The Section Styling Mistake That Leaves Squarespace Sites Looking Generic

Transform your Squarespace site by learning how to style individual sections with CSS, breaking free from bland, uniform designs.

Styling Separate Squarespace 7.1 Sections with CSS

Styling Separate Squarespace 7.1 Sections with CSS

Why This Matters

If you’ve ever found yourself wincing at the sight of another vanilla Squarespace site, you’re not alone. The platform tries desperately to keep things visually consistent (read: homogenous), which is handy until you want that one section you care about to stand out from the monochrome crowd. Maybe it’s a call to action that needs shouting, a testimonial crying out for some actual personality, or a product block that you’d like not to vanish into the abyss of everything else. The real challenge is clear: tweak one style and, by default, you’re tweaking everything. The whole page, sometimes the whole site. Cue the involuntary eye twitch.

This matters for one excellent reason: nobody wants a brand, offer, or idea to look like an afterthought. You don’t want clients or customers squinting at your carefully crafted pages and wondering if you missed a section. You want control, clarity, and that moment where someone scrolls, pauses, and actually reads the thing you care about. That’s not possible if your site is held hostage by broad-brush, one-size-fits-all CSS.

Customising a single section with code lets you protect your creativity without risking a domino effect throughout the rest of your site. You can experiment, test, and, if inspiration strikes, reverse what you want, where you want. And all without suffering through “Help! My navigation menu has turned lime green!” support tickets.

Common Pitfalls

A classic rookie move is reaching gleefully for the Custom CSS panel and typing in something like h2 { font-weight: bold; }. You hit Save, reload, and every heading in sight bulks up like it’s started a new gym routine. Another favourite mistake is slapping a class onto a style, only to forget that Squarespace isn’t handing out custom section classes like party favours.

A basic error is not realising that most Squarespace CSS selectors are global by default. By treating your intended tweak as unique, you can swiftly wind up in a cascade of unintended chaos: site-wide font sizes, mismatched padding, or (personal story) a button that suddenly started moonwalking across every page. Nobody wants to debug jazzing up a newsletter sign-up, only to discover their home page above the fold has mutated.

If you don’t take care to pinpoint the exact section you want to style, you’re setting yourself up for pain, confusion, and possible rage-quitting. Fixable, sure, but cheaper in aspirin if you get it right the first time.

Step-by-Step Fix

1. Get Acquainted with the DOM Inspector

Before you reach for your wizard’s hat, you need the right tool for the spell. The DOM Inspector is your browser’s backstage pass to every HTML element on the page. Think of it as x-ray specs for websites, minus the risk of seeing anything unsavoury.

Step-by-step:

  • Open your site in Chrome, Firefox, or Safari (don’t bother asking me about Internet Explorer).
  • Right-click the section you want to style. If you’re on a laptop or just fancy keyboard shortcuts, use Ctrl + Click (or Cmd + Click on a Mac).
  • Choose ‘Inspect’ or ‘Inspect Element’ from the context menu. This will open a side panel full of curly brackets, angle brackets, and mysterious code. Don’t panic.
  • You’ll see a sea of code, but focus on the top-left: look for an icon of a cursor over a box. This is the Element Selector.
  • Click that icon, then move your mouse over the page. As you hover, you’ll see different website bits light up like a Christmas tree.
  • Click the section you want, selecting only that section, including its outer container. Don’t be distracted by internal blocks or individual headlines.

Pixelhaze Tip:
If you’re new to the DOM Inspector, give yourself five minutes to poke around and click different elements just to see what’s what. The worst outcome is learning something and closing the Inspector. Nothing on your live site is changed by looking.
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2. Hunt Down the Unique Section ID

Every single section created in Squarespace 7.1 gets a unique identifier, similar to an electronic fingerprint. It’s called the data-section-id, and you’ll use it to target only the section you want to style. Your task is to locate it and make a careful note.

Step-by-step:

  • In the DOM panel, look for the <section> tag highlighted after your last click.
  • Inside this section tag, search for data-section-id="somethingthatlookslikethis".
  • The value (a long string of numbers and letters) is your golden ticket.
  • Double-click directly on the ID value to highlight it. Copy to clipboard with Ctrl + C (or Cmd + C if you’re aboard the Apple ship).

Pixelhaze Tip:
Section IDs are unique. If you ever duplicate a section for convenience, Squarespace assigns the new copy its own ID. Always double-check that you’ve copied the ID from the version actually on the live page—not an older sibling, not an evil twin.
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3. Write Targeted CSS for Just One Section

Armed with your unique ID, go to Settings > Advanced > Custom CSS in your Squarespace dashboard. Here you can write CSS, and Squarespace auto-saves every keystroke.

Step-by-step:

  • Start your selector like this:
    .page-section[data-section-id="your-copied-id-here"]
  • Add a space, then the HTML element you want to target. For example, to make all h3 tags bright orange only in this section, write:
    .page-section[data-section-id="123abc456def"] h3 { color: orange; }
  • You can chain further selectors or add more styles as you wish: 
    .page-section[data-section-id="123abc456def"] {
   background: #222;
   padding: 4rem 0;
}
.page-section[data-section-id="123abc456def"] h2 {
   font-size: 2.4rem;
   font-family: 'Oswald', sans-serif;
}
  • Save your changes, then preview the page.

Pixelhaze Tip:
Always test new CSS in an incognito or private browsing window after saving. This allows you to ignore cached styles—so you’re seeing what fresh visitors see, not what your browser thinks the site should look like.
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4. Iterate Safely: Test, Undo, and Refine

CSS gives you flexibility, and changes are only permanent if you choose. Small changes mean small risks. Large, sweeping edits often mean more complex support conversations, potentially with yourself at 1am.

Step-by-step:

  • Make one change at a time using the selector and property method above.
  • Use Cmd + Z (or Ctrl + Z) in the CSS panel to instantly undo if you spot a disaster.
  • Preview changes before hitting Publish.
  • Check your section on different device sizes—Squarespace’s responsive design is good, but not infallible.

Pixelhaze Tip:
If your custom style isn’t showing up, double-check for typos in your selector. One misplaced number will silence the CSS completely. If things still misbehave, try adding !important to your rule as a test:
.page-section[data-section-id="123abc456def"] h3 { color: red !important; }
If it suddenly works, another style is fighting yours. Adjust your selector to be more specific rather than relying on !important. Using !important should be a last resort.
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5. Troubleshooting and Common Gotchas

Everyone has moments when their section styles refuse to appear as expected. Here are some common missteps and their fixes.

Step-by-step:

  • If the style “leaks” to the rest of the page:
    You’re probably missing the section selector. Check that your CSS really starts with .page-section[data-section-id=...].

  • Style simply not appearing:
    You might be targeting the wrong HTML element, or there’s a typo in your selector. It could even be that your CSS is being outranked (also known as “overridden”) by something in Squarespace’s theme. View the computed styles in the DOM Inspector to check what’s winning.

  • Section ID changes unexpectedly:
    If you delete and re-add a section, Squarespace assigns a new ID. After major edits or section shuffles, always re-check the ID. Make this a habit.

Pixelhaze Tip:
Get into the habit of commenting your Custom CSS with what it targets, like this:
💡

/* Styling for CTA block - aqua background */
.page-section[data-section-id="79f2ab5c..."] {
     background: aqua;
 }

This will save you or your future self a lot of frustration.

What Most People Miss

A crucial detail that many overlook is the skill of combining section IDs with more advanced selectors. For example, you can style only images within a section, or even drill down to a form field inside a block, all using your unique section ID combined with additional selectors.

Another effective approach is using section-level CSS for one-off campaign tweaks. If you’re launching a Christmas offer, for example, add a snowflake background and bold typography only to the promo section. Later, you can revert those changes easily without affecting the rest of your site.

The Bigger Picture

Mastering section-specific styling saves you precious time and prevents endless confusion about unexpected changes. You also gain independence for each area of your site, so you’re not stuck fixing tangled code decisions made long ago.

Custom section CSS helps you build your own library of reusable snippets. If you want another client’s sales section to stand out, just copy and paste—swap the section ID, and you’re done. This approach also makes transitions smoother when your business or your client heads in a new direction. Sections remain isolated, so experiments or last-minute changes don’t impact your entire site.

You will also build credibility with clients and colleagues. People start to approach you with more interesting questions because you can resolve issues quickly and efficiently.

Wrap-Up

Section-targeted CSS in Squarespace 7.1 offers a blend of creative control and reliability. Identify those section IDs, apply your styles thoughtfully, and global design catastrophes become a thing of the past. With a few well-placed lines of code, you achieve real control, design confidence, and the ability to deliver surprises to your users—one section at a time.

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

FAQs

How do I find the section ID in Squarespace 7.1, again?
Open the DOM Inspector, pick the section with your cursor, and look for data-section-id in the HTML. Copy the value—job done.

Can I style only certain elements within a section?
Absolutely. Your CSS can go as specific as you need. For example, style only buttons or headings inside one section using things like
.page-section[data-section-id="..."] button { ... }.

Will this break anything for mobile users?
If you write responsive-friendly CSS (including media queries), your designs will hold up nicely. Always test on multiple devices.

Can I undo section-specific CSS easily?
Just remove or comment out your code in the Custom CSS panel. Squarespace doesn’t save versions of Custom CSS, so copying your work into a text file occasionally is wise.

What about built-in classes or the Squarespace editor?
Those only get you so far. Custom CSS with section IDs is the surgical tool when the standard kit won’t do the job.

Elwyn Davies heads up Pixelhaze Academy. Many websites have survived his late-night tinkering and a healthy dose of CSS trial and error. When he’s not wrangling section IDs, you’ll find him sharing practical web design tips or plotting new plugin ideas.

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