Choosing The Best Squarespace Plan For A Landscape Architecture Website

May 5, 2016 Michael Conway

Growing your landscape architecture firm and taking on better clients requires having a well-designed website that prominently features images of your work. If your web design professional uses Squarespace to create your website, your site will not only look stunning but it will function as more than a portfolio of your work. With lead generation pop-ups, analytics systems that show you the keywords used to find your site in search and built in landing pages, your site can be an automated inbound marketing tool.

Squarespace gives website designers the ability to create unique websites using its wide range of templates and many design choices for fonts, colors and picture layouts. If your designer adds a curated gallery of high-quality photographs showing your work, potential clients can virtually walk down the paths you have created. If you are interested in using a blog to promote your services, discuss landscape design trends educate your prospects or to explain how to hire a landscape architect, Squarespace’s blog options are easy to setup and use.

Which Squarespace Plan is Best For Your Firm?

Squarespace offers several products and plans so your website can best represent your landscape business and keep you within budget. Choosing the right Squarespace plan means knowing what attributes you need and balancing them against the cost of the plan.

Multi-Page Websites: Personal, Business, and Commerce Plans

We believe a Squarespace website is the best option for creating a stunning portfolio that works as an online inbound marketing tool and Squarespace offers several service level options. Your web designer (me) can help you pick from several plans: a Personal Plan, a Business Plan, and a Commerce Plan. Each offers the same policies that make doing business with Squarespace easy:

Subscribers to an annual plan can upgrade or downgrade between plans at any time;
Annual billing plans can be canceled at any time, and if it is before your renewal,
Squarespace will refund subscription fees on a prorated basis;
Annual billing plans are discounted from monthly plans
Annual plans come with a free custom domain for one year

If your business is small, with just a few employees, the professional who does your web design may recommend a Personal Plan, which offers 20 pages, unlimited bandwidth, fully integrated eCommerce and the ability to let two people contribute to the site. The personal plan is missing some functionality you will probably need, like integration with MailChimp, the email service provider.

Click Here To Learn How To Choose A Squarespace Template For A Portfolio Site

For bigger landscape architectural firm, a Squarespace Business Plan will let your designer create a web design that includes 1000 pages and unlimited contributors, as well as gives you $100 worth of Google Adwords credit for more online marketing.

Finally, there is the Commerce Plan that allows you to move into online selling should your business go in that direction. These plans come in two versions: Basic and Advanced.

Basic plans allow you to sell products with no transaction fees, as well as track inventory, orders, taxes and discounts.
Advanced plans offer the same features as the Basic as well as real-time carrier shipping and abandoned checkout auto-recovery.

Squarespace websites also come with all the analytics tools a web professional needs to track how many visitors the site gets, plus any updates that come along. Also, all Squarespace products are "responsive design" which means they are automatically mobile friendly, so your landscape business will look as beautiful on a phone or tablet as it does on a computer. Along with all that is award-winning 24/7 customer service, so you can be assured that any problems that crop up will be weeded out quickly.

A Cover Page is an Online Presence While Building Your Website

If your landscape businesses is just starting out, a cover page will allow you to have an online presence while your full website is being built. It is a one-page website that acts as a virtual business card. This Squarespace option allows you to make a quick impression and give potential clients all the information they need to contact you. With Squarespace’s versatile layouts, your web designer can create a beautiful, eye-catching page that represents the quality you strive for in your work. The hallmark of the cover page is the choice between a full-size image, map of your location, video background or audio options. Cover pages have forms for capturing contact information, fostering communication and building an email marketing list. They are ideal as the starting point for a full multi-page website and can be used as a landing page when designed to capture leads in exchange for a guide, discount or brochure. Cover pages are quick to build and easy to maintain.

Means-of-Production has been building Squarespace websites for businesses large and small throughout the United States. We build websites with search engine optimization, write blogs that attract the best clients, and train our clients on the basics of maintaining the site and making content changes in less time than it takes to make a phone call. If you have specific questions on building a Squarespace website for your landscape architectural firm, give us a call. We can guide you through the specifics of landing pages, portfolio structure and how to ensure the site works for your target market.

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About Michael Conway

I'm the owner of Means-of-Production. My firm builds Squarespace websites, content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one marketing tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition. If you have a question regarding Squarespace, click here to contact me. I'm a Squarespace Specialist, Squarespace Authorized Trainer and a Circle Member and I'd be happy to help.