How to use Squarespace: 9 steps to build a website

Squarespace is a popular website builder favoured by businesses and individuals working in the creative industries. Like other builders, its purpose is to help people set up websites easily, without the need for coding experience.

Squarespace is perhaps best known for its range of templates, with a focus on high-quality aesthetics and modern looks. On top of that though, it also offers a range of functions and features to improve most sites.

In this article, you can find out how to use Squarespace. Take a look now.

Step 1: Sign up and get started

The first step to using Squarespace, unsurprisingly, is to sign up for an account. However, there are a few considerations at this stage.

The first thing to consider is whether Squarespace is the right choice for you. If you work in a creative industry, if you’re creating a photography website, for example, then it could well be the right option.

If you want to spend a little more time comparing other brands, you can visit our best website builder page today to take a look at alternatives.

Or, if you’re primary aim is to sell products online, you might prefer our best ecommerce website builder page instead.

Early decisions with Squarespace

Once you’ve confirmed that Squarespace is the brand for you, it’s time to start building your site. As soon as you begin the creation process, you’ll begin to answer a series of questions. First, you’ll be asked to choose between a ‘custom template’ and a ‘professionally designed template’ – this stage in the process is pictured below.

Which of these options you choose will depend on various factors. If you just want to create a simple website to advertise services, provide information, or sell products, for example, you may be perfectly fine to choose a professionally designed template without making too many changes. On the other hand, if you expect your site to function in a less common way, or with a range of complex functionality, then you may need to choose the custom route.

Think about what sort of features you need and choose the style of template that best suits that. Your decision might be based on the functionality offered, or on other factors, such as access to premium templates.

Once you’ve decided on a custom or professional template, you’ll continue answering questions about your website. These questions cover your top goals for the website, the type of site it is and the industry you work in. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be able to choose between a range of automatically-generated templates.

Step 2: Choose your template

Squarespace offers a variety of professionally designed templates that can be used on a range of websites. As we’ve mentioned, Squarespace is well-known for the quality of the templates it offers.

As you browse through the available templates, you are able to preview them to see how they would like if used. As you do compare, you should consider what sort of layout you need, as well as things like the colour palette being used on any template.

Once you’re happy with the template you’ve found, you can go ahead. Don’t worry about the content at this stage, you’ll be able to customise it.

It is worth noting that with some Squarespace templates, you cannot switch templates once you’ve set your site live. Check the options with the one you select but, above all, make sure you’re really happy with your choice before finalising it.

Tips for choosing a template

Choosing a template is an important part of the process with Squarespace. It is the foundation of your website and it determines the design you’ll be working with, as well as how users might engage with your website.

Take a look at our top tips for choosing a template:

Remember your industry: there’s a fine line between copying your competitors and standing out from them. Your audience will probably have certain expectations about how your website will look and perform. Straying too far from those expectations may result in poor performance. At the same time, you need to stand out as much as possible. Think about what your competitors do, and how you can improve on it.
Consider your features: if you know that you need to include certain features on your website, then it’s important to ensure those features look good and work well on the template you choose!
Think about your audience: we’ve already talked about industry standards, but we also need to consider the target audience. If you want to attract a specific demographic to your website then consider what they’ll want to see, and how they’ll want your site to perform.

Step 3: Customise your website

Once you’ve confirmed which template you want to use, you can enter the Squarespace editor.

In the editor, you can begin to customise your site. There are tools available that allow you to add your own text, images, videos and features. At this stage, you can also begin changing the colours, fonts and overall layout.

As you customise, make sure that you consider your brand values closely. You want to ensure that the site you create reflects the business you run or the image you want users to see. You should also think about how you want the site to work, and what features you need to add.

We recommend that you test out as many variations of options as you can to make sure you find exactly the right balance for your website. The benefit of a website builder like Squarespace is that it’s easy to make changes (and just as easy to undo them).

While it might take a little while to get the hang of, once you’ve had some time to play around with the editor tools, you’ll be able to make large-scale changes quickly and easily to see if you want to adjust aspects of your website.

Step 4: Add pages

You should start by creating the most essential pages for your site. This includes things like the Homepage, About Us, Services and Contact pages.

Adding new pages with Squarespace is simple, as is customising. You can see the process in the images below. Squarespace allows you to add new pages based on specific templates – if you’re adding a portfolio, for example – or as blank pages that you can make into whatever you like.

You can also create navigation menus to help visitors find what they are looking for. This sort of function is essential if you want your site to be easy-to-use.

Important pages to add

Take a look at the list below for some pointers on which pages you should add to your website, and how you can think about those pages.

Homepage: the homepage should give your audience a clear understanding of your website. It should set the tone for your website’s design and style. It should also provide clear navigation options so that people can reach the parts of the site they need.
About Us: the About Us page is the location for letting people know more about you or your business. What motivates you, what values do you hold and what experience do you have in your industry?
Contact Us: providing your users with a clear set of contact information will make it easy for them to get in touch if they need to. You can also use contact forms from Squarespace to provide automated contact options to make things easier for you and your audience.
Testimonials: testimonials and reviews are a great way to entice users to use your services, or to buy your products. Make sure to provide quotes and reviews from happy customers to help convince new customers to convert.
Industry-specific pages: depending on your industry, you may need to create additional pages to ensure you’re matching your customers’ expectations. A restaurant website will need a menu page, for example, while a plumber’s website may require a page for checking availability.

Step 5: Add features

Like other website builders, Squarespace offers a range of features and integrations that you can use to enhance your website’s functionality.

Think about whether you need to add forms, galleries, blogs, ecommerce functionality or social media integration.

The range of features available to be added to your Squarespace site can help you to create an engaging and compelling platform for your users. These individual features are editable, so you can customise them to make sure they’re presenting the correct information in the way that suits your business.

As you consider features, you should refer to your plans to make sure you include all of the tools you need to succeed. You should also explore what else is on offer in case you discover options that you had not previously considered.

Step 6: Configure your website

Squarespace provides a range of settings and options that allow users to fine-tune their websites.

You can customise domain settings, analytics and other features. Make sure to spend some time on this stage to make sure everything is set up as expected.

You should also use this opportunity to confirm that your site is responsive and mobile-friendly. Squarespace templates are, by default, built to work on all devices, but it’s worth confirming for yourself to make sure none of the decisions you have made have caused any issues.

Step 7: Preview and publish

Before you set your website live for real, you should preview it to make sure that everything looks as you expected, and that it works as planned.

Squarespace offers a preview mode that allows you to see your site as a visitor would, including allowing you to see how the site would appear on a range of devices.

Once you’re happy, you can click ‘Publish’ to make your site available to the world.

Step 8: Maintain and update

Just because your site is live, it doesn’t mean your work is done.

Once you’ve launched, it’s important that you update your website regularly. Squarespace provides a user-friendly interface making it easy to make changes or add new content.

Make sure to take advantage of all of the features, including the built-in blogging tools to keep publishing new posts that keep your site fresh.

Step 9: Market your website

Once live, you might want to consider how you can market your website. Fortunately, there are a range of options.

The first form of marketing to consider is search engine optimisation (SEO). This is the process of updating and adding to your site to try and rank as highly as possible in the search results on indexes like Google. For many businesses, this is a key marketing channel that can drive a lot of value.

You should also consider social media marketing. Consider using platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to spread your message and content to new audiences. With social media, you can rely on just organic content, non-paid, or paid content too, where you spend money to get in front of new audiences.

Finally, you can consider starting to market over email. This will require you to capture email addresses in some way, probably on your site. With email marketing, you can target existing customers or visitors with new information to entice them back to your site.

Squarespace website builder pricing

Squarespace offers a range of plans to suit different budgets and different needs. Take a look at the table below for a quick comparison of the costs you can expect.

Plan	Number of users	Features	Cost
Personal	2	Mobile-optimised site Range of templates	£12/month
Business	Unlimited	All Personal plan features Advanced analytics Ecommerce functionality 3% transaction fees Accept payments Professional email	£17/month
Commerce (Basic)	Unlimited	All Business plan features 0% transaction fees Advanced merchandising	£23/month
Commerce (Advanced)	Unlimited	All Commerce (Basic) plan features Advanced shipping Advanced discounting Subscriptions	£35/month

Personal plan: at £12/month, the Personal plan is the most basic option. It provides access to a range of customisation tools, along with a number of professionally-designed templates.
Business plan: at £17/month, the Business plan includes everything in the Personal plan, while also improving access to analytic reports and providing basic ecommerce functionality.
Commerce (Business): at £23/month, the Commerce (Business) plan offers all of the Business plan features while improving the range of ecommerce tools on offer. It also removes the transaction fees from purchases made on your site.
Commerce (Advanced): at £35/month, the Commerce (Advanced) plan includes everything from the plans above. It also provides advanced shipping and discounting options for your business to use.

How to use Squarespace: Final thoughts

Squarespace makes getting online easy. Like other website builders, it offers a drag-and-drop toolbox that eliminates the need for coding experience.

If you work in the creative industries, it might be the perfect choice for you thanks to its range of well-designed, high-quality templates.

Bryn Glover

Bryn is the founder and editor of WebsiteJumpStart. He has worked in the digital field for over a decade and was editor for Startups.co.uk - the UK's leading small business website - and for NerdWallet UK before launching WebsiteJumpStart to help people and businesses get online with ease.

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