4 ways to elevate your Squarespace website

Just because you’re using a website builder or a template does not mean your site has to feel ‘cook-cutter’. Below are four ways to you can make your Squarespace (or other) website stand out from the crowd.

1. Implement your branding consistently

You can elevate your website in a low-cost, high-impact way by just implementing your branding consistently across all the elements of your site. Starting from your brand guidelines, use Squarespace’s site styles options to implement your colours, fonts and logo across all pages. Are you using a custom font that’s not available in Squarespace? Not a problem – here are instructions on how to implement it in three easy steps. Use your brand colours to enhance the user experience on your website. You don’t have to cram in every colour. Use colour to guide your readers, highlight areas of information you wish to draw attention to, and guide their journey. And mUnsake sure you upload a favicon – it will help your website stand out when a user has lots of tabs open.

2. Invest in personal branding photography

We’ve all heard the phrase people buy from people, right? If you run a service-based business this is even more apt. And this is where having high-quality, beautiful images to share on your website (and socials) can be really helpful and set you apart from the competition. If you can afford it, a personal branding shoot is a great investment that will provide you with a variety of gorgeous headshots and lifestyle images to use across your site. Headshots can obviously help you make a personal connection on your Home or About pages. And lifestyle images can really help to tell your story visually – whether it’s a behind-the-scenes look at your work, a peek at your process or just some everyday visuals of you running your business.

3. Upgrade your photography

On-brand, original photography is an investment that will pay off, but if you’re not ready to pump for personal images just yet – you can still upgrade your site with better-than-average stock imagery too.

 The key here is to find images that work cohesively together and create a consistent look that is recognisably you.  Dig around in the stock image libraries. Try to find images that are unique and unusual, maybe a little less obvious. Images don’t have to relate ‘literally’ to a theme. They can capture and create a mood, convey an emotion, trigger a feeling. If you can hit on the images that are a bit more conceptual, you’re less likely to end up with the same stock photography as your nearest and dearest competitors. Some sources I like include Unsplash, Foodiesfeed, Pixabay, Burst, and Haute Stock.  

4.  Implement custom CSS

Can’t quite customise all the elements you wish to with the standard site styles in Squarespace? Work with a developer who can implement custom CSS to ensure your site is as unique as possible. CSS, which stands for cascading style sheets, is the code that makes websites look cool and interesting. It’s how you position items on the page, display images, format text and so on. By working with a web designer or developer who can write some nifty custom code, you can really get a unique look and feel that will take your site to the next level.