Website builders are one of the greatest things that has happened to small businesses in a long time. They make it extremely fast and easy to build a site for your company that looks and works beautifully, in very little time and without the need for a web designer.
These services have it down to a science now, and Squarespace is one of the best because their focus seems to be on giving pretty much anybody the ability to create a great website, no matter what your level of experience or technical proficiency. This is what you’re going to get if you use Squarespace to build your site.
Website Builders Are Awesome Now
If you think back 15 years ago, or even just 10 years ago or less, you’ll remember that it was a complicated and expensive ordeal to build a website. There were few places where you could get a domain, and they were expensive. You had to hire a web designer, and those people were expensive. You also had to pay for web hosting and probably a programmer, which were also going to be expensive, depending on what kind of site you had.
You can literally do all of that now, in one shot. It seems obvious and logical now to have a service that does all of that in-house, but it just wasn’t available, either due to technological limitations, or the fact that no one thought of it.
Thankfully, there are multiple site-building services today that offer domains, design templates, web hosting, engineers, web designers (if you really want one), and more, and it’s way cheaper than it used to be because you’re not paying a bunch of different professionals and services, independently.
This is not to mention how much of your time all those different elements would consume before your business’ site was finally up, back in the day. Coordinating and building all of it used to be a pretty long process, unless you just happened to be really good at it.
With a site builder like Squarespace or similar services, your site can be up in probably less than an hour if you need to rush it, and it will look really good and function beautifully. If you don’t rush it, your site can still be up within a day or two; it’s basically insane how fast you can get a professional website up and running now.
Pretty Outstanding Website Templates
The templates you have to choose from with Squarespace is the feature that really stands out because this is essentially the thing that gives your site its personality and core design. You can portray any kind of feel that you want.
For those unfamiliar with exactly what these are, the “template” is a premade design that determines how images, text, and layout will display on the pages of your website. As you start putting together your site with Squarespace, you’ll be able to look through a huge list of templates, created by professional designers, and choose the one with the perfect look and feel that you need, to present your product or service.
They honestly seem to have thought of everything. You’ll have a hard time choosing one because all the templates have a lovely aesthetic, but if you have a specific style in mind, then you’ll definitely find one that fits. If by some off chance you don’t want any of them, they provide you with the option to hire a designer who will create a custom aesthetic and layout just for you.
To get started, you can select a category from the template section as soon as you sign up with Squarespace and view the large archive of templates for that category, ranging from Art & Design, Fashion & Beauty, Travel & Lifestyle, Wedding, Photography, and a lot more.
Once you choose the category that fits what you’re going for, then you can check out each template until you settle on the perfect one for your site. Don’t think that just because they’re premade, they’re crappy designs, either—these are supremely well-made website templates. And there are a ton of options to choose from.
They Make It Extremely Simple
All of these site builders are easy to use, like Wix, Shopify, or others, but Squarespace will get you up and running probably faster than any other similar service. There is a free trial available, and once you sign up, just select the type of site you need, pick a template, add images, text, and links, do some fine-tuning, and you’re up.
Squarespace will also walk you through the startup process if it seems like it’s a little beyond your technical ability (which it probably won’t be); they’re going for the most painless experience possible. It’s really just a few clicks, and again, if you’re just trying to get something going right away, it can easily be done in under an hour. You can always come back to your admin panel and edit or make any adjustments, as well.
Many Businesses Need a Service Like This
It’s unfortunate that the businesses who probably need this type of service the most will never read this because they’re not looking for it. If you are a business who has stumbled upon this article, however, then you should be paying close attention.
There are far too many businesses that either still, for some unfathomable reason, do not have a website or have a sub-par website that isn’t going to put their best foot forward to impress customers. As many business owners, capable as they are, actually don’t know very much about websites, they may have some fear and trepidation about getting one started. There’s no reason it has to be that way.
Business owners also have concerns about it being too complicated or expensive. As we’ve already mentioned, that is how it was in the past but no longer because it’s far simpler and inexpensive to start a site today.
If your website barely functions, looks terrible, or bores the life out of visitors, then you need to take advantage of a site builder like Squarespace. It will most likely blow your mind how easy it is to get it going, and how amazing and professional your site will look when you’re done.
Create a High-Functioning Online Store
On a more specific note, you might be an exclusively ecommerce business or want to sell whatever products you have online. You can build an online store with any feature that you need to make it function perfectly and give customers an experience that feels intuitive and inspires them to buy. The online store option with Squarespace is full-service and provides you with every tool that you will need to build a great site for ecommerce.
Just as you would for any kind of business, build an excellent site with all of their standard tools and templates, and then add a ton of features that you’ll need to make it a high-functioning ecommerce site. Here are some features that you get with the Squarespace online store builder:
- Product catalog & merchandising
- Rich product experiences
- Subscriptions
- Abandoned checkout recovery
- Powerful & secure checkout
- Flexible payment options
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Order & inventory management
- Commerce analytics
- Expert customer care
Competitive Pricing
So here’s a breakdown of what you’ll pay for services with Squarespace. This is just a straight explanation of pricing, but the features you get with each plan are not listed here. You can see additional information for their plans at squarespace.com/pricing#websites.
Websites:
-$144/year
-or $16/month
-$216/year
-or $26/month
Online Stores:
-$312/year
-or $30/month
-$480/year
-or $46/month
As you can see from those figures, there is a discount if you sign up for a year-long contract, but they also allow you to start or stop service at any time. We discussed earlier how Squarespace is pretty much a one-stop shop; so, you can purchase a domain directly from them if you need it, web hosting is included, and their service also offers professional programming service if you need it.
This is one of the best services out there right now for starting a new business website with minimal time, effort, and cost. If you don’t have a website for your business or have a website that just looks pretty boring, then you’ll do yourself a favor by checking out Squarespace. It couldn’t be easier.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.