How we solved the problem of connecting Gmail to Squarespace

Image of Google Apps for business website

With Squarespace we saw that we could connect our business Gmail to the website.  This was perfect for us.  The problem started when we tried to set it up, we could not work it out.  We scoured Squarespace for the solution and the community section for an answer to our problem.  So if you are looking for a solution to connect Gmail to your Personal Squarespace site, then this is it.

Solution 1 – You haven't signed up to Google business apps

If you take Squarespace’s personal service, it is better to buy it through Squarespace.  To do this, go to ‘settings’ and then go to ‘emails’.  This should bring you up a screen that says ‘Professional email with Google Apps’ with the two options.  Choose the option you want and that should be it.  We assume Squarespace will set up your professional email; we didn’t do it this way.

Solution 2 – You signed up Google apps separately from Squarespace

The problem is due to the fact that the Google apps you have is external from Squarespace.  Your Gmail won’t work due to the fact that you need to set up the MX Records and you need access to your domain.  Please ensure that the Google Apps HTML code is embedded in your domain for verification before attempting this part.

Approach these steps with caution because changes you make can affect your domain on Squarespace. 

Begin by going to Opening DNS Settings. 

• Follow Step 1 to Request access to your DNS Settings.
• Step 2 should result in you receiving an email granting you access to your DNS Settings
• Then in Step 3 you need to log in to the Hosting account to make DNS changes
• Step 4 involves editing the records by going to the MX Records section and click on ‘Add’.  This should bring up your domain name (‘subdomain’), ‘priority’ and ‘Hostname’.

For the Priority and Hostname, we used Google Apps MX record values.  Place the priority and destination from Google support in to priority and hostname.  Ensure you place the alternate Google sites as well.

Example – In the MX records section put         1 (priority)       ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM (hostname)

Then go and use Google Apps Toolbox CheckMX tool to investigate if there are any potential problems with your DNS record configuration that might affect mail delivery to your domain.  You should see a majority of green ticks.

Finally, test your domain by sending an email.  If done correctly, the email you send to your domain should end up in your Gmail account. 

We like to give special thanks to Jennifer at Squarespace support for pointing us in the right direction to help solve our problem.  If people have gained Gmail through Squarespace, we’d like to know if they set it up for you.  Did this help solve your problem of setting up your separate Gmail and Squarespace accounts?  

Is Squarespace the right website builder for your business?

Image of Squarespace website at night

When you are starting out to build your business, most people will either hire someone to build a website or build it themselves due to fact that they do not have enough money to hire a designer.  There are several website builders such as Wix, Webydo, Weebly, Light CMS and Wordpress.  We tried Squarespace’s trail period as a website builder for our startup business.

Squarespace was launched in 2004 by Anthony Casalena.  It is a content management system that was originally composed of a website builder, blogging platform and hosting site.  Since then it has evolved to include ecommerce with Stripe, Google Business apps (optional) and it contains several analytic reports that is very handy for a startup business.

We decided to do it ourselves as we didn't have the money to hire a designer.  Our designated designer found the drag and drop feature very responsive after a while.  The use of blocks and images made the layout of the pages easy to manage and manipulate.  The ability to add our social media channels also gave us more scope to broaden the design of the website.  What we liked most about the system is the ability to see what it looks like on desktop, tablets and smartphones in real time due to the responsive screen feature. 

After a week in to the trial period, we decided to use Squarespace.  Although Wix and WordPress are free to use to design a website.  When we reviewed some of the products out there, we found Squarespace had more features and value for our business.  We decided to take advantage of the service and paid the annual fee. 

We would recommend any business that is starting out and looking for a platform to build their website to use Squarespace.  What website platform builder did you use when you started your business?  Would you use Squarespace after this recommendation?