Creating a website with Squarespace is a streamlined process that allows anyone, from beginners to advanced users, to design a professional-looking site. This guide walks you through the entire process, covering necessary assets, technical aspects, and customisation options.
Step 1: Prepare your assets
Before you start, gather the essential assets required for your website:
- Logo. A high-resolution version in PNG or SVG format.
- Brand colors and fonts. Consistent branding elements for a uniform design, with your own colour palette and fonts.
- Images and videos. High-quality media files optimized for web use. Make sure to use optimized file sizes to allow a fast loading time of your pages.
- Written content. Homepage text, about page, service descriptions, blog posts, storytelling, USPs: all the copy to communicate on your website.
- Domain name. Make sure to purchase a unique domain registered via Squarespace or a third-party provider. You can verify the availability of the domain on GoDaddy.
Step 2: Sign up and select a template
- 1. Create an account. Go to Squarespace.com, create an account and select a pricing plan based on your needs. You can get started for free (14 days free trial period) and choose your plan at the end of that period.
- 2. Pick a template. Select a template that fits your business and is visually appealing to you. Squarespace offers a large choice of templates for all types of business, such as online store, portfolio, memberships, blog and services. You also have the option to build your website with AI: simply enter relevant information about your business and let Squarespace AI do the work for you.
Step 3: Customize your website
- Editing layout and design. Navigate to the Squarespace editor, use the drag-and-drop interface to rearrange sections, and adjust typography, colors and spacing under Design Settings.
- Adding pages. Go to Pages in the main menu, click + Add Page and choose a page type (e.g. homepage, about, contact, blog).
- Uploading media. Use the media library to store and organize images, and optimize them for fast loading speeds using tools like TinyPNG.
- Customizing navigation. Arrange menu items under Navigation Settings, create dropdown menus if necessary for better organization, and create buttons to drive your visitors to your pages, contact form or subscription.
Step 4: Configure site settings
- Domain setup. If you purchased a domain via Squarespace, connect it in Settings > Domains. If you use an external domain, follow the DNS settings instructions provided by Squarespace.
- SEO and metadata. Go to Marketing > SEO, add meta descriptions and page titles, and set up URL slugs to be clean and keyword-rich.
- Mobile optimization. Use the mobile preview to ensure your site is responsive, and adjust fonts, images and spacing for a seamless mobile experience.
Step 5: Integrate features and plugins
- E-commerce. Navigate to Commerce in the main menu, set up your product pages and add product details, connect a payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, or Squarespace Payments), and configure tax and shipping settings under Commerce > Settings.
- Blog setup. Add a blog page from the Pages menu, write blog posts with titles, body text and images, and enable comments and social sharing.
- Third-party integrations. Add Google Analytics to measure traffic, install email marketing tools like Mailchimp, connect social media accounts for easy sharing, and implement pixels for social media advertising and code for Google Ads.
Note that some of these implementations require some (basic) coding knowledge, so you should seek advice or help if you are not sure how to do this. We help businesses with their Squarespace website, so get in touch if you need help building yours.
Step 6: Test and launch your website
Pre-launch checklist:
- Check all links for accuracy
- Test website speed using Google PageSpeed Insights
- Ensure proper mobile responsiveness
- Review SEO settings
- Set up a 404 error page
Post-launch:
- Regularly update your site with fresh content
- Monitor analytics and optimize based on performance data
- Monitor SEO score, search engine indexation, web core vitals, and page speed
- Collect emails, showcase your services, and offer relevant content to your audience
Publish your site. Once everything is set up and tested: click Settings > Site Availability, toggle to Public and click Publish, then submit your sitemap to Google Search Console to be indexed on Google. You can do the same for other search engines.
Congratulations! Your Squarespace website is now live.
Though creating a website with Squarespace is made simple, it can be overwhelming for someone without technical and design knowledge. If you want your website to be unique and look professional, consider hiring a Squarespace expert.
We help businesses of all sizes get started online, grow and achieve their goals. We create affordable Squarespace websites, we build e-commerce websites and we design and build full products, from MVPs to mobile apps.