How to create a landing page

Landing pages overview

Landing pages are created for various purposes and are aimed at quickly grabbing users’ attention demonstrating different announcements on your website. You might consider creating a landing page on your site for:

• Coming soon section
• 404 error pages
• Product launch countdowns
• Any other important announcements

Let’s proceed to forming your first landing page.

Before you start

Squarespace domains that aren’t connected to your site usually have parking pages. The visitors of these pages will see a custom domain and a background video. Keep in mind that such pages do not support lock screens.

Using a lock screen as a landing page

In case you’re using a site-wide password, your website visitors will see a lack screen. This one can be used as a landing page. It’s default style is light gray with a minimum text, but it can be customized to match with your brand design. This particular page will work as a landing for users with passwords - after entering one, they’ll get an opportunity to browse through the website’s other pages. The option is free to use for paid and trial accounts. It means that this is a great opportunity to build up your own “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” section at no extra cost while you’re constructing the rest of the website. To create a lock screen, you'll need to perform the following actions.

Set a site-wide password

To do it on your desktop, follow these easy steps:

• Click Settings in the Home Menu and then select the Site Availability.
• Click Password Protected in the drop-down menu.
• Set and enter the password users will need to get access to your site.
• Save the changes.

You might also want to consider setting the password using the Squarespace App:

• Go to the Settings section and tap Site Password & SSL there.
• Switch on the Site-Wide Password.
• Enter the password users will need to enter your website in the special field.
• Select Back to save the changes.

After that, you need to test if the password works correctly. To do it, open a private browser window and go to your website.You’ll see the lock screen where you’ll need to enter your password. If everything goes right, proceed to the next step.

Customize your lock screen

You are free to tailor the screen the way it works best for you. But you might want to consider the following practices to make it look nice and do its job. Do not complicate things The lock screen might be the first thing a user sees when opening your website. And its existence is reduced to a fact that the user enters the password. So keep it simple and do not complicate its design - it must function quickly. Don’t use multiple lock screens All password-protected areas of your website should have one lock screen. You can’t customize it per page. No blocks Unlike the rest of Squarespace, lock screens work and behave differently. Most importantly, they are not built by means of sections or blocks. You’ll get a pre-styled layout to customize it later.

Forming a page that’ll become your landing

Another - more customizable - option, not restricted with password, is a page. If you want to use it, your site must be paid and set to public. To use this option must be great for those who want to draw their users’ attention to some latest updates, newsletter subscription form, etc. To use this option, you must know what your site’s version is. Version 7.1 guide

Single-section layout page

If you have a Squarespace site version 7.1, you can create a Layout page with a single section that might stand for an eye-catching landing page. To do it, follow these easy steps:

1. Go to the Home Menu, click Pages and then click +.
2. Select Blank Page, then choose Edit on the page.
3. Click + and pick Add Blank +.
4. Attach a text to the Text Block. Or add more blocks if needed.
5. Select the pencil icon.
6. Select Background if you want to add a background image or video, or click Colors to set your background color.
7. Go to Done and then press Save.
8. Upgrade to paid service, if you haven't done it yet.
9. In the Site Availability section, click Public to publish the page.

In case you want to stop users from navigating elsewhere on your website, you can hide the header and navigation elements. To do it:

• Click Edit on the page and then go to the header where you need to click Edit Site Header.
• Select Elements, and there switch the toggles off for Button, Social Links, and Cart.
• Go to Done and click Save.
• In the pages panel, take all your pages to the Not Linked section, including the landing page that you have just created. Now they won’t appear as navigation links.

Version 7.0 guide

Cover page

Cover pages are used to present information in a single, bold page. They offer a wide range of tools so that users could add images, texts, brand elements and CTAs. To create such a page, you need:

• Click Pages in the Home menu, then click +.
• Add Cover Page.
• If you haven’t upgraded to the Paid Plan yet, do it now.
• Mark your page as Public in the Site Availability section.

You might also want to consider creating a layout page that’ll serve as a landing page on your website.

Layout page

These are basic pages that can be created using blocks. They are good for About us pages, contact pages and for any other types of pages at the majority of websites. To create a landing page using this page type, you’ll need to:

• Go to the Home menu, click Pages and then click +.
• Click Blank and then select Edit on the page.
• Add text to the text block.
• Paste your custom content, Squarespace Google Reviews plugin for example.
• Add more blocks if needed.
• Click Save after adding your content.
• If you haven’t done it already, upgrade to the paid service.
• Select Public in the Site Availability section if you haven’t done it yet.