4 Things No One Will Tell You About Becoming a Squarespace Designer

Whether you’re a seasoned website designer or you’re just getting started, you may not know about the opportunities that the Squarespace platform can provide for you. 

Today I want to tell you about four very important things that others probably won’t tell you about becoming a Squarespace designer.

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1. It Can Be Very Lucrative

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One of the great benefits of Squarespace is that you can get up and running quickly and easily. 

However, most business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers are busy doing what they do best: running their businesses and serving their clients. They don’t have the time to spend on designing, building, and optimizing a Squarespace site, no matter how easy the platform is to use. 

Putting together a website isn’t too hard, but professionally designing a site is really hard for the person who doesn’t have a technical background. 

That’s where you, the designer, come in.

The Difference Between Playing Around & Designing Something of Value

Here’s an analogy: Anyone can decorate their home, and everyone does to some degree. But not everyone is an actual interior designer with the skills to make the design cohesive and aesthetically pleasing. 

It’s the same with website design. You have an opportunity to present yourself as the expert on all things related to Squarespace SEO and design. You can position yourself as offering a valuable, necessary service that business owners need to get ahead. 

If you’re already a designer, getting started with Squarespace and marketing yourself as a Squarespace designer can be fairly simple because:

• You already have experience with designing and building sites on other platforms

• Squarespace is a no-code solution, making it an easy platform to learn quickly

• Your design skills will help you to locate what you need on Squarespace quickly to really make the sites you’re designing pop

• People happily pay thousands of dollars to have a professional designer create their site and optimize their Squarespace SEO

• The demand is there, since busy business owners need an effective, attractive online presence but do not have the time or skills to create one

One very important aspect about Squarespace is that once the site development project is done, the platform is easy to use. This means that either you or the site owner can go back and add blogs, add on to pages, optimize for SEO, and make other changes and additions without a lot of hassle. 

Squarespace Sites Are Easy to Maintain

After your project is done, it’s easy for your client to maintain their website. And this is a huge plus because business owners don’t want to spin their wheels trying to figure out how to make a simple update (such as changing their business hours, for example). 

Some clients may even come back to you, again and again, to have you take care of website updates for them, bringing you repeat business and perhaps hundreds of dollars for something you can easily take care of in less than an hour with little effort on your part.  

2. Clients Are Happy to Pay Up to $10K for a Squarespace Site

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You might find this hard to believe, but it’s true. 

Nobody talks about this, but at the end of the day, the platform you use doesn’t really matter. Yes, they all have different features, benefits, and pros & cons, but a great, effective website can be built on any platform. Why not take advantage of the ease-of-use Squarespace offers to create winning websites for your clients?

Your clients want specialized help you can provide. Typically, clients are:

• Looking for a consultant or professional designer who can make the platform features work for them

• Willing and ready to pay for this service because they have the funds set aside for it

• Ready to work with a friendly developer who will take care of bringing an online presence to life

• In need of a site to go up as quickly as possible (these clients are often willing to pay more for speedy, efficient website design)

Business owners do not have time to spend 80 hours on YouTube tutorials to learn everything they need to know to design, build, and optimize a site. Thankfully, Squarespace meets the needs of many different types of businesses, agencies, consultancies, and other organizations, as well as freelancers, contractors, and solopreneurs, and designers can get these sites up and running quickly. 

As a professional designer, you’ll be helping businesses make the most of the Squarespace platform to accomplish their goals, which may include:

• Setting up an online store

• Creating a portfolio of work

• Running a blog

• Growing an audience

• Taking the business to the next level

If you want to become a Squarespace designer but don’t know where to begin, we have you covered.

Our eBook goes over the basics of what you need to get started, while our newsletter brings you timely Squarespace SEO tips and industry insights to help you make the most of what this platform offers. Check out these free resources today. 

3. Squarespace Is a Poor Partner

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not upset about this. But I want to share this important point so that you don’t go into Squarespace design with unrealistic expectations. 

Every other major company, including Shopify, Wix, and Webflow, rewards its designers. Squarespace does not. Here’s what you can expect:

• A referral program

• An attempt to set things up for designers

• Less than ideal support for designers

Your relationship with Squarespace may not be what you have with other platforms. To summarize:

• Squarespace does NOT look out for site designers

• Squarespace DOES look out for the end user, which is a good thing

• Squarespace DOES provide a nice user experience

The bottom line is that this lack of support for the designer might make your job of designing pages a little harder at times. Sometimes you’ll have to be especially meticulous. 

But this should not discourage you from becoming a Squarespace design and SEO pro and offering your valuable services to businesses. Remember, people need these services, and you can make good money by offering your skills as a designer for the Squarespace platform. 

4. You Don’t Need to Go Overboard With Customization

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Fancy, custom websites are for designers, but they’re not for end users. As a website designer, you might enjoy creating super elaborate sites for your clients, but simpler designs may serve them better.

A great user experience is critical, and a simpler, cleaner design often provides a better user experience than a more creative one, especially on mobile devices. 

As a designer, one of your big questions probably is: “Can I customize the code?”

The answer is yes, you can. I often add in custom code to the sites I design for my clients. But don’t go overboard. There’s no need to.

Out of the box, Squarespace is a clean interface. With this platform, you’ll benefit from standard design elements and practices, including:

• Top left logo

• Top right main navigation

• Background images

• H1, H2, H3, H4, tags, body tags

• Add images

• Add videos

• Mobile responsiveness

Everything is set up nicely. All the main elements of a website are built into Squarespace to make it easy to create an online presence.

Some of the websites I’ve created for $8,000 or $9,000 were not fancy, custom sites. They were streamlined. It’s not the level of customization that makes a site worth $10,000. A site’s worth is all about:

• How it presents the company that hires you to build their site

• The value that you bring to the company through your skills

• The experience you bring to the process of creating a beautiful, user-friendly site efficiently

• Giving the company what it needs 

Every client is unique, so price your projects accordingly. A bigger company that needs a site to go up quickly can pay you more for this important service you’re able to provide.  

One more point I want to make is that fancier websites generally need more custom code. When you start adding in more code, you end up building a site that takes longer to load. This is not good for the user’s experience. For a better user experience, keep things simple so sites load faster. 

Resources to Help You Get Started

Now that you know a few key things about becoming a Squarespace designer and SEO provider, I want to share important resources you can use to get started.  

First, here’s a quick summary of what we covered in this article:

• Being a Squarespace designer can be a lucrative career

• Clients are willing to pay up to $10K or more for a clean Squarespace site

• Don’t expect much support from Squarespace, but don’t let the lack of support stop you

• Fancy websites are not ideal; keep it simple for a better user experience

To get started as a Squarespace website designer, check out our free guides.

We’re also in the process of creating a course for designers, so check back periodically to access our new course that’s coming soon. In the meantime, make use of all the free resources we offer, from our newsletter to our eBook. 

In addition, Squarespace itself offers a video series to help you get started. 
If you have questions or need support, just reach out to us.