10 Reasons Why I Build With Squarespace
15 Minute Read
One of the most common questions I get from clients is: Why Squarespace?
It is a popular website design platform. Many have heard of it before and a good number, especially those in more creative areas, may already have a Squarespace site. Having used a few different web design platforms in the past, including Wordpress, I now design solely on Squarespace because I know that it is the platform which gets me exactly what I want - Happy clients!
Simple, design led and adaptable. Here are the top ten reasons why I design all my custom websites with Squarespace…
1. Squarespace = Design
Squarespace is a design-forward platform. Think of it like the Apple of web platforms. You can tell even from the templates that their look is sleek, on-brand and intuitive to navigate. Sites so beautiful you’ve scrolled through a few pages before you’ve even realised, becoming involved with the story of the business you are checking out. If you are doing it, your website visitor is doing it, which is good news! Although they lead with minimalistic and sleek designs, the design options are versatile.
Squarespace lets me design sites with totally different looks, all as unique as the clients I work for.
2. Squarespace Useability
At the end of the day, I am most happy when a client signs off from my web design process with the site-of-their-dreams and the knowledge of how to use it. Just before the launch comes a lesson where I talk clients through their new Squarespace website and show them how to update it in line with their needs. Whether that is adding new blogs, updating their new online shop or making sure their copy is up to date with changes in their business - It’s all in there.
Most often the response is, ‘Oh, you know, I think I can actually do this?!” and before I know it, they are adding items to the shop, blogging away and updating copy.
Makes me feel like no one even needs the two weeks of aftercare that’s included in all my web design packages! But really, it is a testament to the useability of Squarespace.
What features does Squarespace have that keeps it so simple...? A few things;
- Drag and drop items.
Not having to code in every block. The drag and drop blocks are super intuitive and mean you can easily tweak your site design whenever you want. Goodbye to the platforms where you move one item and the whole page shuffles itself.
- Grid layout
Squarespace is based on a grid, twelve columns rule the design, once you know this it’s easy to drag and drop blocks for any updates you may need to make to your site after sign off.
- Intuitive design
I would say that Squarespace's editor is not just easy to use. It is intuitive. The simple back-of-house layout means your options are always clear, easy to find and grouped in the way you expect. No looking for payment options in general settings, or SEO options in the design tab. They are all organised logically - as my clients learn in the lesson and launch session at the end of my website building experiences!
- Sitewide styles
Squarespace has site-wide styles. This means the colours, fonts and styling options are set for your whole site and can be changed accordingly. Fancy a colour update or a new font? Simply edit these in one place and your whole site will be instantly updated to match. This ensures your site is constant and on-brand throughout.
- Amazing Squarespace support.
Their customer care team are real people and, instead of talking in circles with a chatbot, really helpful. If you do find yourself trying to do something complicated they are great at talking through solutions, helping with your Squarespace accounts and payments.
- 100% Customisable Sites
All the squarespace sites I design are custom built, I never use templates. This means you’ll never find yourself on another businesses site and think it looks suspiciously similar to yours.
Avoid template-matching with competitors with your custom Squarespace site that’s as memorable and unique as your business.
3. Great for showcasing your work
Squarespace is popular with artists and photographers because of all the different gallery functions and light box picture options. Not just great for creatives, these beautifully curated galleries are a great way of showing off past work and giving customers a flavour of your business - whatever field you’re in.
Here’s a little, flowery, example below… Click on an image to see the light box feature.
4. Squarespace extensions
You want your site to work with you and if you have existing systems in place that you use, chances are Squarespace has an extension for it. This means that it has developed software which collaborates, and runs super smoothly with other channels to keep your bizz on track and your customers investing with you.
Real examples of useful Squarespace extensions include…
- For booking; Accuity
This powerful scheduling app is so good it was outright bought by squarespace a little while back. Designed to let customers book appointments, lessons or classes. They can pay at the same time and save you A LOT of emailing back and forward, double checking payments and losing leads to calendar clashes. The software can automatically synch up to your calendar so all you need to do is sit back and watch the bookings flow in, leaving you more time to serve your clients!
- For dining; Opentable
Got tasty-wares to share with the world but don’t want to spend your time taking reservations on the phone? Opentable is a popular restaurant and venue booking service. Familiar to many potential customers, it enables people to quickly book into your establishment with a few clicks through your beautiful website. Delicious!
- For artists; Printful
Ideal for artists looking to sell prints of their work. Printful prints your images on demand onto a variety of blanks including posters, framed posters, homewares and apparel. Create a Printful account, connect it to your website and then Printful will fulfil your orders by printing on-demand, packaging up and shipping out your items to happy customers. Customers view, shop and pay through your website, all on your domain.
- For business; Xero
This accounting and inventory tracking software connects up your sales, income, stock and accounting giving you a clear overview and helping keep business on track. If you already use Xero to track your accounting, then you just need to connect it up to your online shop and it’ll keep track of your orders automatically. This saves you time transferring product, customer and sales information between systems.
To see if your favourite business software is already supported as a Squarespace Extension, have a look at their extensions page here.
5. Squarespace Email Campaigns
I’ve already talked about how design-led Squarespace is. Happily, this extends to their email marketing option. Customers can sign up to the mailing list on your site and your new contacts are saved down automatically ready and waiting to receive your lovely insights and updates. Squarespace has beautifully designed and fully customisable email templates.
Whether newsletters or business insights, customisable templates mean your emails are always 100% on brand, lovely to look at and easy to read.
All of these factors increase the chances of recipients actually opening your emails, engaging with your content and becoming invested in your bizz!
6. Squarespace Blog
Blogging is the number one way of boosting your websites SEO ( = How much Google loves your website) and giving customers the chance to explore more detail of your services, brand and who you are. Exhibit A? You are reading this right now!
The Squarespace blog function is simple to use and has a lot of useful options to save you a bit of time and make life easier. One which I use a lot is the schedule option. You can write out your posts, add in lovely pics and then schedule a time for the post to be automatically published.
When the creative juices are flowing, you can make the most of them on your Squarespace blog!
Imagine this: The old grey-matter is fizzing with ideas and you spend a day typing out pages of useful content across different posts to share with your audience. But sharing them all, all at the same time may not be the right idea, the key to blogging is little and often! So, schedule them to post over the next few days and keep your audience interested.
7. No refreshing updates or plugin
Many past clients have had websites that need constant attention just to run at the bare minimum (a-hem, WordPress, I may be looking at you on this one). Squarespace has all of its integrations, plugins and software included. Yes, there are the function-specific extensions I mentioned earlier, but they are one-time setups for you and your biz.
In an ideal world, your website should be self-sufficient, your favourite employee who is meeting clients 24/7 and doing an amazing job of introducing you, your services, offerings and brand story.
What you do not want is having to log in often to update your site’s basic software. Squarespace has all of these updates covered, integrated and totally out of sight. You focus on running your business and leave the time consuming, illogical and involved updates to other website platforms!
8. Mobile Responsivity
The world is digital*
*Okay. I lied, it’s moved on. Mobile. The world is mobile.
And that means your website has to be too. The good news is that Squarespace has mobile responsiveness built-in. When I am designing I check your site on desktop and mobile to make doubly sure your site is ready to wow customers no matter how they are accessing it.
People are busier and have shorter attention spans than ever. This is true but they are also more connected. More likely to recommend services, sites and businesses with the quick forwarding of a website address. And most likely to be doing this on WhatsApp or via mobile.
Successful websites have no choice but to be mobile-savvy, not just vaguely work on mobile, or tablet, but show up every bit as well designed as on desktop.
Squarespace delivers all this mobile responsivity as standard.
9. Social Media Integrations
Keeping customers updated on your business builds the connections between you and them. They can get to know you, your products or services and what goes into offering them. Squarespace is compatible with Instagram so you can feature your feed in your site. Social media is an easy way to involve people in the unique and exciting aspects that make you and your business special.
With my Two Week Website Experience, we take a full journey into your branding and I deliver a clear visual brand pack. You can use this to make sure your branding is consistent across all aspects of your business and your instagram feed will look right at home on your website.
10. Custom Email and Domain
Want to shake off the amateur look and embrace the professional?
When you buy a domain with Squarespace you can also have a custom email address. For example, say your business is called ‘glassworks’, your domain could be glassworks.com. You can have a personalised email address linked to this, it could be hello@glassworks.com, info@glassworks.com or customised with a name like Phoebe@glassworks.com. Many options but no more glassworks@gmail, yahoo or aol - just a consistent and professional presence!
If you have a big team or different sides of your business that you would like to keep separate (e.g. booking or sales) then you can go for multiple email addresses.
They all come with G Suite, google's answer to Microsoft Office. It has a host of features to go with your emails including docs, sheets, hangouts and calendar. Although not free (see here for pricing) a professional email address, that matched your domain, is a fantastic investment
To summarise;
I use Squarespace because I think it delivers the best sites for my clients for the following reasons;
It is design-led for beautiful websites
Logical and intuitive to use editor
Great for showcasing work through images in galleries
Useful Squarespace extensions
On-brand emailer
Easy to use blog with helpful functions
No manual updates or refreshing plugins
Fully mobile responsive
Social media integrations included
Custom email and domains through Squarespace
And those are just the top ten reasons!
I do have a lot more but maybe I will save them for the next blog (Did someone say selling on Squarespace..?).
I hope it has been useful to learn why Squarespace is the option for me and my happy clients! Feel free to share this with anyone considering Squarespace as their website platform and let me know if there is anything else you want to see on this list!
Ottilie Xo