Squarespace 101: A comprehensive guide for beginners
Are you looking to create a stunning website, but don't know where to start? Maybe you're at the beginning of your website journey, but you're feeling a little clueless, or you’re starting with a smaller budget, and hiring a web designer just isn’t the best financial choice. Well, hello there! Don't click away!
In this all-inclusive guide, I'm going to walk you through the basics of Squarespace and setting up a website. If you're a small business owner, a blogger, or an optimistic entrepreneur, Squarespace offers arguably one of the best user-friendly platforms out there that allows you to design a stunning, professional-looking website and manage it with simplicity and ease, all on your own.
Within Squarespace, there are three typical ways to build your website:
By starting from scratch,
By choosing a free, pre-made template on their home site, or,
By purchasing a template from other designers online
In this post, I’m going to guide you through choosing a (free) pre-made template process. I'll cover everything you need to get started:
Understanding the Pages and Design panel from your sidebar
How the drag-and-drop function works using Squarespace’s new Fluid Engine
A quick tour of their advanced features like SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Learning the basics of the Settings panel so you can understand some important behind-the-scenes stuff.
There are some things that we will not be covering in this blog post. We won't get into any details about the design aspect of your brand/site. Instead, we'll focus on introducing you to the vast array of tools at your disposal and guiding you through the process of utilizing a template.
Assuming you've already established your branding, copy, and content, we aim to help you master the intricacies of this web-building platform. I'm so very excited you're here - Let's get going!
— table of contents —
Why choose Squarespace for your website?
As a Squarespace web designer, I'm often asked, "Why choose Squarespace when there are so many other choices?" It's a great question, I mean, I asked this to myself when I entered the wonderful world of D.I.Y web design, and I spent hours doing research trying to figure it out. I’ve worked with Wix, I’ve dabbled in WordPress, and I’ve even tried my hand at Webflow & Showit.
There are lots of options when it comes to web-building platforms, and there are tons of great articles online. You’ll find so many blog posts giving you the pros and cons of each of them that it can really help you make the best decision. It’s all out there, heck, I guess this blog post would be one as well!
So, why choose Squarespace? In my opinion, Squarespace is the icing on the cake for several reasons:
First, Squarespace offers beautifully designed ready-made templates that can get your business online in no time. Maybe you’re a new business owner, or entrepreneur on a tight budget, Squarespace has an affordable price point. Design experience or not, choose a curated template for any business with a specific online goal.
Second, there's no need for you to have a deep understanding of coding. With the help of web-building platforms like Squarespace, you can create a stunning website without worrying about back-end coding or CSS styling. Having said that, if you have a knack for coding, Squarespace offers you the flexibility to customize your website with CSS.
Third, Squarespace offers a ton of built-in features like blogging, scheduling, email marketing, e-commerce, SEO & analytics, and, they’ve just recently launched a course feature. You can rest easy not having to think about all the other plugins and add-on features to make your site stand out. Everything is there for you. Having said that, the perk of Squarespace is that it allows you to integrate third-party features, too. If there is something specific you need, (maybe you’re already using Mailchimp, for example,) you can simply integrate it by the click of a button.
And lastly, a few bits about their hosting, security and tech support. Squarespace's customer support is like none other I've used. They offer 24/7 customer support through live chat and email, making certain that you get the help that you need.
Allow me to be honest here. When I first started using Squarespace back in 2015, I wasn’t pleased with their support. Troubleshooting wasn’t great either, and searching through their FAQs was super time-consuming. With confidence, I can say that I feel different now. I don’t know when they changed this, but I did see improvement around 2020. Live Chat is some of the best out there. They’re quick and friendly, and send you email support tickets in case you need to further your query. It’s an excellent system with a great team behind it all.
Did you know that Squarespace can also host your domain for you? With plans starting at just $16 per month (when paid annually), you can not only create a stunning website with tons of built-in features and customer support, but you can also rest easy knowing that Squarespace offers top-notch safety and security features to keep your site and your customers' information protected. All Squarespace sites come with SSL encryption to keep data safe during transit, and the platform also uses hashing for passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security. And if a security issue does arise, Squarespace has a formal incident response process in place to quickly resolve the problem.
Getting started with Squarespace - Signing up and choosing a template
I encourage you to take a minute to scroll through the Squarespace.com website before getting started as I think it’s important to have a look through their site, getting to know the navigation bar and what they’re offering. I think learning what they offer, as well as seeing some of the designs they have, can be really inspiring, and a great start before moving forward.
Step 1: Click on the GET STARTED button at the top right-hand side of the site. Squarespace is going to ask you some questions about what you want your site to be about. Don’t worry, if you’re unsure of what you’re selling at this point, it’s totally fine, just answer as best as you can. Click Next.
Squarespace will then ask you how you want to get started with two options to choose from: Build a custom template with Squarespace Blueprint, or, Choose a professionally designed website template. For now, I want you to choose a professionally designed website template.
Step 2: Ready to browse? Scroll through to see some of their templates. When you hover over a template and click it, it will give you a couple of choices to start with the template or to preview. I like to preview it as it gives me a little more in-depth visual of what the site looks like. Even if you’ve clicked the demo, you’ll have two links at the top right-hand side. Again, view the demo site (as an actual site and not as a window option,) or, start with this design. Once you’ve gone through a few demo sites and have found the one, click start with this design, and let’s move on!
Step 3: Squarespace is going to ask you to name your site. This is where your business name goes, whether it’s your personal brand or store. Click continue when you’ve typed in your name. Continue to click through the prompts given by Squarespace and soon it will bring you to the home page, with a side panel on the left.
Sidebar Navigation (7.1)
Note: Squarespace is made up of two versions, 7.0 and 7.1. Depending on which template you’ve chosen, you’ll see some differences on the left sidebar. To find out which version your website is, click Website. For 7.1 sites, at the bottom left side, it will show you your version. For 7.0, click Design, and at the bottom left side, you’ll see it. Recently, Squarespace has been making some major updates to this sidebar, and annoyingly so, they’ve been moving bits around which can get confusing especially if you’re new to the platform. Don’t worry, if ever you’re searching for something and cannot find it, hit the forward slash key (/) and a search bar will come up - You can enter anything here. My recommendation is to choose a 7.1 template going forward because, at some stage in the future, they’ll remove 7.0 completely.
Website (7.1): Here is where you’ll find all the pages on your site. Since you’ve chosen a template, you’ll find a few pre-designed pages here on the left. You’ll see a few different sections here as well: Main Navigation section at the top, which will show pages that would come up on your navigation bar on your home page, and a Not Linked section is where you have public pages (unless disabled or password-protected,) but don’t appear in the navigation. You may also see a Member Areas section if you have chosen a template allowing your customers to sign up. We’re going to skip this one for today, even if it’s there.
Utilities: At the bottom: System Pages, Website Tools, and Trash. The system Pages tab will house your 404, Access Denied, Checkout, and Lock Screen pages. The website Tools tab will house your Custom CSS, Code Injection, Announcement Bar, Promotional Pop-Up, Mobile Information Bar and Cookies & Visitor Data. Deleted Pages tab is obvious: any deleted pages. Here you can restore recently deleted pages. Pages remain here for 30 days before they are automatically removed by the system.
Selling: If you’re running an e-commerce site, here is your tab that houses all your products, orders, discounts and more. This is where you’d set up a shop to sell products. I will cover this in another blog post because it’s quite a section that deserves a lot of detail on its own. But for clarity, this fully Integrated E-Commerce section is available on the Business and Commerce plans when you subscribe.
Marketing: Here is where you run your Email Campaigns and Marketing.
Contacts (Formerly known as your Profiles or Email): This is where you’ll see all of your subscribers, leads and so on. You can also create an email campaign from here, it will take you back over to your marketing page. The newest update from this section is that you can track your first-time or repeat customers to better understand your leads and sales. Contacts also allow you to see information about your customers & subscribers in one space.
Analytics: This section is a great tool to help you with your SEO and traffic. Make Analytics your new best friend and spend some time with it. I will be covering this section in more detail in another post, but for now, you’ll want to run through this one and get familiar, because when you grow your traffic, you’ll want to be following your metrics to make sure you’re ranking and funnels are working to your favour.
Scheduling (Acuity): If you plan to book appointments through your site, this is your spot! You’ll find lots of features here, like the Calendar dashboard, Clients and Reports, and you can even track your invoices too. Acuity is available as an add-on with different plans to choose from based on necessity.
Asset Library: Your Asset Library is where you can store all of your files. You can now organize your content into folders which is super helpful when dealing with tons of images.
Settings: This is the biggest section in the sidebar. They’ve recently updated this space to house all of your “behind the scenes” business. You’ll see sections for your domains, Google Workspace, permissions and site availability for your site, and all sorts of really important information for your website, commerce and marketing and favicon (7.1). You can scroll further down and see your Third Party Tools, Billing, and more. I recommend that you spend some time going through each section to get familiar with it all, as I guarantee you’ll find it all very helpful as you continue your website journey
Help: Last but certainly not least, your help section holds a few different links to click, depending on what you need. You can ask the Squarespace community, visit the help center, join a Live Webinar or even hire an expert! Here’s a tip: At the bottom of this section is your site's version. Squarespace sites use version 7.0 and 7.1 if you’re ever searching for more help or tutorials on Squarespace, you’ll often read about or hear people mention these two.
Site Styles (Top Right): With 7.1 you’ll find a paint brush at the top right-hand corner of your page, this is where you’ll see your colours, fonts, animations (site-wide), spacing, button and image blocks design. What I love about 7.1 is that you can change your design through these few tabs, and it will set the design globally, then, when tackling changes amongst your pages, you can navigate through your block’s settings to fine tune those sections.
Customizing your Squarespace website - design, layout, and branding
This is where the magic begins, folks! You can now start customizing this site to match your brand and vision. Here is where you should start adding your own content and copy, change colours and fonts, and you can even rearrange all the elements on the page.
If you have your branding sorted, you can click on the paintbrush at the top right. In version 7.1, Squarespace will give you a very large selection of fonts to choose from, as well as some font pairings which can be very helpful if you haven’t selected a few fonts for your brand.
Squarespace gives you themes based on your colour palette, so you can organize each section of your site to match your style. You will see this just under your palette called Customize Your Themes. You’ll be able to change these in Edit Mode.
Additionally, you can customize the spacing, borders, and background images to further personalize your website. Squarespace also allows you to add your logo and favicon, giving your website a professional and polished look.
Adding and organizing content - pages, blog posts, and images
Next, click on Website, (Pages) and see what can stay or go. Depending on your business plan, and what your strategy is, you can decide what needs to belong in the navigation section of your site. This goes for the other tabs following: Commerce, Marketing, Scheduling, etc.
Now that you have a template and a customized design, it's time to start adding visual content & copy to your Squarespace website. You can play around with their page and block options by simply adding something to your page and deleting it if you feel like your design doesn’t suit you.
To add a new page, simply click on the "+" button in the Pages panel. You can choose from different page types, such as a standard page, a blog page, or a product page. Once you've selected a page type, you can start adding content using the Squarespace editor.
The Squarespace editor provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to add text, images, videos, and other media to your pages. You can also format your content using headings, lists, and block quotes to make it more visually appealing and easy to read. I find this section to be quite extensive, so take your time, try new things, and add as you go along. Remember, you can delete anything within your block easily by simply clicking delete.
Squarespace also offers a variety of content blocks, such as galleries, forms, and maps, that you can add to your pages to enhance their functionality. To add a content block, simply click on the "+" button in the editor and choose the block you want to add.
Version 7.1 introduced Fluid Engine, allowing users to easily drag and drop content blocks within sections.
Optimizing your Squarespace website for SEO
In my humblest opinion, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a non-negotiable piece of your business that you shouldn’t overlook. It’s crucial for driving organic traffic to your website. As I mentioned briefly above, Squarespace provides built-in features that make it easy to optimize your website for search engines.
If you’re feeling a little timid, have no fear, it’s easy to get started. Head over to your Settings panel and click on "SEO Appearance". Here, you can see some quick links which I highly recommend. SEO Checklist will take you to another browser with a list from Squarespace to follow.
Google Search Keywords will take you to your Analytics section, where you can set up Google Search Keywords. Below this, you’ll see your Search Appearance with 3 tabs: Home, Pages, and Items. Enter your SEO title format, and SEO site description below, making sure to add your site’s relevant keywords in here to increase your chances of ranking higher in those results.
Another important aspect of SEO is optimizing your content for keywords. Squarespace allows you to add meta tags and descriptions to individual pages and blog posts, which can help search engines understand the content of your website. To add meta tags and descriptions, go to the settings panel of each page or blog post and click on "SEO". Here, you can enter relevant keywords and a description that accurately represents the content of the page or blog post.
Integrating third-party tools and services with Squarespace
Squarespace offers third-party integration with a variety of tools and services, allowing you to enhance your website's functionality and streamline your workflow. One popular integration is with Google Analytics as I mentioned above, which gives you valuable insights into your website's performance from the search engine.
To integrate Google Analytics with your Squarespace website, simply go to the Analytics panel and click on Search Keywords. Connect your Google Search Console (must have signed up prior) and start collecting data about your website's traffic, audience, and conversions.
Squarespace also integrates with popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, allowing you to easily display your social media feeds on your website. To integrate your social media accounts with your Squarespace website, go to the settings panel and click on "Connected Accounts". Here, you can connect your social media accounts and customize how your social media feeds are displayed on your website.
This integration not only makes it easy for your visitors to engage with your social media content but also helps drive traffic to your social media profiles.
One last rec’ for Third Party Tools: In your Settings panel, scroll down to All Extensions. Here’s where you’ll see a list to choose from; from Business Tools and Finance to Inventory and Products.
Managing and updating your Squarespace website
Once your Squarespace website is up and running, it's important to regularly update and manage your content to keep it fresh and engaging. Squarespace makes it super simple to update your website, whether you want to add new pages, publish blog posts, or make changes to the design. To manage your website, simply login to your Squarespace account and go to the Squarespace editor. From here, you can access all the tools and features you need to update and manage your website.
To add new pages or blog posts, simply click on the "+" button in the Pages panel and choose the type of content you want to add. Squarespace also allows you to schedule blog posts in advance, making it easy to plan and organize your content calendar. To make changes to your website's design, simply click on the "Edit" button in the top right corner of the page and make the desired changes. Squarespace also offers a version history feature, which allows you to revert to previous versions of your website if needed.
Squarespace customer support and resources
Squarespace is super dedicated to providing excellent customer support and resources to help you create an awesome website. If you ever get stuck or have a question, Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support through live chat and email, and believe me, their live chat is an A+!
You can also browse through their extensive articles and guides on a wide range of topics. Additionally, Squarespace has an active community forum, so if you’re feeling social, you can connect with other Squarespace users, share ideas, and get inspiration. With Squarespace's robust support system and resources, you'll never feel alone in your website-building journey.
BONUS: Squarespace tips and tricks for beginners
As a beginner, it's natural to feel overwhelmed when starting with Squarespace. With just a few tips and tricks, you can make the most out of this powerful website builder. First and foremost, take your time to explore the Squarespace editor and familiarize yourself with its features.
Squarespace provides a variety of resources, such as video tutorials and help articles, that can help you get started. Don't be afraid to experiment and try different things–Squarespace allows you to undo changes, so you can always revert if something doesn't work out.
When customizing your Squarespace website, it's important to have a clear vision of your brand and target audience. Take the time to define your brand identity with your website, including its colours, fonts, and overall aesthetic. This will help you create a cohesive and visually appealing website with the rest of your brand content, or offline marketing.
It's always a good idea to keep your target audience in mind and consider their preferences when building your website. With Squarespace, you have access to a wide range of features and customization options to choose from. Make sure to select the ones that will really connect with your audience and make their experience on your site even better.
Conclusion
So, if you're looking to create a website that will impress your visitors, Squarespace is the way to go! With its easy-to-use platform and powerful tools, you'll be able to design a professional-looking website in no time. Whether you're a small business owner or a blogger, Squarespace has everything you need to make your website stand out and attract more visitors. So why wait? Get started today and see the results for yourself!
