How to Add Instagram to Your Squarespace Website

If you’re currently building a beautiful Squarespace website to market your business, you should also connect your Instagram feed to easily impress customers with visuals. Here is how to connect your Instagram account.

Instagram has over 1 billion users in 2020, so it should really be at the top of your marketing efforts.

Squarespace, on the other hand, offers a great platform for you to easily build and maintain a website without spending too much. And even though it’s pretty simple to use, there are things you can do that aren’t that obvious for you at first.

One of these simple tricks to boost your Squarespace site’s look and take your marketing game to the next level is connecting your Instagram profile to Squarespace and using the Instagram Blocks feature. Here’s how to do that, step by step.

Why you should connect your Instagram account to Squarespace

There is many a reason why you should try to create an omnichannel website (meaning all your social media profiles and selling platforms are connected to the main site), but some of the more obvious ones are these:

• It will allow your website visitors to communicate with you easily by chatting with you on Instagram;
• It gives a behind-the-scenes look of your business and the people who run it with a peek into a less manufactured and curated social media;
• It will lead them to follow you or at least check out your Instagram feed;
• You update your Instagram feed more regularly than updating the website, so they’ll keep pace with possible news and new products.

How to connect your Instagram account to Squarespace

We’re going to assume that you already have a Squarespace page and go straight into the logistics of connecting Instagram to Squarespace. If you haven’t opened an account and started building your website, you can find help on the home menu or templates page.Now, open your Squarespace account and click on Settings. Then, click on Connected Accounts.

- Different grid styles:

By clicking on Design, you’ll also be able to check out:

A selection of icons representing different tools, features and social networks will pop up. If Instagram isn’t on there, you can use the search bar easily and after the icon shows up, select Instagram and click Connect Account. Keep in mind that this is the same process for choosing Google search console, Pinterest, Dropbox, Foursquare Swarm, and other social accounts.

After clicking on the Instagram icon, a pop up will appear asking you to authorize Squarespace to draw information from your Instagram profile. You might need to log into Instagram from your browser and save the credentials for this to go smoothly.

Click on the Authorize button and you’re all good to go! Make sure to tick the Download Data setting, so that new posts on your feed automatically update on your Squarespace site as well. Keep in mind that this doesn’t happen instantly and usually takes around 30 minutes, so if they don’t upload automatically, there’s no need to worry.

After this step, you need to go to the Social Link entry on the Settings menu and click on Instagram. Add the Profile URL and select the Show Social Icon entry as well. Click Save.

How to use Instagram Blocks and change their design

Now that you’ve connected your account, let’s move onto other useful Squarespace tips.

You can decide how many Instagram images you want to be displayed on your website, where they can be placed, and if you want to add an Instagram block.

From your Dashboard, click on Pages and select the page you want the Instagram feed to be displayed. Click on Add Page Content, and a new window with Squarespace templates will appear. Select Social from the Add a Section dropdown menu.

You can now choose the grid in which your Instagram block will be displayed.

When you’ve decided on a certain design, click on it. Then, click on the little pencil icon to edit, and under Connected Account, select your Instagram account on the dropdown menu. There is a slider that helps you choose how many images you want to be displayed on this content block.

1. Slideshow: Posts display one at a time
2. Carousel: Posts display in full with portions of the previous and next posts on either side, depending on the settings
3. Grid: Posts display as a grid of thumbnail images
4. Stacked: Posts display at full width, one on top of the other

- Aspect ratios of the Instagram blocks and whether they should be automatically cropped to fit the aspect ratio- Thumbnails per row - Size of the padding around the gridded images

You can also choose to select the use of a lightbox, which puts your images in a small pop up over the block when a website visitor hovers with the cursor. And you can opt in to open links in a new window, to prevent visitors from bouncing straight away off the website.

After making your changes and deciding on a certain design, just click on Apply and your website will now have a responsive Instagram block. Keep in mind that in case you have Instagram Slideshow posts, the block will only show the first image in your slideshow.

Where to place your Instagram block

The Instagram plugin looks nice and is easy to use, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will make sense to be placed anywhere. Instagram photos don’t belong everywhere. For example, you wouldn't want them right above your Shopify plugin, making it harder for visitors to see prices or simply buying your products, right? Or directly on the home page, where you still haven’t introduced your business, services and value propositions properly.

Here are some ideas on proper placement:

About Me section

The About Me section usually contains everything about the business, all the social media pages, mission statements, business story, etc. So it makes perfect sense to place your Instagram photos there.

Website Footer

If you opt to use the Instagram block on your home page, it’s a good idea not to smother the rest of the content with photos. Placing them on the website footer will allow for some space before the website visitor reaches the Instagram block.

Blog post sidebar

If you have a blog post page on your Squarespace site, you can add the Instagram block as a sidebar. This way, even accidental visitors who came upon a blog post will learn more about your business.

Blog post footer

Similar to the previous option, you can place your Instagram photos on the end of each blog post.

Final thoughts and tips

Even though this article is simplified and helpful to make it easier for you to connect your Instagram account to Squarespace, there are plenty of options in which you can customize and use this option.

Whether it is the placement, grid style, size of the Instagram block, using a hashtag instead of your own feed, Squarespace has plenty of reading material to help get you going, from which keywords to add for good SEO practice to tagging products on Instagram.

Good luck, and we hope you found this helpful.