Was there ever a point in your life wherein you were required to design something despite not being a designer?

It can be an artwork, a social media content, or your personal blog. It is possible that you were able to get through it because you have the eye for design, although you lack the technical know-how.

But in case you find yourself in that same situation again in the future, such as when you need to customize your Squarespace website, at least you have the following tips to guide you:

Create a mood board

A mood board is similar to a collage, only its purpose is to provide you with a design direction. In this case, how your Squarespace website should look like.

That said, your mood board can include the following design and UI elements:

• Images 
• Fonts
• Color scheme
• Screenshots of other websites
• Samples of headers or sub-headers, etc.

The cool thing about using mood boards is that you can add notes on the design elements that you would like to use. Not to mention that it allows you to communicate concepts that you cannot seem to express verbally.

Choose a template wisely

The cool thing about Squarespace is that they offer tons of templates that you can use depending on the nature of your website or brand in general. It is just a matter of choosing the right one for you.

According to freelancer and Squarespace expert Katy Carlisle, you can choose a web template depending on the following:

• Cleanliness and simplicity of the look 
• Uniqueness of layout
• Placement of the navigation menu
• Social media integration
• … and many more!

Nonetheless, the most important thing you should consider is the functionality that a template can give you. Luckily, there is a lot of Squarespace review available that you can search and read online to help you come up with an informed decision.

Use Squarespace’s logo maker

Nowadays, you can build your business’s branding strategy from the ground with the help of online tools. One such example is the Squarespace Logo.

This tool allows you to create a customized logo that you can use for your website (and your business), thanks to its wide array of icons and custom texts.

The cool thing about this tool is that you can use Squarespace Logo even if you do not have an account yet.

Add a favicon

A favicon (short for “favorite icon”) is the little image you see on your browser tab next to the page title. It is like your website logo, only it was shrunk to 100 x 100 pixels.

If you already have your logo, all you need to do is reduce it in size and add it to your Squarespace website. Here’s how:

1. Log in to your Squarespace account and go to Design > Logo & Title.
2. Scroll down to Browser Icon (Favicon)
3. Upload your favicon image

PRO TIP: It is ideal to upload a favicon in .png format with a file size of not more than 100KB.

Create a great user-experience

Here’s the thing: Your website’s aesthetics will be useless if you cannot provide great user experience to your site visitors.

In addition, popular search engines such as Google considers usability when ranking a website. How? By measuring your bounce rate and dwell time.

Simply put, if you want to improve your site visitors’ UX (and boost your search engine ranking) consider coming up with a web layout that will catch your audience’s attention and encourage them to stay longer.

Customize your 404 page

If your Squarespace website has been up and running for years, there is a possibility that you have redesigned it at least once. And web redesigning can result in a bunch of 404 pages.

Although how a missing page can impact your search engine ranking is still debatable, there is no denying that it can interrupt a person’s browsing experience. Hence, you should customize it.

Good thing, Erica Hartwick has a succinct blog post on how you can create a 404 Not Found page for your Squarespace website.

Optimize your images

Another thing you should keep in mind when designing a website is that it should be searchable. And you can do that by optimizing various parts of your website and its content such as the images that you use.

Luckily, Squarespace creates seven variations of your uploaded image that ranges from 100 pixels to 2500 pixels. This is to ensure that your image will be displayed perfectly on any screen size.

Now, all you need to do is optimize it. Here’s how:

1. Rename your image’s filename
2. Add a keyword-rich ALT TEXT as a caption 

Utilize spacer blocks

If there is one you should know about Squarespace is that it uses a grid blocking system. Meaning, every design element you add on your website takes up a block of space.

Surprisingly, you can use this functionality in various ways:

1. Creating a grid-based layout. The spacer blocks are ideal if you want to create a multiple-columned layout across the entire web page.
2. Creating a fake sidebar. It is the same as creating a multiple-columned layout, but only on the top of the page.
3. Editing page indentation. You can manually edit a page’s indentation using a space block if it is too narrow for the width of your web page.

However, you do not necessarily have to use spacer blocks all the time. What’s important is that your web page layout will look its best regardless of screen size.

Now that you have some customization tips up your sleeve, the next thing you should do is learn the ropes of creating a Squarespace website. And that would be for another post.