Kerry’s Blog
When I create websites for my clients, we work in a collaborative way so they’re learning about what websites are, how they work, and how to update them. These blog posts answer many of the questions my clients have as we work together. I hope you find this information helpful too.
Optimize your photos before they go on your website
Optimized photos load more quickly and improve SEO (search engine optimization) for your website, without sacrificing quality. Techniques for optimization include resizing and compressing the photo to reduce the file size while maintaining sharpness and clarity.
Here’s the easy way to choose colors for your website
Whether you design your website on Squarespace or some other platform, you’ll be making color choices that are unified and compatible across your website, from the text to the buttons to the colors in the images. Designers call these color choices a color palette. Here’s how I simplify color selections for my clients.
How to show a background image behind your site header
To stretch and expand the background image to the top of your website, change the site header color style to Adaptive. The site header then becomes transparent so the background image shows behind the navigation text.
How to connect your blog or website page to a link preview image
The clickable image that shows up on social media posts is called a link preview image. In Squarespace and other website editors, you can designate a specific image to show up when you share a website page on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter/X.
What’s the aspect ratio of an image and why should you care?
The aspect ratio of an image is its width relative to its height. Understanding aspect ratio helps you design your pages with images that look attractive and well-matched. Aspect ratio choices can also help with planning and choosing images you’d like to use on your website.
Best practices for creating a Social Sharing image
You can add a Social Sharing image to Squarespace to be shown as a link preview for your website when you share a URL on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The size of 1200x628 pixels works best for those platforms. You can also set custom images for specific website pages or blog posts to draw extra attention to them.
Unsplash: Free images for commercial use
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.
How to pick the best banner image for your Home page
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."
7 pro tips for a perfect banner photo showing people
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.
How and why to remove location info from your photos
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.
How to add emojis to your website
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.
How to find free photos you love for your Squarespace website
Find beautiful free photos that convey the perfect tone and message for your Squarespace website.
How to make your own crop circles in Squarespace
A circle adds a different design shape to your website, which can be a refreshing change from the usual square and rectangle images. Squarespace makes it easy to crop your square image into a circle (and a lot of other shapes). No coding needed.
The one time you must use a transparent .png image
As a rule, you should use images that use the .jpg format on your website. However, if you need the special effect of a background color or image showing through an image placed on top, you’ll need to use a transparent image saved in .png format.
How to place an image perfectly on a Squarespace website
Placing images exactly where you want them on website pages and blog posts can be tricky and frustrating. In this blog post, you'll learn how to place images exactly where you want them in Squarespace. Image placement applies when your website is seen on a computer. On a cell phone, photos are stacked above or below your text.
Follow these three rules to choose your website images
Follow these three rules when choosing and preparing your website images to have a professional-looking website.