6 of the best blog templates for Squarespace
The first step in setting up a blog on Squarespace is to pick a template — here’s how to choose a good one.
If you’re planning on launching a blog on Squarespace and want to get traffic, you need to make sure you’re choosing a template that will allow you to publish a lot of written content.
All Squarespace 7.1 templates have the same features, but what I often see is the blog page added on as an afterthought, rather than placed front and centre. This makes sense — a lot of people still ignore Squarespace as a platform for blogging and publishing editorial content.
Squarespace is typically thought of as a platform for portfolio websites, or small businesses, but I stubbornly think it’s a great place to start a blog.
With my Squarespace travel blog, I:
Make consistent monthly income;
Have attracted freelance writing clients;
And have created more flexibility to travel.
If you also dream of writing and publishing content to a blog, you’re in the right place. To help you get started on the right foot, these are what I consider to be the best templates for blogging on Squarespace.
I have included affiliate links on this page, which means I may make a small commission if you make a purchase via those links. Thanks for your support <3
Blog templates overview
I’ll go into more detail below about why I like each of these templates, but if you just want a snapshot these are my top picks:
Squarespace (free) — suggested template the McCurry Template
Before you start shopping around
A FEW THOUGHTS ON WHAT YOU DON’T NEED IN A BLOG TEMPLATES FOR SQUARESPACE
Forget about side bars, you really don’t need them. The majority of people will visit your website on mobile devices, when the sidebar isn’t even visible.
Templates with video look really cool, but are a bit more risky for SEO, as they can slow down the page speed.
You won’t need to worry about a sales page template initially — for blogs, the most important pages are your blog home page, individual blog pages, home, and about pages.
You don’t need comments enabled. A lot of blogs do have comment sections, but that’s kind of a throwback to the days when blogging was more about interacting with readers in that way. Now, blogs are more like media companies (if you want to make money, anyway). Getting people to join your email list and interact with you there is more valuable.
The best Squarespace blog templates
One important thing to note about Squarespace 7.1 templates is that they all have the same core features. These templates are a starting point for the design, layout, and overall aesthetic. The better ones are set up to showcase your skills and even prompt conversion.
You aren’t limited to what you see in the template, and you can combine elements you like from different templates.
Just note you can’t magically switch from one template to another, if you change your mind later down the line. You will need to manually adapt your content if you want to switch up the look of your blog.
With a sleek editorial look, Avela Creative’s premium Montreux Squarespace Template is the ideal showcase for travel blogs with great photos and written content.
The minimal design calls to mind an online magazine, which is exactly the kind of look and feel I love for a blog (I like to think of my site as an independent publication, rather than a traditional stream-of-consciousness blog).
Big Cat Creative is a fabulous Squarespace template shop, with a range of templates for small business owners.
I like the Michi template the best for a blog, though, as it has a design suited to publishing content.
It’s a great example of how you can have fun with a Squarespace template — they don’t all have to look sleek, you can have a more maximalist effect.
The Styled Square is one of the best Squarespace templates around, with truly stunning designs.
As with most template shops, though, the templates are generally geared more towards e-commerce and small businesses like wedding photographers.
Musing is the template I would choose for a blog — I love the minimalist line design which I think lends itself well to editorial sites. It has a clean, premium magazine look.
Avela Creative’s Hoxton blog template has a simple editorial look with a minimal design.
Inspired by clean and minimalist online magazines, the Hoxton template is a great choice for a travel blog in particular — if you have great photography, this template will let your images shine.
What I also love about it is the simplicity. With this template, you can really build out your own personal brand on a strong but adaptable foundation.
The blog pages come with a few different layout options, more than you get with a free Squarespace blog template.
As one of the cheaper Squarespace templates, I think the Hoxton is a steal.
5. Santorini
This Squarespace blog template is unique in that it offers a sidebar. As I mentioned above, a sidebar is not at all a must have in a blog, but if you like the look and want to have your author bio more visible, this can be a great choice.
6. Squarespace — McCurry Template (free)
The McCurry template is a free option offered by Squarespace.
I recommend this one as it’s actually what I used to start off this High Alpine Creative site — can you tell?
You probably can’t which goes to show that the free Squarespace templates really are just starting points for a blog. I think they are great to get you off the ground, but be prepared to make a lot of changes to them.
They aren’t as comprehensively detailed as the templates you can get from independent design shops.
With Squarespace 7.1 though, there is a lot of opportunity for customising your chosen design.
Before you start shopping around, consider these important things you need in a Squarespace blog template
Design is important, but you also need to make sure the user experience of your template is great.
Responsiveness
It’s important to choose a template that is optimised for mobile. They pretty much all will be responsive, but it’s also good to check that some of the cool features you see on desktop translate to a good mobile format.
Why? Because you can expect the majority of your traffic to come from mobile devices, so you should always look for mobile-first templates, even if you’re shopping around on desktop.
A quick tip: Right click and select ‘Inspect’ to see what a template looks like on mobile, while you’re on your laptop.
Readability
The template should have a clear, legible font across the website. This makes long-form content easier to read, which is more important than having a fancy font.
Custom fonts can also slow down Squarespace websites, and page speed is an important ranking factor for blogs.
Another thing that impacts blog readability is the width of the content on the page. It should be set to a medium or narrow width, so it’s easy for readers to scan across (it should more or less be the width of a page in a book. Too much more is hard to read).
You can always tweak your blog template as you adapt it (your website is like a living thing — it will never be complete) but it helps to have readability features set up from the get go.
Visual appeal
Although the overall look of a website is less important than its function, I do believe it’s still important in terms of building your brand.
A lot of blogs look either very basic or very similar, which in my mind impacts their longevity as a business.
I’ve had a lot of readers comment to me on how much they enjoy the look and feel of my site, which I think helps build trust.
The look and feel of your website leads into your longer term vision — what are your goals for your publishing business? Is this something you want to do for a long time? If so, it’s worthwhile establishing a brand that not only appears polished, but that makes you proud.
If you’re curious about the world of travel blogging, you might be interested in reading some of my posts on how I publish content on Squarespace:
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