ThinkInsideTheSquare

37: Squarespace Blueprint Review: Can AI really create a good website, content and all?

• Becca Harpain • Episode 37

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Can AI really build you a good website? Squarespace thinks it can. In this episode of ThinkinsideTheSquare, we’ll be taking a closer look at Squarespace Blueprint, the AI template builder Squarespace created to help you build a website lightning fast.

You’ll learn about the setup process, the content creation process, and how I plan to incorporate this into my own website creation process.
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The term "Squarespace" is a trademark of Squarespace, Inc. This video was not approved or endorsed by Squarespace, Inc. I just really love their platform ♥

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The term "Squarespace" is a trademark of Squarespace, Inc. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace, Inc.

For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast

Speaker 1:

Can AI make a good website? Squarespace thinks it can. In late 2023, squarespace launched Blueprint, an AI platform designed to build your website colors, layouts, copy, and all based on your responses to five questions. In this episode of Think Inside the Square, I'm sharing my thoughts. Do designers need to be worried or is AI still behind the curve of the manual Midas touch? Welcome to Think Inside the Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a website that you're proud of. I'm your host, becca Harpain, squarespace expert and creator of InsideTheSquareco. In this episode, we're talking about Squarespace Blueprint, another fancy thing to come out of the Squarespace product suite. It's an AI model that isn't here to chat. It's here to take your responses to only five specific questions and supposedly, build you a website. I gave it a try a few times and I wanted to fill you in on what I learned. For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquareco. Forward slash podcast. The term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace Incorporated. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace Incorporated.

Speaker 1:

When I say AI, most of us immediately start thinking of ChatGPT, midjourney, google's Gemini, formerly BARD. There are a lot of popular chatbots out there that became really popular really fast. But those chatbots are just one type of artificial intelligence. The truth is, you've already been using AI for years. The concept of intelligent machines has captivated inventors and thinkers for literally centuries. In the mid-20th century, alan Turing, a pioneer computer scientist, proposed a new test, now known as the Turing test, to determine if a machine could exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to or really indistinguishable from that of a human. This test continues to be a benchmark for AI development today. While some early attempts focused on replicating the human thought process, the modern AI that we're interacting with takes a much more pragmatic approach. By leveraging algorithms and vast amounts of data, ai systems can learn and adapt to perform specific tasks with pretty impressive accuracy, from facial recognition software to recommendation engines on your favorite shopping websites and, of course, your friendly roommate Alexa or Google. Ai is already woven into the fabric of our daily lives.

Speaker 1:

Squarespace Blueprint is a type of AI, but it's a little different than the one you're used to using every day. It's described as a guided website design system that provides these curated layouts and style options to help you build a Squarespace website fast. It takes your responses to five core questions and creates a combination of content that it thinks you're going to like. This combination is generated through artificial intelligence. Now, in this episode, I want to talk about what those five questions are and about how Squarespace AI has introduced a content writing component to this whole process, which was really fascinating.

Speaker 1:

So let's go ahead and start with the actual questions from Blueprint itself. The first actual question is what is your site called? There's some disclaimer text to help people get over the pregame panic, as I like to say. It says no worries, if you're brainstorming, you can always update your site title later, which is true. I always tell my clients to not stress over their first draft. Websites are not permanent. It's not like a gigantic, expensive billboard that takes hours and a lot of money to redo. Updating your website text, even just the title, it's easy peasy. So write your title and you'll move on to the next section. Just the title, it's easy peasy. So write your title and you'll move on to the next section.

Speaker 1:

The next part of this blueprint process takes you to a list titled build your homepage. It says build your homepage section by section, adding as many or as few sections as you need. Then there are a list of sections intro products, services, appointments, digital products, about social forms and, last but not least, footer sections. If you click on any of these, you'll see a preview of the homepage on the left and an overlay of options, so you can pick the section style that you want to see. It's basically like adding a page section inside Squarespace. You'll see the pre-made layouts that a lot of us already use. After you get set up there, you'll be on to question three and, honestly, this is where it becomes more of a quiz.

Speaker 1:

Add pages to your site is the statement for question three. Squarespace states we recommend starting with these, but you can always add or remove pages later. Again, websites aren't set in stone. I like that. They keep reminding people of this. So what are your page options? Here's the list that they keep reminding people of this. So what are your page options? Here's the list About contact shop services, appointments, course Ending with course. I think that's a bold choice, but I also expected some others on that list, like events portfolio blog. Why isn't blog on the list? Sure, it's easy to add, but I found it really interesting that it wasn't even an option for folks that are creating their website this way.

Speaker 1:

Okay, there are two more questions on this quiz and both of them are about design. First up is colors. Blueprint asks you to pick one of 32 color palettes that feature a combination of three colors each. We had another reminder here that we can always change that later. And then the last question of the five Blueprint questions choose a font pairing. There are 24 pairs here, and again we're told there are other options to look at later. So to recap, we've got site title, homepage layout pages, colors, fonts and then your template is ready.

Speaker 1:

But that's not the end of the process. Squarespace has one more question. Technically there are only five questions for Blueprint, but they've thrown in one more question Do you want to personalize your website text faster than ever with Squarespace AI? If you answer yes, you get taken to a three-part quiz about your content. Squarespace has integrated its content AI into the Blueprint process and will fill out those pages you selected with content written based on your answers. Here are the questions in the content-focused AI portion of this site build. First it asks you to describe your site. It won't put this anywhere on the site because it's going to use your answer to generate your content.

Speaker 1:

I was super curious about it, so I plugged in an example called Becca's Bistro and Bakery. I told it that I was based in Vancouver and specialized in breakfast, brunch and baked goods. I also said we had a signature croissant. Then the next question in this quiz is choose a writing style to set the tone for your site. Your options are neutral, playful, professional, friendly, informative and quirky. When I told Squarespace Blueprint AI Copy Generator to give me a neutral answer, this was its response. At Becca's Bistro and Bakery in Vancouver, we take pride in serving up delectable breakfast and brunch options along with a tempting array of freshly baked treats, with a special focus on our renowned croissants. That was a lengthy response, but that's the neutral response I got from Squarespace AI. Then I asked it to be playful. It replied with come taste the magic of Becca's Bistro and Bakery in Vancouver. Indulge in our scrumptious breakfast and brunch options, but make sure to leave room for our famous croissants. You won't be able to resist. I also wanted to see its response for professional. Its response was Again, there are six options and I won't read them all here. I want you to try them. You can check out all six responses that I got and get a link to Blueprint in the show notes at insidethesquareco forward slash podcast, but I wanted to give you a sample of what kind of information this AI content generator is generating. Again, there were six options neutral, playful, professional, friendly, informative and quirky.

Speaker 1:

After I made my choice, blueprint got to work and plug the content into the template it built based on my other design choices what sections I wanted on the homepage, what other pages I wanted, the colors and the fonts. And then it was ready my AI built Squarespace website. Was it pretty and perfect? Well, not so much. There were some filler images of shapes in that monochromatic Bauhaus style that Squarespace loved so much, and it really did not feel like a bakery website. However, the written content was a lot better than I expected, but I will always tell you that you need to edit any content that AI creates, add your own tone to the words, never, ever, copy it verbatim. But it was a pretty decent start. I ended up testing it for five other fake website ideas and the results were pretty much the same. The template itself was basic and the images? They were so generic that it was hard to get excited about what I created. I think they need to incorporate some image packs that match the color, themes and vibe based on the font choices or even the AI answers, that would have a huge impact.

Speaker 1:

For anyone who isn't familiar with Squarespace, if I was trying to use this to make my very first website, I would be a little disappointed with how it looked. The content, however, that was pretty impressive. I liked that it filled out every page for me and it was a much better starting point than the Squarespace version of Lorem Ipsum that we're all used to AI-generated filler text is. I liked that it filled out every single page for me and it was a much better starting point than the Squarespace version of Lorem Ipsum that we're all used to. Ai-generated filler text that's related to the reason I'm making a site is so much more inspirational than generic filler text.

Speaker 1:

I finally had the answer to my two big questions. As a Squarespace designer, would I use this? And as a Squarespace educator, would I recommend Squarespace Blueprint as a starting point? As a designer who's been using Squarespace for the better part of a decade, I know how to use the program. I know where pages are, what my layout options are and I start better when I start from scratch. I would spend more time cleaning up this site than creating a new one. So no, I would not use Blueprint to create a template.

Speaker 1:

However and this is a big however the AI content part was pretty amazing. I've already spent some time using the Squarespace content AI generator, but having it place information into pages for me was pretty great. So, as a Squarespace designer, here's how I could see utilizing Squarespace Blueprint to make my creation process easier. I would create a homepage layout with all of the sections and then select every single page option within Reason, then ask AI to fill in the content gaps. When the site was ready, I would move literally every page into an AI folder in the not linked section and build the site from scratch, but then I would use that content in the AI folder as a point of reference. That is the time saver side of this process that I can't ignore.

Speaker 1:

Now that AI is everywhere online, my clients are wanting to be more hands-off with the first draft. They want me to share a site with images and text they can edit, and using Blueprint might end up being the first part of the process. To be clear here, I have not used it for a client yet. I take on one pro bono project and one paid project every quarter. I'm recording this in the first week of April 2024, and I have not selected my clients for this quarter yet, so I will be asking them first do you want to try this before I actually implement it for a project? We'll see what they think and how it goes in a real life application, but in practice, it's a cool concept that needs a lot of work to get to the quality of work that it sounds like it's going to create. It's great for marketing. It's got a lot of potential, but I think you should watch the demo I recorded before you give it a try Again. You'll find that at insidethesquareco forward slash blueprint, and I'll link to it in the show notes too.

Speaker 1:

I am a big fan of AI and incorporating it into my work, so this was a fun topic to dig into today. I wanted to share this exciting new tool with you to see if it could help you create a website that you're proud of, and Squarespace Blueprint could be a stepping stone on your content creation journey, but only if you know how to use it. As a Squarespace educator, I'm not going to encourage people to get started with it just yet, but, as we all know, squarespace is constantly making updates and developments, so I could change my tune over the next couple of months. No matter what cool programs there are out there to work with, it is so important to remember that AI is here to help you, but not be you. It's more important than ever to have that human touch when it comes to creating content. It might be tempting to pass everything off to our robot friends, but the world needs you to be a part of it. I've been using AI to brainstorm new ideas, streamline some processes, and I used it to edit the audio of this very podcast, but the content I'm recording here was written by me. The content on my website was written by me. The website I deliver to my clients will always be built by me.

Speaker 1:

Ai is here for pattern recognition and data analysis, but it can't replicate the human touch of creativity and strategic thinking. But it can't replicate the human touch of creativity and strategic thinking. The true power and the magic that we have access to lies in harnessing the efficiency of AI to streamline some initial steps, like creating a template that we can then add our own unique style to Squarespace. Blueprint can provide the foundation, but it is not the finished product, those final flourishes and that creative direction that's all up to you. Ai offers valuable time-saving assistance in all kinds of things, especially when it comes to creating an online business, but it should never, ever overshadow your own creative vision. If you decide to give Squarespace Blueprint a try, remember that, those final flourishes and that creative direction, that's all up to you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Inside the Square. I hope you're intrigued, excited and inspired to create a website that's uniquely yours. I would love to help. I focus on teaching people how to create and customize their Squarespace websites. You can learn more about me at insidethesquareco. Thanks again for listening and, most importantly, have fun with your Squarespace website. Bye for now. Excited about Squarespace AI, here's a pro tip before you get started. It does not work the same way that ChatGPT does. When you're writing a prompt for Squarespace AI, you need to follow a five-part framework. Grab my free guide that outlines this framework and has 22 prompts to get you started at insidethesquareco forward slash prompt. That's insidethesquareco forward slash prompt.