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12 Ways to Customize Your Website

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Are you thinking about freshening up your website and making some adjustments to its design, but feel like you’ve already thoroughly explored every option, every style tweak, every block type and feature? 

Squarespace is always updating and adding to its robust set of tools to offer new options for customizing and personalizing your website. This article will highlight a few options that you may not yet have encountered, but could be just the tools you’re looking for to fine-tune your site’s appearance. 

These tools are also great access points to start exploring the platform's deeper features and lead you down a brand new creative road. 

Changing page sections

Page sections are the different pieces that make up the content on a website page, like an introduction or your list of services. Let’s take a look at some of the design options available for updating your page sections. 

1. Section dividers

Section dividers add more visible breaks between page sections. You can choose to add an actual line in different styles, like a wave or diagonal, or crop a section background or background image to mark the break. 

These can help to visually separate content, allowing each section to have its own space without the need to create a new page, producing a more dynamic design. You can use section dividers to break up page layouts in a variety of ways, such as:

  • Creating a break between About and Our Team sections on a single page, consolidating two potential pages into one

  • Making a more organized one-page website

  • Adding separation between your main page content and your website footer

Add section dividers

2. Section background images and videos 

Add unique backgrounds to page sections to really catch a visitor’s eye once they arrive at your site. Use these as an alternative to a background video, as a way to differentiate sections, or as a visual introduction to any page of your site.

For example, you can add a background video to the first section of your site’s homepage to give an overview of your product, service, or body of work. You can also use section background images to help give specific sections on a page their own look. 

Pro tip: Depending on connection speed and browser version, background videos may not load for every visitor. It's helpful to add a mobile fallback image to display when the video can’t. 

Add section background art

3. Auto layouts

If you’re looking for a hand getting started on designing a page section or like to have a template to work from, auto layouts are a great starting point. Auto layouts present sets of content in curated designs. The designs include layouts for different purposes, such as columns and rows, carousels, or slideshows. 

These are perfect for maintaining simple pages with content that needs to be updated regularly, such as featured product images, recent projects, and current team members. While this content starts in preset layouts, you can create additional sections to make the design yours. 

Use auto layouts on your site

4. Background art

While section background images are a great way to draw in visitors’ attention, you can also add background art to a page section for another level of personalization. Background art allows you to create a unique look using colors, patterns, and shapes generated in the Squarespace platform.

This is a great option for creating themed sections on a single page, such as dividing a school site into sections by grade level, or enhancing the look of a text-heavy FAQ. 

Blocks

Blocks are design elements that can be placed on Squarespace page sections, like a text block, form block, or image block. Below are some types of block types and features that you may not have had the chance to try out just yet. 

5. Scrolling blocks

Scrolling blocks are a unique block type that allows you to display text that scrolls horizontally across the page. This is similar in function to a theater marquee or news ticker. You can control the speed and shape of the scroll.

This is a great way to bring more life to your site’s design and draw visitors’ focus to key information.

You can use scrolling blocks to:

  • Highlight sales, launches, or popular products

  • Create a ticker of upcoming events

  • Display customer reviews and testimonials 

Add scrolling blocks to your site

6. Shape blocks 

Shape blocks allow you to add different shapes with solid fill to your page sections. This enables you to vary page layouts and create more diverse designs. 

You can also overlap shape blocks with other types of blocks to create even more visually striking layouts. Shapes can be placed behind images on your site to make them pop out from the page or stand apart from other content in a gallery. 

A few ways someone might use shape blocks include:

  • Adding a star shape block behind a customer testimonial to emphasize their 5-star experience

  • Adding shape blocks of varying color around a page section detailing your birthday cake baking services for an extra-festive feel

Learn more about using shape blocks

7. Accordion blocks 

Accordion blocks display text in collapsible, clickable sections. This helps to keep page length minimal and reduces scrolling for your visitors. Accordion blocks can help you to create a more structured design for text-heavy pages like FAQs or product listings

For example, use an accordion block to display important information about a service that your business provides with clearly divided sections that customers can click to read more. A wedding photographer might use an accordion block to break up the process of working with them, with accordion sections like: Meet & Greet, Choose a Package, Engagement Shoot, Pre-Wedding Meet, Wedding Day, After the Big Day. 

Add accordion blocks to your site

8. Block Pinning

You can pin any type of block on a page section. This keeps them stationary while visitors scroll through the rest of the content in the same section. 

It also helps to ensure that important information and content is visible no matter where you're scrolling. For example, you can:

  • Pin your business location and hours of operation while visitors scroll through products

  • Keep your image front and center while presenting accomplishments or services

  • Highlight a disclaimer when necessary

  • Keep your contact form or newsletter sign up within view at all times

Learn how to pin blocks in a page section

Text formatting

How you style the text on your website can impact what site visitors pay attention to and what they remember. Here are some text formatting options and features to allow you to get the most out of your words. 

9. Text highlights 

To make certain text stand out, try using the text highlighting feature. This can really help accentuate key information on a page, or make it more skimmable when necessary.

Text highlighting has the following style options:

  • Animation: Animate your highlight shape to add movement that draws extra attention to your text.

  • Bring to front: This allows your highlight to overlap your text, making it look more like a real-life highlight.

  • Color: Change the color of your highlight to make it pop or better match your site’s design.

  • End caps: Adjust the shape for the ends of the highlight to rounded or squared-off.

  • Thickness: Adjust the thickness of the highlight line. 

This is a great option for:

  • Spotlighting customer reviews

  • Accentuating key portions of a blog post

  • Drawing attention to certain elements of an About page

More about highlighting text

10. Scale text

Text scaling allows you to fit your text to the width of a block. It’s a quick way to size your text without line breaks, regardless of browser size. We recommend this feature for short titles or headlines. It's also great for:

  • Breaking content into sections using headings

  • Creating concise lists

  • Featuring important quotes from larger portions of text

Learn how to scale text

Image formatting

The way you style and format your images can also add personality and visual interest to your site design. 

11. Image block animations and effects 

You can add effects to image blocks to give images a more stylized and unique look. Some options add an animation, like a subtle wave or static effect to emphasize your site’s visual style. Other effects only appear as the visitor scrolls through that section of your site. 

This is a great way to:

  • Bring more life to an otherwise static area of a site

  • Add motion to still images without the use of video

  • Ensure that key images are always able to draw attention

Add animations and effects to image blocks

12. Image shapes and masks 

Image blocks can also be shaped to change the look and feel of each image on a page. Available options for shaping images include:

  • Using corner radius settings to round the corners of an image

  • Set a full shape, such as a circle or triangle

The full shape setting appears over the image, like a mask, giving it a new shape. Turn your photo gallery into a series of interesting shapes or your product offerings into something beyond standard images to really draw attention. 

Set the shape of an image block 

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