What sites are out there to help you bring your brand to life? Are wanting to choose a website with a free trial before committing to paid plans? Which is the best when it comes to your time and money? Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress?

When it comes to growing your business, you need to create a compelling brand that attracts your target audience. To achieve this, your marketing strategies should be flawless in their design. They should really speak on behalf of your business, drawing in and attracting new groups of people. That’s where websites come in.

Website building allows you to construct a whole world of possibility. Whether it’s for the online store, customer support, or simply just a bit about who you are. Your website will cater to prospects and existing customers’ needs. It is for this reason yours needs to be of a high quality so that it’s successful in its goal: to grow and expand further. Below we explore what you may need out of a website. Not forgetting to cover the benefits of Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress sites.

The importance of e-commerce features on Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress

On the surface, creating and designing a website for your business seems relatively simple. However, there are many different things you need to consider and integrate into the site to grow. Your main aim is to attract online browsers who eventually turn into customers. This happens from them being pulled in by your website.

Therefore, your website needs to include relevant e-commerce features that make the customer’s life easier. Or perhaps it makes your business more attractive. Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress will offer different e-commerce plans.

Here are some examples of important features you should be including:

Easy-to-use checkout

A customer’s journey through your website should run smoothly from beginning to end. Any hassle they encounter on the way may cause them to lose interest. Especially when going through with their purchase at that time or simply discouraging them from returning to your site again. Having an optimal checkout system that is easy to use will encourage customers to return and repeat buy.

Promotion and discount code tools

We all love a sale or a discount every now and then. That’s why it is important for you to integrate these features into your website. You need to attract customers and get them following you on other platforms as they are now aware you do promotional offers or discount codes. This is a great way to create loyalty with prospects and those who have previously purchased from you.

Blogging features

Many customers want a quick journey when it comes to your website. They browse, they like, they buy. However, for some, there needs to be more than just that. Having blogging features integrated into your website allows you to create a connection with your audience.

This allows you to cater to them in new ways. It helps strengthen the customer-brand relationship. On the other hand, it gives you the opportunity to sell your business even further through a different avenue. WordPress is very well known for its blogging features as it was built initially as a blogging platform. However, Wix and Squarespace are perhaps lesser-known for their blogging tools.

F4SG: City of London Corporation brand and website project

This recent website project for the City of London Corporation was built using WordPress as it fundamentally works around the resources section which uses the WordPress blog functionality. Click on the image to check out the case study on the project.

Search engine optimised code and layout

Whilst most of your website will be intended for customer use and enjoyment, you need to think about yourself for a while. Making your website stand out and easy to find online is imperative if you want to expand and really achieve success. To do this, you need to generate traffic to your website through appearing on online searches. This means having strong keywords on your site that will increase its visibility to wider audiences. We believe WordPress provides the best tools to successfully build a fully optimised website, however Wix and Squarespace are heading in the right direction. If you’d like to know more about which is the best for SEO, then ask our associates PinkSEO.Marketing.

There are so many different e-commerce features that are needed to get your website looking at its best. As a result of this, thinking about building your website can be overwhelming. Thankfully, there are sites out there put in place to make your life a whole lot easier.

If you are a new business starting out this is the perfect way to get yourself stuck right in without being utterly clueless. So, let’s have a look at the options out there for you to choose from. Today we will be looking at whether you should be choosing Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress.

Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress?

Below we will explore how Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress work. We will also investigate the benefits so you can choose whether to build your website with them.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a web hosting site that has grown in popularity over recent years. This is due to its ability to create beautifully finished websites with a brand that can be trusted. At first look, Squarespace tells you exactly what you’re getting immediately. This is the ability to grow your business, sell anything, and market it with modern solutions.

They also offer a 14-day free trial for potential customers to get to grips with their features before subscribing. All of this sounds great but are they really a good platform to use?

The advantages of Squarespace:

  • All-in-one platform – Designing and building your own website feels like a hefty task when you think about each component you need to include. However, with Squarespace, you can do everything right there on one site.
  • Drag and drop tool – We all love to get tasks done with ease and simplicity, which is why Squarespace’s drag and drop design is such a great feature. The UI is simple and clean and really easy and intuitive to use.
  • Squarespace offers powerful features– Squarespace has great e-commerce tools and other features that make up the meat of a website. There’s an easy step-by-step process for setting up your shop and easy plugins to work out delivery costs and options. It’s also super easy for you to then add items to the shop and keep it updated.
  • Compelling, modern templates – Squarespace is all about that stunning, modern look to give your websites that competitive edge. This gives you ultimate design flexibility with your desired aesthetic.

The disadvantages of Squarespace:

  • Limited templates and design layout options. As they like to keep things simple, this means there’s not as much flexibility from a design perspective to create unique looking websites.
  • On the more expensive side of web building sites. There are other web building sites that offer similar if not identical features yet charge less for it. Squarespace doesn’t provide the cheapest plans on the website building market.

Wix

Wix is a great site that allows you to create a professional web presence exactly to your tastes. With over 200 million users, this platform is an extremely popular go-to for businesses. This site also offers a 14-day trial for you to get used to its layout and functions.

The advantages of Wix:

  • Wix offers a large template selection. Like Squarespace, Wix also offers a large range of templates with hundreds to choose from.
  • SEO management built-in. Getting visibility for your brand is important. Therefore, Wix does so well with their customers as they help you get that by default. All you do is input a little about your site and they will do the heavy lifting.
  • More options with your payment. Wix has multiple website plans for you to choose from. This gives you the freedom to get the best value deal for your business at a great price.

The disadvantages of Wix:

  • The starter plan doesn’t remove ads from your site – With Wix’s entry-level plan you will be subject to still receiving Wix-based ads. This can potentially become annoying.
  • The interface can be more challenging to use than Squarespace, however there are more options and templates to choose from.

WordPress

WordPress helps you build simply and grow within limits. With over 42% of the web is built on this platform you already know that this site is a popular one. With the ability to create a free account for life (with limited features of course) Both Squarespace and WordPress are great options for those just getting started.

The advantages of WordPress:

  • Super SEO-friendly. If you want to get people to find your content and click on your site, WordPress is a great place to go. It has plugins that can explain which words and phrases are best for search engine use for your site.
  • Low cost. With three payment options to choose from, WordPress stands tall amongst other sites. This is due to the lower cost when it comes to building your site and getting the most for your money.
  • WordPress plugins. WordPress themes offer both free and paid plugins that you can install. This makes your web-developing life a whole lot easier.
  • Blog orientated. Whilst WordPress is for anyone and everyone, blogging still stands at its core. There is so much opportunity if blogging is what you do best.

The disadvantages of WordPress:

  • Can be a learning curve. Some of the content on WordPress can be difficult to get your head around. Especially if you aren’t well-versed with the practices used for designing the site. Lots of different plugins and options means you really need to know your stuff and hire someone who knows there stuff.
  • If you’re looking to build yourself, it’s got a pretty complex interface which feel very technical and is consequently very easy to get things wrong and mess it up.

Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress: Which will you choose?

Your business is the culmination of your values, aims, and visions. Therefore, the platform you choose to build your website on is important. Hopefully, this guide has given you all the information you need to make that choice between Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress and get creating.

To summerise …

  • If you’re building yourself, just starting up on a budget and need an e-commerce site, try Squarespace.
  • If you would like to build a site yourself and would like to blog, go for Wix.
  • Choose WordPress if you’ve been in business a few years with a self-built site and realise that now is the time for solid business investment and growth.

Here at az.design we are here to help you make the most of your branding. Whether it’s a refresh or starting from scratch, your success is our priority. That’s why we provide you with reliable information about the sites that are there to help build your online presence.

Want to find out more about what we do? Get in contact with us today! Get your business website plan done right.

Would you like to read more about the best website builders the industry has to offer? Check out this guide from Ecommerce Platforms, which talks about the most popular options: The Best Website Builder On the Market in 2022.

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