As I worked with clients, I noticed there were six words that came up in questions to me during our consultations: domain, web host, website, page, SEO, and navigation. Becoming familiar with these website components and how they work together helps you manage and maintain a healthy website for your business.

Two kinds of forms are common on websites: a Contact form and an Email signup form. Each form has its own purpose. To plan which forms will go on your website, it’s helpful to understand how each form is used as an interactive tool for collecting information from your website visitors.

As you start a blog, first determine the focus of your blog. Then choose topics that are relevant and that are in your area of expertise. Blog posts can contain text, images, videos, links to other blog posts, links to podcasts, and personal or creative endeavors. Each blog post adds content to your website and gives you cumulative client-attracting and SEO benefits.

Before you can choose individual topics to write about in your blog, first define the strategy for your blog as a whole. Knowing who your audience is and what they want to know will be the foundation for the content. It will also help you choose topics that fit the goals of your blog.

Understanding how text blocks work in Squarespace and how they interact with design blocks will help you shape your pages the way you want with indents, margins, columns, and more.

High-quality images are an important part of any online message you want to deliver. Free images that you can use on your website and with social media postings must either be your own originals, those that you have permission to use, or donated by artists to use free for commercial use. In addition to Pixabay, I've also discovered Unsplash as another place to find beautiful images that are free to use for commercial use.

Choosing the main image on the home page of your website has repercussions for the colors, mood, and typeface choices for your whole website. Designers take a lot of things into consideration, including colors, size, and arrangement before choosing what's called a "hero image."

When you were in school, did you learn to put that extra Oxford comma in your lists? The choice is up to you, the style guides tell us, but to help your readers, keep your decision consistent throughout your website, your blog posts, and your social media.

Save yourself some time by keeping these tips in mind when you are selecting a large banner photo for the top of your website page. These guidelines apply both to selecting a photo from a stock photo site or if you plan on using photographs of yourself in banner photos as many service-oriented business owners do.

Adding a blog to your website and keeping it updated is a great way to publicize your business. Search engines like Google reward websites that produce fresh content. Employing SEO best practices to add keywords to your blog posts increases the likelihood that potential customers will find you in online searches.

If you already have a domain you purchased from another company, but are new to Squarespace, you’ll ned to decide how to associate your domain with your website: connect it or transfer it. There are pros and cons to each choice.

To preview your Squarespace website as you’re designing it or to gather feedback from others before you launch, use these techniques to share your unpublished website.

PDFs are a useful addition to your Squarespace website if you want to provide information that isn’t for general use or is too lengthy to add to a website page.

If you have a website that will show personal photos, you’ll want to remove location information from those photos, especially from any photos taken at your home or other places that you don’t want to share with the public.

Whether you want to add a little emphasis or a bit of lightheartedness to your website, emojis give you another choice for adding a graphic touch that stands out.

After reading an article about self-employment time management, I started keeping a log of how I was spending my time on marketing and educational activities related to my website design business. Now I am much more deliberate about how I spend my time online and I've narrowed down my business-related social media focus to a few platforms.