the step-by-step process for setting up your own squarespace website
I’ve been using Squarespace for SIX years, DIYing my own websites + eventually becoming a web designer for others!
So I get that often, hiring your own designer is just NOT in the cards (been there!) so I wanted to create a step-by-step guide to getting your own Squarespace website up and running - for free!
We won’t get into DESIGNING (a guide for another day) but this’ll serve as a great process to getting a simple site up and running to start serving your business ASAP.
step one: create your Squarespace account
You’ll get a free 14-day trial to start! Then you’ll need to pick the plan that’s right for you. Here’s a quick guide on the plans:
Personal: Right for you if you’re on a strict budget and don’t need any e-commerce. Custom domain included on annual plans! $12/m
Business: My recommendation! An online store is included in this tier, as well as a custom domain, and a G Suite email (ie. hello@yourdomain.com). $18/m
Commerce: If you need POS for your shop or want more advanced e-commerce options and 0% transaction fees this is the right plan for you! $26/m
Advanced Commerce: Even more advanced e-commerce options like subscriptions + advanced discounts and shipping. $40/m
step two: choose a template
There are toooons of templates to choose from! Choose one that has a layout you like - we’ll adjust fonts, colours, and photos later to match your brand.
step three: add your pages
Get started with only what’s necessary + add extra pages later!
Here’s what I recommend:
→ Home
→ About
→ Services/Store
→ Contact
→ Blog (optional but recommended)
To add pages: Click the + icon in the sidebar and then click Page Layouts to pick a pre-made layout based on what you want the page to do. (Or select Blog or Store if you’re adding one of those pages.)
Look through the sections to find layouts that fit the needs of the pages you’re building. (For example, the Contact section might be a good place to start for your contact page!)
step four: add your brand colours
Click Edit to get into edit mode.
Select the paintbrush icon in the top right corner to get to your site styles.
Select Colors and edit your palette to your brand colours.
Lightest: This should be white or a near-white brand colour. This will often be the background of your site.
Light: Pick a light brand colour that you’d like used a lot on your site.
Bright: Pick a bolder accent colour!
Dark: Pick another accent colour! This could be a darker colour but doesn’t necessarily have to be.
Darkest: This should be black or a near-black brand colour.
Or to make it really easy: pick one of their preset palettes.
step five: pick your brand fonts
After choosing your colours, go back to your site styles and select Fonts. Squarespace has made it easy by creating a bunch of beautiful font pairings for you! It’s as simple as picking your favourite - just click Switch and browse through them to find one to your liking.
If you have specific fonts in mind you can easily create your own custom font settings in the global text styles. Go through these to adjust font sizes and letter spacing for headers, paragraphs, buttons, and more.
Some of my fave pre-made pairings:
Sans-Serif
→ Anton
→ Roc Grotesk
→ Work Sans
→ Poppins
Serif
→ Minerva Modern
→ Kepler Std
Mixed
→ Adonis
→ Grange Extended
→ Sorts Mill Goudy
step six: add your content
Go through each page and add the written content you want to have there. Click Edit to get into edit mode and double click on any text element to edit it and add your own written content to replace the demo content.
If you need new page sections, select Add Section at the bottom of a section. You can break up your content easily that way. You’ve even got pre-designed layouts to choose from to simply the design for you!
To edit page section settings:
While in edit mode, hover over the section you want to edit and click the pencil icon. Now you can change how wide + tall the section is, add a background image, or change the colour profile used in the section. (You can edit colour settings for each colour theme in the colour settings section if you want to customize these.)
Want to add lines, images, or anything else? Hover below a text block with your mouse and you should see a + icon pop up. Click it and select the block of your choice to add it to the page.
step seven: add your photos
Click the pencil icon on top of any image to edit or replace it.
Click Remove image.
You can then upload your own branded image or search for an image to bring up free stock photos that fit your brand.
Bonus tip: Head to tinyjpg.com to compress all your images first. This increases your site speed which helps with SEO (more on that later).
step eight: format navigation
Under the Pages tab, the main navigation refers to the links that show up at the top of your website in the navigation bar. Drag and drop them to re-organize them. If you don’t want a page to be in the navigation, drag them to the not linked section.
Select Edit and hover over the navigation to select Edit Site Header. Add your logo + go through all the settings to style your navigation.
step nine: format footer
Your footer is the bottom section of your website that will be visible on every page!
Click Edit and hover over the footer, then click Edit Footer. Click the pencil icon to edit footer settings.
Head to the Colours tab to choose the colours for the footer! I recommend “grounding” your website with a darker background colour for the footer instead of leaving it white.
step ten: edit design settings
While in edit mode, click the paintbrush in the top right to edit some design settings like:
→ Fonts
→ Colors
→ Buttons
→ Image Blocks
→ and more!
step eleven: check everything!
Always best to go through all your writing to make sure your spelling and grammar is right, along with double checking that all your buttons and links are properly connected.
step twelve: connect your domain
A website always feels more professional with a custom domain (yourdomain.squarespace.com VS yourdomain.com ) which is why it’s great that all annual plans come with a free domain for a year!
To get your domain, click Settings > Domains > Get A Domain. I suggest picking a .com ending if at all possible!
step thirteen: publish!
Head to Settings > Site Availability > Public.
Now it’s live through your custom domain!
done those? ok now for some bonus steps!
bonus 1: add products to your shop!
If you're selling products, head to the shop + add all your products. In the sidebar go to Commerce > Inventory and click Add Product at the top. Go through the prompts to add your first product!
Be sure to go through the rest of the commerce settings if you’re opening up a shop - specifically the shipping, taxes, and accounting settings.
bonus 2: add email marketing
Even if you don’t plan to send out an email newsletter immediately, it’s great practice to start collecting emails from Day 1 so once you’re ready, you’ve already got an audience to write to! Luckily Squarespace has their own Email Campaigns built in and ready for you to use.
To add to your list just add Newsletter blocks to your website.
Or use your own email list provider (I use Convertkit!) and embed it into your website using the Code block.
bonus 3: g suite email
If you chose a Business plan or higher, you also get a G Suite email for free for 1 year! Click Settings > Google Workspace to set up your professional email address. This is a custom email attached to your domain - like hello@yourdomain.com.
bonus 4: add blog posts
Having a blog is great for boosting SEO + building trust with your audience. Add a few blog posts to get you started!
bonus 5: seo
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s how you get your website found on search engines.
This is a huge topic so I encourage you to google it for more info, but here are some quick tips!
Marketing > SEO > SEO Site Description
Describe your business using key words that people would google that might help them find you.
For each individual page, click the gear icon > SEO > fill in the SEO title and SEO description using your key words naturally.
Naming your images can also help! On any image, click the pencil to edit and then add keywords to your the file name area.
I’m so excited for you. Seriously - getting a website up and running is hard work but you did it! 👏👏👏
Stay tuned for future guides + courses because I’d love to help you with even more DIY website design in the future.
much love 💖
