How to Upload a PDF to Squarespace – & Embed It Easily!

Want to upload a PDF to Squarespace?

Or embed a PDF on a page of your Squarespace site?

Perhaps you need your readers to be able to download a PDF after signing up for your email opt-in freebie.

Or you might need to provide customers with their files, if you sell something like planner printables.

Whatever the reason, it’s easy to upload a PDF to your Squarespace website. And embed it too, if you like!

Let’s dive into how to do it.

How to upload a PDF to Squarespace

You can upload many file types to Squarespace, such as PDF, JPEG, ZIP,  and DOCX.

Before you start, check the size of the file you plan to upload. It needs to be 20MB or smaller to add to Squarespace. If your file is larger than this, there are plenty of free resizing tools online that will let you shrink it without losing any quality.

Whether you make files into a page element or make them invisible to users, the process is much the same: you start by uploading the file.

To upload your PDF:

1 | Go to Pages from the home menu.

2 | Under the section called ‘Not Linked,’ click the + button and choose ‘link’ as the option. Click the gear icon so the Link Editor opens.

3 | Go to File and upload the PDF file from your computer.

4 | The file will upload, and a checkmark will appear beside it. Then click Save.

5 | Add a ‘Link Title’ so you know what the PDF is called, and Save again.

How to hide a PDF

If you don’t want the file to be searchable on search engines like Google, then you’ll want to give the file a dummy file name and link title. So rather than calling it something like the title with the keyword in, call it something different and unrelated.

If you embed it, you can set a password for that page so the page isn’t indexed by Google. But you can’t set a password for the uploaded file itself.

You can then provide this password to anyone who is allowed to download it, so they can easily access that page.

How to use custom CSS with PDFs

Another thing you might want to do it is to use some custom CSS with the PDF you have uploaded.

To do this, go to Design on the home page and click Custom CSS.

At the bottom, there’s an option for Manage Custom Files.

Click the arrow button to select the file, then click the URL to access the code area.

You can now make any CSS changes you want.

Keep scrolling to learn how to embed your PDF – or pin this graphic to Pinterest, so you can return later!

How to embed a PDF in Squarespace

Once you have uploaded your PDF, a common thing to do is to embed it somewhere on your site.

There are a couple of ways to do this, depending on what you want it to look like. The first two make the PDF accessible to download, but don’t make the contents visible.

Add as a text block

The first option is to create a text block and link this to your PDF.

Create a paragraph of content that includes the words you want to use to link to the PDF. That might be the title of the document or something similar.

Highlight the words and link them to the PDF URL you created when you uploaded the file.

Then when someone clicks the link, they will be taken to the PDF and can download it.

Add as a button

The other option is similar, but uses the button element rather than a text block.

Create the button with the text and design you need.

Then in the button link, use the URL for the PDF.

When someone clicks the button, they will be taken to the PDF to download it.

Can you show an embedded PDF on your website?

One of the downsides with uploading a PDF directly to Squarespace is that you can’t show it on your website easily. You’ll need to add a third-party tool to do this.

Squarespace recommends something called Issuu.

To use it, you need to create an account, upload the PDF, and click Publication > Share > Embed on Website.

This provides you with a code that you can use in either the ‘code’ block or ’embed’ block within Squarespace.

The downside with this is that you need to be on the Premium Squarespace plan to get access to the blocks. Issuu does come with a cost associated too.

Another option is to upload and embed through Slideshare.

Again, you can upload the PDF and get the embed code then add this to Squarespace in the same way.

There’s no cost for Slideshare, but you will still need to be a Premium plan user.

Adding a PDF to Squarespace

The basics of how to upload a PDF to Squarespace are simple, and there are extra features to use to get the most from them.

Embedding a PDF is a bit more complex.

But there are lots of other ways to deliver a PDF, too. Something as simple as adding to Google Drive and providing a shareable link by email can work.

You can have your PDF in the place that makes most sense for your audience.