Why We Design Websites With Squarespace
How I Started With Squarespace
To be honest, I've been a Squarespace user from day one. When I looked to build my first website back in 2012, I went down the rabbit hole of trying to decide which website builder was right for me. I read countless reviews, blog posts, and articles trying to sway me in one direction or the other. But, after extensive research, choosing Squarespace wasn't a difficult decision. And, while using any new platform involves a degree of learning, I instantly fell in love with the Squarespace web building platform and the design creation process.
Since my first website building experience I've built dozens of sites with Squarespace. I also managed a company’s Wordpress website for over a year and it was beyond frustrating. The glitches and bugs, the endless updates, the numerous plugins, the need for constant professional assistance, and the lack of security — were all major pain-points (not to mention the site was out-dated and poorly designed).
So, I rebuilt them a website with Squarespace. Now the company has a beautiful, modern, responsive website with excellent page load speed and a visible SSL certificate (meaning it's secure).
The best part is they can now maintain that website on their own, without contacting me or hiring another website professional. I gave their team a few tips and tricks initially to get started, but beyond that they’ve been independently managing their website for 3+ years… and it still looks great!
Cara Bahan
Designer & Founder
badlands design co.
9 Reasons Why We Design With Squarespace
1. Simple, Beautiful, & Flexible
Squarespace provides stunning, well-designed templates. This means anyone can quickly create and launch their own website by simply editing a pre-designed template with their own images, colors, and fonts. However, for your website to really stand out, it needs to be designed and built with custom code by a design professional. With the right code, the possibilities are endless with Squarespace.
2. Easy to use
Squarespace is an all-in-one platform with a user-friendly layout. If you're new to using Squarespace, building and customizing a site may seem quite daunting and laborious. However, a seamless finished website is easy for anyone to edit, update, and make modifications to.
Plus, if you are ever stuck, there are countless excellent forums and YouTube videos to help out (not to mention excellent customer support! - see #6)
*Note: If you work with us we'll make sure you understand how to use your new website with personalized training tutorials that never expire and an extended period of support after your website is launched.
3. Closed source and Secure
Squarespace uses a closed source content management system, meaning the source code is not shared with the public for anyone to view or change.
Squarespace is safe and secure!
"Squarespace implements and maintains technical and organizational security measures to protect company and customer assets and data."
- Squarespace.
How they do this:
They have a dedicated security team that is continuously monitoring, analyzing, and improving their defense against potential security threats
They use SSL certificates to encrypt data in-transit between website end users and customer domains
They offer HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) which encrypts the connection and prevents potential attackers from accessing or impersonating your site
4. No Bugs or Malware
Website owners and managers never need to worry about installing frequent updates to fix software bugs and improve security. Unlike WordPress, which requires updates monthly or even weekly, Squarespace updates its own software seamlessly - you won’t even know it’s occurring.
This also means Squarespace offers pre-approved extensions to ensure your site will never have glitches caused by bugs or malware. To learn more about the Integrations and Extensions Squarespace uses, click here.
5. Useful Analytics
Squarespace provides comprehensive, in-depth analytics within the platform so that website owners and managers can learn about visitor behavior through visual reports on statistics like page views, conversion, sales, referrers, and popular content.
If you sell products or services on your site, there are even more analytics provided so you can track growth and identify opportunities for improvement!
6. Excellent customer support
Squarespace is famous for its quick and helpful customer support. They are real humans available 24/7 online via email and twitter, to assist with answering questions and solving your problems.
7. Extra Features
Unlike most website builders, Squarespace offers extra features.
An extensive donation system for accepting donations on your website
Podcast integration that allows you to syndicate your podcasts (link from podcast hosts like Spotify or Apple Podcasts)
Scheduling integration from Aquity Scheduling that allows your clients to create, cancel, and reschedule appointments, while you can send automatic reminders!
Email marketing campaign creation, so you can send out email blasts or automated emails
Apps you can download to your mobile device that allow you to access your online store, monitor your analytics, make edits to your site text, as well as create and publish blog posts - all on the go!
Powerful e-commerce
Squarespace has excellent e-commerce features such as;
Subscriptions - Sell a subscription product and set up recurring charges
Customizable email receipts - A way to give thanks or up-sell customers
Product variations - Create multiple product variations and with varying prices
Digital products and services - Sell digital products or let customers purchase your services
Multiple trusted payment methods - Use Stripe, Paypal, or Square, or connect them all!
8. Clear Pricing
With website builders like Wordpress, there are mounting costs beyond hosting such as themes and plugins. With Squarespace, you choose from four price points (two website packages and two commerce packages). The packages are laid out simply and clearly, making it easy to see what is included in each. Also, you can easily upgrade or downgrade your package when you are ready. See Squarespace's Pricing and Packages here.
You can even test out Squarespace and start building your website for 2 weeks, commitment-free and without having to provide credit card details.
Why Squarespace May Not Be For You
If Blogging is Your Business
While you can easily incorporate blogging into any Squarespace website, WordPress may be a better option for bloggers whose main source of income comes from ads. There are specifically designed plugins that are helpful for this. However, keep in mind these plugins come at an extra cost.
For Businesses Needing Advanced E-Commerce Features
While Squarespace has many excellent e-commerce features, Shopify can provide those extra advanced features you may be looking for. Suppose you have a large inventory of products in your online shop and need features such as a multi-currency selector, product simulator, advanced tax calculations, alternative payment gateways (beyond Stripe and Paypal), and advanced bundling and discount options. In that case, Shopify is the way to go! Again, a Shopify website with these features will be significantly more expensive than a Squarespace e-commerce website.
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