Blogging Tips

Squarespace vs. WordPress – Why I Made The Change

Squarespace vs. WordPress – Which one is better for bloggers and content creators?

While I can only speak from my own personal experience, I will say that I had my site evaluated by a SEO expert and neutral party in this debate.  The feedback I received is what led me to my decision to leave my Squarespace site behind and begin building a new website with WordPress.

So today on the blog I want to share some of that feedback, plus dig a little deeper into why I made the change. Squarespace vs. WordPress – lessssgo!

Templates/Visual

The reason I initially chose Squarespace over WordPress a few years ago was because of how easy the site is to use. I literally had a page built in a day and was ready to go. I love the drag and drop features that make creating a website super doable for anyone. The only drawback was that I would go on other content creators sites or business websites that also used the same template as me and it was like I was looking at a cookie cutter page that looked very similar to mine.

Now granted, you can tweak fonts and get really creative, but at the end of the day, you are limited to the templates that Squarespace has available. I can’t tell you how many times I’d go to another bloggers page and I was essentially looking at my page but with someone else’s photos. No thank you! 

I was initially very nervous about WordPress because I thought that I needed to be super savvy in code to be able to build a page from scratch. However, after talking to a few people, I learned about different options that would be easy for me to navigate and figure out. Specifically, installing the Divi theme and choosing a template that was compatible has been a game changer.

Divi is similar to Squarespace in the sense that you can drag and drop to create the page you want – BUT there are a million more options. There are literally millions of templates and plug-ins you can choose from to create whatever you want. This is what I love the most about the visual capabilities on WordPress vs. Squarespace.

SEO

When I had my site evaluated, I received a lot of good feedback, but the one thing I wanted to take away was how can I improve my site ranking and pageviews. After all, if you’re working hard to create great content, but no one sees it … all your hard work can start to feel meaningless. 

What I learned is that while there are built in SEO capabilities that are powerful on Squarespace, I am not able to easily tweak, add plug-ins or see a visual SEO analysis for every post in real time like I am now. The Yoast plug-in is my new best friend. I haven’t upgraded to premium yet but I’m thrilled with what I’ve learned/gained from just using the basic option. It really helps you think about everything. From the title of your post, to the meta description, to the alt text, to the length of your sentences in the post … I could literally go on and on. I feel like I’m back in college studying journalism again and Professor Yoast is right there looking over my shoulder making sure I’m producing quality work. I really love it and I highly recommend this plug-in. 

Who’s Your Website Host?

I have been really happy with my decision to switch and feel confident that I’ve made the right choice for my business. For hosting, I use Siteground. This was recommended to me by the SEO specialist I am working with. After reading reviews and looking for validation from others in the same field as me, I now know that Siteground is a trusted host that many use for their websites. 

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In a nutshell, the versatility and freedom to literally create whatever I want with no limits was the catalyst in helping me decide whether or not to switch from Squarespace to WordPress. The SEO capabilities plus all of the plug-ins that help make my website a success have been critical as well. 

Welcome to my new website. I am so very excited about this new space and I can’t wait to show you around more.

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I'm Stephanie

Welcome to stephtaylorjackson.com, your ultimate lifestyle destination for fashion, beauty, travel and #momlife. I am a Dallas girl, now living in Florida and every week on the blog I share content that inspires and educates women across the world. My mission is to give all readers a weekly guide on how to live your best life, IN STYLE. Take a look around, we're so glad you are here!

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