How to Easily Build an Awesome Website With Squarespace in 5 Steps

Squarespace is one of the most popular all-in-one website builders, known for its sleek designs and built-in marketing tools, helping businesses grow and succeed. It’s also user-friendly, so you can easily set up a professional website in as little as five steps—making it perfect for a small business looking to set up a website quickly. To start, create an account, select a template, customize your template, review it, and upgrade to a premium plan to publish.

Keep reading to learn more about how to build a Squarespace website in five steps or watch our video tutorial.

1. Get Started With Squarespace

Head over to Squarespace and click on “Get Started” at the top right corner of the screen. From there, it will redirect you to the starting point: questions that will determine the best template selection for you.

You can choose between the Type and Topic of your website. For example, clicking on the checkbox for Online Store and Photography will show you different templates than clicking on Launch Page and Food. You can also opt to check more than one Type (e.g., Online Store plus Memberships).

To see all the templates available on Squarespace, don’t click on a checkbox. Instead, click on All Templates. To mark a template as a “favorite,” press on the heart at the bottom of the preferred template. You can view your favorites at the top right corner of the selection screen.

Choosing the right template

2. Create Your Account

Once you’ve chosen your template, you can proceed with the creation of your account. You can choose to continue using an Email, Google, Facebook, or Apple account. Note that creating a website like this is 100% free—you can begin editing your website right after you sign up.

Name your site

Squarespace gives you a very brief overview of what to do after you’ve created your website. Choose a name for your site to proceed to the mini-tutorial.

3. Edit Your Site

Once you’re done naming your site, you’ll enter the website editor. Squarespace utilizes a drag-and-drop editor where you can drag or click content blocks to edit. Check your sidebar to see the menu.

Squarespace’s editing interface

Create & Delete Pages

Before anything else, check if the pages on your chosen template are enough for your website or if you need to add more. Click on the Pages tab to add or remove pages or to fix your website’s navigation. You can even edit each individual page’s settings by clicking on the gear icon beside the page.

Change the page’s title, URL slug, and navigation. Make sure that it gives an accurate description of the page for optimization purposes. Pay attention as well to the SEO tab in the page settings, where you can add search engine optimization (SEO) titles and descriptions to each page.

When adding a new page, you have the option to choose from a blank page or a premade layout. Squarespace has a wide range of options, like Contact, About Me, Appointments, and Menu.

Page layouts you can choose from

Drag your pages to organize them on your navigation bar. To create subpages (which will show as a drop-down menu on your navigation bar), create a folder instead, name it, and then drag the pages you want into the folder.

Fix Your Design

Now that you’re happy with your pages, you can begin designing your website as a whole. Click on the Site Styles tab under Design on the sidebar to view the different fonts, colors, and button styles you can choose for your theme. Note that these changes will be reflected sitewide.

The Design tab is also home to your 404 Error / Page Not Found message. You can choose to use the default message, a live page from your website, or to create a new redirect page entirely.

Don’t forget to add a favicon—this is the small icon that appears on the browser next to your web address. Click on “Browser Icon” to upload one from your PC.

The actual editing of your pages is done on the editor itself. Just click on the page you want to edit, click “Edit” on the top left corner of the screen, and click on the content block you want to change.

Edit your content

You can also add or remove content blocks and sections as needed by clicking on the “+” sign and the “Add Section” button, respectively. Use the up and down arrows to arrange the sections on your page, and drag and drop your content blocks to where you want them to go.

Update Your Header & Footer

Click the header (on any page) to edit your site’s header. Change your site’s title, and upload your logo by clicking on the Site Logo section and uploading an image from your computer. You also have the option to upload a unique mobile logo—leave this blank if you have the same logo for your website across all platforms. If you haven’t created a logo yet, Squarespace offers a free logo maker that you can use without signing up.

Before heading to your footer, make sure to save all changes by hovering over “Done” at the top left corner and clicking on “Save.”

Next, scroll down to the very bottom of your screen to see your footer. Like your header, the footer stays constant throughout every page on your entire website. Some content ideas to put in your footer are your location, contact information, social media links, a call to action (typically an email sign-up), and a search bar. Click on the “+” sign to add all these elements to your footer.

Double-check Your SEO

Aside from inputting SEO titles and descriptions on your pages, Squarespace has other built-in SEO features that can help you get noticed. Head over to the Marketing tab on your sidebar and click on “SEO” to see the other features Squarespace offers. Don’t forget to check the in-depth SEO checklist to see where you can optimize your site even further.

4. Review Your Site

Once you’re satisfied with how your website looks, review each page to see if all the content blocks are in order and that you’re not missing any important details. Click on the mobile icon at the top right corner of your screen to switch between mobile view and desktop view. Keep in mind that you can also use the editor on your “mobile” site, and any change you make will reflect on your desktop site as well.

Before you publish your website, review the following:

• Business information, including your business name, address, and contact information.
• Website SEO, like the page titles and descriptions found in the SEO tab. Alternatively, you can also go through Squarespace’s SEO checklist to optimize your website.
• Information on your header and footer.
• Your 404 Error page.
• Plugins to add extra features to your website. Here are the Squarespace plugins we recommend.

The last bullet is optional. One of the things that makes Squarespace unique is the amount of third-party plugins you can download. Plugins are small bits of code that you can easily download to customize your website even further. Downloading and installing plugins on Squarespace is extremely easy: Head over to Squarespace’s list and find the extension that you want. Click on the plugin and hit “Connect to Site,” and Squarespace will install it for you. All the extensions you’ve downloaded are available to view in the Extensions tab within Settings.

5. Publish

Now that your basic small business website is ready, head over to Settings on your sidebar and click on “Site Availability.” Unlike many other website builders, Squarespace, unfortunately, does not have a free plan. To make your website accessible to the public, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan starting at $12 per month (when billed annually).

Upgrade your website to publish

Here are the plans currently offered by Squarespace on an annual billing cycle:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the best Squarespace alternatives?

Don’t worry if Squarespace isn’t for you—there are numerous beginner-friendly website builders in the market. Our top Squarespace alternatives are Weebly, Wix, GoDaddy, WordPress, and Shopify—all are highly customizable (with the exception of Shopify). Those looking to build a dedicated ecommerce website should head over to Shopify instead. It’s one of the world’s biggest ecommerce platforms that can also help you build and host an online shop.

Is Squarespace free to use?

Unlike many other website builders (like Wix and Weebly), Squarespace, unfortunately, doesn’t have a free trial. You can build your website on Squarespace and access its features, but to make your website visible to the public, you’ll need to upgrade to at least a Personal plan (starts at $12 per month). To build a website for free, see our list of the best free website builders available.

How much does building a website cost?

Building a website can cost anywhere from only paying for web hosting (around $5 per month) to over thousands of dollars should you decide to hire a web design agency. However, hiring a professional isn’t as expensive as you may think. There are options like Fiverr and other freelancer platforms where you can find a web designer to build a fully customized website for you for as low as a few hundred dollars. See a comparison of website building costs and decide for yourself.

Bottom Line

Squarespace is one of the leading website builders in the market, and for a good reason. Its drag-and-drop editor is beginner-friendly, and it’s full of features to help you create the perfect website for your small business. Although its pricing isn’t the cheapest, Squarespace is an ideal solution for business owners who are looking to get a professional website up quickly and easily. Build your website with Squarespace today.

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• Building a website for your restaurant? Learn the best way to design a restaurant website with our guide.