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Website queries – I am improving/updating my architecture company’s website with an eye on business development and need a bit of advice before I dive in.
Background – The main aim of my website is to impress potential clients who have heard about me and want to find out more about my work. The (close) second goal is to increase business through traffic/google search/SEO/Ads. Most of my clients (65%+) will be homeowners looking for an architect to manage their project. The rest will be B2B in the office and retail sectors.
The existing website is currently on WordPress but currently I am more used to Squarespace having made a new website with Sqsp last year.
Website sections will be HOME/ABOUT/PROJECTS(with sub-sections)/SERVICES/CONTACT. Probably a single scrolling page but I am not set on this.
1. Should I transfer from WP to Sqsp or stay with WP based on my needs?
2. Which is better for SEO given my field and who most of my clients will be?
3. Do I need a custom website or will a template/theme work fine?
4. Is it easy to set up an email account through WP (or Sqsp)?
5. Can WP and Sqsp both handle live add-ons such as moving graphics?
6. I understand Elemental is a good WP plugin for editing WP. Is there anything else worth considering for self-editing at a later date?
Many thanks in advance!
6 Comments-
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Hello Jade,
thank you for that. It’s really useful and will help guide my next steps. I will be in touch if (when!) I need anything else. Duncan
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No problem! Glad it was helpful and feel free to reach out any time
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Happy to jump on a call with you to chat through this with you. I’m not a website developer but might be able to give some advice. I might be able to point you in the direction of a few web guys I know too!
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Hi Duncan Dalzel-Job . I am doing similar right now and updating my 4 year old site. I am talking to Conrad Young who you may wish to as well.
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Thanks Zarir. will do
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Hey Duncan, hope you’re good 🙂
I’ve done a couple of WP to SquareSpace migrations for personal and professional projects so just thought I would share my thoughts.
1. Should I transfer from WP to Sqsp or stay with WP based on my needs? — That depends on a few things. Personally, I find Squarespace lower maintenance, which gives me more time to focus on other things. WP does offer more flexibility if you ever needed to do a lot of customization. But it sounds like your website is more for brand building and lead gen, so you may not need all of the bells and whistles that come with WordPress.
2. Which is better for SEO given my field and who most of my clients will be?
Both platforms have SEO tools that you can use pretty easily. WP websites typically use Yoast (the free version is all good) and SquareSpace has all of the metadata fields for each page. I used Squarespace for a soft-launched SaaS platform that I built about 2 years ago and my organic traffic improved by about 30% year on year. All I did was create a clean URL structure and made sure all of the page titles/descriptions were filled in. You could use either and be quite content here.
3. Do I need a custom website or will a template/theme work fine?
I’m a huge fan of themes because I find them quick and easy. I feel like customization is only necessary if you have a very particular vision in mind for your site. Squarespace templates are great and I have personally found them easier to use by myself than WordPress templates.
4. Is it easy to set up an email account through WP (or Sqsp)?
You can set up a professional Gmail with Square Space and I think you get it for free for a year. For WordPress, that is totally dependent on your hosting. If you’re using something like Siteground, then yes you can get business email addresses running. But, they can also be a headache to set up the first time. For speed, I’d opt for Squarespace for this one.
5. Can WP and Sqsp both handle live add-ons such as moving graphics?
Do you mean video? Or GIPHs? Pretty sure that both can handle this. But you’ll have to bear file size in mind as the bigger the file, the more it could have an impact on site speed (mobile site speed is something that Google looks out for when ranking your site).
6. I understand Elemental is a good WP plugin for editing WP. Is there anything else worth considering for self-editing at a later date?
Can’t think of anything for this one! I can probably ask a WP developer and get back to you 🙂
Hope this was helpful! I do help small businesses with things like this so feel free to drop me a line if you need any help.