It's been a crazy 2 weeks here at Brand IT Girl HQ. I decided after much consideration, research and umm-ing and ahh-ing to switch from a self-hosted Wordpress to Squarespace as the home for my website and blog.
It was a mammoth decision for me, but to be honest, the simplicity of the switch really showed me that this was a fantastic decision.
Now let me be totally transparent. I was NOT a Squarespace fan. At all. I was actually kinda anti-Squarespace. And I honestly thought I had some pretty solid reasons. Things like the lack of flexibility and the fact you have to choose from the SS templates for your site. To be honest, it made me feel like a bit of a fraud. I mean, I am a web designer and I thought, in my very naive mind, that SS designs weren't 'real' web designers. I know, that's really harsh of me, but I want to be honest with you here and that's honestly what I used to think. But guess what: a week into my Squarespace trial and every single thing I thought was a problem or an issue was dis-proved. Squarespace literally sold itself to me!
So as I said, I created a trial page and I thought "Ok, you have the 2 week trial to create the site" and my goal was to recreate my old Wordpress site. Well I not only recreated the old WP site, but I made some great changes and totally fell in love with my website all over again. So let me share with you what I really love about SS!
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT SQUARESPACE
THE LACK OF ENDLESS CHOICES
It's funny because this was one of the major things that was keeping me away from Squarespace to begin with. I thought that the lack of choice was a huge issue, something that would stop me from creating the website of my dreams. It just isn't the case! The lack of endless choices makes it simple to 'get on with it' and stop procrastinating. Once I settled on my theme (which is the Hayden theme), I was able to create my website quickly and efficiently and this is largely thanks to the fact that I was not given endless opportunities and choices.
CUSTOMISATIONS ARE POSSIBLE!
I was actually pleasantly surprised that pretty much everything is customisable and if you are a web designer who is thinking you won't get the opportunity to flex your coding muscles - think again! The custom CSS function makes it possible to customise and change pretty well anything on your Squarespace site. I changed so much of the Hayden theme by writing my own custom CSS.
SUPER EASY TO CREATE STUNNING PAGES
From a web designers perspective, Squarespace is a ridiculously dynamic tool for creating absolutely beautiful pages quickly. The drag-n-drop features make it really easy to build pages that look professional while also offering all the options you would find on the Wordpress editor.
SECURITY
Ok, so this is a huge one for me. My Wordpress was hacked on more than one occasion and let me tell you, what a freaking headache. So when I started to look into the security advantages of Squarespace, I must say, it was a huge draw card for me. I don't want to have to be concerned with the security of my website - I have plenty of other things to worry about - so feeling more comfortable in this department is a big plus.
BUILT IN SEO
I am pretty bad with the whole SEO thing, so having it all built in is a huge advantage. I love that I don't need a third-party plugin for SEO, honestly, trying to work out the best plugins for all my needs is a hassle, so having everything in one place takes the guess work out of it!
So there you have it - my big switch from Wordpress to Squarespace! I am so happy I made the change! But I do want to make something clear: I still absolutely LOVE Wordpress. I don't want to be one of those designers that diss one platform for the other. I am a huge fan of Wordpress and I will continue to work with, create and sell Wordpress themes. But there may just be an addition to the shop (hrm, think Squarespace kits!).
