Why Squarespace?
Why Squarespace is one of the best platforms around
I discovered Squarespace quite by chance as a number of people were asking me about it.
I ran my own websites on Wordpress using Studiopress templates that were unfortunately bought it and were not being updated properly, which meant I had constant website down messages and technical difficulties. This is why I switched, and I have never looked back.
Design
Some of the images you can find now, added to the sleekness of the design makes Squarespace website stand out. Especially for authors who want their website to look great as well as be functional. I have known writers get better deals from agents and publishers because they already had an online presence that looked good, and said what they were about.
Ease of Use
As a designer, I have found Squarespace easy to use, and great for a website designer as I can simply hand over the completed project and then the client can either update the website themselves or pay me an hourly fee for updates. It depends on how much time they have and how comfortable they are with technology. Authors usually hate marketing, and just want someone else to do it so they can carry on writing!
Maintenance
I was also on Wordpress for many years, and if something broke I usually had to pay someone to fix it or spend hours online going through useless tutorials and YouTube videos to try and sort it out. Such a waste of time. Squarespace are constantly updating their technology and I usually raise a ticket if I want help with something and (usually) get a swift response.
Pricing
Most people talk about the cost of Squarespace, however, with any website you pay for a domain, hosting, as well as a template, so it only costs a little bit more and with Squarespace monthly plans starting around $15 it really is quite affordable.
More reasons to choose Squarespace
1) Security
Your site is 100% secure, looked after by their technical team, and if anything does go wrong they will fix it. All sites come with free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which gives visitors peace of mind when visiting your website. This is also important should you want to sell products. As Google loves secure websites, your website ranking should improve, and you will be indexed and found a lot quicker!
2) Squarespace comes with SEO
As a follow on from my last point, your website is optimised for search which means that anyone looking online for it will be able to find it easily. You want as much traffic as possible to rank better which equals more eyes on your website which (hopefully) means more sales!
Website descriptions, web page titles, custom URLs, and other key information is easily found. Each website is Google friendly, which helps with ranking and makes your website more easily found.
3) Squarespace is easy to use
With Squarespace, the software is easy to learn is quite intuitive. This is important when you want to add new content, switch out photographs, or add blog posts or new books!
I have used other platforms that have been difficult to update, and not responsive, which has meant that making changes were a pain. This user friendly interface makes updating your website fun and less of a task.
4) Squarespace sites are fully responsive
This means that whether you are visiting a website on a tablet or mobile phone, the content will automatically adjust to the size of the screen, meaning it is easy to visit your website on any device and it will look just as good.
Mobile traffic now counts for over 70% of all traffic, so it is probably more important now than ever how it looks. This is more relevant when the website is not viewed as a business, but as a hobby or if someone is shopping.
5) Squarespace offers free support
Should you have any kind of problem or need advice, Squarespace offers great support. You can start off with CHAT to explain your issue, and then be guided to the right help pages. If your issue needs a human, you can ask for one or open a ticket so they can address your issue without you being on hold. The customer care team at Squarespace are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a weeks, and it’s free. As it says on their website, their help centre based in Ireland has won several awards for its outstanding customer support.
Compare this to Wordpress, where self-hosted really does mean you have to do everything yourself. If something is not working correctly, you will have to sort this out yourself.
6) Squarespace has extra features
Squarespace constantly innovates! They have their own booking systems, email newsletter software, that allows you to send out emails to your followers, the option of easily adding a shop so you can sell products, such as signed books, or merchandise directly from your website.
Squarespace keeps your signup emails together, so there is no need to export your data. This will save you time, money and stress. It makes sense to keep it in one platform.
They also offer competitive payout rates, so you can be up and running in no time!
They recently added new features such as Memberships where you can offer content behind a paywall, and a new Courses feature, so you can run your own writing workshops directly from your author website.
Squarespace is the easiest, and best value platform for websites right now, so you can get on with what you know best - your life!
