How to create reusable content with Synced Blocks in Squarespace
Synced blocks or Reusable blocks are saved content blocks that you can reuse across your Squarespace website, by editing the content in a central places, you can update all of its instance without manually keep the content consistence, this is not only boost your effiecency, save time but also maintain persistence on the style
Synced Blocks plugin use a Reusables blog collection to store all your reusable content as its blog posts, and you can reuse them across your site by using Summary block that link to the Reusables collection, filtered by the uinque tag assigned to the posts
How to create synced block
Create Reusables blog collection
Open the Pages panel, then click the + icon.
Under Collections, click Blog.
Select any Blog layout you want
Enter a page title as Reusables, then press Enter. You can change this to any name you see fit
Hover the blog item in Pages, and clear the Gear icon to open blog settings
In General tab, ensure the URL Slug input is /reusables, This is required for the plugin to correctly sync the content
Create Reusables blog collection
Create sync content block
You can create sync content block by inserting new blog post to Reusables blog collection and add a block to its body
Open the Pages panel, click the Reusables blog page, then click + in the side panel.
Add a title for your post in the Enter a post title... field. Post title will also change the blog post URL Slug
To add block to the post, click an insert point and choose the block from Block Selector
After done, click Publish to publish the new post
Add new Resuables blog post
Update sync content block
You can update sync content block by editting an existing Reusables post post
Open the Reusables blog page, then click the blog post in the side panel.
Click Edit in the top-left corner of the page.
After making changes, click Save to save your changes
Update Resuables blog post
Sync content
To sync content and populate it across instances, follow these steps:
Open the Reusables blog page and select the desired blog post from the side panel.
Hover over the blog post, click the three-dot icon, and select Settings to open the settings dialog.
Click the Sync Content button to initiate the sync process.
Initiate the sync content process
What Happens When You Sync Content?
The first block in the blog post’s body is synced across pages.
Additionally, a post tag is automatically generated from the blog post’s slug URL. This tag is used to identify the post when reusing it on other pages with a Summary block.
Auto generated tag from Reusables post slug
When to Trigger Sync Content?
When a post is created.
When a post is updated.
If the URL slug changes. (Note: Changing the slug after published is not recommended. To avoid disruptions, carefully choose the blog name and URL slug during the creation of a Reusable post and avoid altering the slug after the initial setup.)
Reuse content across pages
To reuse synced content, add a Summary block linked to the Reusables collection and filter it using the assigned tag. Follow these steps:
Click Edit on a page or post, click Add Block or an insert point, then click Summary.
Open the block editor by clicking the pencil icon on the block.
In the Content tab:
Choose Reusables under Select a Page.
Set Primary Metadata to None.
Enable Filter Items and locate the unique tag assigned to your Reusables content.
In the Design tab:
Change the design to List.
Set Number of Items to 1.
In Elements, ensure Title and Excerpt are selected.
Click outside the block editor when you're done.
Click Save to save your changes and keep editing, or click Exit and then Save to close the editor.
Reuse Synced blocks
Conclusion
Synced Blocks plugin provides a powerful way to streamline your Squarespace workflow, maintain design consistency, and save time. Whether you’re managing frequently updated content or simply want to ensure uniformity across your site, Synced Blocks make the process seamlessly.
For more ideas on how to use Synced Blocks effectively, check out:
