Optimizing a Squarespace website for Pinterest marketing is today’s podcast topic. . Many of our clients are Teachers Pay Teachers and Etsy sellers who want to create their own site. But oftentimes, the “tech” becomes a huge obstacle for them, since WordPress (the most popular website platform) is fraught with tech challenges.
Squarespace is an alternative web platform that’s more user friendly in may ways relative to WordPress. WordPress was really the only option when I got started in the online world, so I don’t plan on switching (just like I don’t plan on ever switching from a PC to a Mac).
But for those of you who are curious if SquareSpace can integrate well with Pinterest, I brought Squarespace expert Paige Brunton onto the podcast to educate us on this topic.
Meet Paige
Paige’s career path has been an interesting road, full of twists and turns. She started her first blog (a travel blog) during her college days. She tested out quite a few different platforms and discovered that Squarespace worked best for needs at the time.
Over time, she discovered that she enjoyed giving her blogs facelifts just as much as she enjoyed the process of blogging. So Paige decided to start a SquareSpace web design business in 2015.
Since that time, she’s created two courses. The first course teaches people how to build a Squarespace site, while the second course and how to build a Squarespace web design service (basically teaching people to do what she does).
Why Paige Chose Squarespace
One of the things that sold Paige on SquareSpace was the fact that she didn’t have to worry about all the technical headaches, like updating her site and meeting the latest requirements for the site (e.g., converting to https, making the site mobile-friendly) – it was all taken care of behind the scenes for her.
She loves that hosting is included in the Squarespace fee as well. Another reason Paige adores Squarespace is that it’s super easy to make her site look however she wanted once she got the hang of working on the platform.
Optimizing a Squarespace Website for Pinterest
In the business of learning Squarespace, Paige also learned about the power of Pinterest. When she created her travel blog, she perfected her Pinterest marketing to the point that Pinterest was the number one “social media” platform sending traffic to her website. So yes…Pinterest marketing can work super well with a Squarespace website.
One of the biggest questions I get asked from my readers when it comes to sites built on Squarespace is about how to optimize the site for Pinterest without standard WordPress plugins that are typically used for this purpose. There are four basic pieces to this.
The first is enabling the pin-in button. Paige tells us that this is super simple on Squarespace, since it’s already integrated into the site.
All you need to do is:
Click Marketing —> Pinterest save buttons –> Enable. You can allow it to enable all images to be pinned or specific images. It’s simply a matter of three clicks!
Floating social share buttons are not available directly on the Squarespace platform itself, but you can totally add them onto the website. The best place Paige found to get free-floating share buttons is a website called AddThis. (Here’s a youtube video that has step-by-step installation instructions). It’s not difficult at all.
Your Squarespace site comes with share buttons located at the bottom of your blog post.
Just go to Marketing–>Share Buttons, and then click on all the different share buttons you want to include(Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). You can fully customize the style of your Share buttons. You can also choose whether or not to display number of social shares.
Another Pinterest optimization question that comes up frequently pertains to hiding Pinterest images.
Some people want to hide their Pinterest images in blog posts in order to keep them looking clean. Yes, you can hide images on a Squarespace website. Paige has a post all about it on her blog. Hidden Pinterest images will not appear normally, but will appear when someone is using their Pinterest Save Button browser extension. You can hide as many images as you want.
So when it comes to optimizing a squarespace website for Pinterest marketing, it’s easy peasy.
Pinterest Funnels
When Paige thinks about Pinterest, she always keeps in mind that when someone comes to a website from a pin, chances are they are not familiar with the site at all.
Because of this, keep in mind that people are not always going to venture to other pages on your blog. You need ask yourself the question,
When people land on this blog post from Pinterest, do they know what I want them to do next?
For Paige, her desired next step is to get that person onto her email list. For you, it could be sending them to your podcast or sending them straight to buying a product. Don’t include 97 calls to action on a page. If you do, people won’t follow through with any of them.
Determine your main goals. Go to your blog posts and make sure that the main goal is being communicated to the user. Whether that’s a pop-up, a sign-up on the sidebar, or something in the blog post itself directing them to buy your product or sign up for your newsletter.
Failing The Call to Action
When I asked Paige about the #1 mistake website owners are making, she said that they’re not putting repeated calls to action throughout their blog posts and website.
When it comes to your website, you have to almost “beat people over the head” with your call to action in order to get them to take the action you want them to take. I know. You don’t want to be annoying. But if the user doesn’t see your call to action at least a few times, you won’t get the results you’re hoping for.
Paige’s best advice is to use a big button to make your call to action impossible to miss. (Buttons are super easy to create on Squarespace!).
Google is Paige’s number one source of traffic currently, followed closely by Pinterest. After that, it’s typically referrals from other websites. She hasn’t placed a heavy focus on social media platforms in her business.
She set her business up so that her blog is the primary way she gets clients, by providing great free content to her audience. Her email list has also played a huge part in her success. It’s helped her to stay top of mind with her audience. When they need a web designer, she’s the go-to person to contact.
Final Tips for SquareSpace
If you are driving traffic to your site and you want those readers to do something specific on that page, make sure that your only call to action is the thing you want them to do.
If you have a free workshop you’re hosting or a free opt-in, eliminate the header and footer on your site so that it is completely distraction free.
If you want a fabulous website but don’t want the headache of constant updates, hiring developers to fix your site, and coding, Squarespace is the place for you. Once you understand the platform, you’ll be able to have your own custom website that works well for you.
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For more information about Squarespace check out time on her website. And follow her on Pinterest as well.
For further reading:
- Changing Your Blogging Mindset: A Client Success Story
- Creating a Pinterest Marketing Funnel
- How to Make Pinterest Work for You
Time Stamp:
- 4:10 – Meet Paige
- 6:37 – Why Paige Chose Squarespace
- 9:24 – Optimizing Squarespace for Pinterest
- 15:44 – Pinterest Funnels
- 19:59 – Failing The Call to Action
- 26:40 – Final Tips for Squarespace
Thanks so much for doing this podcast! As a longtime listener, I was thrilled to hear a podcast on squarespace. I have a few squarespace sites and I learned so much. Really appreciate it.
That’s awesome! I’m so thrilled it helped you. 🙂
I’m curious to know how to have a rich pin on squarespace WITHOUT having the date show. It’s so distracting.
I would head straight to Google and/or YouTube to search for a fix!