How to Start a Squarespace Travel Blog in 2024?
Starting a Squarespace travel blog these days is a lot easier than ever. You don’t have to be a professional web designer to do that. Squarespace is a great user-friendly platform that makes it easier for you to build a travel blog in a short period of time.
Nowadays, having a travel blog is one of the great ways to share valuable content with your audience and build an online brand. Blogging is more beneficial than you might think. It allows you to market a business, help many people, and of course, make some money on the side.
Squarespace gives you all the tools for that. It’s an awesome website-building platform that you can use to design and build a professional website for your small business. You can learn Squarespace in less than 30 minutes, it’s easy to get started.
The platform has a simple and easy-to-use editor that allows you to edit and customize a website. It’s straightforward to DIY a travel blog with Squarespace. You just pick a blog template, customize it, and then add your own content. You don’t have to know how to code.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps you need to take in order to start a great travel blog on Squarespace. So let’s get started.
How to Start a Squarespace Travel Blog
As a travel blogger, you need to have a beautiful and professional website(blog) where you can maybe share travel tips, travel experiences, destinations, or whatever you want to.
Squarespace allows you to achieve that without having to care about the technical side of things. It’s an easy-to-use platform that has everything you need to help you build your online brand as a travel blogger.
Email newsletter, online store, memberships, marketing integrations, and so on. You can do all of that with Squarespace. In addition to that, there are a lot of awesome templates that you can start with to easily create your blog.
As an expert web designer and blogger, I use Squarespace for my blog. They have a great default hosting where they host your site for you so that you don’t have to care about the technical stuff of managing a host.
Anyways, let’s go step by step on how you can start a Squarespace travel blog:
1. Start Your Squarespace Free Trial
The first step to starting your own travel blog is to create a Squarespace account and sign up for a free trial.
Squarespace gives you a 14-day free trial, no credit card is required. In addition to that, you will get a free domain name for the first year.
You can also use my affiliate code MEHDI10 for 10% off your first year of using the platform.
To create your Squarespace account, you can just use your own Google Gmail account. The process is very simple. Once you start your account, Squarespace will ask you some questions as you can see below:
They just want to know what your website is about, but you can skip that if you want. You don’t have to answer all their questions.
2. Pick a Squarespace Template
The next step is to pick a Squarespace template that you can start with in order to build your travel blog.
Squarespace comes with a lot of free flexible templates that you can use to design and build your website faster without coding knowledge. Other platforms like WordPress don’t use the term “templates”, they call them themes.
But in Squarespace, we call them templates because they are a starting point for building our website. They make it easier for us to launch our website in a short period of time. In addition to that, you can customize a template’s design and make it unique.
Now the question is which Squarespace template should you pick for a travel blog? Well, most of the templates in Squarespace 7.1 are flexible, which means you can use them for any purpose, style them, and add features to them.
No matter what template you choose, you can add a blog to it, you can add an online store, remove or add new pages, and a lot more. However, you need to start with a template that can save you a lot of time when building your site. So in order to pick a good template for your travel blog, look for something that is close to what you want to achieve.
As you can see in the above image, you can also filter templates by type and topic so that you can find what’s best for you. Just keep scrolling until you find a good template that you like. Also, don’t worry too much about the design and features of a template because you can edit and customize it.
In my opinion, I think Idrah and Fillmore are some of the best Squarespace templates that you can start with to build your travel blog.
3. Add Your Site Title and Logo
Once you create your Squarespace account and pick a template, you will be able to access the editor of Squarespace. From there, you can do everything from customizing the template and adding your content(text, images, etc.) to making your website live.
Here is what the Squarespace editor looks like:
As you can see, the editor is very user-friendly. It allows accessing pages of templates, designing and styling the template, and a lot more.
So now that you can edit your website, the first thing you need to do is add a site title and a logo. To do that, just click the edit button in the top left corner. Once you do that, double-click on the site navigation menu.
After that, a small menu will show up as you can see below:
From this menu, you can add your site title and upload your logo. In addition to that, you can also style and customize the website navigation menu from there.
If you don’t know how to edit a template on Squarespace, you can check out the video below where Christy teaches you how to easily do that.
How to edit pages in Squarespace 7.1 version.
4. Edit The Template Design and Site Styles
Of course, when you start any type of website or blog, you need to design it in order to match your branding goals. That means using styles(colors, fonts, etc) that suit your branding.
In Squarespace, it’s very easy to edit the styles and designs of a template. The editor has a design tab where you can do that. So in order to edit the site styles:
Go to the Design tab that you can see in the Squarespace editor.
Then just click site styles.
After that, the menu below will show up.
As you can see, from here you can edit the text fonts, choose a color palette for your blog, add animations, edit button styles, and a lot more.
5. Set Up Your Pages
When you start with a Squarespace template, it may probably have some pages that you would not need. So another important thing to do is to add the pages that are necessary and delete the ones that are not.
To do that inside the Squarespace editor, just click the pages tab. Once you do that, you will be able to see all the pages that your website template has.
As you can see above, there is a plus icon if you want to add any type of page(blog page, online store, portfolio page, etc). Also, if you hover on pages, two icons will show up: one icon that you can click if you want to remove a page and another icon if you want to edit the settings of a page(page URL slug, page name, page SEO, etc).
Anyways, that’s where you can edit, add, or remove any page on your website. Since your goal is to create a travel blog, make sure that your template has a blog page on the pages tab. If not, you can easily add a blog by clicking that plus icon at the top.
6. Add a Blog to Your Website
As I just said, in order to add a blog to your website on Squarespace. You just need to go to the pages tab that you will see on the home page of the Squarespace editor. Then you will be able to see a plus icon that you can click if you want to add a page.
So click that plus icon, then click the blog collection as you can see in the image below.
Once you do that, a popup will show up telling you to choose a blog layout(image below). Well, you can choose any blog layout you want. Also, keep in mind that no matter what blog layout you choose, you can customize it later and change its style.
As you can see, it’s very easy to add a blog in Squarespace. Now after choosing your blog layout, you will get access to a blog editor that will allow you to add new blog posts, customize the blog design, write blog posts, and manage the entire blog from there(settings, SEO, etc).
7. Customize the Blog Settings and Styles
After successfully adding the blog to your website, the next step is to customize the settings and design for that blog. To do that, go to the Pages tab, click on the blog that you just added, and then you will see the settings icon on the top(image below).
Once you click that icon, you will have access to the blog settings. From there, you can edit your blog name, URL slug, SEO settings for the blog page, and a lot more.
Also, if you want to customize the blog layout and styles, you can just go to the blog page inside the editor, and then click the edit button in the left corner. After that, you will be able to fully customize your blog design as you want.
You can check out the video below by Big Cat Creative. She will teach you how to use the Squarespace blogging features to easily add and fully customize a blog.
How to Start a Blog on Squarespace.
By the way, Big Cat Creative sells a lot of awesome premium Squarespace templates that you can use for your travel blog. I highly recommend a Squarespace premium template if you want to have a unique and beautiful design for your blog.
8. Start Writing Your First Blog Post
Writing a blog post on Squarespace is a lot easier than you might think. The blog editor is very user-friendly, anyone can write a blog post. You will get all the tools and features that you will need for that.
You just go to the blog page inside the Squarespace editor, then you click the plus icon at the top in order to add a new blog post. Once you do that, you will get access to the editor where you can write your blog post.
The blog editor is simple and powerful at the same time. You can add paragraphs, headings, images, videos, code blocks, and a lot more.
As you can see, there is a lot that you can do with this editor. You can add a newsletter, a map, a gallery, and more.
If you're not familiar with the Squarespace editor and you don’t know how to upload a blog post. I highly recommend that you watch the video below by Digital Essentialist. He explained a lot of things that you will need to know.
9. Get Your Domain Name and Publish Your Blog
After customizing your travel blog and adding all your content to it, you will want to make it live so that people can find it online. So you need to get a domain name, and then publish your site.
Making your website live on Squarespace is very simple. You just need to go to the settings tab, click site availability, and then upgrade to a paid subscription plan so that you can make the site public.
If you decide to pay annually, you will get a free domain name for the first year. When you choose a plan, they ask you to write the domain name that you want to use. Also, if you have an external domain name, you can easily connect it to Squarespace.
Now, which subscription plan should you pick for your travel blog? well, all the Squarespace plans allow you to have a blog. But the personal plan is a little bit limited as you can see below in the Squarespace pricing. It doesn’t allow you to add a store and you don’t get access to the code injection tools.
In my opinion, I think the business plan is the best for a travel blog. Because you will get all the features you need. You can add an online store if you want. In addition to that, you will get access to the code injection tools. You can use my affiliate code MEHDI10 for 10% off.
Is Squarespace Good for a Travel Blog?
Yes, of course. Squarespace is a great platform if you want to start a travel blog. It has all the tools and features that you will need to make your blog successful. Blogging is very easy and fun with Squarespace, the platform is very user-friendly and it integrates with a lot of marketing tools that you might need.
Squarespace is a good choice for a travel blog due to its user-friendly interface, attractive templates, mobile responsiveness, and strong support for media, such as images and videos. However, the choice ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences.
In addition to that, Squarespace is good for SEO. Personally, I use Squarespace for my blog and it makes it easier for me to rank on search results. It also makes it very simple for me to add an online store with 2 clicks if I want to.
So you can easily build a beautiful and SEO-optimized travel blog with Squarespace. You just need to follow the design and SEO best practices when doing that. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that will provide you with everything you need for your blogging business.
I highly encourage you to start a free trial with Squarespace to try all its blogging features. They give you a 14-day trial and you can use my code MEHDI10 to get a 10% discount and free domain name for the first year.
Best Squarespace Template for Travel Blog
Idrah
Idrah is one of the best Squarespace 7.1 templates that you can start with if you want to build a professional travel blog. You can easily customize its content and styles to match your branding and design goals.
What I like about this template is that the blog posts are organized by categories. Each page has blog posts that are related to its category. That’s great for travel blogs because most of the time you would want to have different categories on your blog.
Fillmore
Fillmore is another good Squarespace template that you can use to create your travel blog. It has a blog, a gallery, and an About page. You can add more pages to it. The template is easy to customize and it’s a good starting point for you as a travel blogger if you want a minimal design for your blog.
Like any other Squarespace 7.1 template, Fillmore is very flexible and you can add a lot of features to it such as an online store, portfolio, or maybe a podcast.
Can You Monetize a Blog on Squarespace?
Absolutely, like any other platform, Squarespace allows you to monetize your blog in different ways. There are a lot of monetization methods that you can use to make money from your Squarespace blog.
Some of the common ways to make money from your blog are:
Paid ads: placing ads on your blog is one of the popular ways of monetization. You can use advertising networks like Google AdSense and Ezoic to put ads on your Squarespace blog.
Affiliate income: when you refer a user to purchase a product from your affiliate link, you get a commission from that at no cost to the user. That’s called affiliate marketing. So promoting affiliate links on your blog is another way to monetize your Squarespace blog.
Selling your own products and services: another way to make money from your blog is by promoting your own products and services on it.
So these are just some popular methods to make money from your blog. There are many other ways of monetization that you can try.
Conclusion
As you can see, Squarespace has everything it takes to help you build a successful travel blog. It’s a great all-in-one platform that you can use for blogging in general.
Squarespace makes it very easy for you to get started with your travel blog. It gives all the tools and features that you might need. In addition to that, there are a lot of free templates that you can use to build websites faster.
Thank you for reading this article. Hope you found it useful.
Frequently Asked Question
This is a list of some common questions with their answers:
Is Squarespace good for blogging?
Squarespace is excellent for blogging. It provides user-friendly tools and good-looking templates. Moreover, it supports blogging with features that make content management easy. Many bloggers choose Squarespace for its simplicity and effective content creation.
How do I create a blog category in Squarespace?
To create a blog category in Squarespace, follow these simple steps:
Log in to your Squarespace account and access your website's backend.
Navigate to the Pages or Blog section, depending on your site's structure.
In the Blog section, click on the blog you want to add categories to.
Find the blog post you wish to categorize or create a new blog post.
When editing or creating a blog post, look for the "Options" or "Categories" section in the editor.
In this section, you can add a new category by typing the category name and pressing "Enter." If you already have categories, select the appropriate one.
Save your changes, and the blog post will be associated with the selected category.
You can repeat these steps for each blog post to categorize them.
By following these steps, you can effectively create and assign categories to your blog posts in Squarespace, helping organize your content for your readers.
Do I need any technical skills to start a Squarespace travel blog?
No, you don't need advanced technical skills. Squarespace is designed to be user-friendly. You can create a professional travel blog without coding knowledge. It's perfect for beginners and non-tech-savvy bloggers.
Can I customize the design of my travel blog on Squarespace?
Based on my experience using the platform, I can say that Squarespace offers a lot of customizable templates to choose from. You can customize the design, colors, and layout to match your travel blog's style and brand.
Is it possible to monetize my Squarespace travel blog?
Yes, you can monetize your Squarespace blog through various ways, such as ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and even setting up an online store if you wish to sell products. Squarespace provides all the tools and features needed for monetization.
