Building websites for clients

Building websites for clients

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Last updated April 13, 2026 18:05

As a web designer, you may offer website building services to your clients. When building a site for someone else, there are a few key steps to take to ensure a smooth handoff once the project is complete. If you’re eligible, you can also become a Circle partner and receive credit for bringing new clients to Squarespace.

In this guide, learn how to set up a client’s site, get credit for your work, and hand off the site to your client.

Join Squarespace Circle

Squarespace Circle is a program designed to support, inspire, and engage the creatives, developers, and designers who use Squarespace to build beautiful websites for themselves and their clients. To learn more about eligibility and partner perks, visit Getting started with Squarespace Circle.

Get credit for your sites

When you set up a Squarespace website for your client, if you're a Circle partner, you may be eligible to receive a commission through the Circle referral payments program. Depending on the subscription plan, you can earn money for each subsequent subscription you bring in after you meet the unlock threshold. Learn more about the qualifying subscriptions and commission amounts.

When building the site for your client, ensure that you start the trial to receive credit. Learn more about the referral payments program.

Add clients as contributors

As you’re working on the site for the client, you can invite them as a contributor. You can assign them the necessary permissions to access any parts of the site they’ll need to work on. Once they accept the contributor invitation, they can log into Squarespace and access the website.

Create password protected pages

When you’re setting up a website for a client, you can add a password to the site pages so the content is private until your client is ready to take the site live. We recommend that you add the password before adding any page content to ensure it’s not indexed by search engines.

Handing off a website to your client

When it’s time to hand off the website to your client, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Talk with the client to determine who will take over the site, and transfer ownership to that user.
Walk the client through how to invite more contributors, and which permissions are available.
Your client may have questions about their subscriptions or other Squarespace products. Go over our pricing page and help them choose a plan that works best for their business.
You may also consider helping them understand site migration best practices.

For a complete list of steps to take when handing off a project, visit the offboarding clients handbook on the Circle blog.

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Building websites for clients