I Hated My Squarespace Blog's Pagination — Here's How I Fixed It in 5 Minutes (No Coding Skills Needed)

Let me be honest with you. The first time I noticed those plain "Older Posts" and "Newer Posts" links at the bottom of my Squarespace blog, I cringed a little. My whole site was carefully branded — the fonts, the colors, the tone of my copy — and then there were these two sad, generic links just sitting there like they belonged on a 2009 WordPress blog.

Sound familiar?

If you manage a growing Squarespace blog, you've already seen them. Those default squarespace blog pagination links do their job just fine — they move readers between pages — but they do absolutely nothing for your brand. And here's the thing: your readers notice these small details even when they don't consciously realize it.

The good news? You can swap those out for literally any text you want. "More Good Stuff →", "Back to Earlier Stories", "Explore the Archives" — the choice is yours. And it takes about five minutes with a simple CSS snippet. Let's get into it.

Why to Customizing Your Squarespace Blog Pagination?

Before we jump into the steps, here's why this tiny tweak is actually worth your time:

• It matches your voice. "Older Posts" sounds clinical. Something like "Dive Into the Archives" sounds like you. This kind of consistency across every corner of your site builds trust.
• It nudges readers to keep exploring. A more inviting call-to-action encourages visitors to click through to more of your content — which is great for your time-on-site and SEO.
• It looks sharp on mobile. The code we'll use also includes a mobile fix so your pagination links stack neatly instead of squishing together awkwardly on small screens.

Step 1: Find Your Blog's Pagination Section

Head to the bottom of your blog listing page. If you've published enough posts to span multiple pages, you'll see the "Older Posts" and "Newer Posts" links right there. Those are exactly what we're targeting.

If you only have a handful of posts and pagination isn't showing yet — no worries. Once your posts cross the per-page limit you set in your blog settings, these links will appear automatically.

Step 2: Open the Custom CSS Panel in Squarespace

Here's how to get there:

• Log into your Squarespace dashboard and go to Website.
• Click on Pages, then select Custom Code, then Custom CSS.

You should now see a text box ready for your custom code. This is where the magic happens.

Step 3: Paste the Custom CSS Code

Here's the code you need. Copy and paste it directly into your Custom CSS panel:

/* Hide default pagination text */

.blog-pagination-link--older, .blog-pagination-link--newer {

  font-size: 0
!important;

  position: relative;

}

 

/* Add custom text for "Older Posts" */

.blog-pagination-link--older::after {

  content: "See
Previous List";

  font-size: 1.2em;

  line-height: 2.2;

  color: #222;

}

 

/* Add custom text for "Newer Posts" */

.blog-pagination-link--newer::after {

  content:
"Explore More Tutorials";

  font-size: 1.2em;

  line-height: 2.2;

  color: #222;

}

 

/* Responsive: Stack links on mobile */

@media (max-width: 640px) {

  .blog-pagination {

    display: flex;

    flex-direction:
column;

    align-items:
stretch;

  }

 
.blog-pagination-link--older,

 
.blog-pagination-link--newer {

    margin-bottom:
8px;

  }

}
 

Here's what this code is actually doing:

The best part? You only need to change two small things to personalize this: the text inside the quote marks after content:. That's it. Everything else can stay exactly as it is.

• Hiding the original text — It sets the font size to 0 on the existing links, making the default text invisible without actually removing the link's functionality.

• Injecting your custom text — The ::after pseudo-element inserts your new text right where the old text used to sit.

• Keeping things readable — The font-size: 1.2em and line-height: 2.2 properties make sure the new text sits comfortably in the layout.

• Fixing the mobile experience — The @media block stacks the links vertically on smaller screens so nothing looks crowded or awkward.

• Change the text color — Replace #222 with your brand's hex color. For example, if your brand uses a warm terracotta, swap it for something like #C0614A.

• Add your preferred font — Drop in a line like font-family: 'YourFont', sans-serif; inside the ::after blocks to match your site's typography.

• Adjust mobile spacing — Tweak the margin-bottom: 8px value if you want more or less breathing room between the stacked links on small screens.

Step 4: Make It Match Your Brand

Once the basic text swap is working, you can take it a step further. Here are a few quick tweaks to consider:

If you're not sure which font your site uses, you can usually find it under Design → Fonts in your Squarespace dashboard.

Step 5: Save and Check It on Both Desktop and Mobile

Once you've pasted the code (and made any personal tweaks), click Save in the Custom CSS panel. Then:

If something looks off, don't panic. CSS changes are non-destructive, meaning they just affect how things look — not how they work. Simply delete the code and try again.

A Quick Note on Mobile

Longer, custom text strings — like "Browse the Full Archives" — can occasionally wrap awkwardly on very small screens. If that happens to you, the mobile section of the code above already handles stacking, but you may want to shorten your text slightly for the best result. Something punchy and concise usually wins on mobile anyway.

Want to Keep Customizing Your Squarespace Site?

Once you start with squarespace blog pagination, it's hard to stop — there are so many little things you can polish up with simple CSS. Here are two more tutorials from this blog that are worth bookmarking:

🔗 How to Add Scrolling Images in Squarespace — A fun visual effect that makes your gallery sections feel dynamic and alive.

🔗 Squarespace Dropdown Menu Customization — Change background colors, link styles, and even add animated effects to your navigation menus with CSS.

Both tutorials follow the same simple approach: paste a code snippet into your Custom CSS panel, adjust a few values, and watch your site transform.

Customizing your squarespace blog pagination text is one of those small tweaks that feels disproportionately satisfying when it's done. It's not flashy, but it's the kind of detail that makes your site feel thoughtfully put together — like someone actually cared about every inch of it.

That someone is you. And now your readers will feel it.

Got questions about the code, or did you come up with a creative custom text idea you want to share? Drop it in the comments — I genuinely read every single one. And if this helped you, feel free to share it with a fellow Squarespace blogger who might need this fix too.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: Will this CSS code work on all Squarespace templates?

Yes! This snippet targets the standard Squarespace blog pagination classes (.blog-pagination-link--older and .blog-pagination-link--newer), which are present across all Squarespace 7.1 templates. If you're on an older Squarespace 7.0 template, the class names may differ slightly — if the code doesn't work, try inspecting your page's source code in your browser to find the exact class names used by your template.

Q2: What if my pagination links aren't showing up at all?

This usually means one of two things: either you don't have enough posts yet to trigger pagination, or your blog's posts-per-page setting is set very high. Head to your blog page settings and check the number of posts displayed per page — lowering it (e.g., to 6 or 9) should make the pagination links appear once you have enough posts published.

Q3: Can I use emojis or special characters in my custom pagination text?

Absolutely! You can include emojis, arrows (→ ←), or any Unicode character directly inside the content value. For example: content: "← More Good Reads" or content: "Keep Exploring". Just make sure your CSS file is saved with UTF-8 encoding, which Squarespace handles automatically, so you're all good.

Have fun making your Squarespace blog truly yours — one small CSS tweak at a time.