Why I Use Squarespace
I could sit here and write a bullet list of all the benefits and cool features of Squarespace, but I'm not going to. There are plenty of more comprehensive blog posts and articles out there already comparing Squarespace's features with other popular hosting/blogging sites like Wordpress and Blogger. If that's what you are looking for, I have included some links to some great resources on this topic at the bottom of this post.
What I AM going to do is tell you the reason why I switched to Squarespace and the three things that keep me there.
When I first started blogging, I used Blogger and used that for a year or two before I switched to Wordpress. There are many great things about those blogging platforms, but the bottom line is that they are not created for people who want to customize their blog design but do not have formal web design training. I spent countless hours googling my questions, watching tutorials and posting to online help forums to try to teach myself enough about coding to make Blogger/Wordpress work for me.
I wasted so much time trying to navigate the back end of my site when I should have been focused on creating quality content.
How backwards is that?
The turning point for me came when I found myself looking into Web Design & Coding classes at local community colleges, just so I could make my blog look the way I wanted it to. My hobby blog that I was not making any money from... I snapped out of that pretty quickly. I wanted to be a successful Interior Designer, not a HTML/CSS coding master! If I was going to focus my time, energy and resources on anything, it was not going to be learning web design.
That's when I discovered Squarespace. Squarespace has helped me to cut down on the "crap" and focus on my mission as a blogger, which is writing creative, inspiring and original content for my readers. Now that I have been using this platform for 8 months, here are the three things that keep me a happy Squarespace customer.
Great (Responsive) Design
On Wordpress, you can literally download thousands of blog design templates for free but the quality is all over the place. For the most part, you get what you pay for.
With Squarespace, you have less choices, but they are all very high quality -- beautifully designed AND responsive (i.e. will adjust themselves to look good on desktops, tablets and smartphones). I currently use the Montauk template.
Drag & Drop Customization
Adding content is simple with Squarespace's drag and drop format. All you have to do is open the Content Block Editor and you have the option to insert pretty much any and every type of content you would need, from basic things like images, audio and video to more advanced things like forms, custom HTML, e-commerce products, downloadable files and category lists.
Here's what the Content Block Editor looks like:
All-in-One Hosting, Publishing & Commerce
When I set up my Wordpress blog, I had to also research and pay for a hosting service. I chose Bluehost, but because I am an Interior Designer and not a web developer, I called customer service literally every time I had to do anything on that site so they could walk me through it. Not exactly user-friendly.
I love the fact that Squarespace is an all-in-one service, which includes website hosting, publishing, commerce, analytics and social media integration in a way that is very intuitive and easy to use! On top of all this, Squarespace makes setting up your blog even easier by including a free custom domain name with your plan. That's one less thing you have to research and pay for, which in my book is a great thing. In addition to all this, Squarespace also partners with other companies like Stripe (commerce) and MailChimp (email marketing) to make things simple for you.
Wanna try it before you buy it? Squarespace has a free 14 day trial period, so you can play around with the platform before committing to a plan.
Honestly, in the last 8 months I've been using Squarespace, I've hardly had any complaints. I don't believe my blog would have grown to the point that it is at today if I wouldn't have made the switch.
So I've got a question for you.
What's standing in the way of you starting your own blog?
If it's figuring out a hosting site and blog design, then I hope this post gave you a little insight into what's worked for me. If it's something else, I would love to help! Comment below with your blogging questions and I will answer as best as I can.
Disclosure: I did not receive compensation in exchange for writing this post and my blog is not sponsored by Squarespace in any way. These are purely my opinions based on my own experience with Squarespace. If you are someone who is thinking about starting a blog or switching blogging platforms, I hope you found this post helpful!
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