How to add and customize a Squarespace announcement bar - video tutorial

If you're looking to get important information in front of your website's audience, an announcement bar is a guaranteed way to do this.

Adding an announcement bar to your website is a guaranteed way to highlight a particular message, promote a call-to-action (CTA), or highlight an event, sale, promo or offering. Since they are displayed on every page of the website right up at the top, visitors to your website cannot miss them!

Another great feature about Squarespace's announcement bars is that they are customizable. Once you add one to your website, you can make sure that it fits seamlessly with your branding through colours, fonts and website links. Heck yeah for good design!

If you've ever wanted to add an announcement bar to your website but weren't sure how to do it, watch this video tutorial to see how simple it is and how YOU can get one up and running today!

How to name photos for increased SEO in Squarespace - video tutorial

When people think about search engine optimization (SEO), many people think about including certain keywords/keyphrases in their blog posts or webpage's content. This is a great step one but unfortunately many people stop here and never make it to step two... optimizing their images for SEO!

The easiest way to optimize images for SEO is by naming them correctly.

Good news is that this is simple to do and will not take more than a few moments of your time. And if you're uploading any type of image, photo or graphic to your website, it's worth it to name them correctly for even more SEO goodness to hit your website!

Web Design/Development, SEOCharlotte O'HaraAugust 8, 2017squarespace seo series, seo, images, social media images, keywordsComment

Why you should start an email list today

When I first started my web design/development business, I thought that I would do client work all day long and that would be it. I figured my time would be spent building new websites, tweaking existing pages, reworking content and layouts, and creating cohesive visual brands for my clients.

And, for a while at least, I was totally on the mark.

But it didn’t take long before I started reading blog posts from other web designer/developers and online business owners (in a variety of different niches), and I noticed that they all seemed really focused on building their email list.

To be honest though, I wasn’t sold on this. Who was I to have a newsletter? Weren’t sleazy marketers the only ones who had email lists? Was there any value for regular freelancers, online service providers, or business owners in having an email list? Would I annoy people by sending them a weekly email and turn them off my business forever? These were just a few of the hesitations I had before I started my email list.

Fast forward a few months, however, and I figured that if enough people were telling me that a certain action had a positive impact on their business, they probably aren’t all wrong. So I figured "what the heck", I’d give it a shot and start my own email list.

The verdict? It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for my business.

BusinessCharlotte O'HaraJuly 6, 2017email marketing, email list Comment

Expert Roundup : Using social media to support your website

What comes to mind when you hear the words "social media"?

Do you think about how much fun it can be to grow an audience on the platform of your choosing? How great it is to show off your products/services for free (or low cost)? How awesome it is to interact with your audience on a daily basis and see how they are engaging with your brand?

Or, on the flip side, do you get overwhelmed with how much of social media relies on pre-scheduling? Feel defeated whenever you see accounts growing faster than yours? Or get frustrated trying to maintain a picture-perfect aesthetic?

Trust me, we all experience feelings on every end of the spectrum when it comes to social media.

Social media is a powerful tool that holds an enormous amount of weight in your website's marketing efforts, but it doesn't come easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to build and maintain a strategic profile no matter which social media platform you're on.

But believe me when I tell you that social media is one of the greatest ways to drive traffic back to your website and support your business efforts. It just takes a bit of know-how!

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