Quick tips to help manage your Squarespace blog with ease.
Writing content on your blog is a fantastic way to express your creativity, share your voice, and increase your visibility in search engines. Today I have some quick tips to help simplify and streamline the managing of your Squarespace blog. I also want to share some settings and tools you may not currently be aware of.
Add a profile photo, description, & subscribe to your blog comments.
Adding a photo and bio in your settings is important because when you leave a comment on your or another Squarespace blog, you want your face to display—not the generic face icon. It's also a good idea to add your Google+ profile URL and a business location. All of this is extra SEO juice, to help with search engine indexing.
The other cool thing is— this is your Squarespace blog author profile. Meaning, when people finish reading an article on your website, they can meet the author—you. Unfortunately this feature is not included on all Squarespace templates; only the newer ones: Skye, Foundry, and Tudor.
Image from Squarespace help article for the Tudor template.
If you plan to have multiple contributors to your blog, you might strongly consider using one of the newer Squarespace templates so you can make the most of the author profile feature—as it gives readers a simple, visual way to connect with multiple authors on a single blog.
If you are using any of the other Squarespace templates, no worries. Simply add your bio into your sidebar or consider what we did (since we're using a template that does not display a sidebar)—use some CSS to create a fun and visual author profile (scroll to the bottom of this post to see it in action). If you'd like to hire us to create this for you give us a jingle.
The last step here is to subscribe to your blog comments. Doing this means Squarespace will send you an email each time someone leaves a comment on a blog post. In the early days—when you don't receive many comments, it's fun to get these emails. Once you get up and running, you can shut off this feature so you're not frequently inundated with Squarespace comment emails during your day (a good problem to have;).
To set this up you'll go to: SETTINGS >> PERMISSIONS >> YOUR ACCOUNT >> (adjust the settings in your profile tab).
Manage & respond to your comments in one convenient location.
While you can respond to comments on your live site, it's much more efficient to respond to multiple comments from your Squarespace dashboard.
To do this, you'll click on COMMENTS in your main dashboard, which will pop open your COMMENTS panel. Click on the speech bubble in the upper right corner of your COMMENTS tab to respond to individual comments.
Categorize & schedule your posts.
When I write a blog post, I need to let it breathe. Mostly because my first draft is usually a bit wordy.
- Ernest Hemingway
I'm not advising actual inebriation when writing on your blog;) I am saying—relax and write. Then let your post simmer by adding it to your NEEDS REVIEW category. Prior to publishing, you'll want to proof your post. This involves correcting typos, shortening long-winded sentences, and making sure you stay on track with the main point of the post. Basically, edit your article with a "sober" set of eyes.
When your post feels complete, you can hit PUBLISH and send it live. Another option is to click on SCHEDULED and pick a time and date for Squarespace to automatically publish the post for you.
I've started scheduling my posts because I want them to go live on the same day and time each week. I find this is good practice as I build my discipline with consistent publishing.
Well, there you have it! I hope this short list of tips helps you use and manage your Squarespace blog with greater ease and efficiency.
Other resources you might enjoy:
How To Survive The Early Stages Of Blogging
15 Super Easy Blog Ideas For People Who Hate To Write
I Have A Website, Now What?
How I Became A Better Writer For My Business
