The 'Launch Your Squarespace Website' Checklist
Updated: Dec. 2023
You've built your own Squarespace 7.1 website, and you're ready to launch it and show it to everyone.
So exciting! Maybe it’s also because you’re not sure if you’ve thought of everything. That’s why we’ve created this Launch Checklist. Go through the items below, and you’re good to go!
User Experience
Check the URLs of all your pages. Sometimes, while building your site, you may have duplicated pages, and your current contact page might be named /contact-1. Of course, this should be /contact. And keep your URLs short.
Test all your links and buttons, and decide for each link whether it should open in a new tab or not.
Link an email address to all your Form Blocks, give each Form Block a clear name, and run a test. Don't forget to set up a Post Submit message. Or create a redirect to a thank-you page that you place in the "Not Linked" section.
Connect an email marketing tool to your Newsletter Block (and test it using your own email address).
Set up redirects. If you used the URL www.bedrijf.nl/wie-ben-ik on your old website and it’s now www.bedrijf.nl/over-mij, set up a redirect. That way, people who still have the old link somewhere will be automatically redirected to the new page. (via Settings > Developer Tools > URL mappings).
If you have a Dutch website, check the Language settings and set them to Dutch (via Settings > Language & Region > Site Languages).
Check your social links(via Settings > Social Links).
Create a custom 404 page to help your website visitors find their way. See also this blog post.
Check the mobile version of your website—especially if you're using 7.1 in combination with Fluid Engine!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Does each page have at most one Heading 1 text that includes relevant keywords?
Does your website have a good SEO description? (via Marketing > SEO Appearance > SEO Title Format & SEO Site Description)
Note: You can change your Site Title via Pages > Edit > Edit Site Header > Site title & logo)
Does every page have an SEO title and SEO description? Check this in your page settings on the SEO tab. Don't forget your blog posts, either .
Hide pages from search engines that don't need to appear in search results, such as your cookie policy and thank-you pages. You can configure this on a per-page basis via the page settings on the SEO tab.
Images
Give your images relevant names before you upload them. If you didn't do that and you're reading this too late, no worries. Just make sure to do it from now on.
Make sure each image is smaller than 500 kB; otherwise, your website will be unnecessarily slow. Full-width images should be no more than 2,000 pixels wide. They don’t need to be any larger. You can also reduce the size of images even further using TinyJPG.
Add "alt text" to all your images. This helps with your SEO. However, you can't do this for images that you've set as section backgrounds.
Add a social sharing image (via Settings > Social Sharing). Make sure it’s a landscape image (approximately 16:9 aspect ratio) and not your logo. This image will be displayed when, for example, you share a link to your website on social media.
Note: You can also set an image for each page via the page settings on the Social Image tab.
Add a favicon. That’s the small icon you see on your web browser’s tab. The default Squarespace icon is a black cube. Make sure to upload a square icon with a transparent background in PNG format. (via Settings > Browser icon)
Domains and Security
Change the “built-in domain name.” Squarespace automatically assigns you a random URL such as “turtle-wombat-294s-squarespace.com” (via Settings > Domains > Built-In Domain > Site ID). Change the first part to your company name or your own name. This is because your website can also be accessed via this URL.
In the SSL settings, also check the "HSTS Secure " box. (via Settings > Developer Tools > SSL)
Make sure passwords are removed from the pages.
Do you use Squarespace Email Campaigns? If so, make sure your email address and domain name are verified. (via Marketing > Email Campaigns > Email Campaign Settings > Sender Details)
Check or uncheck this box if you want Squarespace to promote your website (Settings > Site promotion)
Check or uncheck this box to indicate whether you want your website's content to be used for AI purposes (Settings > Crawlers)
Legal
Is your cookie banner enabled, and does it include a link to your cookie policy?
Do you have a privacy policy posted in an easily accessible location? (e.g., the footer or next to each opt-in)
Be sure to include a copyright notice in the footer—specifically, the year the content was first published, followed by the current year and your company name. (See the copyright notice at the bottom of this website as an example.)
In conclusion:
Cancel the Business Plan (via Settings > Billing > Subscriptions)
Link your domain name to your site (see this help desk article)
Wait until the SSL certificate is activated (Squarespace does this automatically, but it may take a while) (check the status under Settings > Developer Tools > SSL)
Publish your site (via Settings > Site Availability > Public)
Let's celebrate! 🎉
