CSS Tips and Tricks for Squarespace

Why This Matters

You’ve picked a Squarespace template, plonked your text and photos in, and yet, for reasons your mum can’t quite articulate, your website somehow looks suspiciously like every other Squarespace website on the internet. Most people stop there. You don’t have to.

If you want your site to genuinely reflect your brand rather than a vague recollection of a lifestyle blog from 2016, CSS is how you get there. Spending hours trying to squeeze personal style out of built-in settings will only get you so far. You’ll only ever be wrestling someone else’s design choices. Worse, your site might turn off potential customers who’ve seen that exact layout a dozen times.

Here’s some useful news: a small CSS tweak can ripple across your whole site, fixing pain points, showcasing your personality, and even impressing the seven people visiting your portfolio at midnight. If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’d prefer to join the club of those who’ve moved past default fonts and 14 shades of vague beige.

This guide is yours: practical, honest, and always free from empty marketing jargon.

Common Pitfalls

Ask around in any Squarespace Facebook group and you’ll spot the same laments:

• “I added custom CSS and now weird things happen on every page!”
• “I tried to restyle one headline and it broke the rest of my site.”
• “The Chrome DOM Inspector looks like something from The Matrix. I don’t know where to start.”
• “I want to tweak a section, but have no idea how to target just that part without muting my entire website.”

The underlying problem comes from not knowing where CSS should live (site-wide vs. page-specific), misunderstanding how selectors work, and a touch of mortal terror at Chrome’s DevTools. There’s also plenty of copy-and-paste from random forums, usually resulting in accidental chaos.

Most disasters are avoidable with a structured approach. Save yourself the internal screaming that follows an accidental site-wide colour change by getting familiar with the working basics and a few best practices.

Step-by-Step Fix

If you want your Squarespace site to feel distinctly yours (instead of a “Spot the Difference” exercise with a competitor down the road), here’s how you do it, all without losing sleep or breaking things for fun.

Step 1: Know Your CSS Basics

Don’t panic. You don’t need a computer science degree, just a sense of what CSS actually is.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls how stuff looks on your website. HTML tells the browser what’s there—a heading, a button, a photo—while CSS tells it that the heading is navy, buttons should be round, and images must absolutely scream “moody photographer in Cornwall.”

Think of HTML as your shed’s skeleton and CSS as the paint, shelving, and assortment of inexplicable mugs.

If you’re totally new, this is the kind of thing you’ll see in a CSS panel:

h2 {
  color: #0f3245;
  font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif;
  text-transform: uppercase;
}

It means every H2 heading will render in that specific shade of dark blue, use the Montserrat font, and become ALL CAPS. There are hundreds of rules you can try, but the above will do you for a start.

Step 2: Decide Where Your CSS Should Live

Now for a classic Squarespace headache: where do you actually put your CSS?

Option A: The Custom CSS Panel (Applies Everywhere)

• From your Squarespace dashboard, go to Design > Custom CSS.
• Paste your CSS there. Anything here affects all pages at once.

This works well for site-wide tweaks, like font changes, universal button styling, or removing Comic Sans everywhere. But if you only wanted to nudge one section, you’ll need to be more specific.

Option B: Page Header Code Injection (Affects Just One Page)

• Edit the specific page, click the gear icon (settings), and look for Advanced > Page Header Code Injection.
• Any CSS here only applies to this page.

Applying CSS this way means you can go wild with experimental background gradients on your About page without affecting the rest of your site.

Step 3: Inspect to Select Using Chrome’s Tools Without Fear

You’ll have spotted the “Inspect” option when right-clicking your live site. Most people, sensibly, close the panel immediately and make tea instead.

But the Chrome DevTools (or “DOM Inspector”) lets you peer behind the curtain, see each element’s unique selector, and even preview CSS changes live.

How to use it:

1. Right-click on the bit you want to style—maybe a headline that insists on being grey. Click “Inspect.”
2. Chrome splits, and dev tools appear. The element you clicked is highlighted in the HTML panel.
3. On the right, see its various CSS rules. You can change things here and the page will update live for you only (nothing is published).

You should see something like:

h1, .Heading {
  color: #ababab;
}

Tweak colour or size. If it looks promising, copy the working code to your custom CSS area back in Squarespace.

Step 4: Get Specific and Target Only What You Want to Change

The endless parade of “body” and “h1” selectors is a recipe for chaos. If you want to change just one section or a single text block, you’ll need a more targeted approach.

Squarespace assigns every content “block” or section a unique ID. You can use this in your CSS, like so:

#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1657590733279_7234 h4 {
  color: #e66699;
}

Finding these block IDs:

• Right-click the section or block, Inspect, and look for something like id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_..." in the code.
• Or, even easier, use the Squarespace Collection/Block Identifier Chrome plugin. Once installed, it shows the IDs right on the site.

Step 5: Add Custom Heading Styles the Right Way

Squarespace gives you three heading sizes. But HTML has six. There’s no reason to settle for only half the available options.

1. Add a Markdown Block (not a text block) to your page.
2. Enter your custom headings like this:

   # Heading 1
   ## Heading 2
   ### Heading 3
   #### Heading 4
   ##### Heading 5
   ###### Heading 6
   

3. Save and preview your page. The first three will look as expected. The last three have no default styling in Squarespace.

Here’s where your shiny new CSS skills come in:

h4 {
  font-size: 1.3rem;
  color: #5a365c;
  margin-bottom: 1em;
}
h5 {
  font-size: 1.1rem;
  color: #575d90;
  text-transform: uppercase;
}
h6 {
  font-size: 0.95rem;
  color: #aba3c8;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
}

Add variations as needed!

#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1657590733279_12345 h4 {
  color: #22cc88;
}

This lets you have six stylish headings on one page, without spreading the same changes across your entire site.

Step 6: Combining Custom CSS with Plugins

In some cases, you may want more advanced effects. By pairing your CSS with free plugins, you can add features Squarespace doesn’t natively support. Over at Pixelhaze, we’ve published a handful: rollover image effects, sticky anchor menus, and gradient buttons, all built for compatibility with Squarespace’s structure.

Find them for free at Pixelhaze Free Plugins, and check the CSS they come with. Most can be dropped in, tweaked, and personalised fast.

What Most People Miss

Here’s what often gets overlooked: CSS relies on specificity, not just trying a variety of new rules.

Success in custom Squarespace styling requires learning which elements to target and how deeply to nest your selectors. Instead of writing h2 { color: red; } and complaining when everything’s red, you get clever:

• Use section, block, or collection IDs to focus your CSS.
• Comment your CSS—nobody ever regretted a helpful note.
• Remember, styles cascade down. The more specific selector has priority. If something’s not changing, check if a more specific rule is blocking you.
• Make small changes, publish, check mobile. Repeat.

Additionally, never underestimate how dull most “custom” Squarespace sites are. You can stand out by actually testing and personalising your tweaks, instead of simply copying the first Stack Overflow answer you stumble across.

The Bigger Picture

Picking up CSS skills for Squarespace is more valuable than you might expect. Every minute spent learning to tweak, fix, and control your own styling helps you avoid unnecessary “customisation” add-ons or agency fees later.

As your site expands with more products, extra pages, or seasonal changes, you’ll have the ability to make updates quickly, knowing your branding always fits. You’ll avoid endless template adjustments and prevent some global font change causing a mild cardiac event before a big launch.

Best of all: your site looks and feels unique. Not the default demo, not last year’s hot real estate template, and certainly not the local yoga instructor’s clone site. That brings you credibility, scalability, and satisfaction, along with the quiet pleasure of technical confidence.

Jargon Buster

• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): The code that makes things look pretty (or ugly, depending).
• HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The underlying structure of your web pages—the bones, if you will.
• DOM Inspector/DevTools: The browser’s own tool for letting you peek behind web pages and make safe changes.
• Block ID: The unique identifier for each bit of content—crucial for targeting only what you want with your CSS.
• Markdown Block: A simpler way to add headings, lists, and links in Squarespace using basic formatting.
• Selector: The bit of CSS that says “this is the thing I want to change.” Can be as broad as h1 or as precise as #block-yui... h4.
• Page Header Code Injection: A place inside Squarespace pages to paste CSS (or other code) that only runs on that page.

FAQs

Q: Will custom CSS break my Squarespace site?
A: Not if you’re careful. Stick to well-formed CSS and test changes on a duplicate page or with the Site Styles preview open. Undo anything that upsets the balance of the universe.

Q: Can I just copy-paste CSS from the internet?
A: Sometimes it works, but you’re gambling. Always scan for selectors specific to other sites. If it says .product-title and you’ve got no such class, nothing will happen.

Q: How do I know what to target?
A: Use the Chrome DOM Inspector, or the Squarespace Block Identifier plugin. Scrutinise the code until you spot the unique block or section for the bit you want to style.

Q: Why do some of my styles get ignored?
A: CSS works on the principle of specificity. If Squarespace adds a more specific selector, it’ll have priority. Use IDs, make your selector more detailed, or try !important as a last resort (but don’t overuse it!).

Q: How do I style buttons in Squarespace with CSS?
A: Find the button class or block ID, and write your CSS targeting it. Example:

.sqs-block-button-element--medium {
  background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a855f7, #f472b6);
  border-radius: 2em;
}

Q: Does this change affect mobile?
A: Usually, yes. Always check mobile previews after you add CSS. If the style doesn’t look right, use media queries to adjust for smaller screens.

Q: I want a really custom font. Can I add my own?
A: Yes. You can use @font-face rules, or link to web fonts (like Google Fonts) in your Custom CSS or Page Header Injection. For a full step-by-step, see our detailed guide.

Wrap-Up

If you only take one thing away from this, remember: Squarespace is easy to use but doesn’t have to be restrictive. A little CSS knowledge is all it takes to break out of the template and truly personalise your site.

• Learn the basics of selectors
• Pick the right place for your code
• Inspect with confidence
• Be specific, be tidy, and always test

You’ll save hours, avoid rookie mistakes, and when someone asks, “Did you build that yourself?”, you can honestly say yes, with a slightly smug smile.

Want more helpful systems like this? Join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.