It is a very common situation for a small business owner (be it a creative venture, a healing profession or any kind of entrepreneurial adventure) when they look around on the website market they will come across this debate: WordPress versus Squarespace.
I love how Squarespace looks
First of all, I love Squarespace. I love the design, I love how they advertise (Keanu Reeves was gorgeous on his motorcycle, no debate on that). They always come up with cool creative persons in their advertisements that makes me feel like, I want to be one of them!!! And I want to have a website they have!!! Yeah well this is the whole goal of advertising, right?
I like the simplicity of the admin area of Squarespace and it is truly optimized for the user. You don’t have to decide what payment service you will use, it is all there!
WordPress can be a mess. Not all theme is good, so if you chose a bad one you might experience hard times. And there are all those plugins, so a lot of decision has to be made. Well yes, WordPress is an open-source system, so a lot of people are involved in the development. It can be messy, that’s right.
It can be messy, but it can be clear as well if you know what you are doing. And also any design can be achieved with WordPress, so it can look as clean as a Squarespace site. Well actually a Squarespace site, if it is not set up properly, can look messy as well. No magic bullet, these things only work if you know what you are doing.
I am not going to go into details about the two platforms, you can find good articles about that, so let’s get to the point: I am going to give you my honest opinion about when you should use WordPress. I am talking about the self-hosted WordPress, so wordpress.org and not wordpress.com. It is my personal opinion so others might have different ones. It is ok, we all have different perspectives and things to consider.
When you should choose WordPress over Squarespace
you need more than one website (it is more affordable with WordPress to manage more websites).
it is important for you to be flexible and add special functions to your website. With WordPress plugins, you can add almost any function to your website, for an example see the draw a card page on my website. This page shows a random image and it was set up with a free plugin and I didn’t need to hire a developer for this or write custom code.
You know you will need help. Lot of people involved with WordPress, so it is easy to find someone.
Now I would like to add a little note when you can choose Squarespace
I would always choose WordPress:o))) I love the community around it I am biased
You can choose Squarespace when you need one standard website to showcase your talent, products, services and you won’t need any special functionality. You might want to blog as well, but Google is not your biggest concern. You feel capable enough to set up your own website. You can try it out for free, look around and see for yourself if this is something you are ready to do.
It is started with the radio. Suddenly we were able to hear what’s happening around the world. Wow cool, but it is overwhelming at the same time.
Then came the television and now there is the internet. You can be connected to the world 24/7. It is all very exciting and all the things you can learn and all the information that is available! I still enjoy it most of the time, but sometimes I just have to shut down everything and go for a hike to somewhere with no wifi and no mobile connectivity eighter!
So now among all the noise, it is very important to be clear about your message. A cluttered site has too much on it for your brain to remember. Visitors will remember your design without effort because it makes such a powerful statement.
Advantages of minimalist design are:
clear message
no clutter
easy to navigate
impression of sophistication
minimal maintenance
Minimalist design is taking over because it just works. The style is so simple that users don’t have to think about it. And it is something we all looking for because the world full of information is so overwhelming and simplicity is simply divine.
“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important concept for bloggers to understand.
The key to SEO is learning how Google “sees” your website.
One of the things that Google looks at is the name of your images.
Let’s say that you have a picture of yourself as a lifestyle coach and you looking for clients near where you live.
And the image you upload to your site is named DSC_10234.jpg.
When Google looks at that page on your blog it will think that the image is of a “DSC_10234”.
As you know, that’s not what you want Google to think your image is about.
So, before you upload an image for your post, be sure to change the name to match the topic you are posting about.
If we stick to the lifestyle coach example, something like your-name-lifestyle-coach-your-location.jpg would work perfectly. It will help you come up in Google search when people search for lifestyle coaches in your area.
When you are uploading your image, make sure you write something in the Alternative Text (Alt Text) section. Google can read the text so it knows what your image is about and bring up your website on image searches as well. It is also useful for visually impaired users.
What is a landing page? To put it very simply, a landing page is where your customer first land. Most of the time we call a sales page a landing page and the conversion for a sales page is fairly simple: you want to sell. Just a note, that even your home page is a landing page, so these tips can be applied to those pages as well. With these few simple tips, you can learn the basics of a good landing page design.
1. Use a page builder.
There are many services for this. My favourite one is DIVI. With the help of a page builder creating nice landing pages will be fun and you can use templates, that will give you ideas and inspiration on how to layout the information in an optimized way.
2. Offer value.
Your offer has to focus on solving a problem your client has. It needs to resonate with their lives and offer something they really desire. Then go above and beyond with offering valuable things free gifts, money-back guarantees. Break down why they should opt-in or why they should buy your product or service and why it solves their problem. Focus on your copy. When it comes to landing pages, copy and value you give are the biggest factors that influence conversion rate.
3. Keep it simple.
When it comes to landing page design, simple is the best. Don’t overuse images, headlines, colours. Your design has to focus on delivering the right information to your customers to make sure it is not disturbing for them but enables them to focus on the things that really matter.
4. Show social proof.
There are many different types of social proof. They could be testimonials; they could be case studies, it could be results that other people are experiencing, it could even be videos.
5. Create a video.
The video really helps with delivering information. You need a video that explains everything they’re going to get when they opt-in, buy your product, or sign up for your service. The video should be short and to the point. Under one minute is enough. It should describe everything in a logical order and it should answer most objections people have before they sign up or buy from you.
