A WordPress User Moves to Squarespace
Ayup! Would you believe it? I’ve migrated this very website to from WordPress to Squarespace. I didn’t think I’d be saying that in my lifetime. But here we are. Why? Why not? It was a long-overdue switch, primarily spurred on by the desire for simplicity.
Anyone who may have come into contact with my WordPress content over the years, knows that I love the platform. It served me extremely well, and ultimately, is the source of all my new customers and clients. With that said, things have been a little off recently.
Who knew how much chaos and carnage installing a plugin (that the WordPress health check recommended) could cause. My web host kindly helped me sort the issue, but it’s installed files somewhere that are still causing problems. I can no longer create a staging site without my server rapidly descending into meltdown mode.
I kinda feel like I’ve reached the point where I just can’t be arsed with the complexity of WordPress. One account for WordPress, another for hosting, another for backups and monitoring. Constant updates, security, having to find plugins for such simple things as a contact form. There are too many ingredients, even with a minimalist plugin stack.
With so many components making up the functionality of a website, it’s ultimately providing more chances for things to go wrong. While this recent incident was a tsunami in an ocean of otherwise plain sailing, I’ve been longing for a simplified solution for quite some time now.
Simplify to find focus. Simplify to find peace. Simplify to find a way through the sea of chaos.
A photographer’s focus
I’ve really been enjoying Jorge Delgado-Ureña’s YouTube videos recently. His channel, The Raw Society is equally inspirational as it is calming. One thing Jorge mentioned, in a recent video, was that photographers should concentrate on photography.
He was referring to portfolio websites, and how sometimes designing, building, managing and maintaining them can take over. Sure, your passion and dedication will happily see you through, but what if it didn’t need to be so complicated?
Arriving at Squarespace
I’ve been keeping a keen eye on alternative website platforms over the last few years. More often than not, the grass is rarely greener. Previous attempts to start using Wix Studio, for example, always result in a pacey scurry back to WordPress.
Part of the reason, was nearly always the limited customisation options. This time, however, limitation is precisely what I’m looking for. I want it to be easy. I want it to look good. I want simplicity. That’s where Squarespace comes in.
I’d previously dabbled in the tools, templates and layouts that it has to offer. Out of all the all-in-one website building platforms, Squarespace seemed the most straightforward and user-friendly.
The good
I made a near as damn it replica of my WordPress site with Squarespace in about four hours. It’s extremely intuitive. The whole interface and UX is so smoooooooooth. There’s a firm focus on things looking good. From the backend to the templates and layouts, I can see why people often refer to Squarespace as the Apple of website builders.
So far, there have been (almost) enough customisation options to satisfy my needs. Anything I couldn’t do in the settings, I was able to sort with custom CSS.
Importing files directly from WordPress was pretty easy. All of my photos transferred over ok, but not my blog posts (more on this in the next section).
Lastly, Squarespace is very much aimed at photographers. It’s got everything you need to run your business, or simply display your work. Want to take bookings, sell prints or create invoices? It’s all built in, ready for you to use as and when needed.
Overall, I’ve actually really enjoyed styling the site (most of it was already in place), editing the pages and content and finding my way around. Three words to sum up the experience so far:
Intuitive
Simple
Flexible
The not so good
As a WordPress user, my main focus was sustainable web design and low-carbon websites. The one thing that’s currently missing from Squarespace is green web hosting.
Quite surprisingly, however, my website carbon calculator score remained at a C. This is promising, to say the least. Once they eventually switch to green web hosting, this could potentially increase to a B.
Over on Google Page Speed Insights, the performance has taken a massive hit, while accessibility, best practices and SEO are all bringing in full marks. I’ll do some research on improving loading times over the next few weeks.
Lastly, I couldn’t for the life of me get the blog posts from WordPress to migrate over to Squarespace. I tried a couple of times and then gave up. Manually copying and pasting them in wasn’t too much hassle.
The end / The beginning
The end of an era. I’ve happily used WordPress for the last 13 or 14 years. As mentioned, it served me perfectly well, but times are changing. I’m changing. Simplified solutions are pretty high on the agenda right now. I want products and services that make my life easier so that I can focus on the fun stuff.
As it stands, my business website is still running on WordPress. To be honest, based on the initial experience with Squarespace, I can see this site also being migrated over.
The beginning of the next chapter, in the world of websites, is simplicity. One account, zero updates, zero gaffer taping tools and plugins together, no having to worry about backups or security. It feels good already. Happy days!
