Squarespace Problems I See, When You Build Your Website Yourself
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Any computer owner, with a little enthusiasm, a modest amount of time, and a pinch of grit, can design and publish a Squarespace website on their own. It’s one of the reasons the platform is so popular, and it (honestly) delights me that every author can now claim their online home.
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And yet. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you can do it well.
Chances are, you’ll spend hours, get stuck more than once, and, dare I say, end up with a result that does nothing to convince a reader that your book is high quality.
Did you know that 75% of consumers admit to making judgments on a brand’s credibility, based on its website design?
What do you think a reader will infer about the professionalism and value of your book, if your online home is poorly designed or hard to use?
Obviously, as a professional website designer, I have high standards and a critical eye. Your readers might not notice all of these problems. But they’ll certainly judge you for some of them.
I recently reviewed a Squarespace website that had been put together by a friend’s Virtual Assistant. Her services require a considerable investment from her clients. Sadly, the chance of any “cold” lead looking at her new website and then taking the next step to work with her is minimal. The VA had simply made too many beginner mistakes, and the overall impression was amateurish.
You’re working hard at book marketing, to bring your ideal readers to your website. Don’t make them run in the other direction because your pages are a mess.
Here are the 13 most common problems I see, when you (or a well-meaning helper) built your website without a full understanding of Squarespace:
Terrible mobile layouts, including buttons overlapping text, buttons overlapping each other, left alignment of elements (where you likely wanted centering), inconsistent spacing, headlines breaking part way through words, and photos cropped so that your head is missing. Tablet view in Squarespace is especially challenging, and often requires custom CSS code tweaks.
Photos that have been uploaded with too big a file size, making your site load slowly.
Broken links, especially if you migrated your website from another platform like WordPress or Kajabi, and you didn’t realize that some of your links are “hard coded”.
A generic and unhelpful “page not found” 404 page, which your visitors keep seeing because you didn’t fix your broken links or create page redirects.
No SEO settings filled out, including site title, page descriptions, and missed opportunities with page urls and “H1” headings.
Accessibility problems, for example missing “alt” text to describe images (and this is also a fail for SEO).
No privacy policy and other businesslike footer elements, like a mini menu, copyright year, and professional credentials.
A contact form that ghosts your visitors, because you forgot to specify where messages should be delivered.
Missed opportunities linking images to a useful destination, for example making sure that your book cover image links to your favorite book retailer.
Lack of Call To Action buttons, meaning an engaged visitor will read an entire page and then have no idea what you’d like them to do next!
The generic Squarespace browser icon (favicon) is still in place, because you didn’t know how to change it.
A missing cookies banner, which some countries require, so your visitor has the choice to opt out.
A missing “social sharing” image, to represent your website if you, or someone else, links to it on social media.
I find and fix these issues quickly because they’re part of my quality checks for every custom website that I design.
And the following resources will point you in the right direction, if you want to avoid these problems on your own Squarespace site.
Free resources to help you publish a high quality Squarespace website
Respsonsively - easily preview your website on different sizes of mobile screen
Dead link checker - find broken links
Screaming Frog SEO tool (love this name!) - loads of great SEO information
Training video from me, showing examples of editing problems, especially mobile layout fixes
Launch checklist from Squarespace - with plenty of links to appropriate Squarespace help pages
And to sweeten the deal: save 10% off your first subscription of a Squarespace website by using the code PAULINE10
If you manage to navigate all of these issues skillfully, you’ll publish a credible Squarespace website. Congratulations!
But if you don’t have the time, the skill, or the enthusiasm to learn all of these nuances, I hope you’ll read on.
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Would you like me to design and build your Squarespace website?
Prefer not to spend your time and energy navigating design pitfalls like this? I applaud you for staying in your lane and concentrating on the work you do best.
As a professional specializing in strategic websites for authors and solopreneurs with books, I’m an expert in the features you need for a website that connects with your audience and gets business results. If you’d like niche expertise, top quality design, and your technical headaches solved, consider hiring me.
After careful preparation together, I’ll design, build and launch your site in just 2 weeks. Learn more, and then schedule a complimentary intro call.
