Squarespace 7.1 Blog post Checklist
If you’re new to blogging, you may be surprised I’m offering a free checklist. If you’re not new, you’re thankful that you’ve found this! There’s a lot of little things to remember when creating a new blog post, settings to check, images to add. Having a checklist (and adding to Asana, in my case!) can really help offset the brain space needed to make sure nothing is forgotten.
Let’s get to the steps!
1: Write your blog post
And in a separate word formatter like GoogleDocs or Pages. Why not just write it in the Squarespace editor? Take advantage of Auto Save - especially since with blog posts Google favours long format posts around 2000 words. If you just poured your heart and soul into that blog post, you better have it backed up while you’re doing it. Don’t bother adding your images yet, you’ll upload them after you copy-paste to Squarespace. While you’re typing, don’t forget to...
2: Use formatting in your Headings and Paragraphs
Yes, it makes it prettier - which you know I’m all about. But this little tip really helps with SEO. Your headings are part of what Google uses to push you to the top of their searches. Use your headings strategically featuring the keywords that make your blogpost relevant to whoever may be searching it. If you’re writing about Banana Cream Pie, think about using headings like “How to Make Banana Cream Pie”, “Ingredients for Banana Cream Pie”, and “Step by Step Instructions for pie crusts”. Your keywords should be scattered in your Headings 1, 2, and 3 to make sure they get picked up by search engines.
Using your Headings and Paragraphs also helps with scanning the site as a reader. If you are searching for something, you’re not always going to spend 5 minutes reading the text. Many times, you’ll quickly scroll through the page to see if it touches on what you asked for. Your headings will tell them if it does, and breaking up the paragraphs will help the eye travel quickly through the text.
3: Add External and Internal Links
This one confuses people, but it’s really quite simple. Google prioritizes those who use both links to other websites (external), as well as links to your own website (internal). If you’re linking, it shows Google that you have content that others may benefit from, and that your site is active.
Everytime you write a blog post, ask yourself two questions:
“What other posts do I already have that I can link to in this?”
This will keep others on your site for longer too, which will increase their odds of purchasing from you.
And
“What else could be helpful for my readers to know about that’s not on my site?”
Maybe it’s a statistic, maybe it’s additional help, or a colleague you want to feature. Linking to them will help both you and them.
It’s good to aim for 2 external and 2 internal links per post.
4: Create or Duplicate a Blog Post
There are two options for what to do next. You can create a new blog post, or duplicate an existing post.
How to Create a New Blog Post in Squarespace
To create a New Post, click the + sign next to the gear icon. Enter your blog post name, and Squarespace will automatically turn this into the URL slug for your post ie: https://www.stanleycreative.co/blog/squarespace-71-blog-post-checklist
Now you can copy and paste the blog post you’ve written into Squarespace, and it will carry all the links you’ve made over with it. Hurrah! You can also add individual blocks here, like images, or an image gallery, or even a product from the store.
How to Duplicate a Blog Post in Squarespace
To Duplicate, hover over an existing blog post and three dots will appear on the right hand side. Click on them, and the option to Duplicate will be below.
Duplicating an existing post is efficient if you have things you want to maintain every post you make.
You can duplicate to maintain:
an optin with links, a newsletter form and images which would be annoying to reupload
blog post signature you don’t want to upload again.
to maintain the same layout easily for your images and text each post without fiddling with it.
For affiliate links, to include a banner at the top of each blog post
And as an extra, a “cheatsheet” of your affiliate links to refer back to each time and ensure you include them in the post as applicable.
Don’t forget! It is very important if you duplicate to make sure you take the time to optimize your URL Slug and other settings so that your SEO doesn’t get damaged! More on that below.
5: Add your Optimized and Named Images
After your post is copy and pasted into the Blog Editor, and you have all your headings and paragraphs formatted, this is a great time to decide where you want your images to sit throughout the post. I highly recommend inserting the image blocks exactly where you want them one by one, instead of adding a bunch of image blocks to the bottom of the post, then dragging them to the location you want. Dragging through long sections of text is... Well, about appealing as that last sentence sounds. It’s really annoying.
Before you upload, take time to optimize your images for display, as Squarespace has outlined here, as well as naming your images before you upload them. Not only will this help you find your images on your computer again someday, more importantly, it will, again, help your SEO as Google does scan those keywords from your images too.
Add a “Pinterest-ready” image
This is also a great time to consider adding a Pinterest sized image to your post. As another helpful search engine, Pinterest can drive traffic to your website as people are searching for answers to questions. Following the latest recommended Pinterest size graphic (usually at the top, or bottom of the post) will give a convenient option for someone to ‘save’ or ‘pin’ your post for them to return to (and others to find). It can also potentially be reused as your blog post image thumbnail if you keep your summary aspect ratios the same!
6: Add your optins, lead magnets, and affiliate links
If you didn’t already duplicate them into your post, this is a great time to add them! Don’t forget to double check your settings and your email storage!
Editing Blog Post Settings in Squarespace 7.1
We’re finished with the blog post editor, and it’s time to transition to the blog post settings. Before your finish you post completely, you need to change a few Blog Post Settings. This can be accessed in two ways. When editing the post, click the The Gear icon in the top right corner of the blog post page. Or, to change the settings from the News page, click the 3 dots beside the post, and select Settings. This is an important step, so don’t forget to include while creating your blog posts.
7: In the Content Tab:
Add your Categories and Tags
A great way to keep these organized is by keeping a digital or sticky note close by with all your current categories and most important tags listed. This will help you not to forget a useful one, and stop your blog from getting cluttered and disorganized.
Enable or Disable Comments
Decide if you want your posts open for comments or not.
8: In the Options Tab:
Add a Thumbnail Image
This will show on your blog page and other summaries, so keep the aspect ratio in mind when designing your first ones, or choose to only use images where the aspect ratio doesn’t matter. For example, I decided to repurpose my Pinterest graphics as my blog post image thumbnails. I centered the text, so it will always show up as a square in my summary block too.
Great news - you don’t have to Google for random images any more that you’re not sure if you’re stealing, you can access royalty free images within Squarespace. Click “Search for Images”, and stay in the “Free” tab, and you can use whatever you find there with no problems. If you’re looking for a file you know you’ve already uploaded to the site, click the Recent tab, and you’ll find it there.
Optimize Post URL
Again - easy SEO bonus points here! Take a minute to make sure your post URL has the important keywords to what someone is likely to be searching!
Select an Author
If you have multiple contributors, you’ll need to ensure you assign the correct author to the bottom of the post.
Add an Excerpt
If you’ve chosen to include excerpts in your blog summaries in different places in your site, make sure to include your excerpt here. The excerpt is a great way to grab someone’s attention and incentivize them to click and read more. An easy way to generate this is by grabbing the first paragraph of the post and adding it.
A design tip: Consider the length of the paragraph and try to build it to a similar length for each separate excerpt. If some are long, and some are short, it will display weird on different Summary block across your site.
Assign as a Featured Post:
If you’ve got blog posts you know you want to feature across your site, consider creating a collection of featured posts. If you flag a post as featured, and set a summary block to “Display Featured Posts”, you can highlight those posts so they continue to get higher traffic, and keep people on your site for longer with posts you know they will likely be more interested in seeing.
9: In the SEO Tab:
Set your SEO Title and Description (optional)
This step isn’t crucial, especially if you already wrote your blog post in an SEO conscious manner. Squarespace will automatically generate a Title and Description for you don't do anything here. This will likely display on your Social Media as well, so if you know what you want, feel free to change it up!
10: In the Social Image Tab:
Add an Alternate Social Media Sharing Image
Again, optional, and if you’ve already set up your social sharing logo in your site settings it will display that. But if you want more control, add an image to display when your image gets linked on Facebook etc. Consider using an image instead of a graphic or logo, as you can’t always guess how it’s going to display elsewhere, and a graphic may get cut off.
11: In the Share Tab:
Create an Email Draft or Push to a Connected Social Media Account
You’ve spent all this time on a blog post - take the extra steps to get it seen that much more! If you have an email list (you should!), take the time to send a quick email to you people letting them know you’ve got a new post up. You can also push your post to social media automatically, so you don’t have to copy and paste links and text, it will simply post itself if you tell it to. Nice!
12: In the Location Tab:
Add a blog post location
Your physical location should be already set in your site settings, but if your post has a different location you want to be featured in SEO (think travel blog, for example), you can add it here.
13: Save, Schedule, or Publish Post!
Hurrah! The hard work is done, celebrate by clicking the Save button! Want it live today? Hit publish. Want to batch ahead on a content schedule - great idea! Schedule your post to publish later. Know you need to touch it up a bit first? Save your draft, and come back to it later.
Congrats! Your blog is filling up and looking fine! Ready to write your next post?
