How to Design Your Own Squarespace Template
I know what you’re thinking — designing your own custom Squarespace template must be a super hard process that only the most advanced and skilled Squarespace web designers can pull off, right? Don’t worry; it’s easier than it sounds!
Sure, there are a lot of templates out there to comb through and pick from, and I even have a bunch of posts all about templates if you’d like to check those out:
But I really think that designing your own template is an option worth your serious consideration.
Here’s why:
It’s fast and easy to customize your own template, so you can spend more time on other things.
It's free and included on Squarespace, so you can just jump in and start editing.
It’s flexible, so no matter how you decide to pivot or grow, there’s room to build on.
Get Started
So how exactly do you design your own template for your eCommerce website on Squarespace? The exact steps are covered below, but if you prefer to watch, check out my walkthrough of this process in my YouTube video.
You can also follow along with my steps by starting your own free trial of Squarespace. Click the button below to get started and you can work along with me!
Squarespace Blueprint’s Step-by-Step Guide
We’re skipping the template library and building our very own template. Squarespace makes this as easy as pie! Just by selecting from a few preliminary options and settings, a completely custom site is created for you, ready to fill in with your content and products.
STEP 1
Add Your Site Title
The first step asks you to give your website a name. This is important because even if you end up adding a logo to your site later on, the Site Title is what search engines see. So don’t get weird - just give this your company name!
STEP 2
Build Your Homepage
In this section, you’ll work through recommendations for your home page layout from top to bottom. You can change up any of these if they aren’t perfect but try to pick layouts and sections that are as close as possible as you’d like each to look like to save yourself time later on. You can choose as many or as few sections as you like, but I recommend definitely adding one from each, as it will help you frame out a complete home page.
STEP 3
Add Additional Pages
This section is where you can define which other pages you’d like Squarespace to populate for you, so take the shortcut! Select all but Services (unless you also offer services, of course). That means that Shop, About & Contact should all be selected.
STEP 4
Choose Your Color Palette
Here you’ll be presented with some designer-approved color palettes to select from. It’s probably not very likely that your exact brand colors are represented, and that’s ok - just pick something close. If you’re unsure where to start, I recommend selecting from an option in the “Neutral” section - most of those make for a nice jumping-off point and work with a wide range of brand accent colors.
STEP 5
Choose Your Font Pairing
Lastly, you’ll need to select a set of fonts to use as a (you guessed it) jumping-off point. Just like with colors, it’s ok if you have some predefined fonts you use for your brand and don’t see them represented in the options. You can always tweak them later as needed. That being said, if you don’t already have any brand fonts picked out or aren’t sure that the fonts you’ve chosen will work well for the web, these are all great options. Choose a sans serif font pairing if your brand skews minimal/modern, a serif font pairing for a traditional/elevated brand or a mixed pair to make things feel dynamic/fun.
TADA!
Check Out Your New Site & Next Steps
Once you’ve worked through the 5 onboarding steps, Squarespace will do its magic and generate your own custom template to match your preferences and selections! It’s ok if everything isn’t exactly perfect; my guess is that it’s already feeling a lot more YOU than a generic template. From here, you’ve got the groundwork set to go in and customize the placeholder text and swap out the stock images with your own. Use the template wording as a guide for how much copy you need to write and what spaces you have to fill. If you’re needing a little help with stock photography, check out this post all about how to use Unsplash to curate your website images. W
When you’re ready to start selling, follow these steps in A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Set Up Your First Online Shop and use code KRISTINE10 for 10% off your Squarespace subscription! You’re in business!
