The following events are based on a true story.

My Experience with Squarespace

I first set up my Squarespace site shortly after my move to Atlanta when I was looking for fulltime work. My Squarespace site was a resume and portfolio site.

I knew what I needed right from the get-go: a custom domain (no more stephen.blogspot.com for me) and a clean simple layout. I didn’t need much else. All I wanted was to control the info people found out about me when they Googled me before an interview.

Squarespace is great for that and it’s a great place to begin looking at website builders.

Squarespace Makes a Great First Website

My internet experience began in the late 90’s. Dial-up connection at home, my parents let me have a few hours online per week. Geocities was still a thing, and to get spaces between paragraphs you had to type <p> </p>. You had to pick up at least at little HTML just to survive.

When it came to choosing Squarespace over the other platforms, I was making the choice not to have to deal with HTML anymore. This is a blessing and a curse and the best way I can think to summarize Squarespace.

The team at Squarespace has done a brilliant job of creating a website platform that is simple to use. If you have zero experience with the technical aspects of the internet, you can still handle Squarespace.

A far-cry from the days of Geocities, Squarespace has put a workable layer between the site designer and the code. In the 90’s you would have had to define something like center alignment by modifying the code directly. Squarespace allows changes like this with the push of a button. More importantly, the entire design of your website is built for you using their premade templates. Squarespace lets you preview a template on a real, working website and make that template your own with a few clicks.

For me, when looking for a fulltime job was a fulltime job, this was a great solution because I didn’t have to do any work to get something to look good. And it’s a good solution for you to if you have pretty straightforward plans for your site. One simple page about who you are and what you do is great for Squarespace. An additional page here and there with contact info, pictures, all good on Squarespace.

Squarespace might not be the best choice if your needs get more complicated.

Squarespace Lacks the Options to Customize and Grow

Eventually, I felt like branching out my cute portfolio site a bit. I wanted to start displaying and selling some of the photographs I had taken over the years. So I added a pre-made gallery page and store page. All easy as a few clicks, true to Squarespace’s nature.

Google Analytics Issues

Since I was getting into ecommerce, obviously I was getting into SEO and that meant adding Google Analytics. No problem. True to Squarspace’s click and drag model, there’s a box where you copy and paste your tag. Easy. Until I ran into something known as “referral spam.” Referral spammers are bots that crawl your site hoping you notice the referring link in Google Analytics and click over to their site. In short, they’re fake visitors that make it impossible to tell if you really have 1,000 views a day or not.

You can get rid of them by making some changes at the code level, and make some filtering changes in Analytics. Unfortunately, the filter changes were not enough, and I was not able to change the code on my Squarespace site so I always had to subtract the spammers from my Analytics. Not ideal for a solution that’s meant to be easy to use. Squarespace isn’t lying when they emphasize the ease of setting up Analytics. The issue lies in needing to customize your Google Analytics feed to cancel out the “noise.”

The Trouble with Templates

I also began to notice that my site looked boring. Not that I am one to advocate for complicated sites, I just wanted my site to reflect me. If you’re a business or nonprofit, it’s important that your website be a depiction of your organization. When I attempted to make changes to the layout I had settled on, I found I couldn’t get deep enough into the HTML to do what I needed so I was stuck with my vanilla website.

One of Squarespace’s proudest statements is that you can set up an entire site by just dragging images, selecting fonts and putting in text. It’s all true if you don’t mind your site looking like dozens of others. Much the way your organization looks a little better with an email address that doesn’t end with “@gmail.com,” your website looks a little better when it’s built around your audience. As soon as you know what that needs to look like, you may find Squarespace too limiting. Additionally, Squarespace notes that their templates are built around modern browsers and current best practices for CSS, HTML and Javascript. From my day job as a mild-mannered web performance dude at a software company, I can assure you that these are some of the most hotly debated pieces of any website. Everyone has an opinion on how to make them better and faster. It’s great that Squarespace has a focus on building these well, but because you won’t be able to access them, you’ll have to wait for them to be updated as soon as a new hot practice hits the CSS streets.

Key Takeaways about Squarespace

At a high level, Squarespace is a great place to start if you need a simple, clean website that provides key information.  If you don’t have much internet language knowledge, Squarespace will still be easy for you to use. As you grow, you may find that Squarespace’s pre-made catalog of features is no longer enough for your business. Squarespace does not offer the ability to add any plugins or tools that they did not build for you. Perhaps the biggest advantage of Squarepace is the price. Most websites can spring to life on the platform for under $200 per year (that includes a personal domain). And since it’s all simple enough to do on your own, there is no need to pay a developer or designer. When you decide it’s time to stand out, you’ll need to hire a designer and move to another platform. Choose Squarespace when you need the simplest website possible, if your needs are more complex, you most likely need to look elsewhere. More on that soon. Until then, have fun!

The post Website Builder Comparison for Small Businesses and Nonprofits: Squarespace appeared first on Logos Creative.

You want to bring value to people with the work you’ve already done. From the basic concepts of how to begin a content audit, to the gritty details of how to structure a value prop, you’re a pro by now. But what does it all look like? Where the rubber meets the road, you need to be able to take audited content and actually build a new and better site with it.  This post will provide the templates needed to turn your audited content into a brilliant new site.

Identify your Most Important Pages

If you’ve followed along with this series so far, you’ll know that my opinion is that most websites are more complicated than users need them to be. Usually, less is more when it comes to making a valuable site.

When deciding what pages to keep from your audited content, think about the information your users must know to take action.Don’t just put it on your site because it looked cool on someone else’s. We both know you’re a leader not a follower.

All that said, the pages I’ve noted as being most important to Evermore’s typical clients are:

• About/Home page (we’ll talk about the distinction)
• Contact Us
• Events
• Fundraising

Now let’s talk about how to structure each one.

Content Template for Home Pages

I lumped Home and About pages together. Remember, we’re looking for simplicity. For most small businesses and nonprofits, people need to know what you’re about as soon as they hit your website. This page should focus on how you are different from others, and why that’s important to readers. You’re not the only law firm, but you’re the only one that sees your customers the way you do.

Be sure to include these crucial details:

Specifics about what You Do

Nothing is worse than going to a website and having no idea why you’re there. Don’t do that to your audience. Tell them as straightforward and completely as possible what you do and why you do it. Keep your unique value front and center.

Limited Contact Info

It doesn’t hurt to make sure contact info is on the page near the bottom. If you’re doing a great job getting value in front of your audience, they’ll want to act right away. Make it easy for them to do so. You don’t need every phone number and email address on this page, just the primary ones.

Get to the Point

This page should be no more than 500 words. Anything longer than that is a “wall-o-text” that makes your website feel overwhelming. Keep it above 250 words though. Any less and people might not spend enough time on it and will “bounce” which hurts SEO.

Call to Action

Every page needs to justify it’s existence. You’re not auditing content and making a better website for a pat on the back. You’re making it to better serve your audience. Clearly let them know what you want them to do after reading the home page.

Content Template for Contact Us Page

If you title a page “Contact Us” (or any variation thereof) you should assume people are going to it to –well– contact you. Again, make that easy for them.

Detailed Contact Info

Give a physical address if that’s relevant. Make sure phone numbers are clear. But more importantly, get detailed. If you have one phone number to call for one type of service offered, and a different one for something else, make that clear. Let people know who to ask for, or who they will be speaking to. If you’re going to ask questions, or need specific info when they call, let them know right on the page.

Give them a Reason to Reach Out

Hopefully, someone got to the contact page already planning to contact you. Still, make sure there is a reminder of why they should contact you and not someone else. This should take about 250 words, and less than 500 words. Don’t overdo it.

Content Template for Events Page

The devil is in the details. That is, make the details of the events clear. There’s absolutely no reason to lay this page out like the paper calendar you hang by your desk. Why? Unless you’re holding important events every day, most of the calendar days will be blank. That just distracts from the things you are doing.

Make your events page a regularly updated list. Don’t leave events on this page from June 2013. Include clear details about when, where, why, who + how to contact with any questions. This page is all information. Keep it to the point.

Content Template for Fundraising or Other Payment Page

Put the materials they need to make a contribution front and center. Make it the main focus.

Similar to the contact page, it doesn’t hurt to have a brief reminder of why they should be sharing their hard earned money with you.

Keep this page to about 250 words, and don’t make anyone scroll to find the place where they need to make their donation. Include relevant contact info if they need to get in touch about the process. And, remember to thank them!

Key Takeaways

Above are are four basic templates for taking audited content and making it into the essential pages for a small business or non profit website. Other pages may be important to your specific organization. Use variations and combinations of the ideas above to meet each need.

Remember, make it easy for your audience to use each page, provide value, and have fun.

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