespace Themes are Highly Customizable

No one likes a cookie cutter website. The stale look of stock photography and a theme that induces Internet deja vu will make it challenging to differentiate your small business.  Squarespace's templates can be customized infinitely using the unique drag-and-slide interface. Simply click on a section of your website in Squarespace's style mode and make a quick change using the tools provided and you'll be on your way.

The WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) design tools of Squarespace cut down the time and effort required to administer your website.

The WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) design tools of Squarespace cut down the time and effort required to administer your website.

4. Squarespace Websites are Easy to Manage

If you haven't noticed by the first few screenshots, Squarespace's administrative tools are incredibly easy to understand, which makes maintenance and performing updates less confusing and more manageable. Many small business owners are able to all but eliminate tech support costs related to their websites by going with Squarespace. Just look at how intuitive this page's editing interface is:

Edits take just a few minutes so you can be in-and-out, and back to managing your business.

Edits take just a few minutes so you can be in-and-out, and back to managing your business.

5. Squarespace Themes are SEO-Friendly

It's hard enough to plan and build a website. You don't want to have to worry about extra steps to make sure you show up in the search engines, too. Squarespace templates are all search engine optimization-friendly (SEO-friendly). You have full control over the important areas of your web pages, including meta titles, descriptions, and even image attributes.

You can configure each meta title in Squarespace for maximum SEO impact.

You can configure each meta title in Squarespace for maximum SEO impact.

6. Squarespace Templates are Mobile-Friendly 

Everyone knows that mobile devices and tablets are where it's at in this day and age of the mobile web. Every Squarespace theme is built with an approach called responsive design, which means the design of your website responds to each device that loads it separately. Your website looks great on desktop browsers, tablets and smartphones without paying thousands of dollars for mobile-friendly website development.

Responsive design means your business looks amazing on any device.

Responsive design means your business looks amazing on any device.

I personally loved how easy Squarespace made running my consulting business when I was taking on new clients through Big Picture Web. Every Squarespace website comes with a free two-week no-credit card trial, so there's no risk. Start your small business website using one of the many Squarespace themes, and you'll be convinced by the end of the trial.

What are you looking for most in a small business website? What services have you tried that haven't quite fit the bill?