How to keep your Squarespace site from looking like everyone else's

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Do you catch yourself noticing sites that “look” like Squarespace sites when you’re on the interwebs these days? I do.

Maybe it’s because I also design them, and am in Squarespace almost daily, so I notice these things.

The thing that stands out the most? The buttons! There’s so much padding (space) around the text inside the button, that’s usually what triggers me to wonder if the site was built on Squarespace. They’re dead giveaways! 😄

It’s not a bad thing to recognize a button style though, since the reason they’re designed that way in the first place is from good design standards & good readability.

That being said though, the number one fear some people have about using Squarespace is that they DON’T want their website to look like everyone else’s, and that’s 100% valid.

So what’s the big secret? How do you keep your Squarespace site from looking like all the rest?

The answer is simpler than you think!

How can I make my website design unique?

Maybe that fear is what’s keeping you off the platform? Or maybe you’ve heard one of the myths about it being bad for SEO (not true), or some other nonsense.

If your fear is looking like everyone else than rest assured that this doesn’t have to be the case.

Here’s how that actually happens

You sign up for Squarespace and they get ya to pick a template, right? They list categories down the side to try and help you pick, so maybe you click on Weddings because you’re a Wedding Photographer, and you only look at those templates, assuming that’s the best option for your industry.

🚨WRONG! 🚨

Or, maybe you sign up and pick a template outside of your industry just because you liked the look of it (good for you for thinking outside the box! 🙌🏻). Then it opens up the backend of Squarespace to all the demo content and you start using the Demo pages to fill in your own content. Wherever they have a text box, you fill in a similar amount of text as the template had. Wherever they have an image, you replace it with one of your own.

🚨WRONG AGAIN! 🚨

I’m kidding of course. There’s no WRONG way to build a Squarespace site, technically. But there are smarter & more efficient ways to do it, so that your site becomes uniquely yours.

SO what’s the big secret?

Start with BLANK pages in your template.

Yep; that’s it. That’s what designers like myself do when you work with me for a custom Squarespace site.

That’s why we charge the big bucks too!

–Wait, what? But, …how?

In v7.0, you pick your template based on functionality. Which templates offer sidebars, parallax scrolling, a double footer, social media icons in the header, etc. Once you’ve chosen the functionality & structure you want in your template, then you start designing from SCRATCH.

In v7.1 all of the templates have the same structure & functionality, so it honestly doesn’t matter which template you pick. You can choose the one that gets you closest to the design style you want, but then STILL start from scratch once you’ve chosen your template.

How do you know what to do on each page?

Play with it! Add things in, move elements around and if ya hate it, delete everything on the page & start over! Or keep that page & start a new one to test out a new layout, juuuust in case you don’t want to get rid of the first try quite yet.

There is a strategy to setting up a website page though, and that’s where the experts like myself come in & do our thang.

We know all the countless design tips, tricks, hacks & strategies to make each page both functional & attractive, while also meeting your design needs & staying on brand.

Final thoughts

Again, there’s no “wrong” way to design a Squarespace site, IF you don’t care whether it looks like a million other ones.

But if you do, my BIGGEST tip for you: use blank pages when you begin designing.

Design the layouts yourself; don’t use the pre-existing ones that are available when you choose the New Page type.

Put your own spin on it! And if that’s not something you want to do, then you should probably work with a pro like me; I’ll do it for you. 😉

So now you know. Welcome to the club! 😁