A Beginner’s Guide to Building Your Squarespace Site with Intention
5 minute read
Starting a new website can feel equal parts exciting and confusing, especially since this is such an important undertaking. Know what if you aren’t totally sure how to begin, that’s completely normal.
Squarespace is one of the friendlier platforms out there, especially if you’re newer to designing online spaces. You don’t need to know how to code or have a fully formed vision. You just need a sense of what you want to create and the patience to explore the tools step by step.
Think of this process a bit like pulling The Fool card.
You’re stepping onto a new path, and you have the tools you need alongside you. There's a sense of possibility here. There’s room to experiment, shift, adjust, and learn as you go. Your first version doesn’t need to be perfect, you can continue to grow and adjust as you go.
This guide will walk you through those very first considerations so you can begin feeling grounded and eager for your new launch.
Know Your Goals
Before you open Squarespace and start clicking around, take a moment to understand the foundation of what you’re building. This step might feel simple, but it shapes every decision you’ll make later, from template selection, to navigation, to the kind of content you prioritize.
Start by answering these 3 questions:
Why does this website needs to exist?
What role is it going to play in your work or business?
Are you directing people to book with you, read your writing, learn about your services, or simply get a clear sense of who you are and what you offer?
Identifying this early helps you design with purpose, which will be reflected in the final design.
Then, take time to think about who you’re building the site for. Your audience shapes how your website functions just as much as your goals do.
Here are things to consider:
What do they need to find quickly?
What might they want to sit with and read?
What information helps them feel grounded and confident about working with you?
What might overwhelm them or push them away if it’s too hard to locate?
Understanding your audience’s needs gives you a sense of how your pages should flow, what goes in your navigation, and where your most important information lives.
Finally, check in with your budget, your capacity, and how comfortable you are with tech. Squarespace is friendly for beginners, but it still requires time, patience, and experimentation. Knowing your limits upfront helps you decide whether to continue DIY-ing or call in support later.
All of this acts as your grounding point. It brings intention to your build, so instead of simply dragging blocks around the screen, you’re crafting a space with energy and intention that will serve the people it’s meant to reach.
Choosing the right Squarespace template for your needs
When you’re choosing a Squarespace template, begin by focusing on how the template is structured rather than how it looks. The visuals can all be changed later, but the underlying layout is what’s going to support your content, your goals, and the way people move through your site.
3 things to look for in layout:
Evaluate the homepage layout first.
This is usually where your visitors form their first impression and decide if they want to keep exploring. Consider what information you want them to see immediately (think back to your earlier steps) and how the template introduces information. Some templates are designed for service-based businesses, some are more for portfolios, and some are geared towards shops. Picking the one that naturally aligns with what you offer will save you a lot of time trying to customize it later.
Explore the internal page designs.
Consider your services, offerings, or products and ask yourself if the template provides a clear and intuitive way to display them. You want a structure that makes sense for how your audience reads, clicks, and makes decisions. If they need to find something quickly, does this template support that? If parts of your work invite deeper reading, does the layout give that space?
Notice how the navigation behaves.
Does the header accommodate the number of pages you’ll have? Is the mobile menu easy to navigate? Does the template allow for secondary navigation if you need it?
These are small things, but they can impact user experience in a big way.
Remember, a good template should reduce decisions, not create more. When the underlying structure already matches how you need your website to function, you’ll spend less time adjusting layouts and more time focusing on clarity, copy, and making sure your visitors can move through the site with ease.
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Start Simple
When you’re building your first version of a Squarespace site, it’s really easy to get carried away. There are so many features, blocks, animations, and layout options that you can find yourself adding things simply because they’re available. Adding too much, too quickly, usually leads to a site that feels visually overwhelming and harder to maintain.
How to start simple
Start with the simplest version of your site that still communicates what you offer.
That means keeping your pages focused, choosing layouts that are easy to read, and avoiding extra sections that don’t serve a clear purpose. You can always add more later, but beginning with a pared-down version allows you to build with clarity and avoid potential overwhelm.
It’s also worth noting that loading too many images, videos, animations, or large blocks can slow down your website.
Slow load times create a frustrating experience for your audience and can negatively impact your SEO. Search engines prioritize websites that load quickly and offer a smooth user experience. By keeping things simple, you’re not only reducing your own design stress but you’re also supporting your site’s performance and visibility.
Next, think about what your visitors need.
Do they need long paragraphs of text to understand your services, or would a short overview and a clear call to action be enough? Do you really need five different visuals on a page, or will one strong image and well-written copy do the job? Simplicity often leads to better usability, especially when your audience is scanning for information.
Starting simple also helps you learn the platform. Squarespace becomes easier the more you work with it, and if your first version is too complex, you’re more likely to get stuck or frustrated. Beginning with a clean, manageable layout gives you room to grow.
As your confidence increases and your needs evolve, you can refine your pages, add features, or expand your content without having to unravel something overly complicated.
Gather Your Ingredients Before You Build
One of the most supportive things you can do for yourself before designing your site is to have your content prepared. Your website will always be easier to structure when the words and visuals are already in front of you, even in draft form.
Ingredients to gather:
Start with your copy
Write the key pieces you know you’ll need, such as your homepage introduction, service descriptions, about page, and any calls to action. These don’t have to be perfect, but having them written outside of Squarespace gives you space to think through your message without the distraction of layouts or design choices. It also helps you see what information is essential and where it naturally belongs.
Gather your images or graphics
This could include brand photos, product images, portraits, or simple placeholders that reflect the direction you’re moving in. Having a set of visuals ready allows you to design more intentionally and keeps your pages from feeling unfinished or inconsistent.
Refer to your brand identity
But if you don’t have one, that’s ok. Choose a temporary palette and two simple, readable fonts to get started. You can adjust these later once the structure of your site is in place.
Preparing these pieces ahead of time creates more flow once you begin designing. You’ll spend less time stopping to figure out what to write or what image to use, and more time shaping pages that feel cohesive and aligned with your goals.
Your first version doesn’t need to be perfect, but having your core content ready makes the entire building process smoother and more grounded.
Tips for Navigation
Your navigation is one of the most important parts of your website. It’s the map your visitors use to understand where they are and where to go next. When the navigation is clear and minimal, people feel oriented.
3 Tips to make your website navigation clear
Begin by narrowing your primary navigation to the essentials
A small set of top-level pages creates a clear journey and reduces decision fatigue. Anything that isn’t part of the main journey can live in your footer or within secondary pages. This keeps the focus on what matters most without overwhelming your audience at the start.
Pay attention to the order of your navigation items as well
The sequence influences how visitors understand your work and how they decide where to go next. Place the most important or frequently accessed pages toward the beginning of the menu. Remember, you’re not only organizing content, but you’re shaping the path your audience is likely to take.
Clear language is important too
Choose page titles that are direct and intuitive. This supports accessibility, reduces confusion, and helps visitors feel more at home as they explore.
As you refine your navigation, imagine landing on your site for the first time. Ask yourself:
Does the menu help you understand the flow of information?
Does it match the way you’d naturally look for things?
A good navigation system often feels simple, but that simplicity comes from intentional planning.
Keep Mobile in Mind
Squarespace is built for desktop-first design, so you’ll always begin shaping your layouts there. This is where you’ll establish your structure, spacing, and overall flow.
Once the desktop version feels grounded, you can switch to mobile and refine the experience for smaller screens.
As you build on desktop, keep mobile in mind by:
Aiming for clean sections
Readable text
Balanced spacing
These choices translate much more smoothly when you move into mobile adjustments. While Squarespace handles a lot of the responsiveness for you, it doesn’t catch everything.
When you shift into mobile view, move through your site section by section. Look at how your layouts stack, whether your images are scaling the way you want, and if any text blocks now feel too tight or too far apart. Mobile often benefits from slightly more spacing to support readability and comfortable tap targets.
Buttons and calls to action deserve extra attention here. Make sure they’re easy to see, easy to click, and not sitting too close to the edges of the screen. A small placement adjustment can make a significant difference in usability.
Designing on desktop first and refining for mobile supports a smoother building process. It also ensures your website feels cohesive, clear, and accessible, no matter how someone finds you.
Give Yourself Space
As you build your Squarespace site, allow yourself room to try things, adjust, and iterate.
The first version of your website isn’t meant to be the final version, it’s simply the first draft of something that will evolve as you and your work evolve.
Exploring different section layouts, testing headlines, or shifting the order of content can help you understand what feels clear and aligned. Squarespace makes it easy to move things around, so take advantage of that flexibility.
It’s also normal to change your mind as you go. Sometimes the structure you thought would work ends up feeling heavy, or a layout you didn’t expect to like ends up being the best fit for your content.
If you hit a point where things start feeling chaotic, pause and return to your core structure. Keeping one consistent layout pattern throughout your pages helps ground the design and gives you something steady to return to when experimenting becomes overwhelming.
Give yourself permission to play and refine. This is how you find the version of your site that feels like yours.
Your Website Will Grow With You
As you wrap up the first version of your Squarespace site, remember that a website is never a one-time project. It’s something that grows alongside your work. The choices you’re making now are simply the beginning, it's a foundation you can refine, expand, and evolve as your offerings change and audience understanding deepens.
Launching is an important milestone, but it’s not the finish line. Over time, you’ll learn more about what your audience engages with, which pages feel supportive, and what might need to shift. That ongoing relationship with your site is part of the process. It’s completely normal for your website to change as your business does.
Give yourself permission to revisit your copy, update your visuals, add new pages, or simplify sections when needed. These adjustments don’t mean you did anything wrong, they’re signs that your website is actively supporting your work rather than sitting untouched.
Most importantly, be kind to yourself as you build. Creating a website requires patience, decisions, and the willingness to try things that might feel new. The fact that you’re here, shaping your online space with intention, already says so much about the care you bring into your work.
Your website doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective. It just needs to be clear, aligned, and ready to meet the people who are looking for you.
If you need support customizing your Squarespace site or want a second pair of eyes on your layout, copy, or structure, I offer one-on-one sessions where we can work through it together. Sometimes an hour of focused help is all you need to get things flowing again.
I wish you the best of luck! You got this!