7 Cool Squarespace Plugins For Modern Websites [2025]
Improving User Experience with Cool Squarespace Plugins
One of the most challenge aspects of a building modern website is organizing large amounts of content. Visitors are spending less and less time reading content. It is more important than ever to build a website with a friendly user experience. Implementing some of these cool Squarespace plugins can make a tremendous difference in your user experience and conversions!
What does “user-experience mean?”—minimizing the number of times a visitor needs to click! By giving them small pieces of key information and providing an easy-to-use navigation you can get your clients and customers where they need to go.
Looking for more cool Squarespace plugins? Check out my entire toolbox of the best Squarespace plugins!
Quick Reference Guide
| Why this Squarespace Plugin is Cool | Shop | |
|---|---|---|
| Promotional Popup 2.0 | Create unique promotional popups for individual pages. | Buy Now |
| Custom Browser Tabs | Boost conversions and get customers' attention without adding more content to the page. | Buy Now |
| Lightbox Anything (popup) | Make any content open in a popup to reduce page space. | Buy Now |
| Universal Filter | Give users the option to sort by almost any variable. Great for complex blogs and stores. | Buy Now |
| Global Sections (Section Loader Supreme) | Create one section and reuse it in unlimited locations so future edits can be executed from a single page. | Buy Now |
| Related Posts and Products | Keep traffic on your website for longer by displaying related posts or products at the bottom of your page. | Buy Now |
| Mega Menu | Ditch the "sub menus" and display a clean, user-friendly dropdown mega menu—great for large sites. | Buy Now |
Table of Contents
Best Practices for User Experience and Conversions
I wanted to mention a few best practices for user-friendly website design and navigation. In general, visitors aren’t going to click more then a few times. They will land on a page and click once or twice. If they haven’t “converted”, aka made a decision or taken some kind of action, within a couple clicks, they probably won’t.
Here are some helpful tips to minimize the amount of clicks and increase your website conversions:
Keep your top navigation simple
Visitors will get overwhelmed by several choices. The less they have to choose from, the more likely they will choose the “right” page. As an example, you’ll likely want to be driving traffic immediately to your money-making pages. This will probably be a service page or e-commerce store page. Keep your navigation simple so that the user goes straight to that page in 1-click and doesn’t get distracted by other pages.
Avoid “nested” drop-downs
Having sub-pages in your drop-down menus are a thing of the past. They are difficult to navigate (because they easily disappear when you hover), and they provide too many choices (see the first tip above). You don’t need to show your entire site page in your top navigation. Simplify your website page structure to have everything a user needs on your main pages. If you do have a complex website, use a mega menu. Mega menus are one dropdown with a ton of links. This is often used for large e-commerce stores, but could have other use cases. Continue reading this article for my suggested mega menu plugin for Squarespace.
Minimize the front-facing conversion goal for your website
Your website can serve as the hub for a number of conversion goals. However, they don’t all have to be front-facing. You can have several landing pages (sales pages) that you promote through other channels, such as email or social media, but they don’t have to be linked on your top navigation.
Chances are, most visitors coming to your website are searching for one thing in particular. This may be a product or service you are selling. Make sure that is front and center and easy to get to in a click or two. If you are promoting other products or services on the side, keep those pages hidden and just use them through other channels.
Avoid back-clicking navigation
If a visitor has to click the “back button” to get back to the main page to keep going, they aren’t going to do that for long. When designing the user experience of your website, think about how you can simplify your content and provide clear call to actions on each page so the visitor can keep moving foward.
Think of your website like a GPS—you don’t want your visitor to have to “reroute”! If you have a ton of content that needs to be on one page, use accordions, tabs, or popups to provide more information without leaving the page.
7 Must-Have Cool Squarespace Plugins for Content Heavy Websites
Create a Promotion Popup on a Single Page with Promotional Popup 2.0
The Promotional Popup 2.0 by SQMods is a game changer for lead generation and by far one of my favorite cool Squarespace plugins. Now we can target a particular lead magnet for a single page. If you have a large website with more then one service, this plugin is a must. It will allow you to optimize your user experience and conversion rates by promoting specific offers based on the page.
Additionally, the user experience of this plugin is fantastic because you can set it to display based on “exit intent”. Unlike the built-in Squarespace popup, this plugin allows you to catch people when they intend to exit the page. This will give them time to get to know you and consume more of the content on your page before being offered an incentive.
Grab Their Attention in the Browser Tab with the Custom Browser Tab Plugin
If you have a content-heavy website, taking advantage of the browser tab is a hidden gem. The Customize Browser Tab plugin by SQMods allows you to create 6 different custom browser types:
Progress percentage: show the percentage of the screen viewed as the user scrolls down—great for super long pages!
Marquee scroll: scroll text and turn the browser tab into a scrolling “announcement”
Single message and Multiple messages: add a custom message(s) that shows up when someone navigates away from the current tab (to entice them to come back!)
Countdown: show a countdown in the browser tab—useful for sales!
Favicon: show a new favicon when the user navigates away to help entice them back to your tab
Each option has it’s own value, depending on your needs, however all of these can help improve user experience, especially if you have a content-heavy website and want to add a conversion booster without taking up more space on the page.
Minimize long pages with Squarespace Lightbox Anything Plugin
There are a number of great use-cases for popup content on your website. The Squarespace Lightbox Anything Plugin allows you to create pop-up boxes from page content or external links.
You can use this plugin to popup team member bios, a Calendly scheduling page, sizing information or additional information for e-commerce stores, YouTube videos, and much more.
Creating pop-up boxes can greatly reduce the amount of content on a page while giving the user an option to learn more, if they please. This can help consolidate large amounts of content onto one page and keep the user engaged without requiring them to navigate to additional pages.
This is one of my most-used plugins—check it out!
Shop Lightbox Anything ⟶
Save money and buy it in the plugin bundle ⟶
Organize Content Heavy Collections with a Universal Filter
Squarespace is currently a little limited when it comes to filters. There is a sort filter option for collections, but for content-heavy websites, this is not robust enough.
The Universal Filter plugin by Square Websites is a go-to solution in the Squarespace community. It allows you to build extensive and complete filters. This is ideal for large e-commerce stores, event pages, databases, and/or large blogs.
I also run into clients asking if they can sort their blogs in alphabetical order. This plugin finally allows us to work around that issue as well!
Only Edit Re-Occurring Content Once with Section Loader Supreme
If you have content that needs to be placed in multiple locations, the Section Loader Supreme plugin by Will Myers is a must. It allows you to create “global sections” in Squarespace.
I use this plugin all the time on my own website, and often with client websites. Once you create a section and place it throughout your website, you only need it edit it ONCE going forward.
This is particularly handy when building out CTA sections for blogs. I place one “cta section” in my blog and I can edit it or completely change it anytime without editing dozens (or hundreds) of blogs.
I also use it on client websites when they have information that needs to be updated regularly in more then on place. This way, they can just update it in one location and it saves the business owner and staff a ton of time!
Promote more Blogs, Portfolio, and Products with Related Posts and Products Plugin
When it comes to user experience, it is always a good idea to give the visitor some direction. There is a reason most blogs and e-commerce stores on the internet have a “related posts” or “related products” section.
By placing related posts or products at the bottom of the page, it encourages users to stay on your website. It also gives them some direction of where to go next (if they make it all the way down to the page and are deciding what to do).
The Related Posts and Products plugin by SQSP Themes allows us to build this into our Squarespace websites!
Pro-Tip: You can customize it on multiple blogs and stores by adding the code into the individual page Header Injection. This allows you to customize how the related posts/products are displayed, as well as the size, orientation, thumbnail, number of posts, and more.
Shop Related Posts/Products ⟶
Save money and buy it in the plugin bundle ⟶
Provide a Better User Experience on Large Navigations with a Mega Menu
One of the easiest ways to provide better navigation on a content-heavy website is through a mega menu. Instead of nestled drop-downs or a busy top navigation (all of which will frustrate users), a mega menu is one big “drop down area” where you can easily place unlimited links!
The Mega Menu plugin by Will Myers gives you the ability to build out custom drop-down mega menu sections in Squarespace. This type of menu is perfect for large e-commerce stores, but can also work well for informational sites such as non-profit organizations or corporate websites.
Conclusion
Incorporating Squarespace plugins into your site can significantly enhance its functionality and visual appeal, allowing you to better engage visitors, boost conversions, and create a memorable online experience. From navigation enhancements to e-commerce support, the plugins we've covered offer practical and powerful tools for modern websites. As you explore these cool Squarespace plugins, consider your specific business needs to choose the ones that align with your goals. With the right combination, your Squarespace website can become a dynamic, effective tool for growing your business and achieving long-term success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need plugins for Squarespace?
No, you do not need any plugins for Squarespace. The Squarespace platform comes complete with everything you need to build a beautiful, professional website. However, you can extend the functionality of the platform by utilizing some of the fantastic plugins on the market! Learn more about my favorite recommended Squarespace plugins ⟶
What are the Squarespace extensions?
Squarespace extensions are third-party applications that Squarespace has partnered with. These tools extend the functionality of the platform by integrating third-party applications and software directly through the participating companies. Learn more about Squarespace extensions ⟶
What is the table of contents plugin for Squarespace?
The table of contents plugin for Squarespace is a plugin that automatically generates a table of contents for blog posts. My personal favorite (that I use on this blog), is the Table of Contents plugin by Adlytic Marketing (not affiliated, just a fan).
Must have Squarespace plugins for free & Free Squarespace 71. Plugins
The best resource for must have Squarespace plugins for free and free Squarespace 7.1 plugins is Ghost Marketplace. They have an extensive library of free plugins you can use on your Squarespace website!
