Yet even well-designed sites struggle here. The pages are in place, but the copy is vague, overly technical, or interchangeable with every other investment firm’s website.

In our earlier posts, we covered how to structure a biotech VC website and how to make it look credible. This time we’re focusing on the content itself: what to write on each page, and how to make the words work as hard as the design.

We’ll use Nucleus, our Squarespace template for biotech and life sciences investment firms, as the example, because its pages give each kind of content a clear home.

Start with the visitor, not the firm

Before you write a headline, decide who each page needs to reach.

A founder deciding whether to pitch you wants to know what you invest in and how you work. A co-investor wants evidence of your judgement. A prospective partner or hire wants to know who you are and what you stand for.

All three may land on the same site, but they don’t need the same information at the same moment. Give each page one primary reader and write to them. A page written for everyone usually persuades no one.

Write in plain language

Biotech is technical, but your website shouldn’t make readers work to understand what you do. Use clear headlines and plain opening sentences. Save the scientific detail for places where the reader expects it, like portfolio descriptions and perspective posts, and define a specialist term the first time you use it.

Be careful with words like “innovative,” “world-class” and “cutting-edge.” They sound impressive and say nothing. A specific fact does the same job better. Instead of “deep industry expertise,” name the experience: the companies your team has built, the scientific areas it understands, the challenges it has helped companies through.

The goal isn’t to simplify the science. It’s to make your thinking easy to follow.

Home page: a belief, a reason and one next step

Your home page should answer three questions fast: what do you invest in, why are you the right firm to do it, and where should the visitor go next?

The Nucleus demo opens with the headline “Science that changes what medicine can do,” followed by the line “Built by scientists who became investors.” Together they give a point of view and a reason to pay attention. A strong opening usually has the same two parts:

• Line one: your belief about where biotech or medicine is heading
• Line two: the reason your firm is the right one to act on it

For example, a fictional firm might write: “We back early-stage companies that turn new biology into medicines. Our partners have built and sold three biotech companies.” This is an illustration only. Your copy should reflect your real focus and experience.

Below the opening, add a few proof points you can verify, such as portfolio milestones, team experience or areas of expertise, and finish with one clear button like “See our portfolio.”

Portfolio page: one plain sentence per company

A portfolio page should show what each company is trying to achieve, not just who you’ve backed. Give every entry the same four details:

• Company name: the approved public name
• What it does: one plain sentence on the problem and the approach
• Area or stage: therapeutic area, modality or development stage
• Your role: how you invested or help, if you can substantiate it

The most common mistake is a description that could apply to any company. Here’s the difference, using a fictional company:

Before: “A pioneering biotechnology platform transforming the future of medicine.”

After: “Developing an oral treatment for a rare inflammatory bowel condition. Currently in Phase 1 trials.”

The second version tells a founder, co-investor or journalist exactly what the company does. Keep entries a consistent length so the page reads as a considered collection rather than a stack of promotional blurbs.

Always confirm that company names and details are approved for public use. For confidential or pre-announcement investments, follow your firm’s disclosure policy. If a company isn’t public yet, listing the area instead of the name is usually safer than leaving a gap.

About page: explain how you decide

The strongest About pages go beyond a founding story and a list of values. They show founders how you think about investing. Try answering three questions:

1. What do you look for in a company or founding team?
2. At what stage do you typically invest?
3. How do you support companies after you invest?

The key distinction is between a value and a behaviour. “We are passionate about science” expresses enthusiasm. “We read the underlying data ourselves before every investment” describes something a founder can hold you to, as long as it’s accurate.

You don’t need to reveal confidential criteria or proprietary methods. You do need to give readers a credible sense of how you work.

People page: relevant experience first

For founders weighing an investor, the people behind the fund matter. Open each bio with the experience most relevant to that person’s role: companies built, scientific training, drug-development experience, board service or investing track record.

Aim for roughly 60 to 100 words per bio and use the same order for everyone so the partners read as a team. Check every credential, title and affiliation before you publish, and update the page when someone’s role changes. For readers who want more, Nucleus includes a bio post layout, so each person can have a longer page without crowding the main one.

News and insights: show how you think

A News & Insights page gives visitors a reason to return and a window into your thinking. Useful content includes:

• Investment perspectives: how you assess a scientific opportunity or a market
• Portfolio updates: milestones companies have approved for public release
• Firm news: hires, fund developments and partnerships
• Industry commentary: a considered view on developments in biotech

If you’re starting from scratch, three to six posts is enough to give the page substance. Treat that as a starting point, not a publishing quota. Add a date and an author to each one so readers can see who is speaking and how current it is. The Nucleus homepage includes a Latest Insights section, so new posts also appear on your front page.

Contact page: make the next step easy

Every page should lead somewhere, and for most visitors the destination is a conversation. Whatever your contact page looks like, it should answer three questions: who should a founder contact, what should they send, and what happens next?

A short, clear line does a lot. For example: “Send a brief overview of your company and the stage you’re at. We read every submission.” Only write what you can actually deliver, and never promise a response time you can’t keep.

Check the rules before you publish

A venture firm’s website is also a public statement about its business. Rules on how funds describe themselves, show performance and talk about fundraising vary by region and by the type of firm. Before you publish performance figures, fund details, testimonials or any wording that could read as an invitation to invest, check with your lawyer or compliance adviser.

The same care applies to scientific claims and portfolio announcements. Make sure everything is accurate, approved for release, and doesn’t overstate what the evidence supports.

A quick content checklist

Before you publish, review each page against these questions:

• Does each page have one main reader and one purpose?
• Does the home page explain your investment focus and what sets you apart?
• Can a non-specialist follow the main message without losing the science?
• Does every portfolio description say what the company actually does?
• Do the About page and bios show relevant experience rather than generic claims?
• Are all figures, credentials and company details accurate and approved?
• Does News & Insights offer useful, current material?
• Has the right person reviewed any legal, regulatory or confidential content?
• Does every page give the visitor a clear next step?

Give your content a clear home

Once you know what each page needs to say, you need a structure that makes it easy to find. Nucleus gives you Home, Portfolio, About, People and News & Insights pages, plus layouts for individual bios and news articles, so you can spend your time on the words.

If you’re building or refreshing a biotech VC website, explore the Nucleus template → and see how its structure can support your content.

Prefer to have it done for you? Getting the messaging and structure right is often the hardest part of a VC website. If you’d rather work with someone who can shape the story, design the site and handle the build, we also take on custom branding and website projects. Talk to us about a custom build →

The post What to Write on a Biotech VC Website: A Page-by-Page Content Guide appeared first on Dynamimix.

This tutorial walks through how to build one using Squarespace’s built-in form block: what to ask, how to set it up, where submissions go, and how to test it before a real client uses it.

What a Squarespace client intake form should ask

Plan your questions before opening the editor. A good intake form helps you understand what a potential client needs, decide whether you can help, and prepare for the first call. You don’t need to ask everything upfront.

Aim for 6–8 fields. For a service business, this is a good starting point:

• Name and email (required)
• Phone number (optional)
• Which service are you interested in?, using a dropdown for one choice or checkboxes for multiple choices. Separating branding enquiries from website enquiries, for example, helps you prepare for the conversation.
• Are you enquiring as an individual or a business?, using a radio choice if the distinction matters to your services
• How can we help you?, using a multi-line text field for a brief description
• When are you looking to get started?, using a dropdown with options such as “As soon as possible,” “Within 1–3 months,” or “Just exploring”
• How did you hear about us?, using a dropdown if you want to track where enquiries come from

Every extra field can give someone another reason to abandon the form. If you won’t use the answer to assess the enquiry or prepare for the first call, leave it out.

Step 1: Add a form block or section to your page

Open the page where you want the form to appear. A dedicated Contact or Get Started page works well.

Click Edit, then choose one of these options:

• Add a Form block where you want the form to appear.
• Add a section and choose a Contact layout that includes a form.

Squarespace adds a default form with fields for name, email, subject, and message. You can customize these fields in the next step.

Step 2: Edit the fields

Click the form block, then click the pencil icon to open the form settings. In the content settings, you can add, remove and reorder fields.

The form block supports these field types:

• Single-line and multi-line text
• Email and phone number
• Dropdown, radio buttons and checkboxes
• Date and time
• File upload
• And more

Mark a field as required only if you cannot work without the answer. Add a short description under a field when the question might be unclear. Keep the field labels in plain language, such as “How can we help you?”

A file upload field can be useful for a project brief or a logo. Avoid it for sensitive documents (more on that below).

Step 3: Write the form text and the confirmation message

Add a short line above the form that says what happens next, for example: “Tell us about your project. We’ll reply within two business days.” Only promise a response time you can consistently meet.

After submission, either show a simple thank-you message or redirect visitors to a thank-you page. Confirm that their message was received and explain when they can expect a reply. For example: “Thanks for reaching out! We’ve received your message and will reply within two business days.”

Change the button text from “Submit” to something specific, such as “Send my request.”

Step 4: Choose where submissions go

Open the Storage tab of the form settings. This is where you decide what happens to each submission. Common options are:

• Email notification to you or a shared inbox
• Google Sheets, which keeps a running log of every submission
• Mailchimp or Squarespace Email Campaigns, if you want to add people to a list
• Zapier, if you want to send submissions into other tools

Set up the email notification first. Then, if you want a second record of every submission, connect Google Sheets. It gives you an additional copy, though it does not guarantee that nothing goes missing, so keep testing. If you receive only a few enquiries a month, a working notification and one stored copy are enough. More integrations add complexity you may not need. You can also export submissions from the Storage settings as a CSV file.

If you use the same form on several pages, add a hidden field that records the page the visitor came from. It tells you which page produces the most enquiries.

Step 5: Style the form

Open the Site Styles and click the forms. Adjust the field shape, border, padding, and more so the form matches the rest of your page. Keep enough space between fields that a visitor can tap them easily on a phone.

If the form still looks out of place, check your site’s button and font styles first. The form picks up most of its look from those.

Step 6: Test it before anyone else sees it

Submit a test entry yourself and check four things:

1. The confirmation message appears.
2. The email notification arrives. Check your spam folder too.
3. The entry shows up in your connected storage, such as the Google Sheet.
4. The form is easy to complete on a phone.

Notification emails can occasionally go missing or land in spam, which is why a stored copy and a test matter. If nothing arrives, check the notification address for typos, look in your spam folder, confirm the entry appears in your connected storage, and send another test.

What not to ask in a website form

Do not collect sensitive information through a general website form. That includes government ID numbers, bank or card details and passwords. Use a secure portal or a proper document-sharing tool for those, and tell clients how to send them.

If you collect personal information, link to your privacy policy near the form. Adding people to an email list is a separate question: only do it for people who have agreed to it. Privacy rules vary by region, and a checkbox on its own does not make a form compliant, so check the requirements where you work.

Before you share your form

Know the limits of the built-in form: The Squarespace form block is built for short forms. It does not offer conditional logic, which would show or hide questions based on earlier answers. If you need that, or a longer form, create the form in a tool such as Typeform, Tally or Google Forms and embed it on your page with a code block.

Where to put the form: Put the form on a page people can find in one click. Add it to your main navigation or a clear button on your homepage. Our beginner’s tutorial on setting up your Squarespace navigation menu shows how.

A good client intake form doesn’t need to be complicated. Start with the questions you need to prepare for a first conversation, make sure every submission reaches the right place, and test the form on desktop and mobile before you share it. You can always add more fields or connect more tools as your process grows.

Want it built for you?

If you would rather have a website with the form, the pages and the design handled for you, see what is included in a custom branding and web design project.

The post How to Add a Client Intake Form to a Squarespace Website appeared first on Dynamimix.

In our last post, we looked at structure: the three questions a visitor needs answered and the pages behind them. This post is about visual design. Here are five choices that help a biotech VC website feel considered and credible, shown with Nucleus, our Squarespace template for biotech and life sciences firms.

1. Use imagery that looks like science

A common mistake on a biotech site is generic business stock: handshakes, glass offices, people pointing at charts. It says nothing about your work.

Choose imagery that reflects your investment focus. The Nucleus demo pairs its headline with a large, organic image that reads as scientific, then uses portraits on the people pages. One strong image per section is enough.

If you don’t have your own photography yet, choose scientific imagery that matches your focus. A considered image from your field is more convincing than a generic molecular illustration used because it looks scientific. Swap in real lab and team photos as soon as you can.

2. Keep the colour restrained

A credible site tends to feel calm. Start with a dark or neutral base, then pick one accent colour for the things you want noticed or clicked: buttons, key figures and links. If everything is highlighted, nothing is.

Let the palette reflect how you want to be seen. A research-led therapeutics investor and a platform-technology fund may reasonably want different tones.

Here is a quick test. Squint at the page. The accent should mark only a few places. If it appears everywhere, remove it from half of them. Our post on colour palettes for a standout Squarespace website has starting points.ose to the science.” It gives visitors who aren’t ready to reach out a low-pressure way to stay connected.

3. Pair type with a clear hierarchy

Type sets the tone. For a biotech VC firm, the aim is scientific seriousness that still feels approachable, like a modern investment firm and not an academic journal. A confident serif and a clean sans can both work, and the rule is the same for each: a clear step between the headline, the subheading and the body text, and body text that is easy to read.

Use two typefaces at most. Make the headline large enough to take in at a glance, and keep the body text dark enough against its background to read comfortably. Our font pairing tips cover specific combinations.

4. Give each section room

Space is one of the cheapest ways to look established. A crowded page looks anxious. A page with generous, consistent spacing looks confident.

Keep one idea per section, and leave the same amount of space between sections all the way down the page. Clear spacing also helps a visitor find your investment thesis, focus areas and portfolio companies quickly. In Squarespace’s Fluid Engine, lining your blocks up to the same grid lines makes this easier, because everything aligns without extra effort.

5. Make proof easy to verify

For a biotech VC firm, credibility comes from evidence, not just presentation. Portfolio companies, investment focus, team experience and relevant track record help a visitor understand what the firm actually does. Present a few meaningful figures instead of a dense list, and explain what each one represents. Keep portfolio logos at a consistent size and link them to the companies where appropriate. Pair founder testimonials with real names, roles and permission to publish.

The Nucleus homepage uses large figures, a logo row and short founder testimonials to show how these elements can work together. The demo content is illustrative, so replace it with verified information before you publish. Every figure and claim should be something you can substantiate if an investor asks.

Mistakes to avoid

• Stock photos that could belong to any industry.
• Generic molecular illustrations unrelated to your investment focus.
• Three or four accent colours competing for attention.
• Small, light grey text on a white background.
• Placeholder logos, figures or quotes left on the live site.
• Sections crammed with copy, so nothing stands out.

Where to start with VC website design

If you change one thing, start with imagery and colour. Those two set the tone fastest. Then check type and spacing, and finish with proof once you have real, verified information.

Start with a foundation built for biotech

You don’t have to make every design decision from scratch. Nucleus gives biotech and life sciences firms a considered Squarespace starting point, with a structure and visual direction you can adapt to your own investment focus, portfolio, team and brand.

Explore the Nucleus template →

The post 5 Design Choices That Make a Biotech VC Website Feel Credible appeared first on Dynamimix.

Every choice on the page has to help a visitor answer three questions: what do you believe, why should I trust you, and what should I do next. We designed Nucleus, our Squarespace template for biotech and life sciences firms, around those three questions. This post shows how to design a biotech VC website that builds trust, using the Nucleus homepage as the worked example.

The three questions every biotech VC website has to answer

A biotech VC website doesn’t need to tell the whole story at the top. It needs to establish belief, credibility and direction. Open the Nucleus demo and you can see each one answered in turn.

1. What do you believe?

The headline reads, “Science that changes what medicine can do.” That is a thesis in one line. A founder knows what kind of firm this is before they read anything else.

A good thesis line is one a competitor would hesitate to sign. If every firm in your space could put it on their homepage, keep working on it.

2. Why should I trust you?

Under the headline, one line gives the reason to listen: “Built by scientists who became investors.” A little further down, three large figures back it up: the combined value of assets developed, the share of portfolio companies that reached clinical stage, and the years of combined research experience.

Trust comes from a specific claim followed by evidence. Test your second line the same way as the first: could a stranger say it about your competitors? If they could, it isn’t specific enough yet. Keep the numbers to ones you could defend if an investor asked. Three strong figures beat six vague ones.

3. What should I do next?

The navigation gives visitors five routes: Home, Portfolio, About, People and News & Insights. Further down the page, after a statement about the kind of work the firm backs, there is one button: “See Our Portfolio.”

We kept one call to action there on purpose. A visitor who has read a few paragraphs is ready for one next step. Offer three buttons and you ask them to choose.

Logos, insights and founder quotes

Further down the homepage, three sections build trust in different ways.

• A logo row. Logos let a visitor recognize a name, which words can’t do. Use only companies you can name publicly.
• Latest Insights. Four recent articles show that the firm is active and thinking in public. A news section with nothing recent makes a firm look quiet, which is why it sits on the homepage and not only on its own page.
• Founder quotes. Three short testimonials let founders speak for the firm. That carries more weight than the firm describing itself, so use real quotes with real names, titles and permission.

The page closes with a newsletter sign-up under the line “Stay close to the science.” It gives visitors who aren’t ready to reach out a low-pressure way to stay connected.

The five core pages and two post layouts

Nucleus includes five core pages and two single-post layouts:

• Home
• Portfolio
• About
• People
• News & Insights
• People Bio (single post)
• News (single post)

Each page has one job. Portfolio shows what you have backed. About explains how you think. People introduces your partners, and each person’s bio gets its own page, so you can link straight to them. News & Insights holds your articles, and each article uses the news layout.

Keeping each page to one job also makes the site easier to keep current. You always know where a new piece of content belongs.

Three choices behind the layout

1. The order does the persuading. The page moves from belief to proof, to one action. Visitors don’t need to work out what to do.
2. Plain language leads. The headline says what the firm does without jargon. Your science can go deeper further down the page, where the people who need the detail will look for it.
3. Imagery stays copyright-free. The demo uses AI-generated images from Adobe Firefly and photos from Pexels and Unsplash, which you are free to keep. When you have your own lab, team and product photos, use them. Real photos are the most convincing.

Making it yours without breaking it

Most of what you change is content. The demo’s figures, logos, quotes, names and news posts are all placeholders, so swap those first, then adjust colours and fonts once the words are in. We cover the process in How to replace demo content in your Squarespace template without messing up the design.

Before you launch, read the page the way an investor would. Does it say what you do in the first sentence? Can someone find your team in one click? Is there something recent in News & Insights? Our post on what people actually look for when they’re deciding if you’re legit lists what to check.

Building the website for a biotech company rather than a fund? Read: Your next investor meeting is coming. Is your website ready? For the founder’s side of the same question.

What you get with Nucleus

• Squarespace 7.1 with Fluid Engine, so you edit with drag and drop and no code.
• A new Squarespace site with the template installed. We send you an invite within 24 hours of purchase.
• 60 days of email support for template questions.
• Hosting and a domain are not included. You need a paid Squarespace plan only when you publish.

Want to start with this structure? Nucleus gives you the same Squarespace foundation, so you can change the content, typography, imagery and branding for your own firm. It is $349, and the fall launch sale takes 20% off while it runs.

View Nucleus →

The post How to Design a Biotech VC Website That Builds Trust: A Look Inside Nucleus appeared first on Dynamimix.

That’s a completely reasonable decision. But it comes with a genuinely hard problem attached: how do you evaluate someone’s design and development skill when you’re not a designer or developer yourself? You’re being asked to make a significant investment based on judgment you may not feel equipped to make.

We build websites for a living, so this is a strange thing for us to write about, honestly. But we’d rather you make a good decision, whether that’s with us or with someone else, than make a decision you regret because nobody told you what actually matters.

Start with what you actually need, not what sounds impressive

Before you start talking to designers, take a minute to work out what you want the website to do.

“I need a new website” isn’t really enough. A designer can take that in a dozen different directions.

Maybe the real problem is that people can’t figure out what you offer. Maybe you’re getting enquiries from the wrong people. Maybe your current site makes booking a consultation unnecessarily difficult.

Those are very different projects, even if all three get described as “we need a new website.”

The clearer you are about the problem, the easier it becomes to tell whether a designer actually understands it. Otherwise, you can end up choosing the person with the best presentation rather than the person with the best answer to your particular problem.

Look at their process, not just their portfolio

A strong portfolio tells you someone can produce good-looking work. It doesn’t tell you what it’s like to actually work with them, and that second part matters more than most people expect going in.

Ask specific questions about how a project actually runs:

• How many rounds of revisions are included, and what happens if you need more?
• What do you need to provide, and when? This is usually a bigger list than people expect. Business details and a description of what you do. Your logo, brand colours, and fonts if you have them. The actual words that go on the pages. Photos, team bios, testimonials. A sense of which pages you need and what the site should actually do, book appointments, sell something, just explain your services clearly. If you already have a site, add domain access, hosting, and analytics logins to that list too.
• None of that has to be perfect going in. But if a designer doesn’t mention any of it upfront, that’s often where a timeline quietly falls apart later, not because of anything they did, but because nobody flagged early on how much of the project actually depends on you.
• What happens after launch? Is there support included, or are you on your own the moment the site goes live?
• How do you communicate during the project, and how quickly should you expect responses?

A designer who can answer these clearly and specifically, without vague reassurances, is telling you something important about how organized the actual working relationship will be. Someone who gets vague or defensive about process questions is worth paying attention to, since that vagueness tends to continue once you’re actually mid-project.

Know what you’re really paying for

There’s no standard price for a website. Two designers can quote very different amounts and both be completely reasonable.

The problem is that it’s often hard to tell why.

Before you compare the numbers, find out what’s behind them. Ask whether you’re getting a custom design or starting from a template. Find out who’s writing the copy. Ask who’s supplying the photography and other images. Get a realistic timeline, too, and ask what happens if something on either side causes a delay.

Those details can make a surprisingly big difference to the final price.

A $3,000 website and a $10,000 website aren’t necessarily two versions of the same thing. One might include strategy, copywriting, custom design and ongoing support, while the other might be a straightforward template build that you’re expected to supply most of the content for.

The number at the bottom of the quote doesn’t tell you much until you know what’s included.

Trust your read of the actual person, not just their work samples

A portfolio tells you what someone can make. It doesn’t tell you what they’re like when you have a question on a Tuesday afternoon and the project isn’t going quite as planned. That’s why I’d pay attention to the person you’re talking to, not just the websites in their portfolio.

Do they listen? Do they ask about your business before suggesting a solution? When you ask something you don’t understand, do they take the time to explain it? And notice what happens when you disagree.

You don’t necessarily want a designer who says yes to everything. If you’ve hired them for their expertise, there will be times when they should tell you that an idea isn’t going to work and explain what they’d do instead.

That’s different from someone who simply dismisses your ideas. You want somebody who can have a different opinion without making the relationship difficult. The website matters, obviously. But you’re going to spend weeks or months getting there. Make sure you actually like working with the person who has to build it.

That’s why I’d pay attention to the person you’re talking to, not just the websites in their portfolio. (It’s worth knowing this cuts both ways too, here’s what clients are actually evaluating when they’re the ones sizing you up.)

A quick gut check before you sign anything

Before committing to a designer or agency, ask yourself:

• Do I have a clear enough sense of what I need that I could recognize whether their proposal actually addresses it?
• Did they ask me real questions about my business, or did they jump straight to talking about themselves and their process?
• Do I understand exactly what’s included in this price, and what isn’t?
• Based on how they’ve communicated so far, do I feel confident this will be a smooth working relationship, not just a good-looking end result?
• If something goes wrong mid-project, do I know what happens next?

If you’re unsure about more than one of these, it’s worth asking more questions before moving forward, not after.

When a template might actually be the better fit

Not everyone who’s considering hiring someone actually needs a fully custom build. If your needs are relatively standard, a clear brand identity, straightforward services, no unusual functionality, a well-built template with some professional customization can often get you a comparable result for meaningfully less time and cost.

That’s worth being honest with yourself about before you start interviewing designers, since it changes the whole calculation. If you’re not sure which direction makes more sense for your specific situation, we’re happy to talk it through, template or custom, without steering you toward whichever one happens to make us more money.

Get in touch →

The post What to look for when hiring someone to build your website appeared first on Dynamimix.

Then you started replacing the demo content with your own stuff. Suddenly, a headline wraps onto three lines. A photo gets cropped in a weird place. One section looks cramped, even though you haven’t changed anything that seems important.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not doing anything wrong. This happens because the demo content was chosen to work with the layout in a very specific way. The good news is that you don’t have to rebuild the whole page to make your own content fit. A few simple habits will save you a lot of frustration.

First, remember that the demo content was designed to fit

Demo photos and text aren’t just placeholder filler.

The person who built the template probably chose relatively short headlines, specific image shapes, and certain amounts of text because they knew how those things would behave in the layout. For example, a four-word headline might look great in the demo because it stays on one line. Replace it with a fourteen-word headline and the same text block has to work much harder.

Images are similar. A landscape photo might look perfect in the demo because it happens to match the shape of the image block. Put a tall portrait photo in the same spot and Squarespace has to crop it. Once you start thinking of the demo as an example of what the layout expects, these changes make a lot more sense.

Before you start, duplicate the page

This one takes about ten seconds, and it’s the single most useful habit you can build here.

In the Pages panel, duplicate the page you’re going to work on, then make your changes on the copy. That gives you something to compare against if the page starts looking strange later.

It’s especially useful if you’re experimenting with sections or blocks. If you delete something and realize ten minutes later that you actually needed it, you can go back to the original instead of trying to remember how everything was set up.

Start with the text

Text is usually the easiest thing to replace.

The main thing to watch is length, particularly for headings. If the demo says: “Made for slow mornings” and you replace it with: “A collection of handmade ceramics designed for slow mornings at home,” you’re asking the layout to do something quite different.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use the longer headline. Just expect it to wrap, and check what happens to the content underneath it.

If a heading is getting in the way, try shortening the wording before changing its font size. And avoid making a one-off font-size adjustment just to squeeze one heading onto a line. You’ll probably end up with one heading that looks slightly different from all the others.

If you genuinely want smaller headings across the site, that’s when Site Styles makes more sense.

💡 One other tip: edit the existing text block rather than deleting it and adding a new one. The existing block already has the spacing, formatting, and other settings from the template.

Then replace the images

Images tend to cause more surprises because every photo is different. Start by looking at the shape of the existing image block.

• Is it wide and shallow? 
• Nearly square? 
• Tall?

Try to use an image with a similar aspect ratio. If the template uses a wide landscape image and you upload a tall portrait, Squarespace will crop it to fit. You might end up losing someone’s face, the product you’re trying to show, or the part of the photo that actually matters.

If the crop isn’t quite right, use Squarespace’s focal point tool. Move the focal point toward the part of the image you want to keep visible, then check the result at different screen sizes.

It’s also worth resizing large images before uploading them. You don’t need to upload a huge, uncompressed original just because you have one. Smaller, appropriately sized images can help keep the page from becoming unnecessarily heavy.

A few things I’d avoid

There are a couple of tempting fixes that can create more work later.

Don’t delete an entire section just because you don’t need one piece of demo content. If you’re unsure, remove or replace the content first and see how the section looks. You can always delete the section later.

Don’t start dragging blocks around until they “look right.” Fluid Engine gives you plenty of freedom to move things, but it’s surprisingly easy to knock other elements out of alignment. If something seems to have a very specific size or position, there may be a reason for it.

And don’t change one heading’s font size just to fix one awkward line. If the problem is the wording, fix the wording first.

Check the page on mobile

This is an easy one to skip, especially when you’ve been working on a desktop screen. Look at the page on mobile after you’ve made your changes. A headline that looks fine on your laptop may wrap differently on a phone. An image crop that works beautifully on desktop might suddenly cut off the important part of the photo.

Give the whole page a quick scroll rather than checking only the section you just edited.

You’ll catch things like:

• text overlapping another block
• buttons sitting in strange places
• images with awkward crops
• sections that suddenly feel too tight
• headings that have wrapped much further than expected

If you’ve kept your duplicated version, you can also compare the two pages side by side. That’s often the quickest way to spot what changed.

And if something still looks wrong…

You don’t have to figure everything out yourself. If you’ve replaced the content, checked the spacing, looked at mobile, and something still doesn’t behave the way you expect, there may be a setting or layout detail that’s easy to miss.

That’s a good point to ask for help rather than spending another hour dragging things around and hoping they eventually line up.

Get in touch with our support team →

The post How to replace demo content in your Squarespace template without messing up the design appeared first on Dynamimix.

This is the first post in a series where we’ll break down modern layout ideas for every section of your site. We’re starting where every visitor starts: the hero.

For each layout below, we’re showing two versions. First, a lo-fi wireframe, so you can see the structure without getting distracted by styling. Then, a hi-fi version, so you can see how that same structure looks once fonts, colour, and imagery are applied. Think of the wireframe as the skeleton and the hi-fi version as what it looks like fully dressed.

1. The full-screen statement hero

One image or video fills the entire screen, edge to edge. A short headline and a single button sit on top. That’s it. Your navigation fades into the background, the next section disappears below the fold, and for a moment, it’s just the visitor and your photo.

There’s nowhere else for the eye to go, which is exactly the point. But that also means this layout has nowhere to hide. If your photography is strong, it looks incredible. If it’s mediocre, everyone will notice.

This is also the layout where we see clients get into trouble most often. It usually starts with wanting a full-screen photo and a headline, then a subheadline gets added, then a paragraph explaining the offer, then a second button just in case. By the end, the image is barely visible under all the text, and nobody can tell what they’re actually supposed to click. One or two lines and a single button is the whole formula. If you’re explaining more than that, it belongs in the section below the hero, not on top of the image.

The other common misstep is the video version of this layout. A background video looks great in theory, but if it’s uploaded directly instead of hosted through Vimeo or YouTube, it can quietly tank your page speed. Visitors won’t wait around for a slow-loading hero, and neither will Google.

Why it works: Nothing competes for attention, so the message lands faster, as long as you actually let it stay that simple.

Best for: Photographers, hospitality, wellness studios, and any brand where the photo does the selling.

Build it in Squarespace: Use a full-bleed image or background video section, keep your text centred or lower-third aligned, and stop at a headline, one line of supporting text, and a single button. If you’re using video, host it on Vimeo or YouTube rather than uploading it directly. Adding more just gets in the way.

2. The split-screen hero

Image on one side, headline and text on the other. Clean, even, no overlap. Each half gets its own space to breathe.

It’s a favourite for service businesses for a good reason: you get a real photo of yourself or your team without burying your message underneath it. Both things get equal billing.

Why it works: It balances a visual and a message without either one drowning out the other.

Best for: Service businesses, coaches, and consultants who want a professional feel with a real photo included.

Build it in Squarespace: Fluid Engine handles this well. Drop an image block on one half, a text block on the other, then check your mobile layout separately since you’ll usually want them stacked instead of side by side on smaller screens.

3. The editorial hero

Big, bold type takes the lead here, sized large enough that it becomes the visual, not just the message. It can sit on a clean flat colour, or on a soft abstract background like a gradient or blurred texture, either way, the type stays the focus, not a photo of your product or team.

This one’s become a shorthand for confidence. It tells a visitor your message doesn’t need a literal picture to back it up. It also tends to be one of the faster-loading hero styles, especially in its flat-background version, since there’s no large photo file for a visitor’s browser to download before the page feels complete.

Why it works: It’s bold and distinctive, and it doesn’t need a photo to carry the message.

Best for: Brands with a strong, distinctive font, or a message confident enough to stand on its own, without a supporting image.

Build it in Squarespace: Pick a heading font with real personality and size it bigger than feels comfortable at first, most people go too small. Choose a flat background colour for a clean, confident feel, or a subtle abstract texture if you want a bit more depth without pulling focus from the type itself.

4. The asymmetrical grid hero

Nothing’s centred. Nothing’s evenly split. A smaller image sits off to one side, the headline shifts away from the middle, text and photo elements layer and overlap rather than sitting in neat, separate boxes.

Most people centre everything by default, so a deliberately offset, layered layout immediately reads as more current and less templated. It also gives you more room to build real hierarchy, since elements aren’t all fighting for the same spot in the middle of the page. This is often where a hero starts to feel more like a designed magazine spread than a standard website banner, headlines crossing over the edge of a photo, captions tucked into a corner, nothing lined up in an obvious grid.

Why it works: Breaking the centred default, and letting elements overlap intentionally, makes the whole layout feel more contemporary and considered.

Best for: Creative agencies, personal brands, and fashion or lifestyle businesses that want their site to feel distinct from more traditional competitors.

Build it in Squarespace: This is where Fluid Engine’s 24-column grid and overlap tools really shine. Fight the urge to centre everything, shift your headline off to one side, or layer a text block partially on top of an image at a different size to break the symmetry. If you do overlap text and image, test legibility carefully on both desktop and mobile before calling it finished.

5. The layered card hero

A background image or colour fills the section, but your actual message sits inside a smaller card layered on top, rather than floating freely across the page.

The card’s job is simple: keep your text readable no matter what’s happening behind it. Busy background, high-contrast photo, doesn’t matter, the card protects your message. It also gives the whole thing a cleaner, slightly more technical feel, which is probably why it shows up so often on SaaS and product sites.

The card format tends to invite one specific problem: once there’s a defined space for content, it’s tempting to fill it. We’ve seen this play out the same way more than once. A client starts with one clear button, then wants to add a second option for a different audience, then a third “just to be safe.” A card with three competing buttons doesn’t give visitors more choice, it just makes them pause and figure out which one actually applies to them. One or two CTAs, max, and they should point at two clearly different actions, not two versions of the same one.

Why it works: It guarantees legibility and looks clean doing it, as long as the card stays focused.

Best for: SaaS-style businesses, product launches, and brands going for a polished, technical feel.

Build it in Squarespace: Place a solid-background text block on top of a full-bleed image or colour section behind it. Round the corners if you want it to feel a little less boxy, and resist adding a third button once the first two are in place.

6. The framed or bordered hero

Instead of stretching edge to edge, your hero image sits inside a visible frame or border, with room to breathe around it. Think of a piece hung in a gallery rather than an image filling a screen.

Most heroes default to full-bleed without a second thought, so a visible frame feels like a choice someone actually made. It gives the whole layout a curated, deliberate feel.

Why it works: It stands out simply by not doing what every other hero does.

Best for: Portfolios, creative studios, and brands that want their hero to feel curated rather than immersive.

Build it in Squarespace: Use spacer blocks or a coloured background section to build a visual “frame” around your image, instead of letting it stretch to the edges. A muted background colour that complements the image, rather than competing with it, makes this work even better.

Choosing the right one for your site

Not every layout fits every brand, and that’s the point. A few quick questions to narrow it down:

• Is your photography strong enough to carry the whole hero? If yes, consider the full-screen or split-screen hero. If not, lean toward the editorial hero.
• Does your brand feel more polished and structured, or more expressive and editorial? Structured brands tend to suit the split-screen, framed, or layered card heroes. Expressive brands tend to suit the editorial or asymmetrical grid heroes.
• Do you already have a strong headline or tagline? If your words alone are compelling, the editorial hero lets that message lead.

More sections, more layouts

This is just the beginning of your hero section options, and just the beginning of this series. Next, we’ll look at layout ideas for FAQ sections, contact pages, and About pages, using the same lo-fi to hi-fi approach so you can see exactly how each idea comes together.

If you’d rather start from a template that already has a strong hero layout built in, our Squarespace templates give you a head start, so you’re customizing a great foundation instead of building one from scratch.

Browse our templates →

The post 6 Squarespace hero section layouts you’ll want to steal appeared first on Dynamimix.

But buying a template doesn’t mean you’re getting a finished website. It’s really just the foundation. The photos you use, the way you write about your business, the fonts, colours, spacing, and all the little details you change along the way are what make it yours.

Here’s what we tell our own customers.

What actually makes a site feel generic

Usually not the layout. Almost every “this looks like a template” reaction traces back to three things left untouched: the default fonts, the default colours, and the demo photography. Those three are doing nearly all the identifying work, since they’re the first things a visitor’s eye picks up, and also the things people are least likely to change, because honestly, the defaults already look fine.

That’s the actual trap. Squarespace’s default styling is genuinely good-looking, which is exactly why so many sites end up looking alike. Dozens of other people saw the same attractive defaults and made the same reasonable call not to touch them.

Fonts and colours do more of the work than you think

Swapping in your own font pairing and colour palette changes a template’s whole feel without touching a single layout block. It’s the highest-impact move available, and also the one people most underestimate.

We’ve written full guides on both if you want to go deeper: 6 font pairing tips for a standout Squarespace website and 6 colour palettes for a standout Squarespace website walk through specific combinations and the mood each one creates.

Picking the wrong colours isn’t really the risk here. Picking colours or fonts that don’t say anything about your business specifically is. A sage green palette and a confident serif headline are both fine choices on their own, but if you picked them because they looked pleasant in the preview rather than because they fit your brand, you’ve dressed the template up, not made it yours.

There’s a second trap, and it’s a subtler one. We worked with a client who swapped a template’s original serif, which gave the site a refined, editorial feel, for her brand’s sans-serif. Reasonable move, it was her actual brand font. She kept it at roughly the same size the serif had been set at though, sized for a completely different typeface’s proportions. The pages got heavier, not more personal, and the editorial quality that sold her on the template in the first place quietly disappeared along with it.

Your own fonts are still the right call. Just don’t treat the swap as one-for-one. A template’s type sizes and spacing were calibrated around its original typeface specifically, so bringing in your own almost always needs a second pass on size and spacing too, not just a drop-in replacement.

Your photos might be giving the template away

Photos are one of the biggest giveaways that a website is made using templates, and at the same time one of the hardest elements to overlook. Templates provide generic images which are visually pleasing but would fit practically any company.

However, there is no need to organize a professional photo shoot to get out of this. Just a couple of well-lit pictures of your products or space, or employees, will work much better than generic pictures most of the time. It’s not hard for people to distinguish a generic picture from a unique one, even if they cannot explain why.

No pictures to begin with? That’s a problem worth working on instead of covering it up. A text-led hero or simpler layout is usually better than filling the space with stock images that make the site feel less personal.

The smaller choices that finish the job

Once the fonts, colours, and photos are sorted,  there are a handful of smaller changes that help the site feel finished.

Look at your buttons. Are they rounded because that’s what the template came with, or because rounded buttons actually suit your brand? Would an outline work better than a filled button?

Check your links, your spacing, and the order of your sections. You don’t necessarily need to redesign a page. Sometimes moving one section higher or giving another a little more breathing room changes the whole feel.

And then there are icons. If you’ve spent enough time looking at Squarespace sites, you start to recognize the familiar icon sets. Swapping those out for something that fits your brand better — or using a small custom graphic, like your logo mark as a section divider — can make a surprisingly big difference. None of this requires you to become a designer.

Go through the site once, slowly. When you come across something, ask yourself: Did we choose this, or did the template choose it for us? That question alone will uncover quite a few things worth changing.

You don’t need a redesign

Worth saying plainly: no custom code, no developer, no rebuild required. We sometimes see template buyers overcorrect toward exactly that, hours spent hacking together layouts Squarespace was never built for, when the real fix was already sitting in the built-in styling tools.

Nobody’s asking your site to look nothing like a template. Just that the parts a visitor actually notices, colours, fonts, photos, a handful of small details, are yours instead of the defaults.

A quick self-check

Before calling a template done, walk through your site and ask:

1. Have I changed the fonts and colours from the defaults, and do they reflect my brand rather than just what looked nice in the preview, sizing included, now that the typeface has changed?
2. Have I replaced the demo photography with real photos, even simple ones?
3. Have I looked at button styles, spacing, and icons, or left them exactly as they came?
4. If I removed my logo, could a visitor still tell this site apart from the template’s live demo?

A “no” on that last one doesn’t mean the template was a bad choice. It usually just means a few defaults are still sitting there untouched.

Pick a template that leaves you room to work with

This is worth thinking about before you buy, too.

Some templates make this easier than others. When you’re choosing one in the first place, look for a structure flexible enough that font, colour, and photo changes can genuinely transform its feel, not one so heavily styled around a specific look that even the basics leave it looking like the demo.

That’s deliberate in our own templates: a strong foundation, but with real room left for your fonts, colours, and photography to actually do the work of making it yours.

Browse our templates →

The post Will my Squarespace site look like everyone else’s? Here’s how to avoid that appeared first on Dynamimix.

That visit isn’t what convinces them to work with you. It’s what confirms, or quietly undermines, whatever made them curious in the first place. If your site feels vague, outdated, or unfinished, it doesn’t matter how strong your pitch was. People start doubting the pitch instead.

That’s a different job than most business owners assume their website is doing. It’s not there to close the deal from scratch. It’s there to hold up under a quick, skeptical look from someone deciding whether you’re worth a real conversation. And that look happens fast, often before you even know it’s happening.

Here’s what that actually requires, page by page: what to include, why it matters, and where people tend to get it wrong.

Home: pass the 10-second test

People move fast, especially the first time they land on your site. Assume your homepage gets ten seconds before someone decides whether to keep reading or close the tab. That’s not a lot of room, which is exactly why this page matters more than any other on your site.

In that time, your homepage needs to answer 3 questions:

• What does this business do?
• Who is it for?
• Does this look like an active, legitimate business?

If visitors have to scroll, click around, or decode your headline to figure those things out, you’re creating unnecessary friction.

✅ What this looks like when it’s working: A clear, specific sentence near the top of the page that says what you do and who you do it for, not just how you feel about doing it. Something like “Meal planning for busy parents who don’t have time to cook from scratch” tells a visitor exactly what they’re looking at. Compare that to “Helping people live better, healthier lives,” which sounds nice but doesn’t actually tell anyone anything.

❌ Where this tends to go wrong: The most common mistake is opening with vague, feel-good language that could describe almost any business in your industry. Phrases like “your trusted partner” or “taking your business to the next level” fill space without answering the actual question a visitor has, which is simply: what is this? Save your personality and deeper story for your about page. Your homepage’s job is orientation, not persuasion. Persuasion comes after someone understands what you do.

About/Services: clear before it’s impressive

Once someone understands what you do, this is the page where they decide whether you’re the right fit, or whether you’re just another version of everyone else offering something similar.

This matters because vague credibility doesn’t actually build trust. Anyone can say they’re experienced or detail-oriented. What convinces someone is specificity: knowing exactly what problem you solve, for exactly which kind of client, and why your approach makes sense.

✅ What this looks like when it’s working: A strong about or services page names the actual problem you solve, explains your approach in plain language, and is specific about who you work with best. It also includes enough detail that someone in your industry would recognize you know what you’re talking about, without requiring the reader to already be an expert to follow along.

❌ Where this tends to go wrong: Business owners tend to overcorrect in one of two directions. Either the page stays so general that it says nothing specific, essentially repeating the homepage in different words. Or it goes the opposite way, filling the page with dense industry language, acronyms, and technical detail that only someone already in your field could follow. Both versions fail the same test: a genuinely interested but unfamiliar reader should walk away understanding what makes you a good fit for them, specifically. If someone needs more technical depth than your website provides, that’s what a discovery call or proposal is for. Your website’s job is to earn that conversation, not replace it.

Team: this matters more than owners expect

People aren’t only evaluating what you offer. They’re evaluating who’s behind it, especially with smaller businesses, where the relationship often matters as much as the service itself. This is doubly true for any business where someone is trusting you with something important, whether that’s their money, their health, their time, or their brand.

A team page isn’t just a formality. It’s often where hesitation turns into confidence, because it answers a question every visitor is quietly asking: is this person or team actually qualified to do what they’re claiming?

✅ What this looks like when it’s working: A team page that shows relevant background and experience, without reading like a full resume. If credentials or certifications matter in your field, like a certification, license, or specific training relevant to what you do, they should be easy to find, not buried in a paragraph. The goal is to give a visitor just enough context to feel confident, quickly.

❌ Where this tends to go wrong: Two common mistakes here. The first is padding the page to look more established than you are, adding vague team titles or stock photography to suggest a bigger operation than you actually have. This usually backfires, since people are good at sensing when something feels inflated, and it works against the very trust you’re trying to build. The second mistake is the opposite: leaving the page thin or generic, with no real sense of who’s behind the business. If it’s just you right now, that’s completely fine. Be specific and honest about your background rather than either overselling or underselling it.

Proof: show you’ve actually done this before

People don’t just want to hear that you’re good at what you do. They want to see evidence of it. This is often the single biggest gap between websites that convert and websites that just sit there looking professional.

Proof matters because it shifts the burden of belief. Instead of asking a visitor to trust your word, you’re showing them something concrete: this is what happened when someone else worked with you.

✅ What this looks like when it’s working: A few strong client testimonials, specific enough that they don’t sound generic. A short case study describing a real challenge, what you did, and the outcome. Logos of businesses you’ve worked with, if you’re able to share them. Concrete markers like years in business or number of clients served. Even one or two of these elements can meaningfully shift how credible your site feels.

❌ Where this tends to go wrong: The most common issue is simply skipping this section entirely, describing your capabilities without ever showing that you’ve actually delivered on them. The second most common issue is using proof that’s too vague to matter, like a testimonial that just says “Great to work with!” without any specifics. A testimonial that mentions what the client’s actual problem was, and how it was solved, does far more work than a generic compliment.

Contact: don’t make anyone hunt

This sounds obvious, but it’s one of the most common gaps we see, even on otherwise well-built websites. If someone’s interested enough to want to reach you, the path to doing that needs to be immediate and obvious, not something they have to search for.

This matters because interest is often short-lived. Someone might feel ready to reach out right now, while reading your about page or looking at your proof section, and if there’s friction between that feeling and actually contacting you, some percentage of those people simply won’t follow through.

✅ What this looks like when it’s working: A clear way to take action from nearly any page on your site, whether that’s a booking link, a short contact form, or a visible email address. The simpler the better. You’re not trying to capture a lot of information upfront. You’re trying to remove any reason for someone to hesitate or postpone.

❌ Where this tends to go wrong: Contact information that only lives on a dedicated Contact page, several clicks away from where someone’s interest was actually building. Long, complicated contact forms that ask for more information than necessary before someone can even send a message. Both create unnecessary friction at exactly the moment you want the least friction possible.

What you probably don’t need yet

Just as important as knowing what to include is knowing what you can reasonably leave out, especially in the early stages of a business. Trying to build everything at once is one of the fastest ways to delay actually launching.

✅ What this looks like when it’s working: A focused site with four or five strong pages that clearly communicate what you do, who it’s for, and how to reach you. That’s genuinely enough for most small businesses and early-stage companies to start building trust and generating conversations.

❌ Where this tends to go wrong: Founders often assume they need a fully built-out blog, elaborate custom animations, a dozen pages of content, or a design that makes a five-person company look like a fifty-person one. None of this is necessary early on, and some of it can actively work against you. Most people evaluating a small business or startup already expect exactly that: a small, growing business. What they’re checking isn’t how large or polished your site looks. It’s whether it’s clear, honest, and gives them what they need to make a decision.

A quick pre-meeting check

Before your next important call, pitch, referral, or introduction, look at your own website as if you’ve never seen it before.

Ask yourself:

• Could someone unfamiliar with my business understand what I do within a few seconds of landing on the homepage?
• Does my About or Services page explain what I do and how I approach it without requiring insider knowledge?
• Does my Team page accurately show who’s behind the business and why they’re qualified?
• Can visitors see evidence that I’ve actually done this work before?
• Can someone figure out how to contact me without having to hunt for it?

If you can honestly answer yes to all five, your website is doing its job. If a few of these gave you pause, you now know exactly where to start.

Getting there without losing months

None of this requires a custom-built site or a lengthy design process. It requires the right structure, built around what the people checking you out are actually looking for, page by page.

That’s the gap a good template can close: a starting point already shaped around what a growing business needs to communicate, so you can focus your time on the work instead of figuring out your sitemap from scratch.

Browse our templates →

The post What people actually look for when they’re deciding if you’re legit appeared first on Dynamimix.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through setting up your main navigation, organizing pages into dropdowns, and making sure everything works properly on mobile.

Note: This tutorial covers Squarespace version 7.1. If you’re not sure which version your site is on, go to Website → Pages and scroll to the bottom of the panel. You’ll see whether your site is running Version 7.0 or Version 7.1.

Open the Pages panel

In your Squarespace dashboard, go to:

Website → Pages

This is where you’ll see two main sections: Main Navigation and Not Linked.

• Main Navigation: pages that appear in your header menu
• Not Linked: pages that exist on your site but aren’t linked anywhere in the menu (useful for landing pages you’re linking to directly rather than through the header)

For beginners: The order pages appear in this panel is the order they’ll appear in your actual navigation. Drag and drop to rearrange.

Add a page to your navigation

Click the + icon next to Main Navigation, then choose what you want to add:

• A blank page, or one of Squarespace’s pre-built layouts
• Link: a link to an external URL
• Dropdown: found under “More” in the pop-up menu, this creates a group of pages that appear together in a dropdown

Once added, the page appears in your navigation right away.

Create a dropdown menu

If you have several related pages, grouping them under one dropdown keeps your navigation clean instead of cluttered with individual links.

1. Click the + icon next to Main Navigation
2. Scroll to More and select Dropdown
3. Name the dropdown. This is the label visitors will see (for example, “Services”)
4. Drag existing pages into the dropdown, or add new pages directly inside it

💡 Good to know: Clicking a dropdown title doesn’t take visitors anywhere. It only opens the dropdown. If you want the dropdown label itself to link somewhere, you’ll need a page with that same content, or accept that it functions as a category header rather than a clickable link. Squarespace also only supports one level of nesting, so you can’t build a dropdown inside a dropdown.

Check your mobile menu

Your navigation might look perfect on desktop and still need adjusting on mobile, since Squarespace collapses your main navigation into a hamburger menu on smaller screens.

To check it:

1. Preview your site and switch to the mobile view
2. Open the mobile menu and tap through each item
3. Confirm dropdowns expand properly. On mobile, they appear as a nested accordion rather than a hover menu, so the experience is slightly different from desktop

Style your navigation

Once your structure is set, click the header and select Edit Site Header depending on your template) to adjust:

• Navigation layout
• Font and text size
• Spacing between links
• Colour and hover states
• Dropdown icon style, if you’re using one

Keep navigation styling simple. This is one place on your site where visitors expect consistency, not creativity. A menu that behaves unpredictably is more frustrating than one that looks a little plain.

👉 Not sure which fonts or colours to use in your navigation?
Take a look at our 6 font pairing tips for a standout Squarespace website and 6 colour palettes for a standout Squarespace website.

Before you finish

Once your navigation is built, take a few minutes to test it properly.

• Click every link. Broken or placeholder links are easy to miss until a visitor finds them for you.
• Check dropdown behaviour on mobile. Confirm they expand and collapse as expected.
• Limit your main navigation. Five to seven items is usually the sweet spot. More than that, and visitors start skimming instead of reading.
• Make sure your most important page is easy to find. If the goal of your site is to get people to contact you or book a call, that link shouldn’t be buried in a dropdown.

Troubleshooting

• My dropdown title isn’t clickable. This is expected behaviour. Dropdown titles open the dropdown but don’t link anywhere on their own.
• A page isn’t showing up in my navigation. Check whether it’s sitting in Not Linked instead of Main Navigation.
• My dropdown looks different on mobile than desktop. That’s normal. Desktop dropdowns appear on hover, while mobile shows them as an expandable accordion.
• I can’t find a Footer Navigation section. Squarespace doesn’t have a dedicated footer navigation panel. Footer links are typically added as a text or link block directly in your footer section instead.

Good navigation is invisible

The best navigation menus don’t get noticed. They just work. Visitors find what they need without thinking about how they got there.

Start with a simple structure, group related pages thoughtfully, and always test on mobile before calling it done. If you’d rather start with a navigation structure that’s already been planned out, our Squarespace templates come with a considered page and menu structure built in, so you’re not starting from a blank Pages panel.

Browse our templates →

The post How to set up your Squarespace navigation menu: A beginner’s tutorial appeared first on Dynamimix.