So you want a new website? Watch this first.
About this Squarespace video tutorial
When you're starting out with your website, the process can be scary and overwhelming. That's why today I'll be running down the process that every Designing The Row client goes through from the first agreement to the moment a website is live. This will help you budget your expectations for the process of building a website with a dedicated Squarespace expert.
Timestamps
0:43 - Initial Website Decisions
2:25 - Branding Assets (Week 1)
2:59 - Homepage (Week 2)
3:19 - Feedback and Additional Pages (Week 3)
4:15 - Going Live/Final Steps (Week 4)
5:16 - In Depth Website Branding
7:33 - Copy Creation with designingtherow.com/free
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The Process Of Building A New Website
While everybody does it differently, over the hundreds of Squarespace websites I’ve built for my clients as a professional Squarespace designer, I have built out a process for getting a website from point A all the way to the finish line, and today we’ll be going over what the steps in that process look like so you can budget your expectations and schedule when you decide to get a new website for your business. If this process sounds good, check out designingtherow.com/services to learn more about how we can work together.
Initial Website Decisions
The start of the website creation process is where the client’s input is most needed, so I want to go over what we need to be aligned on so your website creation can go off without a hitch:
Signed Contract
Goals and Inspirations for Your Site which includes sites you’ve found that you want to emulate or guiding principles for the design of your site
Integrations & Domain Access if your records are connected to things like ticketing and email platforms. While this part of the process doesn’t have to happen at the front end, it can hold up a site if it’s not taken care of proactively so I like to do it as soon as possible.
Preparing For Site Content & Copy which I’ll discuss more in a bit, but it’s always good to start thinking about how you want your website’s messaging to feel
The First Week - Branding Assets
For the first week of this four-week-long rough plan, the focus is on gathering assets for your website and company’s brand.
This includes getting your Colors and Fonts taken care of, as well as figuring out your Logo and any Images you want to use.
Logos: Having an intricate, custom logo is not necessarily as important for a website as it once was. If we need to, your business’ name with your font of choice will be your logo and we’ll work on choosing your brand colors separately. If you already have that logo work done, however, I can take your color palette from that logo to make sure your website has consistent branding.
Fonts: We’ll pick out two fonts for your website, one header and one body font. Simplicity is going to be key with font choices, because above all else, we want your website to be easy to read. Elaborate fonts can look great, but if they’re hard to read, you’ll have a much more difficult time connecting with your audience.
Images: While your smartphone can take great looking pictures, that doesn’t mean there’s no value in getting professional photos taken of your business. High-quality photos from a professional can add so much value to your website, as the smartphone vertical images simply don’t have the same sense of authority and quality.
In this week we’ll also need to finalize your home page copy, which is where my tool at designingtherow.com/free comes in. If you’re having trouble thinking of how to position your business, put your name and email in those fields and hit enter; you’ll get access to a custom GPT bot that I built using all of the skills and knowledge I’ve gained over my many years and hundreds of Squarespace websites. This will give you a great jumping off point that you and the DTR team can workshop and hone from there.
The Second Week - Beginning Design
Now that you’ve given me the assets required to start your site, I’ll get to work on building out the homepage based on your copy and website branding parameters. We start with just that first home page because it’s important to get it locked down and agreed upon before moving forward to any other pages throughout your site.
The Third Week - Feedback & Other Pages
Once I get feedback from you on the home page, either via email or a Zoom call, and those edits are made, we get final approval on the home page and lock it in. From there, I will dive into the rest of the pages on your site, using the provided copy and the design tenets that came from your home page to spin the rest of the site to life! Honestly, it seems like a lot, but the home page is always the thing that takes the most time, and the other pages are very quick to be built out once the groundwork has been laid.
The Fourth Week - Final Approval & Launch
With another round of feedback on the remaining pages of your site, once they are all approved, we are good to launch your brand new Squarespace website in three final steps:
Final Payment that comes with the final approval, as lined out in our contract
You Get Admin Access to Your Squarespace Account so you can upgrade from the trial plan to one of the paid plans required to let your site go live
Domain is Connected and once the records are validated your website is live and ready to connect your business to a whole new audience
This process is fast if we let it be, but it does require a lot of work on the front end from both parties to make sure the website launch happens as smoothly as possible. I’ve seen a lot of websites go live, and this is the best way I’ve learned over hundreds of launched websites to make that happen. If this sounds like a process you’d want to have with your business’ website, click on designingtherow.com/services and we’ll talk about getting your business the Squarespace site it deserves.
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