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28 June 2026
The one with the premature website launch(es)...
Building my site on Squarespace felt like assembling a large piece of Ikea furniture solo. It’s fun. Really fun… and then it’s kind of hard.
On June 6th, I decided to start building the website for my blog. After some research—thank God for YouTube—I purchased the domain ‘marvyn.co.uk’ for £1. Well, £1 for the first year and then £10 annually… bargain(?)
I’d already started Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course and was still reading Atomic Habits, but this felt like taking real action.
I’d also committed to a website builder for my blog.
Squarespace.
Building this site reminded me of putting my Ikea double bed together because, just like the Ikea bed catastrophe of 2020, I thought, “I’ve got this,” and stopped following the instructions (tutorials in this case). I then proceeded to make mistakes that could have been avoided.
A few honourable mentions:
•Failing to switch between desktop and mobile view when arranging the layout.
• Uploading a temporary favicon (the logo in the browser tab). Once uploaded, the image doesn’t always change immediately, even when replaced on Squarespace.
• Not saving (I know, I know). Don’t exit a page without saving.
• Connecting my domain to a draft project. Connect the domain once you’ve committed to a project on your website builder of choice, not while you’re still learning the ropes.
Despite all of the mistakes, a few days went by and the site looked presentable. I had a homepage, as well as pages for my digital marketing blog, reading list, and course notes. My first blog post was scheduled and I’d created and linked an Instagram (@marvyn.co.uk) to the site's homepage.
I’d also set up Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console and connected them to my domain.
It was ready.
I hit publish.
…and then realised I needed a privacy policy.
So I unpublished the site, used Squarespace’s templates to create a policy page, and then hit publish. Again.
But the site wasn’t showing up in Google Search.
sigh.
So, it turns out websites need SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates before they’re considered secure, and mine was still processing…
It was time to wait—and wait I did.
This blog post was almost called The One with the Processing SSL Certificate. Seriously.
72 long hours of nail-biting and then…
“Certificate Inactive”.
URGH!!
I’ll make a long story less long: I eventually realised I needed to connect the domain I’d bought to Squarespace via the DNS (Domain Name System) records first.
This time, it only took a few hours for the certificate to show as ‘Active’, but while I waited—and prepared myself for another potential hurdle—I decided to adopt a new mindset for my digital marketing journey:
“If something is challenging or difficult, it’s an opportunity for growth. The harder the challenge, the more niche my skill set will become.”
An inability to complete things or do difficult tasks is a huge contributor to feeling hopeless. This small shift in perspective felt like a whole course correction.
“Certificate Active.”
The site was published and analytics were running.
It was time to start posting content.