Why I use Squarespace for small business website design
Intro
You may have noticed me use the word Squarespace all over my website, that’s because I am a Squarespace Circle Member and exclusively use Squarespace to design all of my clients websites. You may be wondering why? Well, read on to find out.
What is Squarespace?
First of all I need to let you know what Squarespace actually is! Squarespace is a popular website design platform like Wix, Weebly, Godaddy that offers a range of features and benefits that make it a great choice for small business website design. Here are some reasons why you might consider using Squarespace for your small business website:
User-Friendly
I am a creative person and I can’t stand dashboards that look more like the Tardis than a usable interface. Squarespace is known for its user-friendly, intuitive interface. You don't need to have advanced technical skills or coding knowledge to create and manage a website on Squarespace. It's designed to be intuitive and straightforward and for people like me who just want to get on and create something beautiful, that’s perfect! This is great for clients because the drag and drop design interface is so easy to use that once I’ve designed a website for clients they don’t need me to keep the website updated. I also send a little tuition video at the end of each project showing clients how to make design changes and taking them through the ‘back office” of the website.
Beautiful Templates
Oh my. Have you seen the beautiful templates? Squarespace offers a variety of professionally designed templates that can give your small business website a polished and professional look. These templates are customizable, allowing you to tailor them to your brand and style. There are so many to choose from and they match up with whatever vibe you are trying to create. They just look great right from the off.
Looks Great On Mobile
With the increasing use of mobile devices, having a mobile-responsive website is crucial. Squarespace templates are responsive by default, ensuring that your website looks great and functions well on both desktop and mobile devices. I particularly love that you can design the mobile version to be completely different from the desktop version and it’s easy to flick back and forth.
Built-In Hosting
Let me just do some jargon busting here. What is hosting? Simply put, every website has to ‘live’ somewhere and hosting is basically where your website will live. Squarespace provides hosting built in as part of its service. This means you don't have to worry about finding a separate hosting provider like Godaddy, IONOS, Bluehost etc. You also don’t have to worry about setting up hosting, or dealing with technical server issues. Squarespace handles all of the hosting for you and your website finds it’s home inside Squarespace automatically when you use Squarespace to design your website.
E-Commerce Integration
If your small business involves selling products or services online, Squarespace offers robust e-commerce features. You can easily set up an online store, manage inventory, process payments, and track orders. Having said that, if you are a larger business with complex e- commerce needs then you would probably be better designing your website on a specialist e-commerce platform like Shopify. That said, Squarespace has more than enough e-commerce features for small business e-commerce.
SEO-Friendly
Squarespace provides built-in SEO tools and features that can help improve your website's visibility on search engines like Google. You can optimize your content, titles, descriptions, and more to improve your search engine rankings. There is even a special e-commerce plugin called SEO Space designed exclusively for Squarespace which makes SEO really easy. It works on a traffic light system letting you know exactly what needs to be addressed and how to fix it so your website can be fully optimised for Google and rank high in Google searches. I offer SEO as one of my main services where I use SEO space as well as Semrush and other software to manage your SEO so please get in contact if you would like that service. If you do fancy doing it yourself then I fully recommend SEO Space.
Security
Squarespace takes security seriously and includes SSL encryption for all websites. This helps protect sensitive information and build trust with your website visitors. This means sensitive information is not shared.
Analytics
It’s important to track your websites performance. You may have certain pages that are performing really well and others that need work, you may have a lot of visitors from a certain country. It’s also interesting to check the behaviour of the visitors, which pages they go to, how long they stay on those pages. Squarespace offers integrated analytics tools that allow you to track website traffic, user behaviour, and other important metrics. This data can help you make informed decisions to improve your website's performance. You can also connect your Google console to your Squarespace website.
Customer Support
How annoying is it when you have an issue and can’t actually connect to a real person to solve it? This doesn’t exist with Squarespace. Squarespace provides customer support through various channels, including email and live chat. This can be especially valuable if you encounter any issues or have questions while building and maintaining your website. I can’t tell you how many times I have used the live chat feature and got an answer very quickly through chatting with a real human. Invaluable in this day and age.
Scalability
Simply put, Squarespace can evolve and grow with your business as it grows. While Squarespace is an excellent choice for small businesses, it also offers scalability with many features like email marketing, courses, scheduling, blog, members areas, e-commerce and much more. As your business grows, you can expand your website's features and functionality to meet your evolving needs.
Cost-Effective
This is a big one! As a small business you want to be able to save as much money as possible and Squarespace offers pricing plans suitable for small businesses with different budgets. You can start with a basic plan and upgrade as your business grows, making it a cost-effective solution. You can also save 20% off of the annual subscription for the first year when you use me to design your website. That’s unbeatable value.
Integration Options
You may find as you go along that you need a particular feature for your website that Squarespace doesn’t provide. Not to worry because Squarespace allows integration with various third-party tools and services, such as email marketing platforms, social media, and more, to enhance your website's functionality. There are plethora of third party integrations which can improve your website and business. What I like about this is that you don’t have to go anywhere else to get these features, Squarespace can act as a one stop shop for nearly all your needs. If you are a small business this can save you a lot of time and it’s very convenient to have everything in one place. Why go anywhere else?
Conclusion
Squarespace is an excellent choice for small business, it’s affordable, easy to use, scaleable and beautiful looking, often acting as a one stop shop for any small business.
While Squarespace is a strong choice for many small businesses, it's essential to evaluate your specific needs and goals before selecting a website platform. Consider factors like your industry, target audience, and the features you require to determine if Squarespace is the right fit for your small business website design.
As mentioned above, if you are a larger business with complex design or e-commerce needs it might be worth trying a different platform but if you are a small business that requires a professional looking, easy to use platform to house your growing business needs, Squarespace might just be the perfect fit for you.
If you would like a Squarespace website for your small business please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at Kaio Marketing.
