I am a big fan of Squarespace! Obviously. 😊 It’s not perfect, of course, but it comes close for a lot of reasons if you need a website for your small business.

To be honest, Squarespace is the first website platform I came across back in 2012. I instantly loved the minimal and modern style of its templates. Not really knowing much about web design in my beginning years, I dove right in to learn everything I could about web design and Squarespace. I found Squarespace to be rather easy to learn pretty quickly. There weren’t as many online resources back then! Now there are a ton of resources and I was able to go from novice to expert designer with Squarespace!

(If you’re interested, you can read my Studio Talk 5 article published by Kerstin Martin, Leading Squarespace Expert and Educator, to learn a little more about how I got started. Please note that some of the links are out of date and I am no longer responsible for the client websites included or their current designs.)

It is totally possible to learn what you need to know to become an expert of your own site. You really don’t need to know everything!

There are a lot of beautiful Squarespace templates out there by some really talented web designers! I will share some of my favorites in an upcoming blog post. If you’re super curious and would like a sneak peek of upcoming templates available here, check out the new template shop!

* This post contains affiliate links, as noted with an asterisk.* I may receive a small commission for any purchases you make through these links at no additional cost to you, of course.

Here’s why I ♡ Squarespace:

1. Squarespace has been around since 2003 and they just keep improving their game, so no worries that they will go away anytime soon.

The latest big news in July 2022 was the addition of the all-new drag-and-drop content editor Fluid Engine, and even more recently, as of June 2023 Squarespace has announced it will acquire Google Domains.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that your website will also be around for a long time to come. If you’d like to have a backup of your site, just in case, see this post on how to backup your Squarespace website.

2. Squarespace is easy to use and edit.

You can easily learn the platform without being tech savvy. Seriously! Fluid Engine has made it easy to drag and drop content just about anywhere you want. You really don’t need to know how to code to design a beautiful site. Of course, you can add code to push the boundaries of what is already possible.

One of my favorite new Squarespace features includes Saved Sections so you can quickly and easily reuse already styled sections of a web page and repeat it on any page. Besides being able to duplicate a section on a page, you can now save a section from one page to use on another page!

3. Squarespace is responsive.

Responsive web design is built in so your website content and images will automatically change to fit the screen size of any device. This is also essential in making your site mobile-friendly.

With the new Fluid Engine, you can rearrange your mobile content separately from the desktop layout. This is nice when you want to control your mobile layout (without necessarily needing to add code).

You can read more about Squarespace’s Responsive design.

4. Squarespace is a closed-source platform.

This means that Squarespace takes care of all the development updates in the platform behind the scenes by the developers. It also means your site is safe and secure since the code is closed to any outside access.

(WordPress is an example of an open-source platform which means sites are open to the possibility of viruses or being hacked which could ultimately break your website.)

By default, your site is set as secure using https.
You can find these settings from the Home menu, go to Settings / Developer Tools / SSL

”SSL secures connections and prevents hackers from impersonating you or stealing visitors' information.”
For more info from Squarespace, see the article Understanding SSL certificates

5. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform.

Just about everything you need for your website is available through Squarespace so you can manage it all in one place, including:

▪︎ Website Hosting

▪︎ Domain Hosting

▪︎ Custom Domain Email with Google Workspace
(You can create an email address for your custom domain through Google Workspace which is included free for the first year with a Squarespace Business Plan.)

▪︎ Email marketing with Squarespace Campaigns

▪︎ Scheduling + Appointments with Acuity Scheduling

▪︎ Online courses + Memberships with Member Areas

▪︎ E-commerce

▪︎ Analytics

Of course, you do still have the option to integrate other extras and fun plugins.

6. Squarespace customer support is available 24/7 by email.

They also have a live chat option. Besides all the many resources online, Squarespace has a pretty robust Help Center as well.

7. Squarespace has a free 14 day trial period.

No credit card is required to get started. If you’d like to go ahead give it a try, use the code TARYNMERCEDES10* for a 10% discount on your first year of hosting.

8. Squarespace Templates!

This is my most favorite reason to use Squarespace as a small business owner. When your budget is smaller as you are starting out, you may not be able to invest in a custom site to start. I get it. There are now so many fabulous templates out there that not only give you a beautiful design to guide you but also provide all the necessary tutorials to make it easier to learn how to do it yourself.

This is my goal for you. To help you create your own unique website using a strategic and stylish Squarespace template. My template shop is now open for you to join the waitlist and be the first to know when the first template is out! Check out the template shop here! I hope you love it, and Squarespace, as much as I do! 💙

If you have any questions about using Squarespace for your small business, please contact me and we can chat.

If you are a Squarespace web designer and you are interested in upscaling your design and coding skills, I highly recommend Standout Squarespace* by Squarestylist*. It is an extensive one year online course that teaches and supports designers of all levels to learn how to create unexpected and standout websites.

If you were to ask me what's the best decision I have made in my business, I would definitely say taking this course! Standout Squarespace is hands down the best investment a Squarespace designer could ever make! For all the reasons of improving my skills as a self-taught web designer and running a web design business, this course covers just about everything and more!

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