How to Build a Squarespace Website Quickly
Maybe you have a business idea you want to launch ASAP.
Maybe your business experienced unexpected growth and you need a website—like, now. Maybe you just don’t want to wait weeks to have a stunning and professional internet home base for your business.
Regardless of the reason, there are a variety of cases in which you may want to build a Squarespace website quickly.
As a Squarespace and Showit website designer, I usually like to take plenty of time building my clients’ Squarespace websites to ensure they are as effective as possible, but I also know how to build amazing websites quickly if someone is in a cinch.
And, today, I’m sharing the exact steps you can take to do so, too.
Start with a template.
I cannot stress this enough—if you want to build a Squarespace website quickly, starting off with a template from Squarespace’s huge library is the way to go.
Don’t worry—you can customize it in order to make it your own in terms of branding and content, but doing this will provide the framework to help you work quickly and efficiently.
When you do this, you will already have several pages, navigation, and a header and footer set up that you can simply edit in order to get the design you are looking for.
Read more:
Have a plan.
The last thing you want is to work separately on each page of your website, and then realize that none of them actually work together cohesively—whether in color, font, branding, or content.
(This is a common mistake that can quickly add several hours onto your design session.)
For this reason, having a plan is essential to building a quality Squarespace website as quickly as possible.
At a minimum, I recommend having a color palette, vision board, and brand guide on hand before starting to build your website.
Color Palette
Your color palette is a powerful foundation for your website because it will influence background and text colors, the photos you choose, and more.
You can develop a color palette for your brand by choosing between three and six colors that work together to convey the mood of your choice relative to your business.
Mine, for example, encompasses blue/teal shades and pink. These are the colors of my logo, my website, and the accents of my website photos—and that was no coincidence.
It was carefully planned!
Mood Board
Creating a mood board can help you determine the “vibe” you want your website to have.
Is it classy? Professional? Fun? Artistic? Flashy?
I love to browse Pinterest when creating mood boards and choose images that best represent the look I’m going for.
You can print this out or keep it open in a second window while designing your website to use it as a reference.
Brand Guide
This guide will not only influence the looks of your website, but the content.
What is your brand personality? Is it professional and informative? Fun and sassy? Choose keywords or phrases that convey these moods or feelings to use in your content, and make sure it’s cohesive.
A heading that says “Hey, girl!” won’t mesh with a paragraph written in an academic and neutral tone—so be sure you’re infusing your copy with the same types of phrases throughout each entire page and the website altogether.
Read more: 6 Essentials to Create a Brand Style Board
Use element blocks to your advantage.
Something I love about Squarespace is that it offers easy-to-use and easy-to-implement element blocks that are already set up in a basic design framework for you.
You can add photo grids, carousels, text that overlaps a photo, etc...by simply dragging and dropping element blocks onto the page where you want them. You really can’t go wrong with these!
There are tons of element blocks pre-made in Squarespace, from contact forms to social links—so make sure to check them out before reinventing the wheel and going the DIY route!
Don’t underestimate spacer blocks
Spacer blocks are super helpful for formatting other blocks, like images and text for the most part.
They are essential in Squarespace for designing each page’s layout.
Psst...another set of eyes can drastically cut down on revision time.
Let’s face it—when you’ve looked at the same designs and copy for hours (and when you’re the creator of both,) it becomes very hard to notice mistakes—because your brain automatically corrects them.
Having someone (anyone!) else review your work is crucial to finding mistakes (from simple copy mistakes such as punctuation errors to hyperlinks that weren’t added because you made a mental note to do it, then forgot) and can help you get your website up and running faster than reviewing it multiple times yourself.
Again, the person who looks over it doesn’t have to be a computer or website expert! If they can read and move a mouse, they can provide essential feedback before your site goes live.
(Think about it this way—most of your website visitors won’t be computer or website experts either, so having a “normal” person review your work can replicate your visitors’ experience and give you powerful insights!)
Here’s the bottom line: if you want to build a Squarespace website of quality quickly, it’s important to take advantage of both careful planning and careful revision.
If you enter the process with a clear vision, it will eliminate a lot of time messing around with different design ideas. If you end the process with a revision partner, you will be able to revise more quickly and efficiently.
Also, remember that it’s always better to take a little more time and publish a high-quality, professional website than to speed-build a website with lots of errors—and drive all of your business traffic there. This can leave visitors with a bad taste in their mouths and drive them away from your brand altogether.
If you just don’t have time to build a high-quality Squarespace website and want something completely done for you, you’re in the right place.
I have been working as a Squarespace and Showit website designer for five years now, and have published countless beautiful websites for more than 45 clients!
If you’re interested in working with me, be sure to check out my services below.
Until then, happy reading—and I’ll see you there.
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