Why Use Squarespace For Your Therapy Website
People often ask me why I design therapy websites exclusively on Squarespace, so I thought it was time I share all of my thoughts on the matter.
Let me preface this by saying that you have a lot of options when it comes to designing your therapy website, and I always want you to make decisions that are right for you. I’m not going to use this post to pick apart other therapy website companies or convince you that Squarespace is right for everyone.
I’m going to share my reasons for designing websites for therapists on Squarespace and ultimately, help you decide if Squarespace is right for you and your business.
Cost
Let’s start with the cost of Squarespace. I know that many therapists are budget-conscious and when it comes to websites, it’s hard to know what you should be paying for and how much.
Someone said to me recently, “I would be on Squarespace if it wasn’t so expensive.” I thought, “Huh?? Expensive compared to what?”
Sure, if your basis for comparison is a free website, then Squarespace may seem expensive. But compared to most other website solutions for therapists, Squarespace is a heck of a deal!
Side note: your business website should never be free. If it is, you’re likely paying for it elsewhere (commonly by poor user experience or lack of security).
When you invest in a website, there are going to be some upfront costs. Whether you set up your own website using a template or hire a designer, there’s going to be cost involved.
However, once the website is set up, your monthly costs should be minimal ($40/month or less for a standard business website without eCommerce functionality).
$40/month or less should cover hosting, domain registration, security, at least one custom email address, SEO tools, analytics, mobile optimization, and robust storage bandwidth.
If you’re paying $50+ per month for a standard business website, you should be asking yourself:
What tangible, measurable items am I getting, on a monthly basis, from this investment?
If there are extras associated with this cost, like SEO or tech support, what tangible items are you walking away with every month?
Is there data to back up the results of this extra investment? For example, notable SEO gains or increased web traffic.
Am I using the extras that are included with my investment?
If you don’t have use for extra features anymore, there’s no use paying extra on a monthly basis - those costs add up!
Let’s do a quick cost comparison:
Squarespace’s Business Plan is $23/month when paid annually. Most custom domains through Squarespace are $20/year, and if you opt for a custom email address, that’s $72/year (current pricing as of February 2022). That works out to $30.66/month or $368/year.
Considering many popular website solutions for therapists have a price tag of $700+ per year, do you see what I mean when I say that Squarespace is a heck of a deal?
For the visual learners, here’s a little price comparison:
Quality
Next, let’s talk about website quality. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know this is a big one for me.
One of the biggest reasons I started Hold Space Creative was to solve the plague of poorly designed therapy websites. We know that it only takes 50 milliseconds for visitors to form an opinion about a business based on their website, and first impressions of websites are 94% design-related.
In short: quality matters.
Many of the existing website solutions available to therapists make it easy to get a website set up quickly but skimp on the quality, relying on outdated templates that create a sea of generic website design that makes it incredibly difficult for clients to find the help that they need.
Great design is at the forefront of Squarespace’s ethos. Even without website design knowledge or experience, anyone can use Squarespace to create a great-looking website that breaks the mold.
While they have tons of professionally-designed templates to choose from, Squarespace doesn’t have a lot of therapist-specific designs. Without experience in the mental health world, it’s hard to know what therapists need on their websites.
That’s where I come in! I design therapist websites on Squarespace (coach websites too!) so that you can use this industry-leading platform without the guesswork of adapting a standard template to fit your needs.
Get started:
If you want to get creative, Squarespace websites are fully customizable. Whether you personalize a template yourself or hire a designer, you can create a totally unique website that looks nothing like the generic websites we’re all so familiar with.
Ownership & Control
This is a BIG one. I don’t often speak in absolutes, but I’m going to now: every business owner should have 100% ownership and control of their website. Why? Because your website is the face of your business online, it’s your intellectual property, and it’s your most important marketing asset.
Your website will grow and change along with your business, and when you have ownership and control of it, you can make sure it grows in the ways that you need it to.
Alternatively, if someone else owns your website (or the content on it), you’ll likely run into headaches down the road when you want to update your services, switch platforms, or rebrand your business.
Squarespace is a website hosting platform with a built-in website builder. As is Wordpress or Webflow. This means that you can build a website that’s 100% yours, and if you decide to move platforms, you can. These platforms don’t own your content; you’re just renting space and design tools. This is what you want when you’re building a website for your business.
What you want to watch out for is the following:
Platforms that charge fees for taking your content elsewhere
Platforms/services that require approval or a middle-person to make changes (big or small changes)
Platforms that don’t allow custom domains
Platforms that limit website size or scope
Platforms where your website is tied to an EHR or CRM (if you want to switch client management platforms in the future, do you lose your website?)
Again, when you build a website on Squarespace, your content and design is 100% yours.
Likewise, if you purchase a Hold Space Creative template, your content and design is 100% yours as well. There are no recurring fees from us and you’re in complete control. In fact, shortly after sending your website to you, we remove administrator permissions, so we don’t even have access to your website. You’re free to personalize, customize, or completely change your website as your business grows.
As you may have guessed, this was an intentional choice on my part. Watching therapists get the short end of the stick in terms of website ownership and control didn’t sit right with me, so one of my biggest goals at Hold Space Creative is to empower therapists to take control!
You don’t have to be an expert designer or developer; there are people who are ready and waiting to help in those departments. But you DO need to own your website.
Ease of Use
So if Wordpress and Webflow can offer the same freedom and control, why use Squarespace? For me, ease of use was my main determining factor when deciding where to build my websites for therapists.
Knowing that website stuff tends to overwhelm therapists (leading to the relinquishing of ever-important control that I just mentioned), choosing a platform that’s easy for website novices to get around was my top priority.
While there’s a bit of a learning curve, as with any platform or technology, Squarespace has proven to be easy to navigate for the hundreds of therapists that I’ve designed for so far.
And to ensure therapists who purchase from Hold Space Creative feel confident and supported, each of my Squarespace templates comes with tutorial videos to help you get around the platform.
If you have more website design experience than the average therapist, and you’re willing to spend a little more time on the development side, Wordpress or Webflow might be great options for you as well.
Build your own website, no experience required.
Most therapists I know don’t want to spend a ton of time building their website, but they do want it to be good. Squarespace offers the most beginner-friendly platform while also offering premium design features and the freedom and control that business owners need.
Whether you’re just getting your private practice started, or you’ve been in business a while, my Squarespace templates are a great way to establish your professionalism online while setting yourself up for website success in the long run.
Therapists who purchase a website template from Hold Space Creative receive 20% off their first year of Squarespace, along with a 6-month free trial.
New Squarespace users may also be eligible for one free year of domain registration and a free year of a custom email address as well.
This means that even with the upfront cost of a website template, your first-year costs will likely still be lower than using companies that charge $55/month and up.
Using Squarespace for your therapy website makes sense from financial, professional, business, and practical standpoints.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, you should weigh your options and decide what makes sense for you and your business, but be sure to pay special attention to the checklist under “What you want to watch out for…”. Even if you don’t know the first thing about building a website, your platform of choice should give you freedom and control, above all else.
