Understanding the advantages & trade-offs of Squarespace
With so many new CMS options popping up, we want to take a moment to unpack one of our favorites: Squarespace. While EnticEdge will work with you to design a site for any platform (or build a site from scratch), we have to admit that Squarespace gets the best reviews among our clients (and it’s one of our favorites too!). Main reason? Squarespace provides a polished, user-friendly design while simplifying website maintenance and updates for stakeholders.
Here’s the bottom line of working with Squarespace: Do you have to tailor your designs with Squarespace in mind? Yes. Is that worth how easy it is for you to update your company’s site? Absolutely.
Keep scrolling and we’ll break down the key advantages and trade-offs of working with Squarespace.
We recommend Squarespace for:
Small to mid-sized startups
Small businesses (including smaller eCommerce ventures)
Freelancers
Individuals (portfolios, etc.)
We would never assume that Squarespace is the right fit for everyone. With its intuitive backend, Squarespace allows companies with smaller teams (and very busy teams) to easily keep their content up to date on their own without relying on an external service or consultant to update their site regularly. Additionally, these types of organizations typically benefit from simpler sites which means that they won’t be limited by the few customization restrictions on Squarespace. Conversely, much larger teams with a broader scale that might require a more complex design (such as communication tools, chatbots, or very specific and sophisticated visual elements) would be better served by a site built from scratch.
Here’s a breakdown of Squarespace’s key advantages & trade-offs:
Usability
Squarespace is incredibly easy to use even for those who may not be technologically savvy. Compared to other CMS options, the backend of your site is intuitive to update and doesn’t require lots of plugins and custom modifications. At EnticEdge, we provide all of our clients with on-boarding to their new sites so that they feel comfortable taking over and know the ins and outs of maintaining their business on Squarespace. That said, there are also a number of resources available to all Squarespace users including tutorials, courses, and YouTube videos that could help you get the hang of your site. Ultimately, this means that your site will be easy for you to update and maintain on your own so that you can update information, photos, and blogs without hesitation.
Customization
Content management systems like Squarespace, get an erroneously bad reputation for being templated and repetitive. However, when used correctly, Squarespace has many opportunities for customized designs. We would never endorse a templated system for your company’s site, because we want you to express your authentic brand! Between custom CSS and code blocks, Squarespace is almost completely customizable when it comes to designs. That means you can stand out from your competitors, and still benefit from Squarespace’s usability. While it’s true that there are some circumstances in which Squarespace cannot support your design requirements, these are far and few between. That said, we strongly believe that the usability of Squarespace far outweighs any potential minor design limitations. Again, most design limitations on Squarespace are non-critical and do not obstruct overall user experience or site usability.
SEO
Remember those cumbersome plugins we mentioned? You don’t really need any of those on Squarespace. One of our more frequently asked questions when clients choose to migrate to Squarespace from another CMS is whether or not Squarespace will work with an SEO plugin. As of right now, the answer is no. However, that’s the answer because you don’t need it. Squarespace has amazing native SEO integrations which means you don’t need to worry about external support to get your site ranking well. These SEO features include easily-updated SEO descriptions for posts, pages and images, as well as search result analytics. Note: if you’re interested in improving your SEO, you can schedule an advising consultation for recommendations specific to your site.
Website Health: Updates & Support
Ideally, you want your website to stay fresh and not age out or start to look old. While a lot of that has to do with the design, it wouldn’t be possible to keep your site healthy without updates and support. Alongside automatic updates, the Squarespace support system is unreal. Between live chat, active forums, YouTube videos, and dedicated Squarespace designers, you’re unlikely to stumble across an issue that you can’t solve.
Responsive Design
One of the things that makes Squarespace stand out from older CMS platforms is its incredibly automatic, responsive design. While some platforms require you to individually design your website for multiple screen sizes, such as mobile devices, Squarespace automatically optimizes your user experience no matter the screen size. This means a better experience for them, and a higher chance that they click on your call to action. Again, one of the trade-offs here is that customizing your mobile experience breaks from the normal Squarespace model. However, it is possible to modify the designs for mobile if you aren’t satisfied with the automatic scale.
eCommerce & Scheduling
One of the main reasons our clients love Squarespace is how easy it is to maintain an eCommerce site. While the customizations for eCommerce designs are limited, it’s with good reason: Squarespace handles most of the backend of your shop for you. Whether you’re a small business or an eCommerce site, all you have to do is upload photos and descriptions of your services and Squarespace processes all payments for you. You can even process subscriptions on Squarespace, and collect payment through their scheduling system meaning you can collect recurring payments and payments as someone schedules time with you.
Price
Squarespace is very upfront about pricing. In our experience, the most common plans for corporate sites are the “Business” plan or the “Commerce” plan which run $216 and $480 per year, respectively. If you’re interested in working with EnticEdge, we offer a 20% discount on the first year of your annual Squarespace plan. For more information on Squarespace pricing plans, click here.
Summary
At the end of the day, Squarespace is a great option for smaller companies looking for sleek designs and maximum usability for both themselves and their customers. One of the main reasons we keep developing for Squarespace is the great feedback we get from clients about how easy it is to keep their site up to date and ranking well in search engines. Do you have to tailor your designs with Squarespace in mind? Yes. Is that worth how easy it is for you to update your company’s site? Absolutely.
Still not convinced? Check out the resources below.
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