No code? No problem. How we built a landing page with Squarespace [Part 2/4]

This is the 2nd article in our 4-part series about building landing pages using website builders. You can check out the links below for the other articles in this series:

1. No code? No problem. How to build landing pages without being a dev. [Part 1/4]

I decided to take it upon myself and test 3 website builders - Squarespace, Wix and Wordpress - and see what it’s like to create landing pages with them. The key here is to avoid using code, even though these platforms do offer that option. This is so I can see which website builder could be used by non-devs to create landing pages.

Each landing page follows the same structure and (hopefully) the same design (or similar). This is so my little competition is fair to each website builder. The landing page promotes UPDIVISION’s recruitment services, and includes the following content: introduction, reasons why, services, testimonials, and a contact form.

Breaking ground with Squarespace

If you use social media a lot, you’ve probably got ads for this platform numerous times. Squarespace is a stylish, modern website builder. You can make presentation sites, e-commerce platforms, portfolios, blogs, and more. 

When I tried out Squarespace, I began by going through their pre-made templates. This seemed to be the best way to get started - plus, they often advertise their variety of templates. I looked at the ones that could work well for landing pages, making sure I look at the live demos for each of them.

After I chose a template, I went straight into editing. The first thing you’re asked to do is choose a name for your website, which will then appear at the top of the page. I opted to replace the title with the UPDIVISION logo, but I wanted to move it to the left. But turns out, you’re limited to how the template organizes header content. 

The template I chose already had fitting sections (like testimonials or services), so I added tech-related images, wrote copy and sorted page content by topic. Overall, everything worked fine, except - you don’t get a lot of wiggle room. Squarespace limited me to what the template offered, and I couldn’t move section elements around either. So if I wanted to put a text box slightly higher, it wasn’t possible. I also couldn’t align the first image I used with the text I wrote to its left, so it would look like the center of each element aligns with the other. Wasn’t a huge deal, but it would’ve been nice.

Pros:

• On-page editing
• Clean, modern designs and a wide variety of templates to choose from
• Not hard to use
• You can add nice animations that cover up loading times
• You get out-of-the-box responsiveness
• Mailchimp integration so you can have people subscribe to your newsletter right from the landing page

Cons:

• Can’t change text colors (or any) within the editor - you have to save your changes, exit the editor, then go into the “Colors’ menu. Not very intuitive, if you ask me.
• Can’t change font sizes. You’re limited to headings and paragraphs, so you can only choose from a predetermined set of sizes. 
• Buggy at times: there was a point where the website preview kept going into edit mode without me doing anything.
• Can’t change the position of elements within a section (for example, we couldn’t move the logo to the left side of the screen)
• You can’t set buttons to send users to a specific part of the page - for instance, I wanted mine to send users to the contact form at the bottom of the page, but that wasn’t possible: it had to be a standalone page/link.

Overall, using Squarespace was nice, and the modern designs made it easy on the eyes. Their editing tool was intuitive, aside from the color changing issue I’ve already mentioned. Creating the page wasn’t hard and didn’t take too long. Thus, I liked it quite a lot. Plus, it’s got many other features I didn’t get into - and honestly, I’d love to try them all one day.

If you don’t want something quick and dirty, but high quality and custom, contact us and let’s make it happen. And of course, stay tuned for the next part.

Until then, you can go here to take a look at the Squarespace landing page I made.

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