Six reasons to build your website on Squarespace

If you are interested in building or redesigning your website, you have probably come across several different website hosting and platform options, such as WordPress, Wix, Webflow, and Squarespace.

Why does it matter what platform you build your site on?

Well, they each have their pros and cons depending on your needs. Ultimately you want to choose a website hosting option that best meets your specific needs, does not stress you out too much, results in a successful end result, and that you are able to easily maintain and update.

Some things to consider during your decision-making process of which website platform to choose are:

• Are you planning to build your website primarily on code or do you prefer a template or drag-and-drop option?

• What is your budget? Consider other expenses that go hand-in-hand with building a website such as domain hosting and website designer.

• Do you already have an existing website? Consider the time and energy it will take to export and import content, or to redesign content on a new website. This is also a good time to consider what you like about your current platform and what you do not like about it.

• Do you have the knowledge and time to make manual updates to backend settings when needed, or do you prefer a platform that automatically updates these settings for you?

• How important is customer service for you? Do you anticipate needing expert guidance along the way?

• How much flexibility do you need in your design? What key design features are you interested in implementing? Are you comfortable with minor limitations or do you need full customization?

• What third-party apps will you need on your website? You will want to make sure the platform you choose can integrate these apps.

• Do you prefer your domain and website hosting be in one platform, or are you comfortable with them being separate?

I have used a variety of platforms over the years and after considering all of the above and more, Squarespace quickly became my favorite option for web design. It is what I built this very site on and is what I build all my client websites on!

Why should you consider using Squarespace for your website?

Here are my six favorite reasons, in no particular order.

1. Design

   Your visual aesthetic is the very first thing people notice when they visit your website, so it is arguably the most important aspect! Beautiful websites with no coding skills necessary (more on that below) are possible with Squarespace web design.

   With an eye for great website design and a bit of time, at a minimum you can drag and drop your elements where you want them and build out your content in an appealing way.

   In Squarespace 7.1, the latest version, they have made it so you do not need to use a pre-built template. You may be thinking, “wait, but I need a template that I can just plug my content into.” No need to worry, you still have plenty of templates to choose from, but they all. do. the. same. thing. Gone are the days when you are halfway through building a site and you realize this specific template does not have the one feature you really wanted. Instead, templates can act as a great starting point and a place of inspiration. 

   On the other hand, you can choose to build your site completely from scratch, which is what I do for all my clients so that I can build their custom site to fit their unique content and needs and so that the site does not risk looking like every other Squarespace website out there. And, luckily, Squarespace gives you lots of flexibility in colors, fonts, image format, page sections, layout, and more. 

   Also, if you are comfortable with an outside design app such as Canva or Illustrator, you can create amazing graphics to add even more unique elements to your Squarespace website. 

2. No coding required

   Squarespace allows you to build a great website with no coding skills required. All the elements you need are pre-built. However, if you want to make certain tweaks and changes that Squarespace does not allow, you can inject CSS to get your page just right. For example, this comes in handy if you want to remove the header and footer on a page, or tweak something on mobile only, or place your form fields on the same line. 

   As a Squarespace website designer, I do not inject much - or any - CSS in my client websites unless I know they are familiar with it. This way, down the road they do not have to worry about getting lost looking at code they do not understand.

3. SEO

   What is SEO? It stands for search engine optimization. What is search engine optimization? It allows Google (and other search engines) to find your website when people type in related keywords. 

   If you have an understanding of how SEO works and what your SEO keywords are, Squarespace guides you in setting it up throughout the backend of your website. Note that this is in addition to ensuring that you are also optimizing your search engine keywords in other places throughout your site such as headlines and image names. A Squarespace website designer should always be able to help you with implementing SEO in all the right places.

4. Functionality and integration

   Forms, newsletter sign up, navigation menu, blog, e-commerce, member only space - Squarespace has so many built-in elements like these ones to fit your business and organization needs. 

   For needs that are not built-in - such as Google maps, collecting payments, pulling from your social media feed - they likely have a possible integration that you can set up!

5. Settings

   One of the other things I love about Squarespace is the clear and clean backend that makes it easy to find all the settings you need to update before launching. If you are familiar with these items - such as SSL certificate, favicon, cookies agreement, and more - there is no hunting through a clunky interface to make sure you have updated everything properly. They have thought of almost everything when it comes to the user experience so that you can launch more quickly.

6. Support

   Squarespace has a vast knowledge base with a clear article on almost any question you have, including tutorials, videos, and links to related outside articles. In addition, they have very helpful customer service that can support you in real time with answers to your website questions. 

Thanks to all of the above and more, as a Squarespace website designer I feel confident providing a tutorial to my clients at launch time and handing their finished custom website over to them. Most businesses and organizations do not make frequent changes to their website outside of a couple specific sections such as a blog, announcement bar, or events page, for example, which means you will not have to go into your website very often after I have built it.

To take some pressure off handling your own website, at the end of my Squarespace web design process I tailor my tutorial to your specific website and I offer 30 days of support post-launch should any questions arise.