Top 5 Reasons I recommend Squarespace for Wellness Businesses

The not-so-secret secret is out...I LOVE Squarespace. I’ve tried other website platforms in the past trying to find the best one and I can very easily and very gladly say Squarespace is where it's at. Deciding to go with Squarespace for my clients and my own website was the best decision ever and I’ll continue to build client websites on their platform too.

What it really comes down to is that Squarespace just gets it. All your bases are covered when you choose to build your virtual home with them. And, sidenote, you need a virtual home for potential customers to come to. Social media is all well and good but that’s rented space and you need to bring people to a slice of the interwebs that you own. But I’ll save that for a separate post :)

So let’s breakdown the exact reasons why I think Squarespace is the best platform to build a website for most small–medium wellness & fitness brands. Cool? Cool.

Just to sum it up real quick, Squarespace is an all-in-one platform to build a badass, powerful online presence. It's like the Beyoncé of website builders for small–medium businesses.

Side note: As a heads up, I’m not affiliated with Squarespace, I just really dig the shit out of the platform and I want to help wellness business owners navigate through the clutter and choose an option that will work for their biz without slamming a computer against the wall.

So, here goes:

1. Simplicity + Intuitive Features

Squarespace is an easy to use drag-and-drop builder that allows you to build a website without coding or setting up web hosting etc (you do have the ability to add custom code if you really want to though). Adding and deleting pages, inserting content and adjusting styles is extremely easy and very well thought out.

Once your website is complete, having the ability to make changes and updates yourself is a game changer. It’s so empowering and a true asset for small business owners and it also saves you money!

A great example of their intuitive nature is using the gallery content block in Squarespace 7.0. This can allow photos to display as a grid and usually that means that the photos being used need to be cropped. Squarespace allows you to set where you want the focal point to be in the photo. See? Intuitive.

If you’re thinking that this is only a great option when starting out, know that Squarespace is incredibly powerful, has all the capabilities to grow with you in your biz and is continually making updates and improvements to better serve their clients.

2. Responsive

Data shows that roughly half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices and that number will most likely continue to increase. This makes it imperative that your website look good on different device sizes and performs just as well for overall user experience.

Having a responsive site means that your content automatically adjusts to whatever screen size your visitor is using and is mobile-friendly.

Squarespace does an awesome job designing responsive, sleek templates with a specific look and feel for each to help you navigate and choose one thoughtfully. You can also view themes in a list to compare and see all the features each theme (or theme family) has and can help you choose a theme that has all the functionality you would like.

3. All-in-one platform

As mentioned before, Squarespace has thought of #allthethings to run your biz. It truly is all-in-one, meaning, everything is included, meaning, you don’t need to go get a domain from one site, hosting from another and try to painfully connect everything. That said, if you already have a domain with another provider or want to use one from a provider other than Squarespace, it’s a smooth process to hook up your domain to Squarespace. I personally purchased mine through Namecheap and have found it easy to hook up to Squarespace following a step-by-step tutorial provided by Squarespace.

The biggest win for you as a wellness brand are the other seamless integrations they have that you’ll want to use in your biz and will make your life oh-so easy! For most wellness entrepreneurs you’ll want an easy way to book consultations, schedule appointments or classes, setup email marketing to build your list and blog to get your knowledge out into the world. Squarespace can make this happen within minutes. If Mindbody is a software tool you use in your wellness biz, there’s a way to integrate it with Squarespace too! (Let me know if you want to learn how to do this :) )

4. Security

A secure website is 100% necessary...no way around it. Yes, although you didn’t think about it until just now, having a secure website is super important to keep your site safe from any hackers or bugs and keep your visitors safe while checking out your site.

The one thing that does need to be checked, and again, it’s super simple, is that your SSL certificate is enabled. Now, please don’t go anywhere after reading that part...Squarespace has your back on this one. Having an SSL certificate basically means your URL (web address) starts with https:// instead of http://...that ‘s’ literally stands for ‘secure’. To the left of this is a lock symbol which means there’s a secure connection between the browser and the website.

New Squarespace sites come with the SSL certificates enabled but if you need to double check you can easily do so by going to Settings>Advanced>SSL in the backend menu and checking that it’s active. Both ‘Secure’ and ‘HSTS Secure’ should be enabled.

Another great thing about Squarespace is that it is a ‘closed source’ platform. This means that everything IN Squarespace is designed and controlled BY Squarespace. This is helpful because only authorized Squarespace personnel can have access to your website.

In comparison, ‘open source’ platforms, like Wordpress, allow anyone the ability to design themes, plugin-ins or add-ons but not everyone has the best intentions in the world. Here, you may leave yourself vulnerable to viruses, identity theft or other malicious practices. It is up to you to ensure you’re using trustworthy sources and making sure everything is regularly updated and secure.

Squarespace takes care of all your updates and anything involving security so you can go about your business worry-free.

5. Customer Support

Another huge reason to love Squarespace is that they have a dedicated team available to help you through live chat and email support 24/7. I’m a big fan of live chat because you get the answers you need ASAP.

You also have access to a HUGE library of tutorials and articles to help you figure it all out if you want to find a solution on your own. Because it’s their platform, they know exactly how it all works and for every feature Squarespace has, there is definitely an article to guide you on how to use it.

Those right there are the main reasons why I recommend Squarespace for your wellness biz but just know, there are many other reasons to love the platform. That said, I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t mention a reason I think Squarespace would not be a great fit in your wellness biz. If you have an intricate e-commerce store with many moving parts, Shopify might be a better option for you as they are a well known platform for e-commerce. For larger e-commerce businesses in need of a more robust platform, Magento is another option (although a significantly more expensive one). This is not to say that you cannot sell on Squarespace but here I am talking about more sophisticated e-commerce setups.

If you want to check it out for yourself, Squarespace offers a free 2 week trial so you can see just how awesome it truly is!

Let me know if you have any questions below!

To learn more about how I can help with your wellness biz, check out my services page for more info!

Please excuse any typos or grammar errors in this post. I’m excited to share my knowledge with you and am trying to live by the ‘done is better than perfect’ motto :)