20+ Quick Tweaks for Your Navigation Bar in Squarespace

If you’re bored with how your navigation bar looks, there are plenty of ways you can make it awesome.

You can make the changes through the Squarespace settings, by using Spark Plugin or alternatively, through the CSS editor.

Following are 22 hand-picked ways to edit your Squarespace navigation bar and header that will make your design process faster and easier.

My favorite Squarespace navigation bar CSS and plugins:

1. Incorporate some Glassmorphism

Apple is the leader of the pack when it comes to design, and the unique frosted ‘Glassmorphism’ effect is one of its specialities.

If you want to bring a little Apple style to your Squarespace website, our Glassmorphism header will elevate your site to the next level.

Find out more about the glassmorphism header

2. Adaptive logo color

Forget the times when your black logo disappeared on a dark background in Squarespace. Now your logo automatically converts to white on dark backgrounds.

Find out more about the adaptive logo color

Squarespace navigation bar: Change logo color automatically

3. Change mobile menu icon

Get a header menu icon that matches the rest of your mobile Squarespace website design. Select between a range of different icons.

Find out more about the custom mobile menu icons

Squarespace navigation bar: Change mobile menu icon

4. Introduce a mega menu

If you sell many products on your website, a mega menu will let you showcase all your categories and subcategories.

A mega menu isn’t a standard option in Squarespace, but you can create one in CSS with this tutorial. There are a lot of steps, but it’s worth the effort!

Find out more

Squarespace navigation bar: add a mega menu

5. Hide your navigation bar

A navigation bar is great for guiding your customers around your website. However, there may be some pages where you don’t want a Squarespace navigation bar and want to use CSS to remove it.

For example, a lead magnet page where you don’t want to distract visitors from clicking on your call-to-action.

If you want to hide the navigation bar on only one page, then replace PAGE-ID with that page id, or if you want to hide it on all pages, just remove the PAGE-ID. There is also a guide to hide the header from one page in Squarespace, without the need of a PAGE-ID.

PAGE-ID header {
  display: none !important;
}
Squarespace navigation bar: hide it

6. Make your header float

Enable the header to float over the content on your Squarespace site for an eye-catching effect. Works like magic!

Find out more about the loating header

7. Split your navigation bar in two

One of the complaints about the Squarespace 7.1 upgrade was that it removed split navigation, where you could have some elements of your header on either side of your logo.

With this Squarespace navigation bar CSS, you can reintroduce the split navigation that will give your navigation bar a distinct and innovative look.

Find out more on the Station Seven website

8. Put in a hamburger

Yum – did someone say hamburger? If you’re a fan of a clean minimal style, this customization will collapse your navigation menu in desktop mode, making everything clean and neat.

Find out more about the slide in navigation bar

Squarespace navigation bar: mobile menu on desktop

9. Make your header transparent

The upgrade to Squarespace 7.1 gave users more functionality when it came to changing the look of their navigation bar.

One of the available options is to make the header transparent, giving your website a more contemporary feel.

Click on EDIT SITE HEADER, go to STYLE, and select DYNAMIC from the dropdown menu.

Squarespace navigation bar: make it transparent

10. Add animated links to your header

Adding some movement to your header can make your Squarespace site less boring. Here’s one of the ways to do that.

There isn’t much you can do to spice up the links in the navigation bar, but with this customisation you can animate them.

Find out more about the Spark Plugin animated links

Squarespace navigation bar: add animated links

11. Animated announcement bar

Draw more attention to your announcement bar with this custom style. It will give your announcement bar a cool animated gradient.

Find out more about the Spark Plugin animated announcement bar

12. Add a separation line

This Squarespace navigation bar CSS snippet adds a simple straight line to your header, so the header is separated from the content. Check out this navigation bar plugin if you want more options.

#header {    
  box-shadow: 0px 0px 1px 0px rgba(170,170,170,1) !important;
}
Squarespace navigation bar: add a line

13. Improved dropdown menu

Let's face it; the standard Squarespace dropdown menu is ugly. If you aim to enhance the appearance of your dropdown menu, this simple dropdown customization will render it not only more practical but also more visually appealing.

Find out more about the improved dropdown menu

Squarespace navigation bar: improve the dropdown

14. Add a fixed navigation bar

As visitors scroll down your website, the navigation bar falls out of sight, which can be frustrating when your pages are long.

With a fixed navigation bar, your header is always visible, no matter where people are on your page. You can change this in Squarespace – just click on EDIT SITE HEADER, go to STYLE, and make sure FIXED POSITION is turned on.

Squarespace navigation bar: make it fixed

15. Put in a vertical header

A vertical navigation bar appears on the side of your website rather than on the top. If you’re looking for a unique way for people to access your website, this is the option for you.

It’s easy to add a vertical header with Spark Plugin. Just install, and you can add a vertical navigation bar without having to mess around with complicated code.

Find out more about the vertical header

16. Mega announcement bar

This announcement bar takes your navigation bar to the next level. It comes with full customizability so you can display whatever you like in the announcement bar.

Find out more on the Will Myers website

Squarespace navigation bar: edit the announcement bar larger

17. Make a link stand out

Although you can change the colour of your links in Squarespace, they all have to be the same colour. The good news is you can use CSS to change the colour of individual links to get your visitor’s attention.

Paste this code in Website > Website Tools > Custom CSS, and change the color and “2” depending on which link you want to highlight.

.header-nav .header-nav-item:nth-child(2) a {
  color: #ff576a !important;
}
Squarespace navigation bar CSS: color a link

18. Change the colour of your dropdown menu

Dropdown menus are a must if you have subpages that you want to guide people towards. The problem is, these typically look pretty bland in Squarespace.

Adding colour to your dropdown menus gets your web users’ attention and can be handy for categorising your content.

If you need more drop down options, be sure to check out this drop down plugin.

.header-nav-folder-content {     
  background-color: rgb(255, 87, 106) !important; 
} 
.header-nav-folder-item a {     
  color: rgb(255, 255, 255) !important; 
}

19. Add a secondary navigation bar

When you have a lot of pages on your website, it’s only right that you want to make sure they’re easy to find.

In this scenario, a secondary navigation bar can be a great way to improve the user experience on your Squarespace site and ensure everyone can access all your pages.

Squarespace navigation bar: Add a secondary bar

20. Improved shopping cart button

This shopping cart makes it easier to see how many items that’s in the cart, while shopping on your ecommerce site.

Find out more about the improved shopping cart

Squarespace navigation bar: improve the shopping cart

21. Search icon

Do you have lots of content on your Squarespace site?

Then it might be time to add a search icon to your site header so that visitors easier can find what they are looking for.

Simply add the Squarespace navigation bar CSS and javascript code from this guide and you’ll have a search icon in your header.

Find out more on the Will Myers website

search icon in navigation bar in Squarespace

22. Improved mobile navigation

This enhanced mobile menu improves the look and feel of your mobile website, improving the customer experience and making it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for.

Find out more about the improved mobile navigation

Squarespace navigation bar: improve the mobile navigation

Bonus: 3 more ways to edit your Squarespace navigation bar

1. Spark Plugin

Spark Plugin is the perfect choice if you want to change how your Squarespace site looks but don’t want to use CSS.

With Spark Plugin, you get over 100 customisations to make your website stand out. Whether you want to edit your navigation bar, images or text, this tool has everything you need.

Check out the customisations available today and see how Spark Plugin can help you create the Squarespace site you’ve been dreaming of.

2. Squarespace settings

A navigation bar (sometimes called the header) is the space at the top of your Squarespace website. It is available on all pages of your site.

If you want to edit the navigation bar in Squarespace, all you need to do is open your website and click EDIT in the top right-hand corner of your page. Once you’ve done this, highlight your navigation bar and select EDIT SITE HEADER.

Some of the options available to you include:

  • Adding a site title and logo

  • Adding call-to-action buttons, social media icons and customer login links

  • Changing the layout of your navigation bar

Find out more about building and editing your Squarespace navigation bar.

3. Code your own Squarespace navigation bar CSS

You can also use CSS code to add additional functionality to your navigation bar using Squarespace’s CSS editor. Just visit the Home Menu, click Website, then scroll down to click on Website Tools, and lastly Custom CSS.

A quick word of warning about the Squarespace navigation bar and CSS. While CSS is extremely powerful and can enhance your Squarespace navigation bar, it’s important to make sure any code you use is correct. Invalid CSS code can potentially break your website.

I hope this short guide has inspired you to edit your Squarespace navigation bar. What will you do to make it stand out?

Rasmus Myhrberg

Founder of Spark Plugin, a transformative design tool for Squarespace. He has been working with UI and UX design for the past 15 years, and has founded three design-focused companies during this time.

https://sparkplugin.com
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