How to Build a Website, Part 3: Using the Squarespace Website Builder

Welcome, Small Business owners, entrepreneurs and community, to episode 004, which is part three in our five-part series for the Web and BeyondCast launch, on how to build a website for business. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith and so far, I’ve chatted with with experts on the principles of good website design and development, and getting your content together for your website launch. On today’s show, I have a panel of Web experts for building a website completely using a website builder called Squarespace. Let’s see what Squarespace is all about and if they’re the right choice for your business website.

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit http://webandbeyondcast.com/004 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

If you’d like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post), or contact us.

WordPress Website Hosting

In this Cast

Ray Sidney-Smith, Host

Kerstin Martin

Originally from Germany, our first Squarespace expert panel member is Kerstin Martin, who has lived in four countries and travelled around the globe before settling down in the beautiful seaside town of Bellingham, WA. Her professional background in the airline, technology, finance and education industries eventually led her to starting her own business in her early 50s, as a Squarespace Web Designer and officially endorsed Squarespace Authorized Trainer. Kerstin specializes in designing professional websites for small businesses in only three days, and also teaches popular online courses in Squarespace web design, SEO and e-course hosting, as well as a business course on building a successful web design business.

Paige Brunton

Our next Squarespace expert panelist is Paige Brunton, a Squarespace web design expert, who helps creative entrepreneurs launch sites that connect and convert, all in just two weeks. Paige’s blog is the go-to destination for Squarespace info, helping thousands of Squarespace users every month. Her Start Your Squarespace Website Workbook is a popular free option for setting up the foundation of your Squarespace site. Paige earned a master’s degree in the arts from the University of Mississippi. You’ll find Paige traveling Europe and Asia where she lives as a location-independent digital nomad.

Brad Good

And, last but not least, Brad Good is an officially endorsed Squarespace Specialist, Authorized Trainer and has been building sites on Squarespace since 2008. He has helped hundreds of Squarespace customers with their websites. Brad started a web development company, based in San Diego, California, in 2015 that specializes in Squarespace and has built a team of 13 talented designers and developers.

Questions/Topics We Discussed About Squarespace

  • What are the benefits/advantages and disadvantages of using a website builder platform like Squarespace versus building on a self-hosted website content management system?
  • Who is Squarespace best for?
  • What’s the process you take clients through when they want to launch a website?
  • What challenges business owners the most when trying to get a website launched, in your experience working with owners?
  • You work in a very visual niche industry with creative and design professionals. How does that affect your design process? I’m guessing these sites are image and/or video rich; does that require different accommodations within Squarespace?
  • How does Squarespace square up against other website builders regarding mobile/responsive design, loading speed (desktop/mobile), SEO, and design flexibility?
  • Are there features that Squarespace really cannot do well? Do you use other services or tools to overcome those within Squarespace?
  • Squarespace has a reputation of being a “do-it-yourself” platform. What’s the value in paying a professional?

Show Notes

Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

While we focused on one website builder in our discussion on this episode, there are many; below is a list of the few I frequently recommend to clients:

And, here are a few lesser known ones to Small Business, but well worth checking out if it suits your needs:

Google Product Feed for Squarespace eCommerce sites: https://answers.squarespace.com/questions/32730/google-merchant-data-feed-google-shopping.html (In short, no, Squarespace doesn’t do this natively. But, there are third-party solutions on that page that can possibly do it for you.)

Reserve With Google – booking directly from Google Maps with the right booking/scheduling partners.

Acuity Scheduling is just one of those Reserve With Google Partners.

17 Hats

Square Secrets course by Paige Brunton

Squarespace Templates

If you want a separate domain name registrar, you can register with Web Services, or Google Domains. (If you do use Google Domains, make sure that if you have a G Suite account (links to a free trial), that you log in and purchase it in your G Suite Administrator account.)

Square Studio plugins

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases.

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004 How to Build a Website, Part 3: Using the Squarespace Website Builder – Web and BeyondCast

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