Starting a Website with Squarespace Blueprint AI

Squarespace makes sure you show up professionally online with everything you need to succeed, in a way that’s authentically you. With our guided design system, Squarespace Blueprint AI, you get to build a beautiful, unique online presence from the ground up.

When using Squarespace Blueprint AI, you have more creative control upfront. You get the benefits of Design Intelligence—AI-powered technology trained on the Squarespace design expertise you trust—plus all the benefits of our intuitive design toolkit and flexible website editor, Fluid Engine. Read on to learn more about starting your bespoke website.

How the design system works

Squarespace Blueprint AI is a new, interactive design system for any Squarespace user to start a new website. You’ll answer a few questions about your goals, industry, and brand personality, then get curated content and recommendations for your website structure, color palette, and font pairings, with a mix of styles to choose from. 

There are many ways to find AI-generated content for your website, but Squarespace has automated the entire process based on information you provide, while preserving a high bar for quality and relevance. From step one, you get premium imagery and copy worthy of a professional website, curated by our in-house design team.

As you make your choices, you’ll get a real-time preview of the AI-powered website you’re building and tailored design direction to set you up for success. When you’re finished, the system transforms your choices into the foundations of a beautiful, personalized website that you can update anytime.

This guided design system has billions of potential design combinations, but you’ll leave the process with one that’s completely custom to you and your unique needs.

Once you’re finished, you’ll have the option to get a head start on any remaining website copy with the help of Squarespace AI. Based on what you’ve shared about yourself and the tone of voice you want to write in, the AI writer can do the rest.

Why you should start with Squarespace Blueprint AI

There’s no one-size-fits-all website building path. People who want more customization from the start or who aren’t sure where to start in Squarespace’s template library could benefit from using Squarespace Blueprint AI. 

This is the best option for people who want:

• Upfront, on-brand personalization: Like a creative partner, Blueprint AI transforms your brand or business information into a fully bespoke website starting point—matching initial content, styling, and visitor functionality more closely to your specific vision and purpose.

• Pre-vetted content: All AI-generated imagery and copy is personally curated by our design team, so you're more equipped to start with elevated website content for your individual needs. That means fewer revisions needed later to get launch-ready.

• Tailored design recommendations: Based on your provided goals, you'll get custom design recommendations throughout each step of the interactive experience—helping you decide which website sections, pages, and styling work best for your needs.

• A step-by-step system: If none of the options in our template library feel like a fit, or you’re not sure where to start, Squarespace Blueprint AI is a perfect alternative. Instead of choosing from a list of pre-built templates, you can select individual components one at a time.

What are the benefits of Squarespace Blueprint AI?

Squarespace Blueprint AI gets you started with a website uniquely set up for your brand or business and its needs. Your website is flexible, so you can update content and styling whenever you need to.

The guided design system puts you in control of your design at every step, with expert guidance from Squarespace along the way. Once you complete the interactive experience, you get full access to the entire Squarespace Website Builder to make updates any time with our Fluid Engine editing system.

Then, to publicly launch your website, simply add in your text, links, and visuals, and hit publish on the pages you’re ready to share. You can edit, add, remove, or hide pages at any time.

When should you start from the template library?

Putting your own spin on a pre-built template still gives you a best-in-class, out-of-the-box website building experience. 

Choosing a starting point from the template library might be best if you:

• Have a distinct use in mind: The template library has categories for a range of use cases and industries, from portfolio websites to beauty, restaurant, and events options. If your website easily fits into one of those categories, you may find it simpler to start from a pre-built template design.

• Prefer a different type of guidance: A pre-built template comes with placeholder sections and pages that you can replace and customize, so you have a clear map for which elements should go where. 

• See a template that matches your visual identity: If a template in our library fits your business or brand’s aesthetic and has the pages or functions you need, don’t hesitate to jump in and start customizing.

How to start with Squarespace Blueprint AI

When should you start from the template library?

If you want to try the guided design system yourself, head to the AI website builder and follow these steps to get started.

1. Create a Squarespace account. You’ll be able to edit your website, add tools for ecommerce and appointments, and more from your account dashboard.

2. Name your website. You can change this name later, but your brand or business name is a good starting point for most. If you need inspiration, try our free Business Name Generator.

3. Pick a brand personality. From professional to quirky, select the personality type that best matches your brand's aesthetic.

4. Build your homepage. Choose how you want to introduce your brand and add sections for featured content, products, social media accounts, a contact form, and more.

5. Add additional pages. Add pages you know you’ll need, like a full about page, contact page, online store, or a summary of your services. You’ll get to preview the look of your pages as you go.

6. Choose a color palette. Pick from color palettes curated by our professional designers. Design Intelligence will suggest colors that match the energy you want visitors to feel from your brand and website—a neutral palette if you’re running a business based on mindfulness, for example. 

7. Select your fonts. Choose from sans serif, serif, or fonts that mix the two. Just like your color palette, you’ll get curated pairings to test out so you can pick one that resonates with your branding. A bold, sans serif font might be a fit for a business with a more high-energy aesthetic, for example. 

8. Get an AI assist. Once you make your choices, you’ll get pre-filled site copy and images generated with Squarespace AI, tailored to your brand personality. You can always re-generate any pre-filled copy or update your brand personality.

9. Add the finishing touches and publish. Put a final stamp on your custom website by adding in custom images, page titles, and other text in the Squarespace Website Builder. 

Remember, you can always start by publishing a homepage and wait to publish your other pages as you finish polishing them. After you publish your website, you can come back to make changes whenever you want.

Ready to get started?

This post was updated on September 24, 2024.