Squarespace terms, explained simply

A plain-English A-Z glossary of Squarespace terms, features, and concepts — so you always know what we're talking about.

Working with Squarespace introduces a few new words. This glossary explains them all in plain English, in alphabetical order.

Quick summary

Use this page as a reference whenever you come across a Squarespace term you don't recognize. Press Ctrl+F (Windows) or Cmd+F (Mac) to search for a specific word.

Account owner

The person who owns the site. Squarespace calls this role the Owner, and it's usually whoever created the site. The owner can manage everything, and is the only person who can transfer ownership to someone else. Administrators and contributors with Billing permissions can also manage billing.

Alt text

A short written description of an image. Alt text is read aloud by screen readers for visually impaired users, and helps search engines understand what an image shows. You should add alt text to every meaningful image on your site.

Analytics

Data about how visitors use your site — how many people visit, which pages they view, where they came from. Squarespace has a built-in Analytics panel in the main menu.

Background image

An image set behind the content in a section, rather than a standalone image block. Background images often serve a decorative or atmosphere-setting purpose.

Badge (plan)

In these guides, a badge is a small label that shows information such as an article's difficulty level. Separately, some Squarespace panels and features depend on your plan, so an option you read about may not appear on your site. See Plans & billing explained.

Block

The smallest unit of content in Squarespace. A block is a single piece of content — one text paragraph, one image, one button, etc. Blocks live inside sections. See Sections & blocks explained.

Blog

A special page type in Squarespace that contains a collection of posts displayed in reverse chronological order (newest first). Each post is an individual article.

Cache (browser cache)

A temporary storage of web page files on your device. Sometimes your browser shows you a cached (saved older) version of a page instead of the latest one. A hard refresh clears this.

Checkout page

The page where customers enter their payment and shipping details to complete a purchase. It's a built-in page on any site that sells, and you can style it from System Pages at the bottom of the Pages panel.

CNAME record

A type of DNS record that points one domain name to another. If you connect a domain you bought from another company using DNS Connect, Squarespace asks you to add two CNAME records and four A records at that company.

Code injection

An advanced feature for adding custom code (HTML or scripts) to a Squarespace site. On version 7.1, it's in the Pages panel under Custom Code > Code Injection, and each page also has its own code injection box in its page settings, on the Advanced tab. It's only available on the Core, Plus and Advanced plans (and some older plans). Leave this to Chykalophia — incorrect code here can break your site.

Commerce

The built-in selling features in Squarespace: products, orders and payments. You can sell on every current plan (Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced), though fees and some selling features vary by plan. If your site is on an older (legacy) plan, what you can sell depends on that plan. In the main menu, you'll find these tools under Products & Services.

Contributor

A person you've invited to your Squarespace site who isn't the owner. Each contributor has permissions that control what they can do. Some can edit content; others can only manage billing or view analytics, for example. See Contributors & permissions.

Cover page

A full-screen "splash" page type from version 7.0, often used for "coming soon" pages. Cover pages aren't available on version 7.1. There, you get a similar look by hiding the header and footer on a page, using the Navigation tab in its page settings.

Dashboard

In these guides, "the dashboard" means the admin area you see when you open your site. The list of links down the left is what Squarespace calls the main menu (see Main menu). Squarespace also has an account dashboard at account.squarespace.com, which lists all your sites, domains and subscriptions.

The Design panel only exists on version 7.0 sites, where it holds tools such as Site Styles and Logo & Title. On version 7.1, those tools live elsewhere: fonts and colors are under Website > Site Styles, your logo and site title are edited in the site header, the browser icon is in the Favicon panel, and custom CSS is under Custom Code at the bottom of the Pages panel.

DNS (Domain Name System)

The internet's "address book" that translates domain names (like yourbusiness.com) into the technical addresses that computers use. See What is DNS?.

Domain name

The web address visitors type to reach your site (e.g., yourbusiness.com). You can register one through Squarespace or connect one from another registrar.

Draft

On Squarespace, Draft is a blog post status: the post is saved but not published, and new posts start as drafts. Ordinary pages don't have a draft state. They're either enabled (live) or disabled (hidden). Products are Public, Hidden or Scheduled. Separate page drafts exist only for Squarespace Premium and Enterprise customers.

An item in the Pages panel that groups pages into a menu, which drops down when visitors hover over it in your navigation. A dropdown isn't a page, so you can't add content to it. Squarespace used to call these folders. To add one, click + in the Pages panel, then Dropdown.

Email Campaigns

A paid Squarespace add-on that lets you send marketing emails and newsletters to subscribers. See Squarespace email campaigns (overview).

Excerpt

A short summary of a blog post, shown in the blog post list instead of the full content. You write the excerpt in the post settings.

Favicon

The small icon that appears in browser tabs and bookmarks next to your site's name. Usually a simplified version of your logo. Set in the Favicon panel. To jump straight to it, press / and type "favicon".

Fluid Engine

Squarespace's drag-and-drop editor for page sections on version 7.1 sites. You place blocks on a grid, and you can arrange a separate layout for phones. Blog posts use Squarespace's classic editor instead, and Fluid Engine isn't available on version 7.0.

Focal point

A setting that tells Squarespace which part of an image matters most, so that part stays centered when the image is cropped to fit its space. On version 7.1, you can set it on image blocks, gallery sections, featured images and section background images.

Folder

The old name for a dropdown. Squarespace now calls these dropdowns. See Dropdown.

The bottom section of your site, below the page content. It shows the same content on every page and usually holds contact details, social icons and other key information. (Separate footer navigation menus exist only on some version 7.0 templates.)

Form block

A type of content block that lets visitors submit information (name, email, message, etc.) to you. See Working with forms.

Fulfillment

The process of completing a customer's order — packing, shipping, and marking the order as fulfilled in Squarespace. See Managing orders.

Gallery block

A block that shows a set of images as a slideshow, carousel or grid. On version 7.1, gallery blocks go in blog posts and individual events. On regular pages, you use a gallery section instead.

Hard refresh

Forcing your browser to reload a page from scratch, bypassing the browser cache. On Windows: Ctrl+Shift+R. On Mac: Cmd+Shift+R.

The top section of every page on your site. Usually contains your logo, site title, and navigation menu.

An old name for what Squarespace now calls the main menu: the list of links down the left side of the screen when you open your site. See Main menu.

HTTPS / SSL

The secure version of the web that shows a padlock in your browser's address bar. Squarespace automatically adds a free SSL certificate to every domain that's correctly connected to your site. You don't need to set it up.

Index page

A version 7.0 page type that pulls content from several sub-pages together into one page. Version 7.1 doesn't have index pages. There, you stack page sections for a similar effect, or use a portfolio page for a grid of links.

Layout

How content is arranged on a page or within a section. Squarespace provides layout options when you add new sections.

Logo & Title

A panel inside the Design panel on version 7.0 sites, where you upload your logo and set your site title (and, in some templates, a tagline). On version 7.1, you change these in the site header instead: click Edit, hover over the header, click Edit Site Header, then click your site title or logo and the pencil icon.

The list of links down the left side of the screen when you open your site: Website, Products & Services, Email Campaigns, Contacts, Analytics and more, with Settings behind the gear icon at the bottom. It used to be called the Home Menu. Yours may look a little different depending on your plan and settings.

The top section of the Pages panel. Pages you place here appear in your site's main navigation menu, which on most sites sits at the top of every page.

There's no Marketing item in the current main menu. Its tools are now spread out: Email Campaigns has its own link in the main menu, SEO is under Website > SEO/AI Visibility, the announcement bar and promotional pop-up are under Marketing Tools at the bottom of the Pages panel, and social icons are managed in the Social links panel.

Meta description

A short description of a page that can appear below the page title in search results. Squarespace calls it the SEO Description, and you set it in the page's settings, on the SEO tab. Search engines usually cut descriptions off at around 160 characters, so put the important part first.

Mobile preview

A view in the editor that shows roughly how your page will look on a phone. On version 7.1, click the Mobile View icon at the top right of the site preview. It's a good guide, but not an exact match for every phone.

The set of links, usually in your site header, that visitors use to move between pages. It follows the order of the pages in the Pages panel. (Some version 7.0 templates also have secondary and footer menus.)

Not linked

A section in the Pages panel for pages that don't appear in your site's navigation. These pages are still public: visitors can reach them through a link or by typing the address, and search engines can find them, unless you disable the page or add a password.

Page settings

Options for an individual page, such as its title, URL slug, password and SEO details. Open them by hovering over the page in the Pages panel and clicking the gear icon. On version 7.1, the settings are split into tabs: General, Navigation, SEO, Social Image and Advanced, plus Feeds on blog pages. Not every tab appears for every page.

Page slug

The last part of a page's URL. For example, in yourbusiness.com/about, the slug is about. Set in the page's settings, in the URL Slug field on the General tab.

Pages panel

The left-side panel in the Squarespace editor where all your pages are listed and organized. The hub for managing your site structure. Open it from the main menu: Website > Pages.

Pending (order status)

An order that has come in but hasn't been marked as fulfilled yet. Orders are Pending, Fulfilled or Canceled.

Plan

The subscription tier you're on. Your plan determines which features are available and how much you pay. See Plans & billing explained.

Portfolio page

A version 7.1 page type for showcasing your work. It's a landing page that links to sub-pages called projects, each with its own content.

RSS feed

An automatic feed of your blog posts that other services and apps can subscribe to. Squarespace generates this automatically for all blog pages.

Section

A full-width horizontal row on a page. Sections are the building blocks of Squarespace pages — you stack multiple sections to create a complete page layout. See Sections & blocks explained.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The practice of making your website easier for search engines like Google to find and rank. Squarespace has built-in SEO tools. See SEO settings in Squarespace.

Site Styles

The panel where you set fonts, colors, buttons and spacing for the whole site at once. It also offers themes: preset packs that change your fonts, colors and buttons in one go. On version 7.1, open it from Website > Site Styles, or click the paintbrush icon at the top right of any page. On version 7.0, it's inside the Design panel.

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

A code that identifies a product, or each version of a product, for inventory tracking. Squarespace creates one automatically for each product variant, and you can change it to match your own system.

Slug

See Page slug above.

Store page

A special page type that displays your product catalog. You can sell on every current plan (Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced). If your site is on an older (legacy) plan, what you can sell depends on that plan.

Squarespace 7.0 / 7.1

The two versions of Squarespace you'll come across. Version 7.1 is the newest, and the one these guides are written for: pages are built from stacked sections, most of them edited with Fluid Engine, and every 7.1 site has the same features whichever template it started from. Version 7.0 is the older version, where each template has its own features and layouts. To check which one you're on, open the Pages panel and scroll to the bottom. Squarespace has a tool to move a 7.0 site to 7.1, but the move can't be undone.

Template

A pre-designed starting point for your site's look and layout. On version 7.1, all templates share the same features and style options, and you can't switch templates later. You change the look with Site Styles instead. On version 7.0, each template has its own features, and you can switch templates.

Thumbnail

The small preview image shown for a blog post or product in lists and grids. Squarespace calls it the featured image. For a blog post, you set it in the post's settings; for a product, you choose it in the product editor.

Transaction fee

A percentage of each sale that Squarespace collects on some plans. It's separate from the processing fee your payment provider (such as Stripe or PayPal) charges on every sale. Whether you pay a transaction fee, and how much, depends on your plan and what you're selling. Check squarespace.com/pricing for current rates, or ask us.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

The full web address of a page — for example https://yourbusiness.com/contact. The part after the domain is the slug.

Variant

A version of a product with different options (e.g., size S, M, L; color Red, Blue). Set up in the product editor.

Version history

Squarespace doesn't have version history. There's no auto-save, and no way to roll a page back to an earlier saved version. What you can do: undo changes while you're editing (to be safe, before you save), and restore deleted pages and blog posts within 30 days. See undoing changes and recovering deleted pages.

Visibility

Whether visitors can see something. Squarespace handles it differently for each thing: pages are enabled or disabled (and can have a password), products are Public, Hidden or Scheduled, and the whole site is Public, Password Protected or Private, set in the Site Availability panel.

In general web terminology, a small interactive component, such as a booking form or a review feed. Squarespace's own building pieces are called blocks. Squarespace uses "widget" mainly for third-party tools you embed on a page with a code block.

Common questions

Is there a Squarespace-specific term I can't find here?

Contact Chykalophia and we'll explain it for you — and we'll add it to this glossary.

What's the difference between Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1?

Version 7.1 is Squarespace's newest version, and the one these guides are written for. Pages are built from stacked sections, and every 7.1 site has the same features and style options, whichever template it started from. In version 7.0, each template has its own features and layouts, and some things are edited in different places. Older sites are more likely to be on 7.0. To check, open the Pages panel and scroll to the bottom, where Squarespace shows your version. Ask Chykalophia if you're unsure.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

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Squarespace terms, explained simply

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