How to collect content from clients for a Squarespace website.
Late content is the most common reason a website launch slips, and it's rarely the client being difficult. It's usually a vague request. Here's how to ask for content so you get it complete and on time.
Why Content Arrives Late
"Send me your content" is not a task anyone can finish. Your client doesn't know how many words the About page needs, which photos are good enough, or what format the logo should be in. So they put it off, and the build stalls waiting for it.
The fix is to turn content collection into a list of small, specific, finishable items, each with a due date and an owner. That list starts before the project does: put the content deadline in your proposal and your schedule, and make it clear that the launch date depends on it.
Make a Content List Per Page
Once the sitemap is agreed, write out exactly what each page needs. For a typical small-business site:
- Home: a headline, a one-paragraph intro, two or three key services, one main photo.
- About: 150 to 300 words, a team photo or headshot, any credentials worth naming.
- Services: a name, a short description and a price or "from" price for each.
- Contact: address, phone, email, opening hours, and which email form submissions should go to.
- Site-wide: logo files, brand colors if they exist, social links, legal pages (privacy policy, terms).
Give rough word counts. "About 200 words" is far easier to write than "some text about the company." Where you can, share an example from a site the client likes.
Be Specific About Images and Files
Photos cause more back-and-forth than copy. Tell the client what you need in plain terms: the original photo files rather than screenshots or images saved from social media, landscape orientation for banner sections, and as large as they have. For logos, ask for a vector file (SVG, EPS or AI) or a large PNG with a transparent background.
Name the photos you need, not just the number. "A photo of the shop front, one of the team, and three of finished projects" gets you usable images. "Some photos" gets you forty phone pictures of varying quality, and an afternoon sorting them.
Large photo sets belong in a shared folder (Google Drive, Dropbox) organized by page, not in email attachments. Agree one place, and say it once in writing.
Handle Logins Safely
You will need access to things the client owns: the domain registrar, email marketing, booking tools, social accounts. Never ask for passwords in email or chat. Where a service supports it, ask to be invited as a user on your own login, which is how Squarespace itself works through contributors. Where it doesn't, ask the client to share the login through a password manager's sharing feature, and change it when you're done.
If the site will be built under the client's Squarespace account, have them invite you as a contributor rather than sharing their password. The steps are in how to give a client access to Squarespace; the same panel works in both directions.
Set Deadlines and Follow Up
Give each content item a date, not just the whole batch. Spread them out: homepage copy first, because it shapes the design, and smaller pages later. Then check in on a fixed day each week with a short list of what's in, what's outstanding and what's blocking you.
Agree in advance what happens if content doesn't arrive. Common options: you build with placeholder text and the client replaces it after launch, you write the copy for an added fee, or the launch date moves. Having that in the contract means the conversation is a reminder, not a negotiation. It's also one of the simplest ways to keep scope creep out of the project.
Start the build while you wait. Design the layout with realistic placeholder content of the agreed length, so when real copy arrives it drops in without reworking the page.
Give the Client a Template
A blank page is hard to write on. A document with a heading for each page, a word count, and a question or two under each heading is much easier. Under About, for example: "How did the business start? Who works here? What do customers say about you?" The client answers the questions, and you edit the answers into copy.
Keep the template in a shared document you can both see, so you can check progress without asking for it. When a section is finished, the client marks it done. When everything is marked done, the content stage is over, and anything that arrives afterward is a change.
Review Content Before It Goes In
Read everything before you place it. Check for missing pages, copy that's three times the agreed length, and images too small to use. Send all of the problems back at once rather than one at a time as you discover them. A single list feels like a checklist; five separate emails feel like nagging.
Where Bridge Fits
Bridge isn't a content-collection tool. It has no intake forms or questionnaires, and for large photo libraries a shared folder is still the better place. What it does give each project is one running chat where the client can send files, links and voice notes (up to 10MB per file), and everything shared is collected in the project's Files tab, so the logo doesn't get lost in an email thread. See file sharing.
You can turn outstanding content into tasks with due dates, set to Waiting on client while you wait, so both of you can see what's still missing. A chat message from the client ("Here's the About copy") can become a task with one click if it needs work. It's a lighter version of a client portal, built around the Squarespace site you're making.
Common Questions
How do I get content from clients for a website?
Break it into specific items per page with word counts and due dates, say exactly which photos and file formats you need, and agree one place to send everything.
What should I do if a client never sends website content?
Fall back on what your contract says: build with placeholders, write the copy for an added fee, or move the launch date. Agree which one before the project starts.
How should clients share passwords with a web designer?
Not by email or chat. Ask to be invited as a user where the service allows it, as Squarespace does with contributors, or use a password manager's sharing feature.
What image size should clients send for a Squarespace site?
Ask for the original, full-size files rather than screenshots or images saved from social media. Landscape photos work best for wide banner sections.
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