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One of the main challenges in building a website—or any type of online content—is drafting and refining the perfect text. Ideally, messaging should be clear, concise, and memorable, while conveying what makes your site unique. But drafting the right copy takes time, even for experienced writers. That’s what makes the potential of generative AI so compelling. Now you can use AI to help you draft quality website copy in seconds, including within Squarespace.
Want expert tips? Watch an AI webinar with Squarespace experts or learn more about Squarespace and AI in our AI content hub.
What is generative AI?
Generative AI describes AI that can create content. One type of generative AI comes from large language models (LLMs), which powers AI writing tools. LLMs are trained on enormous quantities of text to predict the next words when given a prompt. For example, if you said “It’s cloudy outside and it might ___” an LLM would probably predict that the next word in the sentence is “rain.”
LLMs repeatedly predict the next word using a prompt and the words it generates as context. The end result is that these models can generate a wide variety of high-quality sentences, paragraphs, and more.
The benefit of adding an AI writing tool into your workflow is that, once you know how to use it, it’s cost- and time-effective. In most cases, the tools are designed to be easy to learn and use, and it won’t cost you extra to use an AI copy generator.
Here’s how you can use the AI writer in the Squarespace website builder to create clean, on-brand copy.
Learn more about how AI works on Squarespace
How to create AI copy on Squarespace
You can use the AI writer across the Squarespace platform to generate copy for email blasts and newsletters, landing pages, product descriptions, blogs, online courses, video descriptions, and more. Using the AI writer in Squarespace is simple.
While editing your website, click the animated icon on the far left side of the Rich Text Editor, where you normally add your copy. The button opens a window where you can ask Squarespace AI to generate something for you.
Write a prompt, such as “Write a paragraph describing a salon located in Los Angeles, specializing in easy-to-maintain cuts and lived-in color.” and you’ll get exactly that.
Insert the resulting text into your site with a single click to get a first draft.
There are a few nuances to consider to get the best copy possible. One of the most important is to be specific in your prompt. A general, unspecific AI prompt like “write a marketing paragraph for my travel business” will generally return a general, nonspecific response, which won’t be useful.
Very detailed and precise prompts such as, “Write a paragraph about why our summer vacation package, where we provide you with two discounted yoga classes each weekend, will help you relax all summer long,” will help focus the AI’s writing and increase the likelihood of useful results.
Specificity in AI prompting can come on multiple levels. For example, you could be specific with:
The type of content that you’d like, as in the yoga studio example above.
Where the content is going—if it’s for an About page on your yoga website, include that info in your prompt.
From what perspective the writing should be—include if it’s from your perspective and what that perspective is. For example: “From the perspective of the owner, who is a yoga expert who has studied around the world and adopted the best practices in over a decade of teaching.”
The tone the copy should be in. You can describe the tone of voice or share reference text for the AI tool to mimic.
See 13 AI prompt examples for brands and businesses
How to humanize your AI-written copy
Think of AI as a creative agency partner. An agency can typically help you build a brand and develop your content, but they need to understand more about your business, who you sell to, and your brand personality before they can truly speak in your voice. The same is true for generative AI.
Have a clear understanding of those factors so you can include them in your prompts or edit output with those gut checks in mind. If it doesn’t sound like something you’d say or write, it’s not ready to share.
You can get AI copy that sounds more specific to you with Squarespace’s Brand Identity tool. Share a few descriptors about your website or business and choose a tone of voice to write in, and the AI writer will apply that to anything it generates going forward.
For example, you might write: “We are a private yoga studio based in Portland running in-person and virtual group classes focused on Hatha and Vinyasa yoga. We also organize community-oriented yoga retreats.” And then you can choose Friendly as your preferred tone of voice.
Access the tool by going to Settings > Brand or clicking the icon in the Text Editor and then the Information button on the far right of the prompt box. You can update your identity any time.
Generating website copy in Squarespace Blueprint AI
You can get help from Squarespace AI right as you’re starting a website. If you use Squarespace Blueprint AI, you’ll get the chance to share a short description of yourself or your brand. Then, preview and choose your preferred tone of voice, like “Friendly” or “Professional”.
The AI tool will draft website copy, generate bespoke images, and make guided design recommendations to build a custom website. You’ll get on-brand copy and image recommendations on every web page.
The usual advice still applies: Read each draft or prompt and make edits as needed or follow the suggestions to fill out an incomplete space. If it doesn’t feel true to you or your brand, make updates.
How to improve existing website copy with Squarespace AI
You can also ask the AI writer to update text you already have on your website. Think of this feature like an editing partner. The AI writer can:
Check your work for grammar and spelling errors
Simplify, shorten, or lengthen what you’ve written
Create an outline based on your text
Summarize existing text
To update existing text on your website with Squarespace’s AI writer:
Open the editor for any text on your website.
Highlight the text you’d like help with.
Click the animated icon.
Select from the dropdown what you’d like to do with your text.
Click Generate.
You aren’t tied to the suggested prompt starters in the AI writer either. You can start a prompt any way you’d like. For example, you might enter “Optimize this copy with three options for a call-to-action at the end of the section.” or “Incorporate the search terms ‘hair salon SoHo’ and ‘curly hair experts’, but keep the text at a similar length.”
As always, remember to double check the results from the AI tool for accuracy and clarity.
Using Squarespace AI copy for your brand
Although AI content can in many cases appear flawless, there are some times that LLMs will “hallucinate” (make up untrue things) or otherwise create copy that’s not accurate, appropriate or desirable. It’s always important to double check the content yourself, edit it and evaluate whether it’s appropriate for your website. You shouldn’t publish any text generated by AI on your site that you wouldn’t have written yourself.
We recommend viewing AI writing as a way of generating a first draft to get your creative juices flowing. Then make your own edits to make something that sounds more unique, human, and personalized. Here are a few examples of how you can optimize the text generated by Squarespace AI
Adjusting writing for your brand voice
You might start by directing the AI to write in a certain tone compatible with your brand personality. Remember, specificity is helpful. If there are certain phrases or ways of speaking you want the writer to incorporate, then include those in your prompts.
Then, refine the copy yourself to make it really reflect who you are and what you’re trying to communicate. Use your own gut as a barometer. If it doesn’t read like something you’d write or say, keep editing.
Optimizing copy for search engines
AI won’t take SEO into account unless you ask it to. Even if you do, the data it’s trained on may not be the most up-to-date for search engines, which update their algorithms regularly.
If you want to optimize your website for search visibility, start by doing your own research into the search terms that send people to your site. Then, brainstorm related or similar terms, or use a keyword research tool.
You can incorporate that research into your AI tool prompt. For example, you could write, “Write 200 words about why our summer vacation package, where we provide you with two discounted yoga classes each weekend, will help you relax all summer long. Include the phrase ‘affordable yoga’.” Or simply make the edits yourself to include common search terms and topics.
Optimizing copy for conversion
Every website has a conversion goal. For personal or portfolio websites, you might want someone to keep you in mind for projects or reach out to work together. Professionals will want visitors to fill out an outreach form or make a purchase. Content creators may want someone to follow or subscribe.
Your website copy can help you optimize your landing pages and site pages to convert visitors. Use the AI writer to brainstorm calls to action (CTAs) that compel visitors to sign up, reach out, or buy. Or ask it to make a case for the benefits your product or services offer. Share some of your site copy or details in your prompt to get more personalized results.
Re-using AI copy in different contexts
You can take the copy created by the AI tool and repurpose it for more than one use to save yourself time and effort. For example, if you ask the AI to write a description of your business, you might use the full description on your About Us page but borrow phrases for your homepage. Or you could take a lengthier description of your products and use one part for your product descriptions and another for your social media or email marketing.
Squarespace AI will be woven into more and more of the Squarespace product over time, with the aim of making creating a website and running a successful online business easier than ever.
Ready to try Squarespace AI?
This post was updated on December 16, 2024.