5 Reasons to Ditch Squarespace for a WordPress Website

There’s a reason that WordPress powers 32% of the entire Internet. WordPress may feel harder to figure out up front, but the payoff is massive. Building a website the right way the first time will save you a lot of headaches (and money) down the road. Trust me, I’ve done it the hard way. While most of us can’t build WordPress sites on our own, anyone can learn to manage one solo. After partnering with several clients on websites and fielding requests for more, my company, Full Swing Public Relations, recently expanded our team in order to offer a website solution that keeps your business or personal website lean without compromising back-end quality and user experience. 

Just like you wouldn’t take someone out to fast food on your first date, DIY website builders like Squarespace and Wix are generic and suited for the masses. Are they better than no website? Yes. But they won’t showcase what makes you or your business unique as effectively as a custom WordPress site will. That's because WordPress sites can be built specifically with the likes and dislikes of your target customer in mind. 

Unlike Squarespace and Wix, WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that empowers you to build a customized virtual presence that meets your needs and grows with your business. Since maximizing impact is the goal of most business owners, why shortchange your website with a run-of-the-mill template that can’t scale alongside your brand? Personally, I don’t take shortcuts, in life or business, and I counsel my clients against cutting corners that they may regret later. 

Full Swing Public Relations has engaged a trusted partner, June Noel, to deliver high quality websites for our clients. June built Full Swing’s site, as well as one for Idaho's fastest growing business law firm, Smith + Malek. June is a WordPress expert who is totally obsessed with user experience (UX). Her forte is building quality sites that solve business problems and look damn good doing it. To welcome June to our team, Full Swing is offering special pricing through March 31 on simple, custom WordPress sites for women leaders who are ready to do more speaking, writing, and thought leadership in 2020.

I asked June to explain to a non-techie person what it is that makes WordPress superior to the DIY website builders out there. She boiled it down to these five important qualities. 

1. Speed. WordPress loads faster. And in an age when competing for attention is basically a blood sport, and time-on-site is a metric that Google measures to determine how high your site appears in searches, you want a site that works well and works fast. 
2. No limits. WordPress is only limited by a developer’s skills. Because it isn’t a plug-and-play option, it is completely customizable. A few features WordPress offers that you won’t find on Squarespace and its ilk: multilingual support, members-only content and communities, as well as searchable databases.
3. E-commerce. WordPress offers plugins like WooCommerce, Shopify, and similar apps that sell products directly to consumers. Even if you aren’t selling directly now, chances are you will want to do so in the future (hello, multiple revenue streams!). Whether you’re ready to launch an e-course, dip a toe into podcasting, or get your vlog on, WordPress makes all that easy.
4. SEO. Yoast is a well-respected SEO tool because it works better than the built-in SEO offered by DIY website companies. Especially if you are growing your business with more than one office or a distributed team, you don’t want to take chances on a website builder that screws up your Google results. Because it uses standard compliance, high-quality code and produces semantic markup, Google and other search engines love WordPress.
5. Credibility. Your website is your digital showroom for yourself and your business. It needs to look sharp in all browsers, on mobile, and deliver a message that’s both competent and compelling. Especially if you are selling professional services, it's essential to put your best foot forward online (and in real life). To score big clients that can afford to pay the prices you are worth, make sure you are showing up as a true player in your industry. If your website was an afterthought or thrown together one weekend, it’s likely the people you seek to attract as customers will notice. My site, which June built last year and is refreshing now, constantly earns compliments and helps qualify my business to work with retainer-based clients all around the country. 

If you're ready to invest in your brand with a professional, clean WordPress site that delivers for you and your business, fill out my client intake form. June and I look forward to delivering a product you can feel proud of and that reflects the unique awesomeness of you and your business.

Caitlin Copple Masingill is a PR expert who helps women leaders shape and share their stories. She's the founder and president of Full Swing Public Relations. Her clients have been featured in The New York Times, Business Insider, Inc.com, Fortune, American Public Media's Marketplace, and more. She lives in Boise, Idaho.

Note: A version of this post previously appeared on Full Swing PR's blog.