When Should You Be Using Squarespace?
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There’s no denying that the internet and business are completely intertwined today. Whether your business is online or off, a website is a critical part of your marketing, sales and even operations and communications processes.
There are also many different options for building websites, from drag and drop interfaces to much more complex platforms. So when should you choose Squarespace? Let’s take a look.
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What Is Squarespace?
The first thing we should clear up is what Squarespace actually is, which is a site builder.
There are various ways to build websites. Some are what we call “hard coded” where someone creates various pages manually using html and other computer languages. Then there are frameworks and platforms like Joomla and WordPress that usually require a fair amount of web development skill. Then there are site builders.
Most site builders are developed to be a “drag and drop” interface, where you can add a few basic settings, choose a template and then drag various components onto the template. It’s a simple, mostly visual way to build websites that is perfect for people who don’t have a lot of technical skill.
When Is Squarespace the Right Choice?
Deciding how to build a website is a lot like buying a car. If you are looking for a family car, a two-seater sports car won’t work. Or if you need a pickup truck for your job, a sedan just won’t get the job done.
Websites are very similar, believe it or not. Different options offer different benefits and drawbacks. So, here’s what you should know about when Squarespace is the right kind of site builder for you.
1. You Need a Website Fast
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If you don’t know how to build complex sites, and you need something that can be done very quickly, Squarespace is perfect. Once you’ve mastered the settings and basics, you can have a fully functional website that showcases your business in a matter of hours.
When you consider that most professionally designed, complex websites can take weeks or even months to be ready for launch, that’s a remarkably quick turnaround!
In fact, even if you are having a complex website professionally built, a temporary Squarespace site to serve as an online business card is a great idea.
2. You Want to Build a Portfolio Site
There are many kinds of people that might want a virtual “gallery” where they can showcase their work.
Some examples might be photographers who want to share pictures they’d taken, artists, painters, illustrators, visual artists or crafters. A portfolio website is not meant to be an online store, but rather a place where you can show people who might be interested in commissioning work what you can do. This helps to give potential customers more information about your skills and experience, and whether it’s what they need.
3. Musicians and Podcasters
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If you are a musician who sells musing on a site like Spotify or Amazon, or a podcaster who hosts your podcasts on one of the streaming services, Squarespace can be a great place to market those things, and to share more information about you and your music or podcast show.
Even if you are using one of the big streaming or marketplace sites to sell your music or subscriptions to your show, people are still going to want to connect directly with you. So, use your Squarespace site for that. Add your bio, share on a blog, and encourage people to sign up for news about your work and special offers. It’s a great extension to your other sales channels and can also connect your fans and friends to other channels, like social media.
If you are planning to connect a third party service to your Squarespace site, first check the list of integrations though. While Squarespace is great for integration with bigger commercial services, it’s not ideal if you want some kind of custom connection.
4. Business Card or Catalog Sites
There are a variety of different kinds of websites out there. Some are very complex and dynamic, requiring a lot of custom coding. Others are simpler “business cards” or online catalogs. The latter is perfect for Squarespace, because it doesn’t require you to do a lot of custom coding and is more of a marketing tool.
If you need a site that looks great, shares information well, and encourages people to reach out for more information, then a business card style site built on Squarespace is a great idea.
This is particularly well suited to real world small businesses, like pet sitters, plumbers, seamstresses, wedding planners, event co-ordinators and similar. Squarespace even integrates with PayPal and other payment processors, so if you want to use your sit to process simple payments, it’s a great option.
5. Non-Profits and Charities
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Very often, non-profits and charities need to share information about their organization and their cause, take donations and do a few other simple things, but they don’t need anything that’s too complex.
They want a website that is easy to update when they need to and offers and affordable option that they can take care of themselves if they need to. In those kinds of cases, Squarespace is a great tool. It’s easy enough that just setting up a simple window to the world like a charity site is quick and easy, and it’s secure and reliable enough that you don’t have to worry about all the complicated stuff that goes into large websites.
6. Blogs
If you want to start a blog but don’t want to learn something like WordPress, and you don’t want to do anything too complicated on the site, then Squarespace is perfect. It’s easy to set up, looks great, and is very easy to update when you want to add a new post.
The built-in email marketing and social media tools are perfect for promoting your blog, and it’s so simple to do you can get started within a matter of days.
7. Medical and Dental Websites
Medical and dental websites are another type of site that is perfect for Squarespace. They’re usually fairly static and simple, but they need to look good and be easy to use – for your practice and your customers.
Squarespace checks all the boxes. It looks good and is easy to layout as a showcase for your services. You can add an easy-to-use contact page and do some basic SEO, so you show up in local search results. This kind of business is actually tailor made for the Squarespace platform, so this is a great choice.
When Is Squarespace NOT a Good Idea?
As you can see, there are many cases where Squarespace is the ideal website builder. But there are some cases where it’s not:
If you want to build a complex ecommerce site, Squarespace is probably not the right choice. There are some basic selling tools on the site, but it’s nothing like something like Shopify or a custom ecommerce site. So, if you want to sell hundreds of products with many complex shipping and payment integrations, you should probably look elsewhere.
Likewise, if you want to build a large, complex website with many dynamic features, Squarespace is probably not the right platform. You can’t, for instance, build a social network on Squarespace – but you could on Joomla, WordPress or Elgg, so you might want to look there instead. If you have an idea for a website and you need specific functionality, make sure the platform you use supports it first.
If you want a highly automated site that allows you to upload large quantities of directory listings or real estate for sale, or for a car rental company or similar, Squarespace is probably not the right fit. You’d need some custom code and integrations for something like that, and Squarespace is just not built for it.
If you want to monetize your site by integrating Google Ads, or start an affiliate website or similar, Squarespace is probably not the right fit either. You can do some very basic ad and affiliate integrations on the platform, but not at the level you need to make a lot of money from something like that.
Some simple membership sites might work on Squarespace, but if you need complex, multi-level membership sites with many different payment integrations and options and more, Squarespace might not be the right platform.
It’s important to remember what Squarespace was built for: speed and ease of use. If you want fast and easy web development with a drag and drop interface, this is perfect.
If you want a complex site with a lot of custom code and purpose-built integrations, or you want to use more obscure APIs and similar, this is probably not the right platform.
Just like the cars we talked about earlier, Squarespace is a reliable, commuter-friendly option with mass appeal. But if you need a one of a kind customized sports car, it’ll never be that. So, make sure you match your expectations and needs with the platform you choose, and you’ll save a lot of time, money and effort.
