7 Things to Consider Before Hiring a Squarespace Website Designer
Thinking of hiring a Squarespace website designer for your online coaching or service based business?
Well you’ve come to the right place, because I’m breaking down my top tips for finding the right designer for your business.
I’ve been a designer for more than 3 years. Not only have I learned a lot along the way, but I’ve also seen a lot of other designers in this space - their pricing, packages, portfolio pieces and more.
I hope you find this resource helpful in your decision making process!
Without further ado, these are 7 things to consider before hiring a Squarespace website designer for your business...
1. Audience + portfolio
It’s important to be aware of who a designer mainly works with. Typically, it should be stated on their homepage or services page.
For the most part, it’s important to take this into consideration.
For example, if you’re a photographer and you’re considering a designer who mainly works with e-commerce fashion brands, it might not be the best fit.
Typically, designers work with a specific audience because they have a greater understanding of their industry and needs for what they offer.
Sometimes, you don’t always have to follow this rule. For example, I love to work with female coaches and creatives. You’ll notice it written on my homepage, and you’ll see those types of clients on my portfolio page as well.
However, I’ve built websites for law firms and private equity companies. And I’ve also worked with a few men.
I just choose to showcase work from my female clients because that’s who I want to attract. But that doesn't mean I will turn down work if the client doesn’t fit that exact mold and I know that I can help them.
This goes into my next point about a designer’s portfolio…
You want to note their style. Do you like what you see?
Typically, you will notice a common theme between the designers.
Don’t see something you love that 100% aligns with you? Don’t discount the designer. Reach out to them with your ideas - whether it’s a Pinterest board with designs you put together or a few inspiration websites.
Most designers operate with integrity and will let you know if they can bring your vision to life.
I’ve done everything from extremely minimalist design to websites with “mystical and magical” vibes.
If you like what the designer has to offer otherwise, have an open conversation with them about your vision.
2. Timeline
Timing is very important because preferences can vary from person to person. Some business owners don’t mind waiting 2 months for a website, but for others, that is basically a nightmare.
Personally, I have a 2 week website design process. I find that most of my clients love the fast turnaround time, but that also means they need to be present during most of that time together.
So here’s what to consider:
If you like to think things over time without feeling “rushed,” don’t mind projects lasting 4-8 weeks because you have a lot on your plate, and aren’t pressed for time when it comes to getting a new website up and running, then a longer term design process would probably be good for you.
If you feel that you can make decisions quickly, you can decide whether or not you like something in a matter of minutes, and you like quick turnaround times for projects you outsource, consider a week or 2 week website design process.
Hey, some Squarespace or Showit website designers even do VIP days where they will complete a full 5-7 page website in 2 days.
3. Number of websites completed
The number of websites a designer has built isn’t always an indicator of their skill level.
I’ve seen very low quality work from designers that have created dozens of websites, but generally, a designer’s skill level will develop over time with the more projects he/she takes on.
With more experience typically comes greater expertise for not just design, but also a platform and its capabilities.
I can attest to how much my eye for design has changed since I first started designing Squarespace websites about 3 years ago.
4. Testimonials and results
It’s always a good idea to not just rely on portfolio pieces but also testimonials.
What did past clients say about the experience? Was it seamless?
Have past clients seen an uptick in inquiries?
Are they getting found in Google?
Are growing their email list and waitlist for programs?
You can’t always control all of these outcomes because there’s a lot of factors...
I can set up a website according to Google’s best practices, but if a client doesn’t blog or is not optimizing their blog posts, they’re not going to show up on page 1. Those that follow the guidelines will see the results.
I’ve had some clients face difficulty growing their email list through their website, but that’s because they didn’t invest in a copywriter and put together a freebie and accompanying copy that was vague. And they weren’t using social media or blogging to drive traffic to their website.
And then I’ve had other clients who grow their email list with dozens of leads each month, and make back their investment in days or weeks because their services and digital products are selling like hotcakes.
Basically, don’t look into it too seriously but it’s definitely something to look into.
5. CSS knowledge
This is not a “must-have” skillset, but I would say that if you’re planning to hire a Squarespace website designer, finding someone who has some kind of experience with CSS can go a long way.
I got away with hacking a couple things in the beginning stages of my design business from free blog posts, but since then I’ve invested in two different Squarespace CSS courses to uplevel my knowledge and skillset.
And now that I’ve incorporated more customized pages on my clients’ websites, I feel more confident in raising my rates.
Especially since many people say all Squarespace websites look the same (not true by the way) and tweaking the mobile version of a site can be challenging, investing in a designer who can make simple tweaks here and there to really give your website a customized look and feel will go a long way.
6. SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is extremely underrated when it comes to website design. Most often, it’s completely disregarded by newbie or semi established website designers.
In simple terms, SEO is about making your website readable to Google. It also involves implementing technical aspects like optimizing your images.
Why is this important?
Because when images are uploaded to your website without being condensed down into a much smaller size, they can really slow down the load time or site speed of your website.
And we all know that our attention spans are very limited, meaning we want websites to load within 1-2 seconds.
That means you can have a drop dead gorgeous design, but if the page doesn’t load fast, all of that work is for nothing.
Yepp...people will just click out.
So if it’s important for you for your website to load fast (which it should), then you should consider the SEO work that a designer is going to do for you.
You might want to ask them what their experience with SEO is because if they haven’t purchased courses and/or gotten educated on the topic, a designer can end up doing black hat SEO (known as spammy SEO) by accident because they think that what they’re doing is best practice.
After working in the SEO industry for 2 years helping billion dollar global brands and high profile people clean up their Google search results, I’ve seen firsthand how important it is to set up a website correctly from a technical standpoint.
Here a list of things that I do for each client:
Optimize all photos below 500 KB
Optimize all image file names to include keywords
Optimize alt text for each image
Write title tags and meta descriptions for each page
Optimize blog post URLs and meta descriptions
Check general SEO settings in Squarespace (SSL certificate, AMP, blog comment settings, etc).
This is my bare bones SEO that I do for website design clients, and you should note that most designers won’t do this much SEO work.
However, the last point is the bare minimum any website designer should be doing.
And in case you thought Squarespace SEO sucks, it doesn’t ;) Here’s more info on that.
7. Copy
One thing to consider is the website copy, or written content on your website.
Typically, this goes one of three ways…
a. The website designer provides content planners
This is something I have tried to offer from the very beginning. Providing website copy can be an overwhelming task for many, so these content planners basically walk through the main sections of each page that the client will want to have.
In mine, I provide prompts and examples for clients to use as inspiration.
Bear in mind that although designers do offer these kinds of templates, you’re still responsible for writing almost all of the copy.
If you’re not a strong writer or have difficulty communicating what you do and how you help people, this might not be the best option.
However, if you’re on a budget, writing the copy yourself can definitely be helpful.
b. The website designer has a copywriter on stand-by for design projects, or the designer is a skilled copywriter and will take on this part of the project
In my business, I have a copywriter that I pull in for client projects, and it has worked out great!
This scenario is best for both the client and the website designer. It can be very disheartening when clients choose to write their own copy and it’s extremely vague, not compelling, and/or missing key pieces of information. This is because copy is still a very important aspect of websites, and plays a big role in conversion rates.
Because of the tight deadline, that’s the copy that has to go on the website.
If you find a website designer that also writes copy, that’s a win win. I’ve considered it myself, but copywriting is a whole other art form that I’m not quite ready to expand into just yet.
If you have the budget, I say go for it and invest in the copy add-on. It will make your life a whole lot easier during the website project.
c. There are no resources, and you’re on your own when it comes to the writing process
This is somewhat rare, but it does happen.
I would say that you could commonly expect this for new designers who are dipping their toe in the water.
If this is the case for you, you could always purchase website copy templates from a copywriter. Some awesome copywriters to check out are:
There you have it! Those are the 7 things to consider before hiring a Squarespace website designer for your business.
To recap, you want to take note of a Squarespace website designer’s:
Audience and portfolio
Timeline
Experience / number of websites they’ve built
Testimonials / results
CSS knowledge
SEO implementation
Copy resources and support
I’d love to hear from you!
Was this resource helpful? Was there any aspect that was surprising to you? Or simply have questions? Drop them below!
If you’re a coach or creative who is ready for a brand spankin new website that represents the essence of your business, I’m here for ya! With my combined experience working in the SEO industry and passion for design, I’m all about giving my clients a rock solid online presence.
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