3 Disadvantages of Using a Squarespace Template (& How to Work Around Them)
You’re a health or wellness practitioner building your business with the utmost of care, a lot of heart, and maybe even some late-night hustle. Your budget isn’t unlimited…(obviously), so it makes sense to go with a beautiful Squarespace template for your website, right?
Well… maybe.
Squarespace templates can be a brilliant, affordable way to get a website online — especially when you're starting out in your health or wellness practice.
But there are a few potential disadvantages to using a pre-made Squarespace template for your health and wellness business that aren't always obvious when you're scrolling through a beautiful demo site.
From trying to squeeze your copy into pre-designed layouts to spending hours customising sections, here are some Squarespace template disadvantages worth knowing before you pick a template to DIY your website.
Squarespace Template Disadvantage #1 | Your template may not have enough room for your website copy 🤨
There’s no denying that Squarespace website templates can be very pretty. That’s kind of the entire point! However, when you actually look closely at them, there’s often very little space for words. Next time you look at a template — see if it’s true!
And that’s an issue, because as a health and wellness pracitioner, your website copywriting is actually super important when it comes to communicating the value of what you do, explaining your perspective and approach, and turning a curious browser into a buyer, a client, or an enquiry.
Website copy isn’t just a collection of random words, after all! It’s a written sales message that works 24/7 to gently persuade prospective clients of the value you can bring them, and explain why you’re the right practitioner or provider for them — even when you’re sleeping, on the school run, or at the infrared sauna.
So, where many health and wellness brands run into issues with Squarespace templates is having enough space for their copy 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 pre-made Squarespace template layout.
squarespace template disadvantage #2 | Customising a pre-made template while keeping the design cohesive can be trickier than expected 😩
If you’ve just purchased a generic template, you may (read: will most likely) need to add additional sections to get your marketing message across and give people all the info they need to decide to work with you.
Which 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 may 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.
And 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.
squarespace template disadvantage #3 |templates force you to put design before your unique content 💻
Again, this is connected to the first point.
As a website copywriter and Squarespace website designer by trade, I believe that copy should generally guide design more than design should guide copy. (Unless your templated website design has niche-specific strategy built in — and some degree of flexibility — more on that in a sec.)
Which is why a problem arises when website templates are designed to be short, sweet, and purely pretty to look at, rather than truly strategic and with enough space for the content that will properly promote your services.
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 risks leading to a poorly-converting website that doesn’t do much to bring in clients. So that low initial investment that seemed amazing value can come at a cost.
So, are Squarespace templates bad?
No! Not at all. A good Squarespace template can be a really amazing starting point — particularly if you’re building your website yourself or working with a smaller budget.
The key is choosing one that has been designed with more than aesthetics in mind.
A strong website template should give you enough room for your messaging, services and content, while also helping guide visitors naturally through your website, and through the decision-making process.
And the more closely the structure reflects the needs of your type of business, the less time you’ll spend trying to reshape a beautiful demo into something that actually works for you.
That’s exactly why I created my own set of Squarespace Website Templates for Wellness Practitioners with these challenges in mind!
They include space for conversion copywriting & the core content sections you need to market your health and wellness services effectively — without having to squeeze your business and offerings into a generic layout. (Phew.)I’ve created templates for nutritionists, health coaches, therapists, and fitness professionals like yoga teachers and PTs.
Want Something Between a squarespace Template & Custom Website Design?
As a small business owner, Squarespace templates are understandably appealing, being a lower investment than a custom website. And they can be a fab starting point — but if you don’t have time to bring your Squarespace template to life for your unique wellness business and offers, I can help.
I offer Semi-Custom Website Designs for wellness businesses — we take one of my website templates for wellness practitioners as a base, and tailor it to your business, offers, and branding. It’s less investment than a custom website design, and offers a beautifully polished and strategic end-result.
I can add extra sections as needed, 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), so you walk away with a beautiful, on-brand, cohesive and conversion-focused website that markets your services effectively…and that you’re proud to promote!
Learn more about Semi-Custom Design (Squarespace Template Customisations) »
FAQs about Squarespace Templates
-
They can absolutely be worth it, particularly if you’re starting a business, working with a smaller website budget, or feel confident customising your site yourself. The key is choosing a Squarespace template that has been designed with strategy as well as aesthetics in mind. Look for a template with enough space for your messaging, services and calls-to-action, rather than choosing purely because you love the demo design.
-
Yes. Squarespace gives you plenty of flexibility to customise colours, fonts, imagery, page layouts and sections to suit your brand. However, the more you change a pre-made template, the more design decisions you’ll need to make yourself — which can make it harder to maintain the polished, cohesive look that attracted you to the template in the first place.
-
It depends on your budget, available time and how much support you need. A Squarespace template can be a great option if you’re comfortable DIYing and want to keep your initial investment lower. If you want a more tailored website, need help translating your messaging and branding into the design, or simply don’t want to spend hours building it yourself, working with a Squarespace website designer may be a better fit. Semi-custom website design can also offer a useful middle ground between the two.
-
Yes — especially when the template has been created with the needs of your type of business in mind. For service-based small businesses, a good Squarespace template should make it easy to explain what you do, showcase your services, build trust and guide visitors towards booking, enquiring or taking the next step.
For health and wellness practitioners in particular, I recommend choosing a template with enough room for educational content and persuasive messaging rather than relying on very minimal, image-led layouts.
Ready to create a Squarespace website that actually works well for your wellness business?
I’ve got you.
Start with one of my Squarespace Website Templates for Wellness Practitioners if you’re happy to DIY with a thoughtfully-crafted foundation that starts you off with the core sections and pages you need to promote your services properly.
Or, choose my Semi-Custom Website Design Service if you’d prefer me to tailor the design, branding, and layout for you. :)
Either way, you’ll walk away with a wellness website designed to communicate your value, build trust with prospective clients, and help your blossoming wellness business flourish. 🤍
