How to Create a Website Welcome Mat with Squarespace

Tech and Systems

Apr 10

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This week we're adding a welcome mat to your Squarespace website!

I love these because to me, it's like having a welcome mat at your front door. (Hence the name, ha!) If you're not familiar, a welcome mat is basically a landing page your visitors land on when they go to your website. Typically it gives them two options: to sign up to your list for a freebie, or to go to your website.

TL;DR: scroll down for a video walking you through all these steps! 😉

Step 1: You want to start by creating a Cover Page in Squarespace. The main thing about a Cover Page is that it automatically removes the header and footer of your website. So anyone who lands on this page has to make a choice: join your list for a cool free offer or go to your website.

Step 2: Now that you’ve got your Cover Page designed, you’ll want to give your visitors a couple of options. As mentioned earlier, this is usually a freebie for an opt in or to go directly to your site. If you’ve got some other totally cool, new idea, go right ahead and add that here!

Now, I use ConvertKit, so in order to connect the Squarespace form to my ConvertKit account, I had to go through a few additional steps. I work through them briefly in the video below, or you can check them out here.

Another option you have is to use a regular button (not a form) and enter the URL for your ConvertKit form. This would open the form in a new tab.

For your second button, you want it to go to the first page you want visitors to see when they go to your website. This way, if they choose not to subscribe right now, they can click the Go to Website button and go to the main page of your site.

Step 3: Once you’ve got your two buttons set up, you just need to set this page as your home page! Now, when anyone lands on your website, they’ll see this page first. And either click to join your email list, or click to continue to your website!

I tend to like this option a lot better than a pop up. Pop ups can be intrusive if I’ve started reading something, like a post or a sales page, and then something pops up and interrupts me. This gives you the chance to ask visitors to subscribe to your list immediately while giving them the option to pass for now and continue on with what they were doing without being interrupted!

I’d love to know your thoughts about welcome mats vs. pop ups so leave them in the comments!

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