Question:

I’m thinking about rebranding and creating a new website. Did you pay a professional to create your website or did you create it yourself using something like Squarespace or Wix? Do you have any helpful tips based on your experience dealing with your website?

Botanical Brouhaha Expert Panel 94 Answers:

I use Squarespace for my main website and I love it. You really can’t beat it for wonderful templates and ease of use. If you’re looking for a beautiful, affordable and fast way to get a great website together, use Squarespace!

Clare Day (Clare Day Flowers)

I have a Squarespace site that I’ve been pretty pleased with. The templates are somewhat basic, but they are clean, modern and affordable. I can easily change photos and upload press- and if I can, anyone can!

They have a very helpful and responsive customer service team as well. I did hire a tech-savvy person to get me started, and to walk me through the features. Overall, I’d recommend Squarespace if simple and clean appeals to you!

Susan McLeary (Passionflower)

Yes, I hired an experienced professional to build my current website. I had previously built two for myself on WordPress, but I was ready for a more streamlined look that only a professional could provide and I’m glad I outsourced it. Only you can decide what’s the right route for you to take with your website, but remember that the vast majority of people are “buying online” mentally these days…meaning even if you’re not using an online shop format to actually do sales online, people are still using your website as the basis for deciding if they want to work with you so a website is HUGE in the success of a small business. It’s worth the investment.

Jennie Love (Love ‘n Fresh Flowers)

I paid to have a web designer design my site and logo. I always consider my web presence to be my biggest form of advertising and basically the face of my business. If a professional website isn’t in the budget, Squarespace has some really nice layouts that can be done yourself  very inexpensively. I think the most important parts of the site should be the quality of the photographs  and that it represents the style and type of work that you want to do.  Another thing to take into consideration is having a website that you can update yourself with your most recent work. To have to pay a designer to update your portfolio can be costly.

Beth Zemetis (Blush Floral Design)

I actually take care of my website by myself. However, I have a background in engineering and I feel very at ease with everything computer related. My website is WordPress-based and I use a theme from FloThemes, which are beautiful and created for creatives. I love being able to do it all by myself, as it is the most flexible. I can change pages, portfolio and blog whenever I want to.

Laetitia Mayor (Floresie)

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