Why I Chose Squarespace For My Photography Business
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When I first started my photography business I went with Wordpress for my website. For all the reasons you see bandied about in Facebook groups everyday whenever someone asks the question: Which platform should I build my website on?
I chose it because it was the most highly recommended, was highly customisable, the SEO capabilities were the best, and I would be able to do whatever I wanted with it.
And while I found these things to be true (to some extent) - I also found out that there is a huge, huge learning curve when it comes to working with Wordpress.
And that it takes freakin' forever to figure out how to do the simplest of tasks.
Plus there was the constant need to update plugins and when something would go wrong with my website I would have to hire someone to find out what the problem was and fix it.
To be honest, while I did learn a lot about how to build and maintain a website on Wordpress - it stressed me out. So much so that I hated the backend of my website and I realised I was actively avoiding having to do anything on it. I wasn't publishing blog posts, I wasn't updating my portfolio and I never updated my actual site either because I was worried that I would accidentally break something.
At this point, I knew about Squarespace from when I originally built my site so I decided to investigate a bit on my own. I started reading every blog post I could find about it - how it works, what it looks like, how to design on it, SEO capabilities, pricing, how to switch my site over - evvvverything!!!
I even read through Squarespace's help documentation. And I pored over their website looking at all the templates and the different ways that people had designed them.
I decided that I had nothing to lose from trying Squarespace. They offered a free two week trial (still do) and I took it to see if I could use Squarespace and build my website.
And what I found was... the love of my life. Haha just kidding - but close. I did fall in love with Squarespace in those 2 weeks, and here's why:
1. Ease Of Use
Squarespace lets you see what you are designing on a page, while you are designing it. This is a fantastic feature in my opinion. There's no more flicking back and forth between screens and trying to format something to look right while not being able to see your changes straight away.
Squarespace utilises things called 'blocks' to design your page. And they have plenty of 'blocks' to choose from. Text blocks, video blocks, photo blocks, newsletter, form, code, spacer blocks... the list of possible blocks goes on and on. Plus they use an easy drag and drop format for building pages and blog posts. All you have to do is choose a block and drop it onto you page. then you can even move it around and format it where you would like on the page.
It's extremely simple to use and makes designing your website so easy. As well as maintaining it. If you don't like where something is - you can drag and drop it to move it somewhere else. Want to add some text and a photo to a page? Just add the text block and the photo block and format them how you like. It really is that simple.
2. Mobile Responsive
All Squarespace templates come mobile responsive out of the box. What this means is that they adapt in size to whatever device they are being viewed on. Whether a laptop, a phone and tablet or a desktop, Squarespace has you covered.
A ranking factor in Google's algorithm is whether a website is mobile responsive or not. So that means that if your website isn’t mobile responsive you will get penalised in their ranking factors. To what degree mobile responsiveness is ranked, I’m not sure. But I do know that this is not only a simple fix for me to rank higher but also a mobile responsive site makes it easier for your potential clients to view your website.
I mean, we’ve all been there. We go to visit a website on our phone. And the content is tiny. You have to zoom in to view a little bit of the screen and then try to scroll across to read all the text. You can’t view any of the photos properly and you can forget about if any of the text is smaller or in a font colour that’s hard to read. It’s just a nightmare!
Talk about a bad experience for a potential client. That kind of frustration would really leave a negative opinion of your business. And we definitely don’t want to do that.
That’s why I love Squarespace.
You can even adjust some of your mobile view settings in the design tab (depending on your template) so that it gives you a bit more control over how it will look.
But if you aren’t a techie, Squarespace works quite well with its default settings.
3. No Updates
For the love of all things chocolate - there are NO UPDATES!
That's not to say the platform itself doesn't have updates. It does. What I mean is that when I log into the back of my site I don't see 20,000 little notifications on my menu telling me I need to update this plugin and that plugin. Or that my theme needs to be updated but to be careful updating your theme if you aren't sure how it will affect your content - but you should also be aware that not updating your theme can make your website less secure and more vulnerable to hackers - (yeah - that's a true story).
I could either update my theme and potentially screw up all of my site content OR I could leave my theme as was (and my content would be fine) BUT I would be more vulnerable to having my site hacked.
Choices, choices.... In the end, I updated my theme annnnnddd spent a week sorting out my website because it did stuff everything up. Not good when you're a small business of one with limited time.
And another reason I love Squarespace so much!!!
Because they take care of all those tech hassles for you. I don't have to worry about plugins needing updating, themes needing to be updated, potential security issues because of not updating etc etc. It's all taken care of for me by the team at Squarespace.
So I can get on with my day and serve my clients knowing that everything 'just works'. It's a huge relief.
4. Chat Support
This one's a biggie for me. Most of the software I use in my business is from companies who live in America. And while technology has opened up the world more and made it possible for me to work with these incredible companies, they also come with their own set of issues if you run into a problem while using them.
Living in Australia means that our timezone never corresponds with the USA, which means that getting help via email is usually ends up being a game of tag - with each of us responding PER DAY to ONE email.
This not only makes for a very long chain of emails but it also means that my tech issue (no matter how small it may end up being) takes FOREVER to fix due to time zones and not being able to talk to someone in real time.
Enter - Squarespace chat support!!!
Wooohoooo!! Guys - this is a lifesaver! Having the ability to login and chat to someone in real time to sort out an issue or work out how to do something on my site is amazing!!
Having this feature is such a relief because I know that if I need help, all I have to do is open up a chat and have my questions answered in a few minutes. Not to mention that the help people at Squarespace are extremely knowledgeable about their software and can actually answer my qy questions.
I find it so frustrating sometimes open a help chat and the person helping you doesn’t know the system properly and keeps giving you incorrect information. Argh!
But I digress. That's never happened to me with the Squarespace team. They seem to train them really well and they are always having to help and are quick to respond.
And that’s a big win for me!
5. Beautiful Backend Design
So it turns out that I'm more influenced by beautiful design than I was consciously aware of.
When I opened up my trial site on Squarespace for the first time, I remember the sense of calm I felt looking at their backend. It felt clean, uncluttered and not at all overwhelming. Not to mention the fact that it was just pretty to look at.
Trying to use the backend of Wordpress was always confusing. It was hard to find what I wanted, the menu and entire backend always felt cluttered and I just really didn't enjoy looking at or working in it for extended periods of time. Hence why I always avoided it.
But with Squarespace, I feel none of that. The design is sleek, minimal and easy to navigate. There's enough white space for my brain to feel like it can breathe and nothing feels cluttered.
It's honestly a relief working on my sites in Squarespace and it's all down to their beautiful design and UI experience.
All of these features add up to exactly why I choose Squarespace for my photography business's website. So if you're looking to try another platform, move away from Wordpress or looking for where to house your website for the very first time - I highly recommend Squarespace. And, you can get a free trial for 2 weeks to test everything out and see if it's a fit for you before you buy.
Oh.. and if the thought of learning a new website platform scares the pants off you because you aren't 'techy' then check out my free Squarespace Course - Square Basics. In it, I walk you through the platform step by step so you know exactly what everything does and where to find what you need. You can sign up for the free course here.
Have I made you curious? You can sign up for a free Squarespace trial here << Yes, that’s an affiliate link - thanks for supporting my book obsession, my kindle and I thank you ;)
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