SQUARESPACE WEBSITE DESIGN AND COPYWRITING
Your business website planned, designed and written in one complete service
I work with companies, consultants and entrepreneurs who want to launch or revitalise their websites.
- By offering big picture thinking tailored to both your website design and messaging strategy, I deliver your full website project in one logical and streamlined process.
- That means you receive an end-to-end creative service offering of brand strategy, conversion copywriting and custom website design, with no complicated liaising between different creatives.
Hello, I’m Sarah –
a copywriter and website designer who creates verbal and visual messaging for companies and businesses.
I help them establish their positioning and develop a strong communications platform to give them visibility and legitimacy.
▪︎ Dual expertise in copywriting and website design
▪︎ Professional copywriter and former BBC journalist
▪︎ 20 years’ experience in digital marketing
▪︎ 10 years’+ experience building Squarespace websites
▪︎ Section4 Certified in Brand Strategy, Product Positioning and Storytelling
▪︎ Conversion copywriting trained with Copy School and others
▪︎ Squarespace Circle member
▪︎ CSS and HTML coding knowledge for full site customisation
Your website is the core of your marketing efforts and your most valuable marketing asset. It plays the central role in your company’s online marketing strategy and should attract visitors, position your firm for new business, and drive growth.
PRERNA MALIK, FOUNDER, THE CONTENT BISTRO
“Do you ever have that feeling when you see someone with a certain skill set that makes them enviable? Sarah comes to the table with power-packed conversion copywriting skills. But that's not all. She doubles up her powers with design skills. Yes. I know. I had the same reaction. A copywriter who can design! You want Sarah on your team if you're ready to stop settling for lame, limp copy and worse, stale, sad design. You need Sarah on your team if your business is serious about using powerful, relevant and engaging copy paired perfectly with design.”
Research, strategy and vision
With every website I design, I begin by researching your business and your competitive landscape to really understand your objectives and your vision for the end result. Your SEO goals come into this.
Taking this time to brainstorm, strategise and plan means that your website will be set up for success to generate the results you want.
Only then do I move into a ‘content-led’ design process, by establishing your site map and making your content the foundational starting point for your website’s design.
In simple terms, that means I work on the planning of your website and its copy first – and your design second.
Words pave the way, design brings them to life
The design follows after we’ve successfully laid the foundations of your branding, tone of voice, identity and visual brand assets.
Content is why people visit your website and the purpose of your design is to present that content in a powerful and user-friendly way (while making your brand stand apart from your competitors and look amazing).
So, whether you’re planning a complete website redesign or want to revamp your current site, I’ll help you plan and organise it first.
We’ll determine the content ‘essentials’ and functionalities your site needs to have, then create a comprehensive content strategy that’s focused on the different ways that your users will find and consume information on your website.
Then, based on that rock-solid foundation, I’ll bring it all virtually to life by designing for you a beautiful and strategic website that connects with your right-fit audience.
A content-led website understands the customer journey. It’s planned, top-down, using a messaging-first approach, and then designed, to convey that message by:
- Using visual design to showcase the content
- Providing an effective user experience
- Combining conversion copywriting and UX design
1. strategic discovery
Business discovery and audit process to lay the foundation for your brand positioning and site’s planning.
2. CONTENT HIERARCHY
The outcomes guide the mapping of your website aesthetics and content hierarchy for writing your conversion copy.
3. CUSTOM DESIGN
Your website is designed with your connection-weaving copy to dovetail with your business & marketing goals.
Get clarity on how to organise your website and branding with a custom-designed and professionally written site. Is yours …
- Failing to convert visitors into enquiries, leads, and sales?
- Lacking a direct customer journey or brand identity?
- Floundering in unclear copy that is confusing to visitors?
- Not succeeding in building trust and credibility or reversing risk?
EXAMPLES OF WORK
CLIENT REVIEWS
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CONTENT-LED WEB DESIGN PROCESS AND TIMELINE
1. You receive your project timeline and contract for the package and access to a shared Google Drive folder.
2. You complete your deep-dive questionnaire.
3. We meet for a 60-90-minute recorded discovery call (Teams or Zoom). We focus on your brand identity, values, aspirations for the site, plus keyword goals and the website functionalities you'll need.4. I work on the research for your brand analysis and data discovery. Unless we are starting fresh, I audit your current site experience to assess what’s working and what’s not and determine your SEO keyword goals. This may include:
- Google Analytics
- Industry research
- Competitor mining
- Customer reviews/surveys
Most important, we define your unique value proposition. This answers the question that – as customers – we instinctively, unconsciously ask each time we buy something: "Why should I choose you, instead of someone else?"
5. I create your strategy report for you to read and review. This is the 'North Star' to guide the work to come. It clarifies your audience, their key struggles, beliefs and pain points. It details recommendations for your new messaging hierarchy, customer journey and website visual focus.6. We meet for a follow-up call. We talk through the Positioning Strategy Report’s rationale, discuss, approve or tweak the recommendations. 7. I prepare the first draft deck of the copywriting for your website pages for your review and approval. 8. You receive your first-draft home page, to establish the typography, colours and styling options for your site, to approve or tweak.
9. The rest of your site enters design. You provide up to two rounds of feedback for each page.
10. I make any revisions required. You receive a site where all elements interlock with the goals outlined in your positioning report, from icons to imagery to scrolling to content placement to fonts to CTAs.
9. Your on-page SEO, meta tags, titles, alt tags and links are checked and optimized for best SEO results with search engines. Cookies notice is set up and your privacy and T&Cs for your site. I prioritise your keywords and use SEO-rich headings to maximize your indexing potential.
10. Once you’re happy, you take ownership and copyright of your new website asset which I will submit to Google.
DELIVERABLES
• Deep dive brand discovery• Strategic positioning report
• Custom-designed mobile-responsive website: Home Page, About Page, Services Page, Contact Page + additional pages (as set out in our joint agreement)
• Professional copywriting for all agreed website page content
• 2 rounds of revisions per copywriting page; 2 rounds of revision per design of each page (additional revisions on request)
*Optional at additional cost: logo re-design and social media collateral; continued site updating retainer.
Package includes:
· Mobile responsive design · SSL Certificate · Research and supply of up to 8 images · Supply of customised icons and graphics · CSS/HTML coding for further customisation · Custom 404 page · 301 Redirects up to 10 pages · Domain transfer or connection to Squarespace platform/New domain registration · Social media sharing logo · Social media accounts integration · Email marketing integration · Testing of all links, forms and features · Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) · Built-in website analytics · 60-minute handover lesson via Zoom (recorded) · Two weeks' aftercare support
FAQs
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You should plan for minimum six weeks from start to finish. But every project is different. It depends on how quickly we can do the essential brand strategy pre-work so we’re aligned on your business objectives, vision for the end product and content hierarchy needs. At the onset of your website redesign project — before any design or development is started — we’ll develop the content strategy. Content is the essence of your website and this content strategy will guide your plans for the who (audience), what (topics) and where (site architecture) of your content creation.
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I ask for a 50% advance payment; with the remaining 50% paid on completion when ownership of your new site is transferred to you.
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Yes. Every site is custom designed and won’t look like anyone else’s (I can take inspiration from websites you signpost to me if we agree this dovetails with your Positioning Report). The reason I use Squarespace as the CMS and design platform is that it is so customisable. I also use CSS and HTML coding to increase customisation scope.
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That’s a good question when one considers that WordPress has a huge market presence and Squarespace’s popularity continues to grow. As to why I use it; to begin with, Squarespace is a hosted platform. You will have no extra charges and no costly plugins to upgrade. It’s all transparent and it’s easy to run. So I use it because it’s both flexible and intuitive. It offers a vast scope for free designs using the platform itself, and CSS and HTML tweaks. Note, if you have a lot of content that needs to be moved from WordPress, Squarespace makes it simple for you.
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We’ll talk about functionality on our first call. This will be elements such as forms, pop-ups, slideshows, parallax, newsletter sign-ups, blog pages, appointment scheduling, email marketing integration etc. Where needed, we’ll add to this list as we move forward.
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All website page work includes the cost of up to 8 Royalty-free images/illustrations from Depositphotos.com. Up to 10 custom icon designs are included. (If you need more images or custom icons, I reserve the right to make a small charge. You can also, of course, supply your own).
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Yes, everyone wants to avoid visitors ending up on a 404 page. 301 redirects of up to 15 pages are included.
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I can do this for you at a reasonable cost.
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You do. I ask for 50% of the package cost up front; with the remaining 50% upon delivery. Once your web design project is complete and the invoice paid, full ownership of the website will be transferred to you. You have the option to retain my services for regular content updates.
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Yes, I can provide a one-to-one 60-minute screen share video tutorial on completion (recorded). So you can update your Squarespace site ahead. If you don’t feel confident to do this, you can ask me to take this on ahead.
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Yes. Squarespace templates are designed to ensure visitors can easily navigate your site on any device they choose. From desktops to tablets to smartphones. All Squarespace sites adjust on smaller browsers and fit the format of a device.
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No, that’s the advantage of Squarespace sites. Unlike with WordPress, all software upgrades are included and user hosting. That means it’s great value with fixed ongoing prices you can budget for.
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A Squarespace business plan (which I recommend to most clients as it offers unlimited pages and premium features) costs currently £180 pa, or a little more if you need advanced commerce features.