Website Design

Visiting the Squarespace Headquarters

in
 

Big Picture Web visited the Squarespace headquarters this past week in New York City!

I had the privilege of attending the top-notch search engine marketing conference, SES New York, and popped down to the Squarespace main offices after the sessions ended Wednesday afternoon.

Springtime in New York

I had an appointment near Union Square in Manhattan before visiting Squarespace, and ended up walking nearly a half hour from there to Squarespace's headquarters in SoHo.​

The sunshine warmed the buildings and put a Springtime energy into my step as I dodged the never-ending flow of traffic by foot, bike, and car.

​The SoHo buildings glow in New York's springtime afternoons.

​As with any epic adventure, one does not simply walking into Squarespace. I had called ahead and made an appointment. This was my view as I waited, satisfied with my luck at being on time despite my unfamiliarity with the travel requirements in the bustling Big Apple.

​The staff at Squarespace have hands-down some of the nicest digs you could ask for.

After a brief tour, some introductions, and some time with my contact at Squarespace, I was on my way. Guess who I ran into on the way out? None other than Squarespace founder, Anthony Casalena. The great Michael Heilemann snapped this gem just as we were leaving the building. Thanks guys!

​I ran into Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena in the elevator. 

Squarespace has become a big part of my life. I've empowered friends, family, and clients to build and maintain websites that drive businesses and other causes by teaching them how to use Squarespace. As an affiliate marketer, getting the word out about Squarespace has also helped secure secondary source of income for my family. And ultimately, I believe in Squarespace's vision for its product and respect the growing startup for what they're doing.

Visiting the Squarespace headquarters in New York was a joy for those reasons and more, and I hope to be able to do it again in the future. 

How to Change the Squarespace Favicon

in

The favicon is the unsung hero of every website. At an average of 16 pixels squared each, it's easy to see why one might overlook the tiny image that represents your brand from the corner of the tab of your web browser.

​The default Squarespace favicon

​The default Squarespace favicon

​Big Picture Web's favicon is a tiny version of our logo.

​Big Picture Web's favicon is a tiny version of our logo.

Indeed, the favicon is pervasive. If you think about it, the favicon is one of, if not the only part of your brand that exists on every page of your website. The time it takes to change your favicon is minimal compared to the impressions it will see in its lifetime. Take a few minutes to change your Squarespace favicon with this handy how-to.​​

How to Change Your Squarespace Favicon

Changing your website's favicon on Squarespace is a snap, and you'll feel a small sense of accomplishment when you're through.

  1. Log in to your site's admin controls
  2. Click on the gear icon to access your Settings 
  3. Locate the Browser Icon (Favicon) section within the Site ​section of the Settings​
  4. Drag an image from your computer (don't worry about sizing - Squarespace will take care of it)​
  5. (Optional) Crop your image using Squarespace's editing tools (powered by Aviary) to make any adjustments to maximize the visibility of this tiny image
​Squarespace favicon settings are found within the Site​ section of the Settings​.

​Squarespace favicon settings are found within the Site​ section of the Settings​.

​Use Squarespace's built-in image editor powered by Aviary to crop your favicon.

​Use Squarespace's built-in image editor powered by Aviary to crop your favicon.

Enjoy Your New Squarespace Favicon

You're all set to enjoy your new favicon. ​Don't be one of the thousands of sites with the default Squarespace favicon. Take a stand, and five minutes right now to make sure your brand is well represented on every browser tab and every operating system task bar it adorns.

​Proudly sport your new Squarespace favicon.

​Proudly sport your new Squarespace favicon.

How to Use the Squarespace Calendar Widget to Manage Your Events

in ,

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]

in ,

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.