5 Things to Know Before You Hire a Squarespace Website Designer
Don’t dive into the website process before you consider what I’m about to share. Because a website redesign is a big undertaking of your time, money, energy, and you deserve the best outcome where your website is your best employee working hard for you all the time. So let’s get into it.
Before we dive in to the episode, have we met?
I’m RuthAnn, the brand + Squarespace website designer behind the women-centered design business, R Artspace.
Since 2016 I’ve been working with incredible women coaches and service providers with sophisticated branding and website design and I LOVE seeing women step into their next level of business growth with a brand and website that’s set up for their expansion.
On the personal side, I’m a wife, mama to 3 littles and we live in Kansas City, Missouri. So good to meet you!
Listen here
Don't hire a Squarespace designer until you know these five things. Hey friends, welcome back to Rebrand with RuthAnn. I'm so excited that you're here. Today I'm really excited to dive into this topic. As a brand and website designer who's worked with over 100 women, small business owners, I cannot tell you how many times I've heard from established coaches and service providers, I have a website but I'm not converting leads or
I have a lot of traffic, I have great programs, but it's not resulting in members in my program or money in the bank. Just because you have a website doesn't mean it's a great asset. Not all websites are built equally and if you have the trouble, not all websites are built equally. And if you have the trouble of having a site that's not getting inquiries, clicks, or even people subscribing to your newsletters, or even people subscribing to your newsletter list, there is something missing with your website.
Today, I'm going over five things you should know before you hire a website designer. Because redesigning your website is a big undertaking. You're investing your money, your time, your energy into making this really important aspect of your business work better. So you wanna make sure your designer has your best interests in mind. And we're gonna go over those five things that you need to look out for when hiring for your website redesign.
Before we dive into the episode, I wanted to give you a quick update on what's going on over here with me.
If you have been following along with me, you know that me and my family moved and we are still in the Kansas City area. We just moved cities, but we have been in our new house for two weeks as I'm recording this and as you're listening, if you're listening in real time.
And things are finally starting to settle down. Today we worked on clearing off the table and counter spaces and putting things away. If you've gone through a move recently, or if you remember the last time you moved, your counters and tables are just filled with so many things. So today we cleaned off the counters and tables and it was so nice to just have a clean, it just feels like everything's clean whenever the counters clean.
We put those things away. We are breaking boxes down. We did a recycle run and took a whole bunch of stuff away We just assembled a piece of furniture yet another piece of furniture yesterday And the house is really coming together It's going to continue to be a process just It's going to continue to be a process, of course. For instance, my office is still a hot mess with things literally everywhere, but it's just little by little we're making progress and it's starting to feel so good and less stressful. And it's been two weeks, so it hasn't been super long since we've been in our new house, but it's been amazing to have more space. The kids have their own rooms and it's been really great settling in, but it's been really busy over here.
So this is why I'm recording this episode on a Saturday night because... I'm just getting behind in a few things, but a lot is happening, but it's all good. So yeah, I'm happy to be here with you.
So, okay, let's dive into the episode. So what things to look out for before hiring your next website designer? And I wanna preface, this can, be substituted for any platform you're looking to design a website on. But I do wanna highlight some things about Squarespace in particular that makes it my top recommendation for coaches and service providers looking for a website platform. So we will get into those things as we go along, but I did wanna say this is applicable to other website platforms as well.
So here we go what you should know before you hire a website designer
No. 1 They ask about your offer before your logo.
If your designer doesn't want to understand what you sell or how you sell it, they're building art and not a sales asset. Something I always say is that your website should be your number one employee working hard for you 24 seven. If it's not designed with your goals in mind, with a designer knowing the goals that you have and what you're trying to accomplish rather than just looking modern and up to date, then you've missed the mark. I have clients in my process, they fill out an intake form before we get started. And I do ask some questions about like, what do you like your website? Like, what do you want it to look like? What are some other websites that you love? But it's so much more than just those things.
I also ask about what next steps do you want your visitors to take? Or how does each piece of the site work together to achieve that goal? What keywords do you want to rank for? Are you location specific? And so many more things. If your designer isn't asking those really important questions, that's a red flag that you might be getting something shiny and new, but it's not designed to help you hit your revenue goals and be the growth asset that it can be.
No. 2 They design for conversion, not compliments.
The truth is, pretty doesn't pay the bills. Every section of your website should guide visitors toward a decision and not distract them with fluff. Everything you design on your website should have a purpose and intention to help your end goal. And yes, it should be pretty and captivating and grabbing attention.
But if it does just that, then it doesn't lead people to make decisions and guide people to the information they're seeking. And if it's just pretty and does not have the strategy behind it, then your website redesign is unfortunately a waste of time.
Something I advocate for is when you're going through a website redesign is hiring a copywriter to help you in the copywriting process for your website because when it comes to your site.
And this is my designer hot take, I believe the copy is more important than the visuals.
I know, crazy for a designer to say that, but the visuals are meant to draw people in, but the copy converts people. And if you don't have that strategic copy, then the website is not gonna be selling for you and your website might fall flat and it's just not gonna be as effective as it can be.
This is why I have a copywriter on my team, Meg, who I refer my clients to.
She is amazing at what she does and she specializes in conversion copy. And she also offers a range of copy options for people, different price points for people. So she has done for you website copy that she obviously does write the copy for you.
But she also offers more affordable options like Done With You website copy where she gives you templates to fill out, gives you feedback on what you've written. And then there's the Copy Audit where she reviews your copy that you've written and gives you excellent feedback and tips. Quick side note, I recently went through the Copy Audit and she was so incredibly helpful and it was extremely affordable.
And that was something that really made a big difference for me when I was working on the copy for my own site. there are a lot of options for you when it comes to copywriting for your website. It does not have to be just outsourcing the whole thing and have someone write it for you. There's a big range of support and it's just something that is, and copy is just something that plays such a significant role and it has the power to help close the sale or not.
So it's something I strongly advise getting help in some capacity with your copy because I believe in having all of the pieces working together on your site so it can be as effective as possible.
Number three, out of the five things you should know before you hire a website designer,
No. 3 They build with your independence in mind.
You shouldn't need to hire a tech person every single time you want to update your site.
This is actually a really big pet peeve of mine. If you take the time and you put in the money and effort into a website redesign and then you don't know how to access it or make changes unless you spend more money with your designer to have them make a change. I just feel like that's plain wrong. It's your website and you paid to have it done for you. And as a designer, I want you to feel confident in navigating and using your site because it's gonna be with you for years to come. You are gonna need to go in and make updates and changes. And I want you to feel confident in that. A good designer sets you up to own your online home.
This is what I love doing for my clients. I empower them to take over their site so they feel like they can make updates a year or two down the road and they can make tweaks when things evolve. I equip my clients with video tutorials so they know exactly what to do when they want to make changes and they won't need to pay more money to have something tweaked or changed. They can do it themselves unless they want to pay me to help them, which I can do that as well. But I want them to feel like they can do it if they wanted to.
This is also something I wanted to highlight about Squarespace. When it comes to using a blog or doing podcast episodes, Squarespace is so good at helping your blogging process be seamless.
Creating and scheduling blog posts and posts for your podcast is a piece of cake. And that's one of the reasons I think it's such a great platform for coaches and service providers.
Many times, if you are a coach or service provider, you do have a blog or a podcast or both. And Squarespace makes it so simple to keep up with your blog and make posts. It's just such a nice thing you don't have to worry about. Unlike some other platforms where blogging is complicated and just plain difficult, you don't have that problem in Squarespace. It's intuitive and easy. And so that just plays into the independence of it as well. Squarespace makes everything so easy, it's intuitive, and you are empowered to take over your site. And that's just a big one for me, making sure you have that independence to take over your site once it's launched and feel comfortable using it.
No. 4 They simplify, not overcomplicate.
If you already have momentum, you don't need a complete rebuild. You need refinement and strategy layered into what's already working.
Something I do with every site I create is to make sure SEO is a key focus in the design.
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and there are many ways to go about this. I like to think of SEO as health. I use this analogy often when I'm talking about SEO and people have questions about it. There are a million ways to be healthy. Drinking more water, exercising, eating more vegetables, taking vitamins, getting good sleep.
The list goes on and on. And the same is true with SEO. To build up great SEO, it's about effectively using your headlines and making sure keywords are used in the right places, that you're optimizing images, that you have alt tags, that your pages are loading fast, that your site maps are well laid out, that you have backlinks, that your site is easy to navigate, that you regularly produce relevant content that your audience is seeking, and the list literally goes on forever.
Every time I design a website, it's done with best SEO practices to help my clients get found on Google and get more people to inquire. And any designer you hire should be doing the same. And I want to go on a quick tangent here because I recently had a client who was on the old version of Squarespace and she had great SEO. She was getting found on Google. She was ranking for the right keywords and things were really working.
So her question was, do I need a website redesign if things are going well?
And for her, she had done a great job producing quality content that her ideal clients were looking for. So she was ranking well, she was getting website visitors and clicks. But the caveat here is that she was not converting as well as she could be slash should be. So in her case, we're moving her over to Squarespace 7.1.
We are doing a website redesign.
And there are so many more capabilities in Squarespace 7.1, which is also called Fluid Engine. There are many more design capabilities, more options for a better user experience, and it's just so much better. So in her case, she's doing a lot of things right. And I did advise her for a website redesign because while in the short term, it might slow her down a little bit because...
Whenever you make major changes to your website, it can take Google months to catch up and index the pages so that you will see a dip in SEO. But it's better in the long run because you have a site that has even better search capabilities, better design means better user experience for yourself and your audience, and her site can now be caught up to where her business is going.
So rather than outgrowing your site and leaving it in the dust as you're moving forward, now your site is caught up with your growth and development and you have a better chance of closing more sales when your visuals, messaging and website strategy are all aligned. So if you are in a similar boat, maybe you have a site that's working, maybe it's working well, but you really think it could be better? It probably could be.
And it would just be pouring gasoline on a fire that you already have working.
You've already done the hard work. You've put in the time to create quality content, to build up that authority online. You've been in business for years. And so a website redesign would really help that it would help give you that boost of exponential growth because we would have all of those pieces lined up and things would be aligned so that you could close more sales more quickly.
And a really quick note, if you're not sure which version of Squarespace you're on, you can find out by going to your dashboard in Squarespace, click on the pages tab, scroll to the bottom of, scroll to the bottom on the.
And quick note, if you're not sure which version you're on, if you have a Squarespace website, you can find out by going to your dashboard in Squarespace. On the left-hand side, you'll click the Pages tab. You scroll to the bottom, and on the bottom left-hand corner, it will tell you which version you're on. It will say version 7.0 if you're on the old version. And it'll say 7.1 if you're on the new version, also called Fluid Engine.
And going back to simplifying rather than over complicating things, this is something else I love about Squarespace. It's an all in one platform and they're all about simplicity and making things user friendly.
And what that means is, for example, other platforms like Showit, if your website is on Showit and you have a blog, it's hosted through WordPress. It's a third party.
If you have a website on Webflow and you wanted a membership site, you would need to get a third party membership platform like Memberstack. But on Squarespace, they have all those integrations built in. Blogging is super simple and easy. They have a membership site that you can grow, your site can grow on and you can build out the membership.
You can purchase your domain straight from Squarespace instead of getting one from GoDaddy or Bluehost. Squarespace also has email campaigns and scheduling. So instead of getting your emails from Kit or MailChimp, you can do it straight in Squarespace. Squarespace has truly thought of everything that you need for your coaching or service-based business and has made it so simple so you don't have to overcomplicate it when it comes to your web platform. You can get everything you need in one spot.
And finally, the last thing that you need to look out for when you hire a Squarespace, when you hire a website designer is
No. 5 They don’t disappear after launch
Because “launch” isn't the finish line. It's the start of data testing and tweaks that make your site perform even better. When a client launches their site with me, they receive two weeks of email support.
And if anything pops up that they need help with, I am there to help them. You don't have to wait for days for support. I usually respond the same day to make sure everything is working properly. Beyond those two weeks after launch, I have a partner who can help with really diving into the data of your site to make sure you're growing month by month in clicks and keyword rankings.
I also offer my clients an exclusive opportunity for ongoing monthly support where I can help you with anything from creating opt-ins, lead magnets, doing regular site updates, social media graphics, you name it. I am there to help you for marketing or promotional help so you can reach more people and sell out your services.
At the end of the day, I am there for you. I like to tell my clients, I'm not going anywhere. You can get additional support now or later, but I want to be there for my clients and be that design partner who really helps them reach their biggest business goals now and for years to come and be that long-term design partner who they can rely on for, like I said, for now or in the future.
And so that's what I have for you today. The five things you need to look out for when you hire a Squarespace website designer, and I'm gonna recap them really quick
1. They ask about your offer before your logo. Design rooted in strategy.
2. They design for conversion not compliments. Intentional design so you can hit your goals.
3. Number three, they build with your independence in mind, empowering you with your site rather than charging for every update.
4. They simplify, not overcomplicate. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that values simplicity.
5. They don't disappear after launch. I am the long-term design partner for my clients and I would love to be that for you too.
So if you are someone who's listening to this podcast and you're an established coach, you're ready for a site that actually sells your expertise and not just showcases it. One that builds on the momentum you already created and helps you close the gaps to close more sales. I would love to connect with you. You can message me on Instagram @r_artspace and you just DM me. I am there to chat with you and I love connecting with people in the DMs on Instagram.
You can also email me at ruthann@rartspace.com. And I would love to talk with you about what it would look like to reach your biggest business goals with a website redesign and make your website your number one employee because you work so hard in your business. You deserve your site working just as hard, if not more hard. So I am there to help you in that whole process. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk with you later. Bye for now.
