How to Create Your Own Link In Profile FOR FREE Using Squarespace
Did you know you can use your Squarespace account for more than housing your business information?
It’s true. While there are more and more apps, programs, and services coming out every day to help you “streamline” your business—most of which you have to pay for—you can often find that with a bit of ingenuity, you can make your Squarespace account work for you in the same ways.
From time to time on the blog, I want to share ways I’ve “hacked” some of the top influencer tools we see used every day. Today, we’re starting with a way to create a FREE expandable link for your Instagram profile.
1 - LINK TREE / LINK IN PROFILE
If you’re on Instagram, you know that the platform only allows you one clickable link, housed in your profile, for all the content you create there.*
For brands and businesses, this has been very constricting, because for sponsored posts, fresh daily blog or video content, or multiple promotions happening at the same time, users have to log in constantly to update their one clickable link in order to match it to their latest post or offer.
However, depending on how much time you spend actually visiting other accounts on Instagram you may have noticed a couple third-party companies came out with services that Instagram users could subscribe to in order to circumvent this issue. Examples include Link Tree and Link In Profile—apps that allow Instagram users to utilize that one link for a pop-up window containing a variety of links, effectively transforming that one link into a mobile sidebar menu.
When these third-party apps came out, everyone who uses the platform daily for business had the same “Why didn’t I think of that?” moment. We all embraced the apps—until one of them got banned for violating Instagram’s terms and conditions. At the time, this resulted in everyone who used that particular service having broken links on their accounts for several hours, which for a lot of folks meant lost revenue.
Since then, most people have switched to the other service, so for the most part on the Instagram-user front, all is well. Still, to have an unlimited number of links in one of these apps, style the menu perfectly to your brand, and/or display the pop-up window without the third-party logos, you have to pay for a subscription.
All of this heartache—risk with using the apps, paying for yet another social service—can be avoided using Squarespace.
The Steps
To create your own mobile sidebar menu just for Instagram, you can create either an Index or a page in the “Not Linked” area of your Pages panel, and entitle it “Instagram.” I personally recommend using just a page.
Add buttons for all the links you want to have in your Instagram profile (I center them, and try to make each title or call to action long so that the buttons are of equal length). Even though you’re doing this on a desktop, it will work for mobile.
Finally, add the page URL (this should be yourdomain.com/instagram) to that one space you get for a link on Instagram. Voila—for no extra cost, you’ve created your own expandable “link in profile.”
Squarespace automatically makes all pages responsive for mobile devices, so your pop-up window will look perfect on every smartphone out there! An added bonus? Without any extra work, this menu ought to be perfectly styled to your brand.
Alternative method
(Images instead of buttons)
To preview your profile link for mobile view, while in editing mode, hover over the line at the top of the editing screen until it turns into a down-facing arrow, and click. Select the mobile view all the way to the right!
Instead of using buttons, you can add the “Grid” gallery content block and upload images. Each image can be made into a link by hovering over the image in the Grid panel until the little toolbar appears, selecting the gear icon, and inserting a link in the panel that opens. NOTE: You will have to add images to this grid every time you upload a new image to Instagram.
Code to Hide Your Header (Optional)
You may want to hide your normal website header for your Squarespace-hacked profile link. This will minimize the amount of scrolling your visitors have to do when they tap the link in your Instagram profile, so that they can see more buttons (or images) as soon as the link loads. I haven’t done this on my Instagram link, but I’ve done it on other pages, so I’ve tested this code and I know it works!
To hide your header, simply:
Go to the page (or Index) where you’re housing your Instagram link content
Hover over the page name in your side panel until the gear icon appears, and click
In the window that appears, select “Advanced”
In the Header Code Injection area, add the following code:
<style> #header { display: none } </style>
Click save, and your header should disappear! (Note: Header Code Injection is a premium feature and may not apply to all plans.)
Secret Bonus of Doing Your Instagram Link This Way
One final perk I have to throw in: When Instagram visitors click this your DIY “Link In Profile,” they’ll be going directly to your site instead of through another platform to get to your site. Not only is this good for your SEO, but if visitors want to click any of the options in your main nav and browse, there will be no extra tapping involved!
What are you waiting for? Create your own “link in profile” in less than 10 minutes, for no added cost, right now!
Want me to check it out? Once it’s loaded, snap a screenshot and post it to your Instagram stories with the tag @alexisthegreek, and the caption, “It worked!” I can’t wait to check it out!
*with a few exceptions made for accounts of 10K followers or more, such as the “Swipe Up” feature.
HELLO! MY NAME IS ALEXIS.
Coffee lover, day dreamer, foodie, and creative. I believe in doing what you can with what you have where you are. I blog to help you do more with what you have. I hope you love it here!
