Do I need to know how to code as a Squarespace Website Designer?
Squarespace is well known for its usability. It is designed to be super user friendly and with the latest update to Fluid Engine it is even more drag and drop. This means that you can design a nice looking Squarespace Website by only using the drag and drop blocks and built in Squarespace features and styles.
But using code in Squarespace can take your designs to the next level and help you stand out from the DIYers. So does that mean that as a designer, you need to know how to code?
My answer is …. just a little….
In the following video, I talk through why you should know the basics of code as a Squarespace Designer and how to go about learning what you need to know… for FREE.
Do I need to know how to code as a Squarespace Designer?
The more you design in Squarespace the more you'll inevitably come up across a situation where the editor is not letting you do something that you want to do. Maybe there's not an option inside the style Editor to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish or Squarespace doesn't have the functionality that you need.
In these situations, you need code in order to be able to override the Squarespace settings. This can be something as simple as removing underlines from links, aligning text on mobile, or having the button in the header be slightly different on one page than the rest of the pages. Or it can be more complex changes such as having a vertical header (which you used to be able to do in 7.0, but is not an option in 7.1) or having sidebars, etc.
So, if you want to be able to provide a fully custom website to your Squarespace clients and stand out from DIYers you do need to know how to code…. a little.
Why can’t I just use a program that writes the code for me?
There are programs out there that you can add onto your Squarespace website where you click away and it adds all the code that you need. Sounds great, right? Let's say you want to make some small changes to your site, maybe 20 lines of code. In order for this program to run you're going to have to copy some code over to your Squarespace site in order to run their program. It's may look like it's only a few lines of code but it's really linking to a library that is possibly thousands of lines of code long. So now your 20 lines of code is a thousand lines of code. Yikes.
This could slow down your site and is a lot more code than you need!
What happens if you don't need that code anymore? Let’s say you make changes down the line, you decide you don't need some of the code anymore, but you didn't write it so you don't know what code to delete. You don't know what code is for what and you end up with a mess of code which again can cause problems such as page loading times and styles jumping as the page is loaded.
What happens if you don't want to pay for their program anymore? Does that mean the code on your client’s site no longer works? Can you use the code on another site or do you have to pay for that program to help be hosted on more than one website?
You can see how having a program that writes the code for you may seem simpler at the beginning, but may cause problems later down the line. So if you are a business that is just designing your own site, a program that writes code for you could be a great investment. However, as a designer who's going to have tons of client sites over time, having a program that writes code for you can become costly and in the end cause you more problems than it saved.
Does that mean I need to take an in-depth coding course?
No, absolutely not! Most of the changes that you're going to want to make in Squarespace will require you to use CSS, which is arguably the easiest coding language to learn. However even the most seasoned and advanced coders do not write code from scratch every time.
As a Squarespace Website designer that uses code on all of the websites that I build, I very rarely write code from scratch. I have a resource that I copy and paste from, which speeds things up drastically.
This means that you do not need to have an in-depth knowledge of code. You just need to know how to read and edit it for your needs.
What do I need to know and how can I learn it?
You're in luck because I am running a FREE Coding Clutz to Coding Champion: 3 Day Coding Camp that is going to teach you all that you need to know in order to use code on your clients’ Squarespace websites.
Click here to check the dates as I only offer this LIVE event a few times a year.
No coding experience necessary. At the end of this 3 day workshop you will have all the skills you need to copy, paste, and edit all the code snippets you need to provide stunning Squarespace Websites that are sure to have your clients drooling.
