Why Squarespace Is The Best Website Platform For Authors
New to Squarespace and wanna try it out? You can sign up for a free trial here << Yes, that’s an affiliate link - thanks for supporting my book obsession, my kindle and I thank you ;)
As an author, there are a variety of options you can choose from when you go to build your author website - Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix and Weebly to name a few.
And with a variety of choice comes a lot of confusion surrounding which one is best for you and what the differences are between them all. With the top choices usually recommended as Wordpress or Squarespace.
If you're new to building a website from scratch or not particularly tech savvy then you want to make sure that you chose an option that is easy for you to use.
This is the number one reason that I recommend Squarespace over Wordpress.
Wordpress is a fantastic website builder. It has unlimited abilities when designing and you can truy build some remarkable websites with it. However, the learning curve is steep!
It's not an easy platform to set up, design on or build out your website on.
And for authors, who usually don't need a comprehensive website with all the bells and whistles and special features that Wordpress can provide then I say it's easier to just skip them entirely and save yourself the hassle and frustration of trying to learn it.
Squarespace on the other hand is designed for the creative individual and is much better for authors in terms of building, maintaining and updating.
Here are 5 reasons I recommend Squarespace for authors:
1. Ease Of Use
The top reason that I recommend Squarespace for authors is because it's EASY.
It's easy to design on, easy to update, easy to maintain.
And I can't highlight this ease of use enough. Having a platform that you can easily update and maintain yourself, without wanting to pull your hair out or scream in frustration because you just can't figure out how to do something, is such an underrated reason to choose Squarespace.
2. WYSIWYG Design Editor
What does WYSIWYG mean? Simply it means that What You See Is What You Get when you use their design editor. Thus means that you actually see and design your website pages on the actual page.
You may ask - "Huh? Isn't that how all website platforms work?"
And the answer is no. Not all platforms work this way. In fact, Wordpress doesn't do this at all. You need to design the page in the backend of Wordpress and you don't see the actual page you're designing when you're doing it.
Now does Wordpress have options available to design on the page? Yes but they are usually a paid add on, so you need to factor that into your budget when picking a platform. Plus it's still not a true WYSIWYG editor and you don't see the design in real time.
With Squarespace you design on the page.
Squarespace has simplified the design process for the less tech savvy people and you design pages using 'blocks'. These blocks are elements you can use on a page, like a text block, a photo block, form block, video block etc.
Then when you drag a photo on the screen and place it somewhere, you can see exactly how it will look on the page. It's the same with any elements you add to the page - text blocks, photo galleries etc.
This makes it much easier to design your website the way you want without having to have any previous website building experience or know any coding.
Which makes it perfect for authors.
3. Everything Is Under One Roof
With Squarespace you can can centralise all of your assets under one roof. Which makes it easier for you to keep track of and manage.
You can purchase your domain with Squarespace (or get it free for the first year if you purchase a Business plan or higher), it includes a website theme and hosting so you don't have to go elsewhere for any of these things.
With Wordpress you need to purchase any extras like a domain, hosting and a website theme. Whereas with Squarespace all of those are included in their monthly/annual plans.
Plus if you choose the Business plan or higher you can also get a Google Workspace email address free for the first year. Which takes care or your professional author email address too.
4. You Get A Free Trial
Not sure if Squarespace is going to work for you or not? That's fine Squarespace gives you a free two week trial to test out their website builder and see if it's a fit for you.
This way you can poke around the backend of the Squarespace and see how it all works, where everything is. You can also test out all of their features, play around with their design editor, try different design ideas and placements, switch the colours and fonts and see if you like/can use the website editor.
All for FREE! You don't have to pay a penny upfront or give out your credit card details. You only need to pay when you're ready to upgrade to a paid plan.
Plus I've always found Squarespace support to be quite generous with their free trials and if you need more time to finish designing your website, you can always ask them to extend your trial too and they're usually happy to help.
5. Squarespace Support
Speaking of Squarespace support - this is another reason that I highly recommend Squarespace for authors. Squarespace has amazing customer service and support.
You have access to Squarespace support through email and live chat. Plus they have extensive help docs covering anything you could possibly be looking for.
If you run into a problem designing your website and their help docs don't cover the issue then getting help is really easy. You can reach out via email or live chat and get an answer really quickly. Even for me, living in Australia, on the other side of the world from them, I find the response times great and I'm never left waiting long for a reply.
Plus the live chat feature is amazing and something I used regularly when I was first starting with Squarespace.
So if you want and easy to use, uncomplicated way to set up your author website, then give Squarespace a try now.
Or if you already know Squarespace is for you but you're horrible at the design side - then grab one of my Squarespace website templates for authors.
It's installed directly on your account as a new website and all you need to do it switch out the colours, content and text to make it yours. I even provide a free course to walk you through how to use Squarespace and the template to make it easier for you. Head to the shop now to browse the designs.
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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 ;)
