The drawbacks of using a pre-made Squarespace website template in your business. (And a solution.)
You’re a health or wellness practitioner building your business with care, heart, and a whole lot of late-night hustle. So it makes sense to go with a beautiful, easy-to-use Squarespace template for your website, right
Well… maybe. But what if that pretty template is actually standing in the way of you booking clients, and communicating your value clearly?
In this article I’m spilling the downsides of using a Squarespace template for your health and wellness website.
Look. As a small business owner, Squarespace templates are, shall we say, appealing.
For starters, because they’re a lower investment than a custom website. (We’re talking $397 vs. $3,997… nothing to smirk at!).
I myself, many years ago—before investing in developing my Squarespace design skills—used a Squarespace template to build my starter website.
But (speaking from personal experience here), there are some issues with using a template as a business in search of clients and credibility.
1. Not a lot of room for your copy
There’s no denying that Squarespace website templates are very pretty. That’s kind of the entire point! However, when you actually look closely at them, there’s very little space for words.
And that’s an issue, because unless you’re in the website design field — well, words are quite important when it comes to communicating the value of what you do, explaining why people should choose your practice over another, and turning a browser into a buyer, a client, a follower, a friend (or an enquiry).
Website copy isn’t just a collection of random words. It’s a written sales strategy that works hard for you 24/7 to persuade clients of the value you can bring them—even when you’re sleeping, on the school run, or packing up your campervan for a weekend adventure.
Where many health and wellness brands run into issues is having enough space for their copy and content to do what it needs to do — communicate what you do, how you help, why people should choose you, and what to do next — within the OG template layout.
2. Design first rather than copy first
What comes first—the free-range, pasture-raised chicken or the egg? Well, same question here: what comes first… design or copy?
As a website copywriter, marketing strategist and Squarespace website designer by trade, I still believe that copy should guide design more than design should guide copy.
Of course, it’s important to closely consider both. But writing your copy first forces you to clarify your site’s messaging strategy and structure, including:
What pages are needed
What the user needs to know, believe, and think in order to invest or take the next step
What objections must be overcome and how we’re going to do that on the site
Yes, website templates are designed around some solid strategy, but they’re not specific to your business—and they’re often designed to be short, sweet, and pretty to look at, rather than truly strategic and customised to your business offers, audience and goals.
If you’re forcing your words to fit the design at every turn, you're forcing your sales message into a layout, instead of designing your website to showcase your sales message. That can lead to a poorly-converting website that doesn’t do much to build know/like/trust—or bring in clients. So that low initial investment that seemed amazing can come at a cost.
If you’ve already added your content to a Squarespace template, but feel unsure if it’s “good enough” as-is, I can help — my website audit and advisory service can give you an idea of the missing gaps in your website copy, brand messaging strategy and website functionality. So you know exactly what to do to improve your conversions and turn your website into a hard-working asset for your business.
3. Tricky to add sections, pages, or functionality
OK. We’ve established that the design came first, not the copy, and there’s not a lot of space in the text areas on most website templates. So you may (read: will most likely) need to add additional sections to get your message across and give people all the info they need to decide to work with you.
This presents another problem—how do you keep the aesthetic and layout consistent with the beautiful template you bought?
As a DIY-er (hence the template), you quickly find that it’s easier said than done.The new sections you create seem off—they don’t fit with the rest of the site—and you can’t quite put your finger on what’s going wrong. This is incredibly common.
4. You can waste precious time trying to make it work for you
Time spent mucking around in Squarespace is time spent not marketing your services, getting the word out about what you do, sharing value in person or online, or delivering your service to paying, or Beta, clients. .
Delays like this impact your marketing and your earning potential. They eat into valuable time that could be dedicated to higher-ROI tasks. Bringing in a Squarespace designer to help can speed up the website-creation process, and elevate the end results! #winwin
TL;DR? This is why Squarespace Template Customisation Services can be a great investment.
Templates can be a fab starting point, but they often need more work than you thought to bring to life well.
That’s why I offer Daylong Design Intensives, which are *perfect* for Template Customisation for wellness businesses who’ve started with a pretty template—but want to transform it into something truly strategic and built for your business.
I can add extra sections to house your full copy suite, make copy edits, integrate your branding elements (logos, imagery, fonts, colour palette and graphics), manage the tech integrations (such as social media feeds, email marketing, a custom contact form), and offer strategy and advice to help you set up the site to market your business effectively.
What do you think? Do you need help customising a Squarespace template to your business goals, needs, and brand? I’d love to help.
💌 Let’s customise your template site so it works hard for your business. Click here to contact me and kickstart a conversation.