Why I recommend Squarespace for small business owners
If you know me at all, you know I’m a diehard Squarespace fan.
But you should also know that it’s not because it’s the only platform I can use, or because I haven’t even tried the other platforms. I have. I have tried them all. And let me just save you a bunch of time and tell you now that Squarespace is, in my opinion, the bomb-diggity (best).
Most of you have probably heard of Wordpress, the OG of website design. Or Shopify, Showit, Weebly, Wix… (the list goes on) They’re all options. But are they the best option for you?
I’m not going to go in-depth about all of these platforms in this blog post, but I will tell you all of the reasons Squarespace is superior to these (and where it’s not!) and by the end of it you’ll have a good idea of what Squarespace is capable of and if it’s for you or not.
Ease of Use
This is no doubt something you’ve already thought about, maybe one of the first things! If you’re considering DIYing your website, or at least wanting to make changes to it, it needs to be easy enough to use. Squarespace wins this round by a landslide.
Squarespace is easy peasy to use and that is why I LOVE using it for my clients and recommending it to small biz owners.
Now, I’m not saying it’s really easy to design a custom, comprehensive and super unique Squarespace website (that’s why I make a living selling unique templates) but creating a basic website with Squarespace is easy, and once the website design is complete, it’s SO easy to make minor changes.
Squarespace was built for the DIY user in mind. They keep everything really simple, and give you all of the necessary tools to work with, but not too many options that you get overwhelmed.
It’s as simple as typing where you want it to go and drag + drop. You an add a blog and a shop with a couple of clicks. The backend is super sleek and you don’t have to use any code.
Once I handoff a Squarespace website to a client, or sell a Squarespace Template to a customer, that’s the last I hear from them! I give them some tools and briefly show them how to use their new site, and they don’t contact me again because they can do it all themselves. How cool is that!?
Being able to make your own changes and updates to your site is an incredible asset as a small business owner. Hiring someone every time you need to make changes can be really really costly and a waste of time. Like I said, I’ve used a lot of other platforms, but with Squarespace, this is so so easy.
Security
Security is something you probably haven’t even considered when it comes to building your website, and honestly it isn’t something you even should HAVE to consider. But you do, because it’s super important, and if you want to keep your website safe from hackers and bugs, you need to read the following.
Squarespace is a “closed source” platform. This means that the only people that can access your website or add any fancy functions are the head honchos at Squarespace HQ.
Why does this matter? Because you know your website is safe and secure. Everything you use on Squarespace is completely safe and integrated within the platform for your best interest, by the platform developers themselves. Everything you need to build a great website is already built in, you don’t need to download any extras, it’s all contained in one nice, safe package, free from hackers and nasties.
Squarespace HQ handles all of your updates and security so that you literally don’t have to do anything. And low maintenance is the best sort of maintenance when you’re running a small business!
In comparison, other platforms are “open source” (like Wordpress) meaning that any man and his dog can create plugins and add-ons that can easily breach the security of your site.
The downside of having one of these “open source” sites when it comes to security is that it’s super high maintenance. You have to make sure everything you are downloading into your site is trustworthy (which lots of the time it’s not) and then you have to make sure everything is regularly updated and secure, if you forget to update something you are leaving yourself open to hackers and viruses that aim to break your website.
For a large business that has a developer on call 24/7, this isn’t a big concern. But most small businesses don’t have that luxury!
You couldn’t create an “open source” website, not touch it for 5 years and expect it to still be standing. I don’t want to know or imagine what you might find in it’s place!
All-in-one platform
Squarespace really takes the cake for me because it’s an all-in-one platform. What I mean by that is that everything is included. I touched on it being a “closed source” platform, and we now know that means it has great security built in. But it also means it has a lot of other great stuff built in, in fact, everything you need to create a great website is built in, just like it should be!
Yup, everything you need to build a gorgeous and high functioning website is already built into Squarespace. And that’s the way it should be, right?
Well, with “open source” platforms like Wordpress, you don’t get that luxury. To build a website you have to download lots of plug-ins and apps for all of the different components you need.
With Squarespace, all of those plug-ins and apps are built right in.
You can add a blog or a full e-commerce store with the touch of button! You can easily connect your email marketing software, you can embed videos and galleries, you can just about do anything.
And these features are built in really well. Everything built into Squarespace is of the highest quality, and only stuff you’d really need. They keep it sleek and uncluttered by only giving you options that you would need and not a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t need.
But in saying that, there is still flexibility to add extra bells and whistles, you can hire a developer to add them in or download them from a few specific online Squarespace plug-in shops. But the great thing is that you don’t have to.
Let me be as clear as possible: You can build a fantastic website with all of the features provided within Squarespace. But, you do still have the option to add extras and expand as your business grows, so you don’t have to worry about feeling restricted or fearing that you may have to switch to Wordpress when your small business turns into an empire. Squarespace is perfect for small businesses and DIYers, but it’s also more than capable of growing with your business.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
One thing I LOVE about Squarespace is the free support crew. When I started using Squarespace for the first time, they heard from me A LOT, but they were always so helpful and always answered my questions.
Squarespace has a large team dedicated to responding to questions about their platform and helping users. I’m a huge fan of their live chat function, but even their email support is great when they’re unavailable via chat. They reply really quickly and they are super helpful.
They also have this HUGE free library of articles on exactly how to use EVERYTHING. If there’s a feature in Squarespace, there’s guaranteed to be a an in depth article on how to use it. Even I sometimes still refer back to this library, and I often send clients useful articles from this library to read.
They can offer this amazing service and these great tutorials because they are in charge of the whole platform, they know exactly how everything works.
My experience with Squarespace support so far has been 10/10. Also, all of their support is 100% free! Lots of other platforms don’t offer this kind of support, especially Wordpress which has no support feature at all.
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Those are the main reasons I love Squarespace for small business owners and DIYers, but that’s definitely not the half of it! Squarespace is truly amazing, and they offer a 2 week free trial, so go on in and try it out, have a play with it and see for yourself how amazing it is!
If you’re sold in Squarespace but just don’t have the time to figure it all out, or if you don’t have the graphic design skills to make the website look as unique as you want, check out my Squarespace templates! They’re perfect for DIYers who just need that bit of extra help to get their sites launched!
