Top Reasons Web Designers Should Use Squarespace
Everyone with a website benefits from a good hosting platform, but the stakes are never higher than for those who build websites professionally. The abilities and limitations of a platform dictate how you build and what you eventually turn over to the client. Not only that, but their continued experience with the platform, positive or negative, will serve as a reminder of you and your work. When everything goes well, grateful clients will sing your praises for years to come. But when it goes badly, it means frustrated clients are stuck with websites that are difficult to use, update, and maintain.
It’s a common misconception that Squarespace is only for people who build their own websites. In fact, the platform is intuitive enough for beginners to build incredible websites, while even the most advanced users find plenty of value.
In this article, we’ll dive into the reasons Squarespace is perfect for professionals seeking an ideal platform to create more beautiful online experiences and powerful ecommerce sites for their clients.
The power of Squarespace for professional web designers
Squarespace’s reputation as a beginner-friendly platform is a selling point to clients. After all, they’ll need the flexibility of a user-friendly interface and intuitive design features to make changes, post updates, and more without relying on third parties. That ease of use, however, does not come at the cost of robust functionality and customization capabilities.
Squarespace offers powerful features in ecommerce, SEO, and analytics that are ideal for handing over websites to clients. Because these features are native to Squarespace, you won’t have to worry about any third-party plugins causing issues with their site in the future.
The unique benefits of Squarespace
The benefits of Squarespace aren’t just what you’re able to hand over to your client. The platform is designed to streamline workflows for professionals and beginners alike. Because the platform is built as an all-in-one solution, you won’t need to waste time figuring out how to integrate multiple tools and plug-ins.
No coding required
Squarespace’s powerful features, like Fluid Engine and built-in responsive design, truly expand the range of what an individual can achieve without coding knowledge. Fluid Engine enables quick content creation and dynamic layout adjustments, while the automatically responsive designs mean you won’t need additional coding to deliver an extra level of professionalism, user-friendliness, and dynamic visuals.
If you prefer to use custom code, Squarespace supports that too. And, if your client insists on using a particular third-party plugin, most extensions work just fine with Squarespace.
Squarespace Blueprint AI also helps you build unique websites for clients from the ground up by empowering you to choose from curated layout and styling options. By answering a few questions, you can combine multiple template elements together into a unique framework. That means you’ll be able to choose from, customize, and combine, the hundreds of professionally designed templates Squarespace has to offer.
Pro tip: Squarespace’s template store is a great jumping off point for web design projects. For instance, if you’re new to web design, use the Adri template to create your web design portfolio. The template has been crafted with web designers in mind and has all the features needed to tell your story and impress potential clients.
Delivers a powerful set of ecommerce features
The best ecommerce sites look simple while accomplishing a lot behind the scenes. Fortunately, Squarespace has a full feature set for selling products and managing orders online. If your client chooses a Commerce plan, they’ll enjoy 0% transaction fees, customer accounts, as well as order, inventory, product catalog management, tax tools, payment tools, and shipping tools. They can even use Squarespace to sell in person, so that inventory stays up to date.
Squarespace’s Custom Merch also helps clients create original products that can be printed and fulfilled on demand via Squarespace’s Printful integration. Because your clients won’t have to worry about investing in inventory, warehousing, and logistics, it can be a great way for businesses that don’t currently offer merchandise to build brand awareness and introduce a new form of revenue with minimal risk or investment.
Offers a comprehensive suite of fully integrated tools
On most platforms, you can cobble together different third-party plug-ins to expand your website’s functionality. Third-party plugins are better than nothing, but they can also wreak havoc on a website, creating security concerns, compatibility issues, glitches, and outright failures after platform updates.
Squarespace integrates these functions, usually only achievable through plugins, directly into the platform itself. That means you can deliver expanded functionality to your clients without worrying about how those functions might deteriorate or cause issues down the line. Plus, Circle members have access to an exclusive feature request board, where they can make suggestions and vote on product recommendations that can influence the tools they use every day.
Some of Squarespace’s most valuable integrated tools include:
Email Campaigns: Quickly generate emails that are as visually compelling as your client’s website itself. This suite of tools enables one-off blasts, as well as automated campaigns that respond to subscriber activity (like signing up for emails). They also include built-in analytics to help your client refine their campaigns over time.
Acuity Scheduling: The online appointment management tool automates the process of booking appointment-based services directly through your client’s website.
Tock: Restaurants can handle reservations, waitlists, takeout and delivery order systems, real-time floor plans, and more, directly through their website. Tock also functions as a reservation platform for diners to discover and book at your client’s restaurant. While it requires a separate subscription, Tock integrates with any Squarespace plan.
Member Areas: Your client can monetize information or reward site members with exclusive content. Member Areas are great for fitness instructors, influencers, content creators, and more.
Promotes client collaboration
Squarespace offers tools so that designers can work alongside their clients, during and after projects, without stepping on each other’s toes. By editing contributor permissions, you can specify how different individuals can change and contribute to the website.
After you offboard the website to your client, they’ll be able to manage those permissions on their own, setting the right limits for their employees to maintain the website. Squarespace also offers a number of features and tips to make handoff as smooth as possible.
SEO-friendly and performance-driven
Your clients will be ahead of the pack right out of the gate with Squarespace’s built-in SEO capabilities. Squarespace covers all the essentials, like customizable metadata and sitemaps, and adds advanced analytics to track web performance and make data-driven decisions about how to optimize the site.
Provides 24/7 support
No matter how good a designer you are, or how intuitive the interface, building websites can get complicated. Inevitably, there will be moments when you need a hand. Squarespace’s many support channels mean designers and their clients can troubleshoot issues or ask questions any day of the week.
As a Circle member, you’ll receive dedicated support, along with access to a members-only forum where you’ll receive info from peers and Squarespace team members. For those building multiple sites professionally, the Circle program can be a powerful resource.
No one benefits more from a reliable and capable hosting platform than web designers. Not only will the platform dictate many aspects of the website you eventually hand off to your client, it will be the primary way they interact with their site moving forward.
As a professional website designer, you need a solution that’s secure, flexible, and capable of serving all your clients. Best of all, supportive forums and content like that of Squarespace's partner program can help you fully unlock the power of Squarespace.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
