A Guide to Picking a Template for Your Squarespace Website
How the heck do you choose the right template for your Squarespace website? It’s a question almost as old as Squarespace itself.
Picking a template on Squarespace is no easy decision. In fact, it’s often a reason not to commit and get your website online. But I’m here today to tell you that it’s not as difficult as you might first think, especially after reading guide to choosing your perfect Squarespace template.
Late on in 2019 Squarespace released a new version of the design platform called Squarespace 7.1. Spoiler alert: this completely changed the game in picking a template to design your website on. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to think about when choosing your starting point.
Designers and DIY-ers continue to build sites on Squarespace 7.0 but more newbies are setting up on 7.1. So, in this post I’ve created my ultimate guide to picking a template on both Squarespace 7.1 and the slightly older version, 7.0. Let’s get started with the templates in 7.1…
Picking a Template in 7.1
Click here to check out Squarespace 7.1 templates.
Picking a Squarespace template to design and build your website used to be pretty darn complicated. Some templates were limited in features. Other features such as a sidebar only appeared on select templates. Down the road it was easy to switch template but it’s a hassle most small businesses want to avoid.
You’d need to take a minute to summon the courage to pick your template. And that was after a few hours of researching and planning out your site design to make sure you were picking the right template for you.
Okay, it didn’t have to be as bad as this but a lot of business owners were overwhelmed by the process. You can still use the older version, 7.0 and I’m still using it for a lot of my design projects. I’ve written out my top tips for picking a template using Squarespace 7.0 down below to keep scrolling for more on that.
Squarespace knew this was a problem for a lot of DIY-ers. So the techies at Squarespace HQ created a modified version of Squarespace 7.0: Squarespace 7.1.
This new version completely cut down the template-picking decision process because every single template is the same.
Yep, you read that correctly.
No more template comparison charts or mind maps planning out your content before you begin. If you decide to switch things up, you can. The foundations, features and functionality of each template is the same. So you could in theory pick one template and rearrange all the backend details until it looks like another template in Squarespace 7.1. Pretty cool, huh?
I can hear you breathing a big old sigh of relief from over here in Manchester, UK.
Still, I recommend one important thing to think about when picking a template in Squarespace 7.1 though. Here’s my top tip on how to choose a template in Squarespace 7.1:
Pick a template based on style not industry
I’m guessing if you’re DIY-ing your site, you’re looking to wrap things up as quickly as possible. You probably don’t want to spend hours messing around with site styles and moving blocks around in your editor.
With that in mind, I suggest looking for a template based on the goals, style and feel of your brand rather than the industry. The folks at Squarespace like to divide their templates up into industries rather than your website goals. I love you Squarespace but I disagree that this is the way to showcase the options to Squarespace newbies.
90% of the time your goals are slightly different from all the other wedding photographers or restaurants out there. And it should be, that’s exactly what sets you apart from your competition. Think about it this way too. If all the photographers who head to Squarespace start selecting the ‘photographer’ templates on Squarespace, they’re all going to start looking pretty similar. So you probably need a website that supports your goals rather than your industry.
Instead, think about your website goals, the style of your brand and the emotions you want your ideal visitors to feel. Use these to drive your decision when scrolling through the options. It’ll save you lots of time and ensures your site is full of personality!
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Picking a Template in 7.0
Click here to check out Squarespace 7.0 templates.
I’m going to level with you here. It’s a bit of an ordeal choosing a website on Squarespace 7.0, the slightly older version of the platform. But with many features of 7.0 templates not yet available on 7.1, many designers and users are still using the older version to achieve their desired look.
You can find out more about the difference between 7.0 and 7.0 here.
On the face of it, there are about 91 template to pick from. Palms sweating at the thought of selecting just one yet? It’s all good, I’m now going to share my top tips for selecting a website template for your business in Squarespace 7.0.
And remember, you’re all good. You’re not locked into this template forever. You can switch templates if you decide to swap it later down the line. You could even play around with different templates during your two week free trial.
Just like 7.1, focus on the functionality.
It doesn’t matter what industry the template has been designed for. You can literally use any template and add in your own branding to make it your own. If one is ‘designed’ for a restaurant, with a few tweaks you can make it perfect for your photography business.
Ignore all the colours and fonts you see when scrolling through templates, those can be switched up with a couple of clicks of your mouse. Instead, look at this comparison chart by Squarespace to see which features that are important to you, your audience and your goals are available on which template.
Things you might want to look out for are index pages, gallery styles, navigation layout and blog styles.
It’s a family affair
The full list of 91 templates are actually made up of 21 template families.
The team at Squarespace have done this to allow you to see the full extent of the design options available. (There’s a reason why Brine has so many variations but more on that in a little bit). It can make it super confusing, I get that completely. But it does actually help us. It reduces the number of templates we have to compare because a lot are actually just variations of another!
When you’ve picked a family based on it’s functionality, then it’s time to decide on the best template in that family to suit your aesthetic.
The best template? Brine
From Big Cat Creative to Paige Brunton, all the best designers seem to be raving about it! And I can sure see why. This template provides the most flexibility and features out of all the Squarespace templates. This family of templates is, in the words of Tina Turner, simply the best. I’ve used Brine to build this website, how do you like it?
The one thing I miss from Brine is a blog sidebar. But worry not - as you can see (look to the right), I’ve got one on my site. I used this incredible sidebar plugin from SQSP Themes. Yes, that’s an affiliate link because I love it that much. You’ll also find plugins for other blogging features missing from Brine such as related posts or you can read my workaround blog here.
If in doubt, pick Brine to start your Squarespace 7.0 website. You can find out more about this template over on the Squarespace website here.
Which will you go for? Let me know in the comments below!
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