Websites have to do more than just look, well... pretty. They have a 24/7 job to do, whether it is to sell products, promote your brand, or simply share information. To do that job effectively, the website must function well. It may sound basic, but website functionality may look very different today than it looked when you first launched your website, depending on when that was.

Today, website functionality refers to things like ease of navigation, SEO, and being able to take actions on the site, like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a white paper. Website functionality matters because functional websites attract more viewers, keep them engaged on the site, and help convert visitors into leads (OR make sales 🎉)

Functionality and design go hand-in-hand to create websites that not only look great but are effective business tools. That's one of the number one reasons we love working with the Squarespace website builder so much. Squarespace has integrated many of the most important website functionality features into their platform, making it one of the best comprehensive and effective website solutions available today.

Squarespace automatically adjusts websites to the device on which they are being viewed. That means you don't have to worry that your site won't look right or will lose functionality if a visitor is accessing on a mobile device versus a computer. We’ve all visited that site that literally doesn't fit on your phone screen. Don’t be that site!

Squarespace is packed with built-in SEO benefits too. SEO helps your site get found by Google and other search engines. In many cases, you have to tweak website platforms manually to include SEO (cough, cough, Wordpress), but not with Squarespace. Squarespace allows you to customize all of the most important SEO factors: page, site, navigation, and blog titles, headings, image files, descriptions, and titles, and page structure. 

Let’s be honest, no one wants to wait for a site to load. Site speed has become so important it is now reviewed by search algorithms as part of SEO. Even though Squarespace is a hosted solution, you do have some control over page loading speed. Enabling SSL for the site and AMP for your blog can cut down on page loading times and improve the user experience. Both of these features are simple settings that you can switch on or off in the Squarespace settings menu.

Squarespace includes several built-in integrations like Mailchimp, Amazon, Pinterest, Dropbox and Google Drive (to name just a few) which can help streamline site development, improve user experience, and make site management easier on your team. Paid extensions like QuickBooks and Xero can also be added to further improve functionality.

If you use your website to generate leads (and you should!), Squarespace offers a few ways of doing it: use the platform's built-in data capture options – the form block or the newsletter block, or use code blocks to integrate an email marketing service of your choice. If you use the built-in form or newsletter block, you can then send your data to programs like Mailchimp, Zapier, or Google Sheets.

Those are just five examples of how Squarespace can improve website functionality. We didn’t even get into the gorgeous design templates, images, font options, or e-commerce functions available through Squarespace. Squarespace is truly a do-it-all solution and that's why we so often recommend it to our clients!

How is your website's functionality? If your website isn't generating leads, doesn’t look right on mobile devices, or has become too cumbersome to manage...it sounds like you could use a revamp!

Contact Alex or Elizabeth for a website consultation. We'll take a look at your site and make recommendations that can help improve site functionality for better performance.