Why I moved my Website to SquareSpace
Since I went live with my companies first website in 2008, things have significantly changed. Back then, if you wanted a professional looking website, you had to pay a web designer a significant amount of money to get one. You could put one together yourself but it look a large amount of time, especially if you wanted it to look good. Today, with sites like SquareSpace, you get a large array of easy to configure templates and tools to pull something together with relative ease. You no longer need the high degree of skill to have a website!
Back to 2008. As I was just starting out, I opted to design the website myself. I purchased some space on GoDaddy (a US based web hosting company) and an application to create a series of HTML pages, that would essentially be my website. I signed up to Shutterstock for stock photos and used the logo from my business cards (business cards were a serious necessity at the time). After weeks of work, I was ready to go live with my first website.
For my version 2.0, I moved from the series of static pages to the Joomla platform, a Content Management System (CMS). Once I had spent time on choosing and adapting a template for the overall look and feel for my new site, it was incredibly easy to add pages and content, as and when needed. I could also quickly log in from anywhere and change anything on my site. For a time this worked perfectly.
Later, I found myself spending a lot of time under the hood, as the site was regularly compromised (hacked) and I would then need to spend time figuring out how to get things back to a working state. Whilst not enjoyable, this was acceptable when I had the time but when I didn’t, this was quite a daunting task. The stress would also increase when the web hosting company I was with, would inform me when they noticed unusual traffic being generated from my site to others - now I would really be on the clock.
In the last 14 years, the focus of my business has significantly changed and my website no longer represented who we are today. At the same time, my web hosting costs were continually creeping up on an annual basis. Recently, I was noticing the people that I was following on Social Media recommending (mainly as part of a sponsorship deal) SquareSpace. In those recommendations, they would cover the many types of templates to choose from. How easy it was to stand up a professionally looking site for any type of business.
At this point, I wanted a platform that:
I did not have to concern myself about the actual platform itself or what is under the hood
I could stand up a professional looking site with relative ease and did not have to dedicate a significant amount of time to do that
The monthly or annual cost of the site was good value
I could spend as little or as much time on my site - it’s a choice, not a must
So, I signed up for a free fourteen day trial. I picked a template that I felt was a good fit for what I wanted and then went from there. I again leaned on ShutterStock for my images. I found it incredibly easy to shape the pages the way I wanted. I could easily remove anything I didn’t want and could add anything that I needed, such as images, spacers, text boxes etc.
After spending four days over two weeks on it, I now felt that I was ready. Switching over to my new site was incredibly easy. I found a lot of information available on how to do that. As part of the annual cost (you can also pay monthly if you wish), I have got an SSL certificate (the padlock in the address bar). As I am mainly based in Europe, you have various options on how to manage your cookies. After a few hours I was live!
Recently, I have expanded my site to include a Blog section and have started to be look at the traffic on my site. For that, I had two options, using the SquareSpace website or by installing the app on my phone. I have also added widgets to my screen.
Eight months later and I am still happy with my new site. I wish I had done this sooner but at least I’ve done it now.
