7 reasons why you should not use WordPress for your small business website

Every business owner knows about WordPress. And the entire web development industry loves WordPress. The problem is that WordPress is just terrible for small businesses. It's complicated to set up, it's expensive to maintain, and it's a huge headache to keep worrying about. 

Over half of my clients come to me after they've lived through the nightmare of working with WordPress. They're ready for a change, but not really sure if there is a better option. Fortunately, I've worked with over 600 businesses creating a new website, and the ones that have gone with Squarespace have ended up being the happiest, most successful and most productive with their website and with their business. Instead of worrying about code, maintenance and getting hacked, business owners can focus on marketing, sales and growing their company.

For this reason, 3 years ago I decided I would no longer work with WordPress. I now only design and maintain Squarespace websites for my clients. I believe it is the right thing to do for small and medium-sized businesses. It's just good for business. And here is why: 
 

1
WordPress Developers will drive you down a dark path of coding & customization
Wordpress people love code and researching and all the crazy things you can do with a website. The problem is that you run a business, not a technology experiment. WordPress Developers will make your project too complicated, take too long, and cost too much money.

2
WordPress is too expensive to manage
Once you get your website up in WordPress, get ready for a world of hurt. WordPress sites often break down every 3 months or so. They need to be constantly fixed and updated as online technology changes. Be prepared to hire multiple WordPress developers over the next two years to fix up your site until you get to the point where you're so burnt out, you hate the idea of having a website altogether.

3
You won't be able to edit on your own without a ton of training
I'm a website designer & developer, and even I get frustrated and confused with WordPress. That's because it was not designed with Clients or Business people in mind. It was made for coders. The backend of WordPress is so confusing, so annoying and frustrating, that all my clients refuse to attempt to edit it on their own after their first few attempts. WordPress is not user-friendly to Clients, no matter what any WordPress developer claims. WordPress might be fun to play around with for coders, but it is not fun for business owners.

4
WordPress breaks down too frequently
WordPress is designed so loosely, that all the pieces, plugins and technology fall apart constantly. You'll need to hire a WordPress developer on a roughly 1-3 month basis just to make sure it's all still working properly. And this can often cost anywhere between $300 and $1000 per 3 months just to make sure all is working well. And that's not including any website changes, improvements or modifications as your business grows. WordPress is not cost-effective for small businesses when your gross revenue is less than $200,000 per year. Spend that money elsewhere on advertising, or other ways to automated and improve your business internally.

5
Hackers get into WordPress too easily
If your website is not being managed and updated on a monthly basis, get ready for someone from Russia to hack your website. Coders and hackers love to mess with WordPress to try and break your site to use it for their own purposes. For this reason alone, WordPress is a nightmare to deal with. 

6
WordPress is not the only platform that works well with SEO
A lot of WordPress developers claim that only WordPress works well with SEO. This may have been true 5 years ago, but it simply is not true anymore. Just about any web platform works well with SEO, and that is because Google prioritizes quality design, good blog posts, and helpful information higher than any sneaky tricks or techniques. Don't let a WordPress developer convince you otherwise. SEO is about good, quality blog posting and content creation - it's no longer about sneaky, weird coding hacks that only developers can figure out.

7
It's just bad for small business
For every reason mentioned above, and so much more, WordPress is bad for small business. It takes up your precious time, money and resources to make sure your site just does the bare minimum. So many of my clients come to me after 2 years of a WordPress site, desperate for a change, but unsure if something better is possible. Your website is the most important marketing tool for your business, so don't leave it in the hands of an unreliable and expensive CMS platform. Instead, you need a website which can stay online, without getting hacked, that looks beautiful, and is easy for you to manage and grow, so that it builds over time and becomes an invaluable asset to your business.

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Here's Why You Should Use Squarespace Instead

My clients love using Squarespace. It's not the only platform that works well, but it is definitely one of the best ones. I've designed over 400 websites with Squarespace - and my clients are amazed at how much easier it is to use than WordPress. My clients use Squarespace to blog on their own, make minor text edits and changes to images without having to contact me for every little change. Here are 5 reasons why Squarespace is superior over WordPress for small businesses:

• It's so easy to make minor text edits, photo changes & adding new blog posts - my clients love being able to use their website as a real business asset rather than a marketing tool that just sits on the internet, never to be updated without extensive help from a web developer

• Squarespace takes care of all the technology updates, so you don't have to worry about making sure it doesn't get hacked or making sure all of your plugins are constantly up to date

• The costs of maintaining and improving your Squarespace website are much lower in the long run than WordPress

• While Squarespace has fewer customization options than WordPress, the simplicity of the platform helps you to focus on what really matters

• SEO works just as well on Squarespace as any other platform

There are two reasons why you should do WordPress for your business, though. First, if you a large company that can afford complex customizations that run in the $20,000+ per year range, WordPress is a better option for you. Second, if you are a technology company which requires lots of customization for ecommerce, blogging, databases, or other complex functions, then WordPress is necessary. That's about it.

For small businesses, stick with Squarespace.

The Benefits of Using Squarespace For Your Interior Design Website

The first question my clients tackle is what platform their new website should be built in. This is a decision that often sets back business owners for several months as they research all of their options. WordPress and Shopify have typically been at the top of the list for most business owners in the last 3 years. And most web developers who focus on code like to push for WordPress because it has endless coding and customization possibilities.

I've designed over 600 websites for clients in the last 8 years. And I've seen how choosing the wrong platform can devastate your business. Often times, a bad website can actually kill your business. In 2018, your website is the most important marketing tool your business will use. So when you are constantly having to pay for website updates, or your website breaks, or is a constant headache, your run the risk of having your website be a liability. 

That's why I believe that Squarespace is the absolutely best platform for your business if you are a small or medium-sized business. That means, if you are a service-based business doing high-end services like interior design, architecture, photography, art, custom home building, or if you are an e-commerce website doing less than $100,000 in revenue per year, Squarespace is the best option for you. 

 

1
It's easy for you to quickly change text and images on your own.

Even my clients who are not computer savvy love how easy it is to edit their Squarespace website on their own. I'll even come back a couple years later to view their website to see that my clients have been blogging on their own, making simple text changes to their pages, and sometimes swapping out images on their owns. The easy of use for Squarespace is so enjoyable, that most solo entrepreneurs and small businesses take on the task of updating their website willingly. When challenging new changes are required, my clients will get in touch for help or to ask a quick question. But for the majority of the time, my clients are extremely pleased with just out enjoyable it is to maintain and manage their website on their own. 

 

2

Squarespace takes care of all the technology updates so you don't have to

Squarespace is on a roll making great updates to their platform in 2018. And when they release a new tool or feature on their website, it tends to work flawlessly. While Squarespace doesn't have every option in the world that a website can possibly do, it has all the main features you actually need to run a proper small business website.

This leaves my clients with having peace of mind that their site will still be working 2 years from now, with very few setbacks. Just like any other web platform or web hosting plan, Squarespace web hosting goes down several hours per year sporadically. But instead of having to pay a web developer to diagnose all the possible issues that might have risen with a platform like WordPress, Squarespace takes care of hosting & web technology issues automatically, usually resolved within hours.

3
The long term costs are lower than any other website platform

Because Squarespace takes care of all the features, updates and plugins, your long term costs on Squarespace are extremely low. The only time you'll be paying a developer or designer to make changes is when you need substantial changes made, such as lots of new pages, or a re-design, or need SEO integration. 

For a platform like WordPress, you'll end up paying a web developer every 3 months to do major diagnostics to make sure things are still working. And that can get incredibly expensive. Even more, when you need to add new pages, or hire an on-staff employee to make basic edits regularly, your costs are going to skyrocket.

Many businesses I have worked with that used WordPress in the past have deep emotional scars, leaving them weary of another website project. All businesses know they need a website to be relevant in 2018, but if you've had a WordPress site in the past, you know what I nightmare it is. But I can tell you with all certainty, you are not going to regret moving forward with a Squarespace website for your small or medium-sized business.

 

4
In 2 years from now, your Squarespace website will still be working flawlessly.

But your WordPress website would have already broken a few times. I've had clients on Squarespace for over 5-years straight, and their websites are still going strong. For WordPress, that is unheard of. WordPress websites break down, they need to be watched carefully. Every time WordPress does a major update, you can expect to spend days trying to figure out where all the broken holes are.

The downsides to Squarespace

Yes, there are downsides to using Squarespace for your business, and here they are:

• If you do hundreds of thousands in ecommerce online sales, you do need a more complex platform like WordPress to further grow and optimize your website.

• If you require extremely complex and customized plugins for unique online tools, such as creating online interactive databases, multi-user logins or need a fully custom check-out experience, a platform like WordPress would be better. 

For any other business, I fully believe and have experienced with my hundreds of clients that Squarespace is the right platform for most businesses. But if you need to be absolutely certain before making a decision, get in touch with me today for a free consultation. I don't build sites in any platform other than Squarespace, so if I feel like it won't be the right platform for you, I'll absolutely let you know.

Does Squarespace Work Well For Interior Designers?

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Squarespace works perfect for creative businesses that need to showcase their photography and work in a clean, professional way. Interior Design is one of the best industries that work well on Squarespace, because interior designers primarily need to showcase their Portfolio images in galleries, and generally only need a simple Services page, Blog, About, Contact, and Home page. And that is exactly how Squarespace is intent to work. 

I've designed over 50 websites for Interior Designers on Squarepace. And my clients absolutely love how easy it is for them to add new projects, images, and write text on their website. And blogging is incredibly simple on Squarespace as well, which motivates my clients by allowing them to post their ideas, latest projects, and advice to their own customers & clients at any time, on their own schedule.

Below are a few examples of interior design websites I have designed for clients. Because Squarespace is such a client-friendly platform, many of these interior designers have been able to manage and grow their online website marketing on their own, without needing to contact me or another website designer for simple changes. 

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Which Squarespace Template To Use For Your Interior Design Business

Squarespace offers a ton of templates to choose from. But for the most part, they all do roughly the same thing except for just a handful. 

Since designing over 400 websites with Squarespace for all kinds of businesses, I've used just about every Squarespace template they offer. 

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Best Squarespace template for Blogging

My favorite template for blogging is the Five template. Five has a very classic, simple blogging layout, with the ability to have a side column on the left or right. Most other Squarespace templates do not offer a side column at all, so Five is really the only option if you want a traditional blog layout with a right-hand column. 

View the Five template here: https://five-demo.squarespace.com/

 

Best Squarespace template for Portfolios

My favorite non-ecommerce template is Pacific. It's one of their older templates, but it works great for full-width images, and yet is still flexible for other styles like full-width galleries, or simple text pages. It's versatile yet simple. 

View the Pacific template here: https://pacific-demo.squarespace.com

Best Squarespace templates for Ecommerce

For all other businesses, I recommend that you look at their Online Store templates. These tend to be the most up-to-date templates with the most features. The newer Squarespace templates have a Shopping Cart icon integration with customer Accounts, and search bars at the top right. They also allow for Quick Views for ecommerce product searching, and have a ton of design customization that can be easily customized with their Style Editor. In terms of choosing the design, I recommend you pick the layout that you like best, as they all roughly have the same features and can be more easily customized than any other template, so you shouldn't have to worry about picking the "right" one, since elements can easily be moved around with their Style Editor tool.

View all the Online Store ecommerce templates here: https://www.squarespace.com/templates/online-stores

Is Squarespace A Good Platform For Interior Designers?

I've designed numerous of websites for Architects on Squarespace, and they have all been extremely successful. 

First, the aesthetic of Squarespace is perfect for architects. It's clean, minimalist, and has an architectural feel. 

Second, most architecture forms only need the ability to post images, text, and PDF documents for blueprints or printable catalogs of their work, all of which Squarespace does extremely well with.

Third, it is incredible easy to add new projects to. As a new project is complete, simply hire a decent photographer to document the final product, and upload the new project to the website. Squarespace is easier to manage than a Mircosoft Word document. 

Below, are select projects I have built for architects and home builders with Squarespace. These projects have been some of my most successful and enjoyable work to date. 

To help you get started, I offer Squarespace courses to help you or an employee build the site from scratch. Or, you can have a fully custom project built by myself personally. Simply get in touch with me here.

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Should Interior Designers use Squarespace, Wix, Shopify or WordPress for their website?

I've been designing websites for clients professionally since 2010, and over 600 websites in my entire career. I have tried just about every platform their is.  In 2010, the big thing that all my Clients wanted to have was an "Adobe Flash" website - but just a few months later, Apple announced they were no longer going to support Flash. So I knew I needed to start looking for another way to build sites. 

WordPress has always been a platform known by people, even those who aren't tech-savvy have heard the term. I spent about 6 months trying to learn WordPress, but got burnt out by the endless amount of learning needed, so I outsourced to a WordPress developer.

WordPress is a nightmare for anyone that is not obsessed with coding. Personally, I like design. I like start businesses, and doing marketing and coming up with ideas. But learning WordPress sucks up all your time. 

After 2 years of doing WordPress for countless clients, I would get emails and phone calls from my Clients saying they were frustrated with trying to make small edits on their own, or that their site crashed, or was hacked, or some other major frustration. With such a low, long-term success rate with WordPress, I was reluctant to keep working with it.

In my opinion, Shopify isn't any better. It's still a do-it-yourself web developer kit that requires coding, a lot of focus, and a huge time investment. 

In 2013, I finally tried out Squarespace. Over the past 4 years, they've very slowly made improvements to the site to add more features. Squarespace claims that their tools are easy to use. And in terms of doing quality Website design work, I think they do have the easiest-to-use platform. But there is still so much to learn with Web Design, no one who doesn't do this full-time can learn it all, unless they get some serious help from a professional web designer.

But 5 years later, I have clients who have Squarespace websites that are still using it to this day. They can edit their blog on their own, change out text and images, and make other basic alterations without having to sit down and make it this huge all-day process. 

Every web developer has their opinions, and you'll get advertising and marketing advise from all sorts of people who will say WordPress is best for this, or Shopify is best for that. 

But, in short, if you have less than $100,000 to spend on your website, and you are a small business, and need to manage your website on your own, or have an employee manage it for you, and you don't have the time or money to hire a huge web coding firm to do it all for you, then I highly recommend Squarespace as your website platform. 

This is coming from years of experience, working with hundreds of small, medium and large businesses, and seeing websites and businesses crash and burn, or greatly succeed. 

In 95% of the cases, I recommend you go with Squarespace if you are Small Business with a limited budget. Don't waste your money and time on other platforms that have thousands of tools, but will burn through your capital and test your patience. 

I hope this information is helpful as a staring point, but feel free to write me or leave a comment for more information.

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