Posts tagged Squarespace Templates
To Squarespace or not to Squarespace? The small business’s question.

According to the SBA, small businesses account for a whopping 99.7% of U.S. employer firms. If you’re thinking of starting your own small business or maybe you already have, how do you emerge as the peacock amongst all the other peacocks with the showiest feathers? Well, an aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly website would certainly help. In this DIY climate, only one website builder springs to mind: Squarespace. This week, we’ll explore why Squarespace is the best choice for small businesses.

To Squarespace or not to Squarespace?  |  Hue & Tone Creative

We’ve all heard or seen the commercials for Squarespace, the self-proclaimed “all-in-one solution for anyone looking to create a beautiful website.” And beautiful it is. Squarespace’s landing page is like a mini trip to an art museum. The evocative photographs, set against sleek and colorful backdrops, coupled with drag-and-drop functionality, easily marks its self as the preeminent option. Once there, you’re thrilled and delighted to press the Create A Site button.
 

Inside, you’ll find that Squarespace’s versatility is unmatched. The site currently boasts more than 70 different templates. After exploring and choosing the design of your liking, you can begin adding your own content. One caveat, Squarespace’s polished designs only go so far. Be sure to use high-quality photos when swapping out placeholder images. One of the allures of Squarespace is its sleek, professional design, but even that won’t make up for low quality, grainy photographs.

Squarespace has done a phenomenal job with creating beautiful spaces that you can tailor to fit your needs. Do play around with templates if you can’t seem to settle on just one.  Once you begin customizing, Squarespace provides you the option of previewing other templates without losing earlier work. You can experience what your site looks like with a banner overlay, or at various scale sizes, or with numerous navigation choices, or utilizing page animation or displaying a slideshow. And these are just a few of the design options available to you. Like what you see? Great! Let’s talk pricing: 

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Squarespace has the simplest pricing plans than any other web builder; with only two total. $12 per month for personal websites, billed annually or $16 paid month to month, and $18 per month for businesses, billed annually or $26 paid month to month. Two additional pricing plans are available if you want an online store. Your hosting and a custom domain name are included with the purchase of an annual membership and that’s certainly a plus.


Other web builders offer free plans, but with limited features, and sub-domain names. Squarespace permits you to try their service for a 14-day trial, but once expired, you’ll need to choose a paid membership to continue service. All things considered, Squarespace’s pricing is competitive with other web builders and the value you receive is undeniable. It has the tools to set any small business apart by adorning it in the most beautiful of feathers and allowing it to really strut its stuff. 


WEB DESIGN IN GREENSBORO AND BEYOND

Loving Squarespace, but not sure what to include on your website? Or maybe your homepage is just looking a little flat? Hue & Tone Creative will help get your web presence up to speed. Be sure to check out our design portfolio to see clients we’ve helped in the past -- and then give us a call if you’d like us to build you a custom, modern website that truly tells your story.

How to pick a Squarespace Template

Building a well-designed website for your business can be an intimidating task. Squarespace is one of our favorite platforms because it allows you to easily create beautiful and professional websites for a reasonable cost. 

Although it can be fun to experiment with all the offerings on Squarespace, it’s important to consider the overall goal of your website. Do you need to show off the menu of your organic coffee shop? Promote your event photography? Sell products for your online boutique?

Squarespace identifies their templates as falling into three main types of websites:

  • Information: “The goal of your site is to provide information to visitors, like business hours, who you are, or an overview of a project. The goal might be passive, where visitors find the information, read your blog, and move on, or active, where they sign up for a newsletter, submit a form, or contact you.”
     
  • Images: “The goal of your site is to display beautiful images. If you're an artist, design studio, or photographer, an image-focused template will help you display your work to prospective clients. Sites for restaurants, weddings, and more can also be very visual.”
     
  • eCommerce: “The goal of your site is to sell products, services, or media. If you're selling a small number of products, you can use a Website template to create a small shop. But if eCommerce is the primary goal for your site, a Commerce template provides advanced features to help your product display match your brand and vision.”

Squarespace also offers a cover page option. Cover pages are single-page sites that can be used as a standalone or integrated into an existing site. They’re also great if you need to get something up while you’re building your website behind-the- scenes!

Every Squarespace template offers the ability to add text, social integrations, photos, search, and gallery features. However, only some offer things like index pages, gallery pages, and blog pages. Do your research and identify any special features you might need! 

To make your search a little easier, we’ve picked out five of our favorite templates -- we’ve also highlighted some of the differences between each template. If you’re overwhelmed by the amount of options, these are a great place to start!

 

Bedford

Bedford is the most popular template on Squarespace and it’s also the template HueAndToneCreative.com is built on. This beautiful and clean interface is ideal for just about any small business.  We also love that Bedford offers the option to have a second navigation in the footer.

Features: Index  |  Blog  |  Header image  |  Folder & footer navigation  |  Page titles  |  Grid & slide gallery  |  Cannot display social icons

 

Momentum

This clean template is perfect for designers and photographers to showcase high resolution images. If you’re looking to create a portfolio site, Momentum features a great slideshow interface and full screen images. This template’s aesthetic also works well to advertise products.

Features: Index/Gallery  |  Ability to display social icons  |  Page titles  |  Slide & grid gallery  |  No side bars  |  Page titles

 

Farro

Farro’s sleek editorial style is a great choice for bloggers with strong images or digital publications. This post-like interface could also work well to display the portfolios of photographers.  

Features: Blog  |  Sidebar  |  Ability to display social icons  |  No page titles  |  Grid & slide gallery  |  Secondary navigation

 

Nueva

We love the professional and polished style of Nueva. We recommend this for stores as well as restaurants. It’s not as image heavy as our other template picks, but it’s well organized and provides the option of a gallery.

Features: Commerce feature  |  Parallax scrolling  |  Multiple navigation  |  Customizable mobile styles  |  Blog
 

Harris

If your business doesn’t rely on pictures to promote your services, Harris is a great option. Its crisp layout, sophisticated font options, and banner styles makes this a great template for law offices, accounting firms, and writers. It also features Blocks to capture customer information as well as several introduction and navigation areas.

Features: Index page  |  Left, center, and right headers  |  Shopping cart  |  Main and secondary navigation

 

One last note

Even though we’ve made our recommendations, don’t be afraid to try the different templates Squarespace has to offer.  You can switch templates at any time – but *be warned* not all of your formatting will stick when you switch back. For example if you switch from the Bedford to the Nueva, and then back to the Bedford again, you’ll be starting with the original template settings. 

Had a great experience with Squarespace? Let us know in the comments! Feeling a little overwhelmed with Squarespace? We can help!