Five reasons you should learn the CSS basics today
So what if you want to make your site more dynamic and responsive… more like you (or your client)? That’s where the CSS Editor comes in.
We all know Squarespace is a drag-and-drop builder, which makes it easier to create and design your website. But while they look clean and presentable, templates rarely look unique—without a lot of tweaking, your brand will look like every other business that uses the same layout.
CSS, which stands for Cascading Style Sheets, is the programming language used to style web pages in ways that the Site Styles settings cannot. These include more options in terms of fonts, colors, margins, and even animations.
Still, it’s not enough for you to just copy-and-paste random code snippets from various sources without knowing what any of them mean. To make your designs truly stand out, it’s best for you to begin with the creative foundation when it comes to adding custom code.
To make your designs truly stand out, it’s best for you to begin with the creative
foundation when it comes to adding custom code.
These are just some of the benefits of using CSS for Squarespace designs:
CSS solves layout issues
Ever been frustrated with how elements don’t seem to align on the page despite your best efforts? Maybe you end up relying on those spacer blocks to do the trick. At least until you realize your little hack doesn’t work on smaller screens, where the text ends up being crammed in the middle. Knowing your CSS will allow you to address these common alignment and spacing problems, so you wouldn’t have to spend the whole day looking for answers in Google.
2. CSS creates flexible & beautiful mobile sites
Speaking of smaller screens, CSS can make it so much easier for you to make your site design more responsive. That means the elements in your page would change depending on whatever space is available in your user’s device.
Just think of your design like water being transferred from one container to another—you can expect a well-crafted website to act fluidly that way. It’ll be easier for you to work with elements from then on.
3. CSS makes the site easier to update
Learning CSS allows you to make changes fairly quickly, even for more advanced customizations.
For example, clipping images in a gallery into uniform dimensions would allow your client to upload any photo with ease, without having to worry about the size and shape. Just imagine if they’d have to depend too much on editing programs just to change every single photo!
4. CSS boosts your SEO
If you’ve ever thought about, say, rotating your headings by 90 degrees for a more editorial aesthetic, you’ve probably considered uploading them as images in your site instead. But that doesn’t bode very well for your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
You might be missing out on those crucial keywords that could have ranked your latest blog post higher up the Google results page.
5. CSS creates more elevated sites
Because it gives you more control over what your website looks like, CSS will allow you to modify designs to make them look the way you intend them to.
No need to work around your original mockup or compromise on features that you want to place in every webpage. It’s important for the final output to reflect the brand’s personality, and using code with your design expertise can help you accomplish just that.
Convinced that you need to go back to square one
and learn how CSS actually works?
Lucky for you, I’ve created a free foundational course, SQUAREONE: CSS in Squarespace, that you might want to check out. It’s a project-based approach, so you’ll be joining me in recreating a simple but stylish homepage layout through code.
And since we’d be discussing the basics and best practices, it’s the perfect place to start learning the concepts you need for both Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1. All you have to do is click here and use the discount code “FREE” at checkout!
Any other new features you’d like to see in Squarespace sites? I’m open to ideas, so feel free to send me an email and let’s make it happen.
