How to Create a Stylist Website Using Squarespace
Squarespace is favored by many creative professionals for good reason. It’s an excellent platform to showcase your portfolio, attract clients, establish your brand and get paid. This post will guide you through the essential steps to building your Stylist website—plus give you marketing tips along the way.
Step 1: Choose a Flexible Template
Begin by selecting a template that aligns with your aesthetic and the services you offer (don’t worry you’re not boxed into any template). Squarespace provides a variety of beautiful templates designed for portfolios, blogs, and e-commerce but as a Stylist, you’re half-artist and half service-provider, so skip the ecommerce options and look for templates that emphasize visuals and a list of services. Here’s a few of my favorites:
Step 2: A Little Design Inspiration
After selecting your template, customize it to reflect your personal brand. Adjust colors, fonts, and layout elements to create a cohesive visual identity. Look for websites, posts, or assets that you like. What do you like about them? Is it the feel? The vibe? The colors?
Your website should feel like you so if your style is bold, rebellious, sharp, minimal—your site should reflect that as well. Think about shapes and fonts you can use. You can refine this style over time.
Step 3: Prepare Your Media and Written Copy
Media Prep
You’re going to want to have a few key images handy. Ideally:
Headshot (1-2 photos)
Candid Shot (2-3 photos)
In-Work (3-4 photos)
Video with enough negative space (where you’re not taking over the screen; there’s space this way to use it in both landscape and portrait mode).
Note: to make sure your website loads fast, try to keep your images under 500KB. If you open a photo on your computer, you can resize it to fit dimensions that will be within this file size.
Copy Prep
About You Blurb (1-3 sentences)
Previous Experience (if any)
Interests/Explorations
Philosophy/Beliefs around styling (this is what separates the experts from the amateurs)
Step 4: Gather Client Testimonials
Adding testimonials from previous clients or friends you’ve styled boosts credibility. Create a dedicated testimonials section or incorporate quotes throughout your website. This is called Social Proof and yes you need it. You can also just screenshot posts that happy clients have tagged you in!
Step 5: Document Your Experience
Over time, build out a blog section to share your insights, trends, and styling tips. Regularly updating your blog not only establishes you as an expert but also improves your website's SEO. It doesn’t have to be extra formal, just a place to showcase case studies and eventually use as a reference point for potential clients (and the media if they want to do a feature on you). Documenting your process will give you extraordinary leverage in the future not just for social posts but to upgrade and improve your website over time. I highly recommend you write a reflection of your most recent show.
Step 6: Connect Social Media
Use the Social Links block to connect your social accounts and give it a header like “Follow along on socials.” Easy peezy.
Step 7: Build the Business Side
Booking System
A way to pay before booking is ideal. Depending on the services you offer, you might want to consider setting up packages i.e. different ways you can help.
E.g. “Styling for an Event” vs “Seasonal Closet Upgrade” vs “Find My Style Package” –you should define what’s included in each of these. Start with a bulleted list of what each includes. An example might be:
Initial Consult (3o minutes)
Style Review (Think about Tan from Queer Eye when he goes through their closets)
Exploration and Trials (2 hours of you shopping and them trying things on)
Refinement (accessorizing certain pieces)
Testimonial and Feedback
Acuity scheduling is built right into Squarespace and works well with the platform.
Invoicing System
Most payments are done right at booking, but if you prefer to bill the client after, you can use Squarespace’s new free invoicing tool to send invoice and accept payments. This makes it super easy to track clients and payments without the need for creating new invoice documents each time. It’s a professional, easy and trackable way to get paid. Plus, the client gets an automatic receipt which is always nice.
Step 8: Marketing Tips
Announcement Bar or Promotional Pop-up
Use this core marketing feature to announce specials, upcoming events and exciting things you’re working on or want to promote. If you have an event coming up, you can use these to link directly to event registration or purchasing a specific package.
Go to Pages → Website Tools → Marketing to find them.
Step 9: Preview and Launch
Before going live, preview your website to ensure everything is functioning correctly across different devices. Check for broken links, typos, and formatting issues. Once you’re satisfied with the appearance and content, publish your site on your own domain. Here’s how to do that:
Publish your site by selecting a plan. I highly recommended the “Core Plan” —you can use code MOUSHI20 for 20% off.
With the Core Plan and above, you get a free domain for a year with Squarespace. Take advantage of this! Choose a domain and publish your site on there.
Wait 1-2 hours for the website to go live around the world.
Finally, share your website with your network. Add it to your link in bio, email signature, business cards, print material, etc. Set a checkins throughout the year to go in and update your website as needed.
Voila. You’ve got the beginning of an online presence.
I’m so proud of you.
