What website builder are you using for your business? Do you have a website set up yet? As your business grows, it’s best to have your own website, so people can find you and your services on a platform you own. But how do you know which website builder is the best? I’ll be honest, I’m a huge fan of Showit. When comparing Showit vs. Squarespace, Showit is the clear winner for me, but I’ll let you decide which one fits best for your business needs.
What kinds of things matter to you when thinking about creating a website? As an entrepreneur and designer (and a mom), I like things to be as quick and easy as can be, but still produce a quality product. When comparing each website builder, Showit vs. Squarespace, I’ll touch on four different elements: creative control in the design process, customer support, SEO, and pricing. These four elements are what I considered before committing to a website platform. I hope you find the one that will bring your business to the next level.
4 Elements of Showit
Element #1: Creative Control
Showit offers ultimate creative control. Although it provides templates, it’s up to you where to place each design element. Almost any design you can dream up can be done on Showit. It’s also very user-friendly when wanting to import your own font, template, or media. I have some Showit templates you will love to try out! They are designed to bring in more money and followers to your business, and like I said, it’s super easy to import it into your Showit account.
If you’d rather create your own template altogether, Showit offers a blank canvas where you can create your website from scratch. It also gives you the option to customize the mobile version of your website. Most other website builders (like Squarespace) do not give you this option. This is just another way Showit gives you the ultimate control in creating your website. It should be this way because your website is your home for your business!
Element #2: SEO
WordPress is probably the #1 site when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). I’m not going to try and convince you Showit is better in SEO. Instead I’ll say that Showit partners with WordPress, so you can still use the best SEO functions while still having an aesthetically pleasing website design.
This is one of my favorite things about Showit because no matter how beautiful your website looks, it doesn’t matter if hardly anyone is seeing it. SEO is what will get your website to the top of the Google results and will help your people find you.
Element #3: Customer Support
Showit is known for its incredibly friendly and talented staff. They’ve had such prompt response times every time I’ve reached out to them. It also helps when they are super friendly because you may be a bit frustrated when you’re in the midst of the design process. (I may or may not be speaking from experience.)
Another great thing about Showit’s customer support is they transfer all of your previous blog content for you when you switch to a Showit website. Isn’t that incredible?! To get this set up, all you have to do is fill out a blog migration request form, and they will do the rest. Think about how much time you’re saving just from this single service.
Element #4: Pricing
Depending on the plan you purchase, Showit offers packages anywhere between $24-39 per month. If you select the option to be billed annually rather than monthly, your subscription will be cheaper. Of course, there is a free trial before signing up, so you can see if Showit really is a good fit for you and your business.
Another important note is Showit will give a 50 percent discount for any additional website published after your first one if you end up needing to launch multiple websites.
4 Elements of Squarespace
Element #1: Creative Control
Squarespace offers several eye-catching designs to make your website look beautiful. It offers four different interactive designs: slideshow, carousel, grid, and stack. While these design elements are available, you are limited on where to place them. All design pieces must be placed in a squarespace block or within a grid.
Squarespace has different templates for you to use, however most of them come with design features already embedded into the site with no choice to change it. This may work for you if you don’t care too much about the details of your website, but my guess is you do care.
Element #2: SEO
Unfortunately, SEO is where Squarespace lacks. When using Squarespace, you are limited to its SEO functions and although it’s dramatically improved over the years, it still falls short to other leading website builders.
SEO is a big deal. Like I mentioned earlier, having a high functioning SEO largely determines where your website falls in the results of a Google search. It’d be much better to land on the first page than a few pages later because this will obviously help you become known to more and more people.
Element #3: Customer Support
Just like Showit, Squarespace also has an extremely friendly staff. They have a huge knowledge base, so you will be getting professional and accurate advice throughout your design process. However, they do not transfer over your blog content to your new platform like Showit does.
A lot of their help is generalized, so if you’re needing one-on-one support this may not be the best option for you. If you think you could get through it with premade FAQs and small bits of interaction, Squarespace would get the job done.
Element #4: Pricing
Squarespace offers packages anywhere between $16-46 per month. Just like Showit, Squarespace offers a free trial period, so you can test it out before you make your decision. You could even do a free trial of both and do your own comparison.
Two things are important to note with the Squarespace pricing, however. There is a 3 percent transaction fee for products sold on your website. And, there is no discount offered when launching an additional website like Showit offers. You will have to pay a full subscription fee for each website launched.
Showit vs. Squarespace: Which One Do You Choose?
Showit vs. Sqaurespace. Which will it be? Switching your website platform or creating a website at all can be a daunting task you secretly want to keep on the back burner. But, sister, the sooner the better. Once you have a website in place that you love, you will start to see a shift in your business. You will no longer panic in posting on Instagram and start relaxing knowing your website is working for you whether or not you look at it every day. Doesn’t that sound like a dream?
If you want help in making this transformation, don’t forget to check out my Showit templates. All the work is done for you. You would just plug in your content and brand colors, and then tweak anything you’d like to make it really feel like you and your brand. Don’t worry, when you switch website platforms, you can still keep your current domain and the transition process generally takes just 2-4 days. What are you waiting for?
I’m here for you. I adore you. I want to help you make your business built to last and I’m sharing all my tips to help you get there. Follow me on my Instagram @iammichellegifford to keep learning about how to rock your biz and turn it into one built to last!
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