Your website design is an extension of you and your business
When a potential client approaches me about working together, the first thing I do is send out a questionnaire to get a sense of what the vision is for the website. The questionnaire includes practical questions about which features are needed, such as a blog, a calendar, a newsletter, and so on. But it also includes questions that elicit more thoughtful responses about what the personality of the business is and how the website will support that.
These two questions on my questionnaire help a client define the business mission and brand and also help me get a sense of how the design of the website – with its typefaces, images, colors, and layout – will support that definition:
Choose three or four words that you want your customers to associate with you and your business.
Professional • Reliable • Creative • Trustworthy • Economical • Qualified • No-nonsense • Dependable • Experienced • Friendly • Relaxed • Knowledgable • Fast • Thorough • Down-to-earth • Approachable • Discreet • Careful • Specialist • Reassuring • Innovative • Authoritative • Artistic • Flexible • Healing • Complete • Restful • Educational • Mystical • Spiritual • Restorative • Fun • Busy • Rustic • Vibrant • Active • Environmental • Scenic • Social • Organic • Natural • Thoughtful • Youthful • Collaborative • Musical • Specialist • Luxurious • Urban • Minimalist • Safe • Transformative • Indulgent • Pragmatic • Inspirational
Other words not on the list _______________________________________
Choose three or four words that describe how you want customers to feel after they visit your website.
Enthusiastic • Reassured • Informed • Decisive • Relaxed • Determined • Excited • Prepared • Confident • Secure
Other words not on the list ___________________________
The answers to these questions give me a pretty good idea of what kind of design, content, images, and colors will support the client's ideas. As the design work progresses, I check back to those answers to make sure we're still in alignment with the original intentions.
This blog post from Weebly, "Create a Website with Brand Values in Mind," goes into even more detail about how words, typefaces, colors, and images used in your website and other social media and online marketing affect how customers see your business. I've picked up a few more pointers that I'll be thinking about as I get started with new clients.
Adding links to your website gives people a convenient way to learn more about a subject that interests them. Links can be built into text, buttons, or images. Learn more about the guidelines I go by when deciding which type of link to use.
Writing, styling, and placing headings on a website page takes planning and intention. Use readable headings with just one Heading 1 per page and then Heading 2 and 3 as needed to outline the content.
Whether your website is new or has been around a while, decluttering the content to encourage visitors to browse is always a good idea.
Whether you design your website on Squarespace or some other platform, you’ll be making color choices that are unified and compatible across your website, from the text to the buttons to the colors in the images. Designers call these color choices a color palette. Here’s how I simplify color selections for my clients.
Like the receptionist and reception area in an office, the Home page is the greeting area that needs to contain enough cues to reassure visitors that they're in the right place and give them guidance about how to find what they need and what to do now that they're there.
Whether you want to archive a page for posterity or for your future use, here are the instructions for properly archiving the page without causing 404 Page Not Found errors on your Squarespace website.
I recommend starting your business with a Google Workspace Business account so your business email address includes your domain name. But a personal Google account can be useful for many everyday tasks. In this blog post, I cover how the two types of accounts differ.
Squarespace assigns every new website a built-in domain, a Site ID, that ends with “squarespace.com.” I recommend changing the random ID Squarespace assigns to be something you’ll remember.
You can remove the "www" to shorten your website URL to make your website name more visible. You can do this with a primary domain registered with Squarespace or one registered with a third party.
Understanding in advance how your website will support your business will inform your website's design and content.
The aspect ratio of an image is its width relative to its height. Understanding aspect ratio helps you design your pages with images that look attractive and well-matched. Aspect ratio choices can also help with planning and choosing images you’d like to use on your website.
As a Squarespace Circle Member, I bring lots of benefits to my clients’ projects through the supportive professional community I belong to. As my client, you also get direct benefits I pass on to you, like an extended 6-month trial period and 20% off your first annual purchase.
Being able to preview your website live without logging out of Squarespace is a convenience for testing and proofreading before you launch.
You can add a Social Sharing image to Squarespace to be shown as a link preview for your website when you share a URL on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The size of 1200x628 pixels works best for those platforms. You can also set custom images for specific website pages or blog posts to draw extra attention to them.
Squarespace and Square are two different companies. They both support online stores, so it can be confusing when you are doing research about getting your business online. Squarespace is my favorite website builder, so this blog post will explain how it’s different from the company called Square.
A footer is the last section of information at the bottom of a website page. Use this valuable area to show contact information, add links to website pages, and ask visitors to take action on their way to becoming loyal customers.
Here are my 10 favorite text tips to help you create a modern and professional-looking website on Squarespace or any other website platform.
Kerry A. Thompson
You don’t need a big agency to get your website done. You just need the one right person. I offer Squarespace website design and content development services for creatives, coaches, and healers. Learn more in a free 30-minute consultation.