Squarespace for Service Businesses
THE CHALLENGE
Creating simple, beautiful websites for small businesses that want a web presence without the hassle.
Squarespace isn't right for every project, but when it's a good fit it can be sublime.
Who is a Good Fit for a Squarespace Website
We've found that many service-based businesses in particular like Squarespace. It's perfect for agencies, firms or personal brands that want a modern, professional website that can be set up quickly and is easy to update.
We've helped a range of service based businesses set up Squarespace websites including a dentist, PR firm, marketing agency, business coach, business consultant, interior designer, and video editor. Sometimes I can almost hear the sigh of relief when they have a site up that they love and know it is hassle-free.
Squarespace also has a lot of great functionality for restaurants, spas and course-based businesss (gyms, yoga studios, etc).
Why You May Love Squarespace
If you want an easy-to-use, no-fuss web presence, Squarespace is a great solution. It has a quick learning curve, an intuitive interface and friendly customer support that will help with most standard questions.
But, besides the beautiful simplicity of the sites, the best part is that you don't have to worry about monthly maintenance, security against hackers or having to keep up with plug-in updates.
If you're not the type who enjoys tinkering with your website, it's the sort of thing you can set and forget without fear that it will go down due to some rogue plugin and you'll have a client call to tell you . You will still want to check in on your website periodically to make sure it's up-to-date and reflects your business but that's about it.
When Squarespace May Not Be a Good Fit
On the other hand, there's sometimes when you might be better off sticking with Wordpress. If you're looking for advanced functionality or want the site to be highly customized, you might find Squarespace to be too limiting. A Wordpress plug-in exists for nearly anything you can imagine — often for free. While Squarespace does have a few companies like SquareStud.io offering plugins, it's not anywhere near the range or depth of functionality that Wordpress offers.
Also if you enjoy doing a deep dive into SEO or blogging, I'd say Wordpress is still your better option. You can blog and work on SEO in Squarespace but there are some frustrating limitations — even some seemingly simple things like duplicating post layouts or automatically add a standard footer to posts just doesn't exist (yet) in Squarespace.
And while there is ecommerce in Squarespace, it's still pretty rudimentary. If you have a website and want to sell your branded t-shirts or an ebook, it's perfect. If you have a warehouse of product and an order fulfillment team, you'll probably want to look at Shopify or other dedicated ecommerce platforms. There are also some things that Squarespace doesn't do at all such as membership sites.
Hopefully this overview helps you decide whether Squarespace would be a good option for your business. When determining whether Squarespace would be a good fit, we scope out the goals of the project, your comfort level with different technologies, as well as previous experience. Some people have been working on Wordpress for years and love it. Other people been driven nuts by Wordpress for years and can't wait to get on an easier platform. We'll see where you fall and suggest a course of action. In the end, you just need a website that reflects your business as accurately as possible — no matter what platform.
I've included some of our past work along with client testimonials below. If you are interested in improving your service-business website, we have a blog post Have a Service Business? What You Need to Prepare For Your Website that covers the various page and materials you'll want to include on your site.
I approached Float Design because their sophisticated style reflects the customer I would like to attract. They helped me by distilling and presenting the assets my company possesses in a streamlined modern way. The result was increased activity and new clients signed!
— ARLEEN MITCHELL, Mitchell Consulting
“They helped me by taking all of my ideas and creating a functional website. Made everything flow smoothly and stayed true to what I wanted represented on my website — my personality and the essence of the office.
Before meeting with Float, I found the experience of trying to build a website to be very stressful and off-putting. Larissa made the experience more pleasant and less worrisome. She had great input, she tied all of my ideas together and delivered in a way that would function the best. She made recommendations so that new and existing patients would find the website easy to use, clear and concise.
I would recommend to people who need help either building a brand new website or revamping their existing one. They are very easy to work with and explain the process in a non-threatening manner for people who don't have much tech experience. I thoroughly enjoyed working with them and love the outcome of the website!”
—KARLA SOLIS, DDS
LA Holistic Dentistry
Thanks for reading all the way down! We're also Squarespace Circle Members which means we get sneak-previews of their new releases and updates on bugs direct from Squarespace. If you are considering moving your site to Squarespace, feel free to reach out — we're always happy to discuss.
