Today I'm really excited to share this interview with Kayla Hollatz, a copywriter and brand strategist who loves nothing more than crafting brand stories with soul.
Copy is an incredibly important part of the designing process. In this chat with Kayla, we cover some of the basics before you even write a word of your copy, along with more advanced strategies to help you make an unforgettable expression with your website copy.
Watch the full interview below!
Lately, I've been getting a lot of questions about Squarespace and SEO. Bloggers and small business owners are loving how simple and fun it is to create beautiful websites using Squarespace, but they're not sure if switching to Squarespace will jeopardize their SEO.
I get it. There are lots of Squarespace myths out there that would put me off too if I didn't know they were false.
Many people badmouth Squarespace SEO before researching it, which a total recipe for disaster. I see myths floating around Facebook groups and other blogs that make me cringe because I know from research and experience that they aren't true.
Please Note: I do not offer this as a service. It's simply a tutorial to help you do it yourself, so please don't email me for a quote. Thanks friends!
A lot of people say that switching from Wordpress to Squarespace is difficult. It's something I used to believe too until I made the switch myself. I'm delighted to tell you that I easily switched my website over within a day and I didn't run into any problems!
Squarespace has an amazing library of tutorials that help you figure out how to do all things Squarespace-related, but a lot of people have been asking me for tips of how they can set up their Squarespace website or transfer from Wordpress, so I've decided to make a step-by-step tutorial!
Let's go through a few common questions before we get started...
Yes. If you're confident with making changes to your DNS records, this will be a breeze. If you're not very tech-savvy then I advise you hire someone else to switch your website from Wordpress to Squarespace for you. (Please Note: I do not offer this as a service.)
Head to the Squarespace website and sign up for a trail account.
After you signing up you'll need to choose a template for your website. As I mentioned before, you can't import your Wordpress theme or layout to Squarespace so choose a theme that is similar. I chose the Galapagos theme because it's simple, clean and very similar to my old Wordpress site. However, there are plenty of other themes to choose from.
Head to the Settings section and fill in your business name and description, connect your social media accounts, alter your blog settings, add a business email address (eg. hi@yourbusiness.com) and play with the other settings. It's not complicated- you'll be done in 10 minutes!
Squarespace SEO is just as good as Wordpress SEO. In fact, it's even better because you don't have to install SEO plugins or make changes yourself! Your theme has already been optimized for SEO by the creators. Go to Settings > Marketing > SEO and simply enter a description for your website. You don't need to change much else.
Go to Settings > Advanced > Import/Export > Import > Wordpress. You'll have to enter your URL and Wordpress login details and then click import. A progress bar will indicate that your Wordpress content is importing and a 'success' message will appear when it's done. It takes about 5-10 minutes. Simple!
In the Pages section, scroll down to Not Linked. You'll see all your imported pages here. To enable them, click the settings icon on each page and click enable. Then go through your imported pages and add your main ones to your navigation menu.
When your site is completely ready, upgrade your account. I use the Business plan which is $26 per month or $18 if you pay annually. I prefer this plan because it offers unlimited pages. If your Wordpress website had lots of pages, this plan will probably suit you too.
It's not exactly transferring, but I call it that. You need to keep your domain where you're currently hosting it (on Godaddy or Dreamhost etc) and map your domain to your Squarespace website.
You'll need to go to Settings > Domains > Connect a third party domain. Enter your domain name, click on your host provider and click Connect Domain. A new panel will open with the records you need to enter in your hosting account so your domain can connect to Squarespace.
*This above image is from Squarespace themselves.
I'm not going to show you how to add these records to DNS settings because Squarespace has amazing tutorials on how to do that here. If you're not confident in doing this, you can hire someone professional to do it for you.
When you've added those records to your hosting account, your domain will connect to your site within 24 hours. You can keep checking back to see how it's going by visiting Settings > Domains. Your domain will have a red line by it if it hasn't gone through, an amber line if it's almost there, and a green line when it's done.
*This above image is from Squarespace themselves.
After 24 hours, your custom domain will point to your Squarespace website. But it isn't over yet! Wordpress post URLS are different to Squarespace post URLs. In Wordpress, your blog post URL would have looked like this: yourdomain.com/my-first-blog-post whereas in Squarespace it will be yourdomain.com/blog/my-first-blog-post. Spot the difference? This isn't good because anyone who clicks on your blog posts from sites like Pinterest will now be taken to a 404 page.
To fix this, go to Settings > Advanced >URL Mappings. This function allows you to easily redirect broken links to the correct links.
A URL mapping will look like this:
/old-url -> /new-url 301
For example, check out my URL mapping below (highlighted in yellow). I've pasted the old URL without www.neshadesigns.com in front of it, added an arrow, pasted the new URL, and added 301 at the end to make it a permanent change.
It may not be practical to fix every blog post link- after all, who has that kind of time? Instead, I fixed the links for my 30 most popular blog posts. You may want to do the same and then fix the other links over time.
For more information on URL mapping, click here.
You can't transfer your Wordpress website design to Squarespace. You have to choose a Squarespace template and customize it.
UPDATE: Since moving my website from Wordpress to Squarespace, this post has been updated.
Amy, an event planner, emailed me the other day and asked this:
Should I choose Squarespace or Wordpress? I like Squarespace- it's easy to use and the themes are clean and gorgeous. But I've heard a lot of people use Wordpress and it's apparently the better option. Help?
Both are fantastic website builders, but I'd like to point out that every business owner is different. Just because Squarespace or Wordpress works for someone else, doesn't mean it's the best fit for you. The only way you can decide which platform is the right one for you is by doing your research and testing them both.
I used Wordpress for 4 years before switching to Squarespace, so I have a pretty rounded-out view of both. Here are the pros and cons I've discovered:
If you're not very tech savvy, you want to be able to maintain your website yourself, and you value simplicity, I'd recommend Squarespace. I use Squarespace for my own website and I love it! I offer a Squarespace website design package if you're interested.
However, Wordpress is more flexible and offers thousands of themes and plugins. If you're good with code, or you want things like membership websites, Wordpress is probably best for you. Squarespace offers the option of password-protected pages, but it doesn't allow you to create membership websites like Wordpress does.
Choosing a website platform is a personal decision and I'm not telling you which one is best for you; this is just my personal opinion. If you have any questions or you need help choosing the right platform for you, I'd love to help! Just leave a comment on this post.
Tell me in a comment- do you prefer Wordpress or Squarespace?
