How to Set Up a Successful Squarespace Website
In this blog post, I want to walk you through setting up a Squarespace website for your business and what you can expect from the process.
I created my website using Squarespace and have been successfully maintaining it without having to put in too much energy.
Is Squarespace for You?
Before you pay for services from any hosting provider it’s a good idea to have a general understanding of how their system works. More specifically, you need to know whether or not they’ll be a good fit for your business needs.
From my own experience, I can tell you that Squarespace is a great option for personal websites. Not that I’m saying they don’t work well for other types of websites, it’s just that I run a personal website and that’s where the majority of my Squarespace experience lies.
If you don’t know what a personal website is, it’s a website that promotes a person and their business without selling anything on the website itself (again, Written With Design’s website is the perfect example of this).
I don’t use the professional Gmail services they offer, so I’m only charged for my hosting plan (Personal Plan) and my domain name. This adds up to a yearly charge of less than $150, which makes Squarespace a cheap option that still offers high-quality services. There are some cheaper hosting providers out there like hosting if you want to save as much as you can, and the more features you want in your plan, the more you’ll have to pay, just like any other hosting provider.
It’s hard to give exact details of what you can and can’t do with your Squarespace website because that mostly depends on the template you choose, but I’ll address that in a few minutes. For now, I’ll just give you a brief list of who I think will benefit the most from using Squarespace to build and host their website…
Freelancers or self-employed professionals
People who don’t have many technical skills
Photographers wanting to create a gallery or portfolio of their work
Bloggers
Small businesses
If you plan on using your website to sell products, you’ll be happy to learn that Squarespace doesn’t have a limit on how many products you’re allowed to offer. You will have a page limit, but you’ll be able to have at least 20 pages even with Squarespace’s cheapest plan.
Now, let’s get into the details of actually setting up your new Squarespace website.
Signing Up for Squarespace
The first thing you’ll have to do when creating a Squarespace website is to set up a Squarespace account. Here’s what you’ll do…
Go to the Squarespace Website and click the “Get Started” button in the top corner. That will take you to the place where you can enter your information (email, phone number, etc.) and set up your Squarespace password. Squarespace will also give you the option to sign in using only your Google account.
You can sign up for a free 14-day trial, but that doesn’t mean that your account or website will be erased after 14 days. You can set up your website for free using Squarespace and they won’t start charging you until you connect your domain name to it and go public.
If I remember correctly, I went a little over the 14-day trial while perfecting the changes to my chosen template before finally buying my domain name and publishing Written With Design’s website.
Once you’ve created your account you can choose your website template.
Choosing Your Template
To choose a Squarespace template, go to the page titled “Templates”. Squarespace will then ask you a few questions to help you find templates geared towards the kind of website you want to launch.
The first thing that you’ll see is a bunch of different categories like “jewelry”, “politics”, and “consulting” click on all of the categories that apply to your businesses then hit the next button.
Then you’ll need to tell them your main reason for setting up your website (show off your expertise, get new clients, etc.). The last question they’ll ask us where you are in your process (growing an existing business, turning a project or hobby into a business, etc.), after that you’ll be brought to a page full of templates that have been selected for you.
If you want to skip that process you can choose the “I’m just browsing” option at the top of the page.
Now, before we go any further, I want to stress an important point:
DO NOT choose your website template haphazardly.
Squarespace website templates are great and very easy to use once you get used to where everything is in the menu, but they have limits on what you can customize.
For example, let’s say you want a sidebar for your website. You need to pick a template that includes a sidebar feature, and no, you can’t take features from two different templates and combine them.
These limitations won’t stop you from making your website unique and fitted to your business, it just means you have to take the time to choose a template that’s right for you. You can also do a quick google search to find out which Squarespace templates have the specific features you want.
Perfecting Your Template
We’d be here all day if I walked you through all the ways you can customize your template, so I’ll just give you a quick rundown. You can...
Change the color scheme
Add, delete, or alter blocks and sections
Add text and pictures
Add, delete or alter pages
As you experiment with your template you’ll be able to make it look the way you want it, and if you need help you can always contact Squarespace’s support team.
Buying Your Domain and Email
Now that you’ve created your website, you’ll need to attach a domain name to it. If you already own a domain name you can transfer it to Squarespace by following their steps for domain transfers, or you can purchase one from them directly.
The yearly price for hosting your domain name will depend on the ending (I believe it’s referred to as the top-level domain) you choose. You can buy a .net, .org, or one of the many other alternatives, but I suggest going with a .com domain name. Most search engines give .com websites a higher ranking than other domain names.
A .com domain will only cost around $20 each year so it won’t be that expensive. The best part is Squarespace provides all their users with a free SSL, so you won’t have to pay an extra fee just to make sure your site is secure.
For a professional email address, you can get a professional Gmail account through Squarespace that will only cost around $50 every year. If you want to send out email campaigns, you’ll have to pay additional fees for MailChimp or a similar service.
Depending on your size and how you want to run your business, you could get away with using a regular, free email address. That’s what I’ve done, and so far, no complaints. Honestly, the majority of my workflow comes through freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Legiit, so it all works out.
Publishing your Website
Once everything is set up the way you want it, you can publish your website via the “publish” option and people will be able to access your website, make purchases, and contact you. If you ever want to make changes or update your website’s blog you can easily do that by signing into your Squarespace account and accessing your website from there.