How to Add Plugins to Squarespace Sites
Plugins often referred to as extensions or add-ons, are third-party tools that are used to enhance your Squarespace site beyond its base functionality. Plugins can be anything from small CSS code snippets used to make small tweaks to extensive code injections involving CSS, Javascript, and/or HTML that add more advanced functionality to your Squarespace site.
All Squarespace plugins have different installation requirements, but generally, you will need to add the provided code snippets (in the form of HTML, CSS, and/or JavaScript) to your website via the header or footer code injections, or a code block.
Adding plugins to your Squarespace site
Different plugins often require unique sets of instructions since each of the thousands of available Squarespace plugins were all created by different developers. That being said, there are some commonalities among all of them.
Typically, adding a plugin to your site involves one or more of the following:
Adding a snippet of CSS code to Design > Custom CSS
Adding a <script> tag that links to a JavaScript file in your page header, site header, or site footer code injections
Adding a <link> tag that links to a CSS file in your page header, site header, or site footer code injections
Adding an external library to your page header, site header, or site footer code injections. The most common library used for some Squarespace plugins is jQuery (to learn more about what jQuery is and how to safely add it to your Squarespace site, click here)
In addition to the required code snippets provided to you, your plugin might require other specific settings that have nothing to do with code. For instance, the Squarespace 7.1 Mega Menu plugin available from my plugin store requires that the background color of the mega menu page sections match the color theme of the navigation header, because that is the only way to guarantee the link colors will be correct.
Every plugin creator has their own specific reasons for each requirement, so I can’t stress enough how important it is to follow the installation instructions provided for each plugin.
The pros and cons of using Third-Party Squarespace plugins
Pros
Add advanced functionality that the Squarespace platform lacks
Squarespace is a simple website-building tool made for content creation, eCommerce, and subscription-based services. It has all of the basic tools needed to create a website for pretty much anything, but sometimes your site needs something beyond what the platform offers.
Plugins can help you extend the functionality of your website to accommodate your needs so that you don’t have to build another website on a completely different platform just because Squarespace doesn’t have a specific feature that you need. There are a variety of Squarespace plugins available by many third-party creators for just about anything, including blogging, eCommerce, navigation, and much more.
You can find a large variety of free and premium plugins on Ghost Plugins, a growing library of plugins for the Squarespace platform.
Improve the responsiveness of your site
While Squarespace does an excellent job of automatically creating responsive views without any added code, there are still loads of ways to improve the mobile and tablet views of your site. There are a plethora of Squarespace plugins specifically created for optimizing the responsiveness of both Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1 sites.
You might be interested in the mobile optimization plugins available in my plugin store that were created to improve user interactivity on your site’s mobile views, all compatible with Squarespace 7.1 templates.
Optimize your site with little to no coding experience required
The Squarespace platform does a great job of providing people with an easy way of creating user-friendly and responsive websites without having to write code, but, as is the case with any website builder, sometimes custom code solutions are the only way to achieve what you want. Squarespace plugins can help you enhance your site without the expenses involved in outsourcing work to a developer.
While some plugins might require a basic knowledge of code, the code is usually never anything that non-developers can’t handle or learn quickly. Plus, with the support offered with most plugins, you’ll have it down in no time at all!
Cons
Unforeseen updates to the Squarespace platform may require plugin updates
Any custom code solution, no matter how short and simple it may be, is code that does not naturally occur in the Squarespace platform. Because of this, if Squarespace decides to update something as simple as a class name of an HTML element, your custom code could stop working. Plugins are no exception to this rule.
It’s just part of the deal.
The good news is that most if not all plugin creators understand this reality and are well-prepared to make code updates in the event Squarespace decides to update something major. Some plugins even use Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to manage code files, that way any necessary code updates can happen for all customers simultaneously and without requiring any work on your part.
The Squarespace support team is very limited in its ability to offer help with custom code and plugins
Most of the plugins you’ve probably come across in your Google searches are just combinations of CSS, HTML, and/or JavaScript written by a developer or a team of developers (someone who knows how to write code). They then sell these code snippets as Squarespace plugins. Because these plugins were not actually written by Squarespace’s developers or anyone affiliated with Squarespace, the Squarespace platform does not endorse the use of any third-party plugins, and therefore, they do not offer support for problems that may occur with custom code.
The good news is Squarespace plugin creators like myself are well aware of the limitations of the Squarespace support team in regard to custom code. This means each plugin you buy will almost always come with free support from the creator(s), so you will not be left hanging!
