What Does it Take to Build a Website on Squarespace?
Are you ready to launch your own successful website?
You may have already scoured the internet looking for all the info and how-to instructions, but today I hope to add a new perspective and offer my ideas on what it takes to build your own website on Squarespace.
Many people believe it’s too time consuming and too much of a headache to learn to build your own website on Squarespace (SEO where? Sales page who?), but don’t let that hold you back.
If you're struggling with pulling the trigger on building your own Squarespace website or maybe even just getting it finished, this is the place for you.
Ready to dive into a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into building your very own beautiful AND functional Squarespace website?
Always Remember - Action Over Perfection
If you've been finding yourself getting bogged down in researching how to build your website, I want you to take a pause right this minute.
Ask yourself, why do I think I need to know EVERYTHING before I start building my website and who benefits from me dragging this out?
Answer: no one benefits - least of all you!
I get it. With all the website building options out there it can be tough to pick one and feel like you’ve made the right choice. And it can be tempting to research yourself to death because you’ve heard conflicting opinions. But don’t let that hold you back!
Sidenote: If you haven’t made a choice on which website building platform to go with yet I’d like to put in a shameless plug for Squarespace. I’m not an affiliate or anything - I just genuinely love it (especially now that they’ve introduced their Fluid Engine editor). I built my own website on Squarespace and if I had to do it all over again I’d still pick it.
Taking action is what will get you to your goal - not endless research. And believe me, I am the QUEEN of research. I love figuring out a new problem or making a plan on how I’m going to do something, but if we never start checking things off that well-thought-out how-to list, we’ll never get the thing done!
Hint: I have another post on how to know if Squarespace is right for you over here.
My Routine for Productivity
One of the reasons you may not have built or launched your Squarespace website yet might be because every time you sit down to start you get distracted. I know this can be a tough one, especially if you’re in the design phase of your site. There are so many options to choose from that it can be overwhelming, and that analysis paralysis can quickly kill your productivity.
Whether it’s choosing photos and where to place them, or deciding on brand colors, or even picking out a font set - building your own website can involve a lot of up-front brain work that you might not have considered.
Well, my friend, I am happy to say that I have successfully built and launched my own Squarespace site (and a few others too!), and my routine directly influences my ability to be productive and get things done.
Sidenote: I have yet another post on why I build websites for clients in just 2 weeks right here.
My general routine for designing websites in 2 weeks looks a little like this:
Day 1: Build a draft home page. This is the day I do all the up-front design work that can bog you down so easily. I choose fonts, colors, and gather any stock images (ones I’ll use in addition to what the client provides me.) I love how Squarespace has a feature that helps you choose fonts. They automatically pair up ones that look good together, so if you’d rather spend your time thinking about something other than font pairings Squarespace has got you covered! But if you’d rather choose ones all on your own you can absolutely do that too!
Building the draft home page up front allows me to send it to the client quickly for an initial approval and make any tweaks or edits right at the beginning. Doing this before the entire site is built is a HUGE time saver, because once all those beautiful pages are built making a base design change to one of them will change ALL of them. And no one wants to waste time clicking through a bunch of pages to see how that one change looks. Trust me - I’ve made this mistake and once you realize what a huge time waster it is you’ll never go back to picking colors and fonts on the fly.
Day 5 (mid-way through the project): After getting the seal of approval from the client for the draft I go in and add the rest of the pages. Squarespace makes this easy by having a feature that lets you duplicate a page. That way if your About page will have a similar layout or color theme as your Services page you can just copy the Services page and then edit it. Points for saving time!
Since my draft version was the Home page all that’s left to add are things like a Services page or Store (for products), an About page, a Contact page, and anything else the client needs. In this stage I don’t waste time connecting links or making things “functional.” I’m just building out the pages so the client can look over the general flow and make sure everything is good to go. Once I get the next sign-off from the client I’ll move on to all the nitty gritty detail stuff.
Day 10: Wrap it up. Since I don’t generally work on weekends, Day 10 is the last day of my project. At this point I’ve gone through the entire site multiple times checking for typos, grammar mishaps, connected all the links and triple checked they work like they should. Since I’m building the site for someone else I also schedule a video call with them on this day to go through the ins and outs of how to work their new Squarespace website and update it themselves in the future. If you’re building your own site you would of course skip this!
Building a website in this intentional order will save you soooo much time! Instead of jumping around from task to task, you’ll be focusing your brain power on one thing at a time. This will lead to less decision fatigue and that dreaded feeling of burnout. Having a clear set of steps will help you stay on track.
Uncomfortable question time…
Is your routine helping or hindering your progress toward getting your website built?
It’s ok - you can be honest. I won’t tell!
Don't be afraid to abandon anything that’s not working for you - even if that means changing up your entire process!
Your ultimate goal is to get your website built and launched, right? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. You will always be tweaking your website (i.e. it will NEVER be “finished”). But that’s ok because we’re not going for perfection here. As amazing business lady Abbey Ashley says “Action over Perfection!” Taking consistent (even imperfect!), small steps toward your goal will get you to a published website faster than continuously redesigning elements that were already completed.
Whatever works for you is what will work best for launching your website.
Some Advice from Paige Brunton
I like to shake it up with info from all over the web. My favorite Squarespace guru Paige Brunton has some critical advice for you. She says,
“It’s really important to know that you just do one thing and then the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. It’s not all gonna happen at once, and that’s fine! You need to be kind to yourself!”
For more great tips like this, check out her blog here.
And for anyone who doesn’t know, Paige’s Squarespace courses are the ones I took back in the day to learn how to do this stuff! She’s legit amazing!
If you want to learn more about building Squarespace websites or even just online business in general you should definitely hit up her blog.
Never Let People who Aren't in Your Industry Give You Advice
Your great-grandma means well when she says, “you might want to think about getting a real job”, but it's just one more thing that's holding you back.
Instead, look for experts like Katelyn Dekle from Launch the Damn Thing for guidance.
When you're running out of steam working on launching your website on culinary delights, this quote from Katelyn may spur you on:
“For the love of all things holy, do not wait until you’re ‘ready’ to start. The quickest way, and the only way I can absolutely guarantee that you WILL FAIL is to wait until you’re ready. To wait until you know enough, are comfortable enough, have enough software, bought enough courses, developed enough confidence, have enough savings, have enough help, have enough time…
You either move forward, - or you don’t. It’s that simple.
So if success is what you want, if growth is what you want then you CANNOT stand still. You CANNOT play small. You CANNOT be stagnant. You CANNOT wait until you’re ‘ready’ because the truth is you may never ‘feel’ ready.”
You Need Grit and Discipline (and maybe a few YouTube videos)
Now, just because you currently don't have #allthethings (expert knowledge, impressive skills, etc.), doesn't mean you can't get your website built and launched.
However, this does mean you need to make a plan and stick to it before you can get your website up and running. But I know you can do it and am here to support you every step of the way!
Let's be specific in planning your roadmap for building your site:
Step #1: Research your industry. This is especially vital if you plan to blog at all. You’ll want to see what questions people have and then write blog posts answering those questions. You can use tools like SEMRush and AnswerThePublic.com to do some basic research on your industry or topic. If blogging was never part of the plan, Google some competitors’ websites and see what they do well. Don’t copy and paste from their site, but do gather ideas of what you like and what you could improve on with your own site. Pay attention to the flow of their site (does it make sense and feel natural?), their CTA placement (are you motivated to keep clicking?), etc.
Step #2: Draw it out. Now you’re going to take all your research notes and formulate them into your website’s outline. Now, I’m a digital girl all the way, but drawing this out on paper is actually easier! The best way I’ve found is to get a bunch of medium to large sticky notes (this makes rearranging easier!) On each sticky note you’re going to write the name of the website page (Home, Services, About, Contact, etc.) After that you’ll want to think about any call to action (CTA) wording and write that on each sticky note. Ideally you’ll want to arrange this in a way that keeps people clicking through your site.
Let’s say they land on your Home page. Great! As they scroll down, what CTA would get them to click on the next page? “Check out our Portfolio here!” “Learn More!” “Grab this freebie!”
Write each CTA on your sticky note, then note which page that will take them to. Repeat the process for each page. Rearrange to your heart’s content, but make sure you have a CTA on each page.
This is also a great time to write your page copy (all the words that will go on your website.) I know, I know, this can be tedious, but it’s better to get it out of the way up front. Think about what you want to say on each page and store it all in a Google doc (or whatever you find most useful.)
Step #3: Get to building! Now you’re ready to put it all together in Squarespace! Follow my process from earlier and start with your Home page. Pick out all your colors and fonts FIRST! It’s ok to take a day or 2 for this. This is also a great time to gather any stock images you might want.
Once that’s finished, all you need to do is copy and paste the words from your Google doc, link up your CTA buttons and get that site launched!
Sidenote: if you plan to do anything “special” (i.e. add a blog, store, or set up a scheduling feature on your site) it’s ok to Google a few Squarespace tutorials. There is literally a YouTube video for everything, so go ahead and check out a few. But don’t spend all your time there! Watch, learn, and implement! Remember, we’re about action - not perfection.
Because I know how important your website is, I put together this free (really free!) guide for you.
Use it to gather ideas, write your page copy, and do all the up front work for your website.
Click here to download the
Squarespace Website Prep Guide 2023
Wrapping it up!
DIYing your Squarespace site is totally doable. Just remember to plan out your site’s flow and write your page copy BEFORE you start designing in Squarespace.
