What to do first when setting up a Squarespace site
One of the best things about Squarespace is that it’s so easy and intuitive to learn. And while I sincerely applaud their design team on that one, it can still be a bit overwhelming to be designing your website because you quickly realize how many little details there are. In this post I’m going to talk about what to focus on first so you can hit publish and get your brand out in front of the world!
First, remember to have realistic expectations
If you’re a team of one, it can be really easy to feel discouraged by all the shiny and professional website designs you see out in the world. Remember that good design is about always iterating and improving, not perfection on day 1.
“Good design is about always iterating and improving, not perfection on day 1.”
Think about Spotify for example. Their amazing algorithm, podcast integration, and the always-viral Year in Review posts. The thing is, Spotify wasn’t always like that. I remember when they didn’t have podcasts and now they have a feature that recommends them for me! They started with a base service and continued to iterate, add features, and improve their experience. That’s exactly the mindset you need to be successful in designing your website. Without it, the desire to do everything perfectly all at once can be a bit crippling.
Design MVP List
Okay now that we’ve got our expectations set, let me give you a checklist of items to get done first after you click that amazing “purchase website” button. I highly encourage you to utilize Squarespace’s page templates rather than starting from scratch.
Upload your logo
If you don’t have a logo, don’t fret! Just type it in the logo area or customize something in Canva. As a graphic design graduate, I know the value of an established logo to a brand, but as a perfectionist, I know that trying to get everything just so can prevent you from making progress on your dream.
Set up an about page
An about page can be difficult to write. At the bare minimum what you need is:
Who you are
What you do and who you do it for
Your credibility or background
A personal detail or fact to help people get to know you
Make sure there’s a search area
A search icon in your header bar is ideal, but if you’re starting out on the lowest Squarespace level (like I did!), you can fake it till you make it with a “search” link in your header. You can get the link for your Squarespace site’s search page by typing in “yourdomainname.com/search”
Set up your blog page
Customize your colors and typography in the Design > Site Styles menu
Make sure what you do and who it’s for is immediately clear when landing on your homepage
You might also be wondering what to put on your homepage if you have a brand new site with zero content. Been there, done that. I’d just add a hero image with a purpose statement to start, then add an image carousel with blog post images once you get some built up. You can also feature special posts in their own section with a unique graphic to help “bulk up” your homepage area. We all have to start somewhere!
Make sure people know how to contact you
Squarespace has templates with contact forms already set up, so all you need to do is enter your info. Easy!
Connect any social accounts
If you have social media accounts associated with your brand, make sure people are able to easily sniff them out and follow you! You can update your connected accounts by going to Settings > Connected Accounts. You can then insert and customize the icons for your social accounts throughout your sites by inserting them as a content block and choosing “Social Links.”
Remove any unnecessary example pages from your template and remove extra links from the footer
Once you’ve got the bare bones of your site set up, you can go through and delete any extra pages and links that came with your Squarespace template. I always advise to leave them in until the end because they can be really helpful to draw from for quickly setting up your site layouts.
Hit publish!
The “publish” button should show at the bottom of your screen as you’re editing, but if it doesn’t you can go to Settings > Site Availability.
At this point you’re either thinking “are you crazy?” or “yay!” because there are definitely a lot more things to a website. But I strongly believe that hitting publish and making improvements after is much better than sitting on your site in secrecy while you get it just right. If you’re like me, you might not have very many visitors coming to your site when you first start it so there is plenty of time to make tweaks.
Brené Brown says to ”strive for good enough” and I keep that on a little card in Asana to remind myself that done is better than perfect. This mindset helps me make quicker decisions and always focus on moving the needle forward. Chances are, you’re the only one who is noticing that the shade of gray in your footer is different than the one on your about page.
Stay tuned for my “MVP 2.0” post where I talk about more detailed things you can tweak once you get your site up and running.
