****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Rebecca Grace 0:00

Hi, I'm Rebecca Grace and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

[intro music]

Kenneth Kinney 0:19

Welcome back, and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective.

Kenneth Kinney 0:22

I am Kenneth Kinney, but friends call me "Shark". I'm a keynote speaker, strategist, a shark diver, host of this show, and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:30

If you're like me, then you work often on your website. But for many, though, and try and decide on what platform to use, where to host it, and so forth, you could only Google those options so much before it becomes overwhelming for most, especially if web design or graphic design isn't part of your bailiwick. But it's important to make the right choices and then be able to own them. In case you want to do something with the site later, like make enhancements on a regular basis, add some code, drop a custom font, for example. But is the platform what's holding your site back? Or is it something else? This is something I run into all the time with people and brands whose website is their baby, but quite honestly, most don't even know if their baby is ugly. So how do you build a million dollar website without spending? Well, just way too much.

Kenneth Kinney 1:13

Rebecca Grace of Rebecca Grace designs is a Squarespace expert and website designer who helps hundreds of Squarespace designers push past the limitations of the Squarespace editor to design beautiful custom websites that are mobile friendly and search engine optimized.

Kenneth Kinney 1:28

And on this episode, we'll discuss website design code versus no code, various WYSIWYG website builders at Squarespace, Wordpress, Wix excetera. Working with templates, paying too much for a new site versus what you really need to build a killer site, working with freelancers, SEO and being found mobile friendly design, custom CSS, integrating with Zapier, acuity, ConvertKit, Shopify heat maps, and many more crawling with your XML sitemap Zendaya, Shanaya, how Dolly likes to build a site that works nine to five and five to nine, and a lot lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 2:00

So let's tune into a graceful web designer with a graceful shark on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

Kenneth Kinney 2:10

Rebecca, welcome to A Shark's Perspective. Would you please give us a brief overview of your background and career to date?

Rebecca Grace 2:17

Yes, so my name is Rebecca Grace. I'm a Squarespace expert and coder. And I focus mainly now on helping other Squarespace designers and people design their own Squarespace site. So I do offer full design services. But I kind of more passionate about coaching and helping people design their own sites and other Squarespace designers code for their clients sites.

Kenneth Kinney 2:43

Well, I was Googling something, doing something to my site, and I found a video of you. And that's how I initially got over to you and the stuff you offer. But we're gonna talk a lot about no code websites like this today. But out of curiosity, why are you all in on Squarespace? Why was that the platform you wanted.

Rebecca Grace 3:00

So my favorite part of the design, I don't tend to like to do the retainer stuff. So I wanted my clients to be able to take the site and be able to update it and manage it themselves. And I found that Squarespace was the best platform for that in terms of me being able to design it, and then hand it over. And then very quickly be able to know how to update it and manage it without, you know, having to be super, super hands on. So that's that's why I chose Squarespace versus I started on WordPress. And I just found it a lot more hands on. So I switched over to Squarespace. And now I find it a lot easier to kind of hand that website over to clients

Kenneth Kinney 3:43

and not agree more. And I used to code for quite a long time in HTML initially, and then wrote some Java and JavaScript and built a lot of sites. And then I just really started to get romanced by a lot of the tools and the sites were great for me. But as I started to hand them over to other people, that's where I really noticed that just wanted to make certain that they were capable of being able to do a lot of this themselves. But one of the reasons I find this part of website building fascinating is one the explosion of these tools and how much they've gotten a lot easier to use. But the two is the number of people who are building sites, especially for their personal brands, there are solopreneurs, who put up a web storefront in the last decade plus or even part of the great resignation. They've all had to do that. And the stock prices have generally reflected that quick uptick. But as a professional speaker, I've had to have a website. Of course for myself. It's a very important part of my own marketing mix, and for any professional speaker, but not that long ago was making some adjustments to my own site and adding some custom CSS. And then later in the day, a group of speakers that I knew were discussing websites, and I was listening to a fellow speaker who was giving advice to the group about websites in general and the guy's very smart. He didn't have a marketing or coding background, very smart. And he was talking about building out his new website because he thought it was going to make him look a lot Better to have a site that he invested a lot of money in. And I say a lot of money in that he was spending more than 10,000. So I went back in later looked at the new site, and I was blown away. Not in that it looked that much better, but blown away, because I realized how much money he had just wasted. And he didn't have control after because of a lack of knowledge on his own part about how to make those changes later, without going back to the developer, and spending more money. I fully realized that not everybody is a developer, they may not like website building at all. But what do you think it takes to build a killer site with a no code website tool like a Squarespace, you know, Wix, or any of these, you know, different editors, GoDaddy, and so forth?

Rebecca Grace 5:43

Yeah, I think that I mean, it takes time, especially if you have no if let's say you have no experience whatsoever in building a website, it can take time as it does to learn any program. But it probably doesn't take as much time as you think, especially with the resources that are out there. So for example, Squarespace has templates you can choose from. And you can choose a template that's very close to what you're looking for a need on your site, go in and change out images and text, especially if you want a very, very basic site. Just to kind of let people know who you are and information about you as a speaker. Like, you know, basically your resume online, then you can do that in a weekend a week. Obviously, the more you want added to it, the longer it takes. But you can get templates from Squarespace. You can even purchase templates from other designers, they sell templates that you can. And so obviously, if you're if you're just wanting information, and really basic things, you can put it together in a couple of weeks, and no less than that. Yet less than that, I would say, especially if you want like, like as a designer, I can do a five page website, with all the images, the blog, the gallery, all of that in two weeks. And that includes coded options, mobile friendly, SEO, all of that. If somebody wants a site that is very basic, just text and images a week, maybe. Right, and so somebody if you're if you have no experience, it's obviously going to take you a little bit longer, but it's really not as hard as people think. And you do not need code to put a website together. Obviously, as a coder, I advocate for using code to push past the boundaries of what you can do. But you don't need code, especially in Squarespace. To do it, you drag and drop blocks around and and you're ready to go. So you can have a website up and going within a week. And then obviously, the more intense it is, the longer it's going to take.

Kenneth Kinney 7:40

Yeah, when you say a week, it's that's not even labor. I mean, that's really some discussion back and forth. That's conversations you would have with whoever the end user is.

Rebecca Grace 7:50

Yeah, I'm not saying a week of 10 hour days. I mean,

Kenneth Kinney 7:54

a couple of hours and hours a day. Yeah, if you know what you're doing. So, you know, if you are recommending a simple website tool to a really good friend or close relative who wasn't buying from you or would never call you for free advice, then why would you recommend Squarespace versus Wix or WordPress or GoDaddy or one of them?

Rebecca Grace 8:14

So with WordPress specifically, so I started out in WordPress, and I found that a lot of the back end updating you had to be in charge of and so if you weren't paying attention or didn't know, what was going on, and had, you know, let's say PHP, your PHP file was out of date, your entire site would kind of crash down and you'd have to get somebody to go in and update that file for you. And so there was a lot of back end stuff that you needed to kind of be on top of and make sure it was constantly updated. So it's very hands on with Squarespace. They do all of that backend stuff for you. And so the only time you need to touch your site is if you want to change text or images, or you know, update things on the site in terms of content, but you didn't have to touch anything else. And so that's why I recommend it generally to people that don't have a coding knowledge or want a very hands off site. I find Squarespace Wix are very hands off that way. I don't have as much experience with Wix as I do with WordPress. But generally I find that Squarespace has a different look than the Wix site. So I'm not too familiar with the difference between Squarespace and Wix in terms of which one's better than the other. I find Squarespace is a lot better for more has more options in terms of like E commerce and that kind of thing, the SEO stuff. But it's definitely a lot more hands off than something like WordPress.

Kenneth Kinney 9:43

Well it Squarespace also has in dire so they did a Superbowl ad with a Zendaya myspace.com/zendaya and it looks really good. I mean, you can tell that they dressed up way beyond the normal template and it's pretty impressive. So if you got Zendaya then you're good to go. So there are definitely cons, of course with each of the tools, revision history if you need that. And some of the data collection to me is always troubling with all the wiziwig type sites. I think I told you before, I'm limited to like 1000 pages, and I'm almost halfway there. What are some of the other cons that you see and deal with all the time?

Rebecca Grace 10:19

Yeah. So when somebody first comes to me, and they're like, Hey, I'm thinking about having you design me a site, and they're on your about Squarespace, there's a couple questions that I asked just to make sure that Squarespace is a good fit for them before they go on. So if you're somebody who is going to have an e commerce Store, and you want a ton of products, so for instance, you're a clothing line, and you're gonna have a whole bunch of different clothing options. I don't generally recommend Squarespace. In that case, I'll kind of push towards Shopify. Now Squarespace is doing a lot with their e commerce. And that may be something that eventually I'm not saying that.

Kenneth Kinney 10:56

Or it's basically some sort of plugin to pull it from

Rebecca Grace 10:59

somewhere. Yes, and Shopify and Squarespace can kind of work together. So it's possible to have different combinations, it's really dependent upon what their story is. But I find at the this time, Squarespace doesn't have the option to go, Okay, I want to see your products based on you know, small, medium, large, and this color and men's, like, you can't filter as much there is, again, plugins and different things you can do to work around that. But for somebody that doesn't want to do all those additional plugins and code, I'll generally say maybe Shopify is better, it's better for you. Photographers, let's say that have want to have galleries that they want their clients to sign in on. And that kind of thing we can a lot of them use. I'm forgetting the name now. Pixel pixel, there's a plot platform that they can do, they can upload galleries, and then their clients can sign in and download the galleries and things like that. Squarespace doesn't actually have that option. Again, there's workarounds and things we can do. But sometimes they'll kind of combine them. So it really depends on that. But if you're if you're somebody who, okay, I want basic information on the site, I want to have maybe a blog or a podcast on the site, some gallery, that kind of thing. Squarespace is for the most part, you're good to go. So the only times that I'll kind of sway somebody away from Squarespace again, if they have those massive ecommerce things, or if they want to super specific fancy functionality, that, you know, maybe WordPress in that case would be better for them if they want something super fancy and, and crazy on the site. But other than that, usually Squarespace is is what I recommend, if you had

Kenneth Kinney 12:44

to guess how much of your business in general is b2b type companies versus say individuals?

Rebecca Grace 12:53

Um, I would say it's pretty even. Okay. Yeah, I do a bit of a bit of both. So I've worked more for, like, I've had a couple of doctors that have done stuff. So ones that were maybe more just informational that they're like, I just want people to know to come to me and what services I offer. Um, so I've had a couple more basic sites like that. I've had a couple of course sites. So I have a doctor that runs a burnt out to badass course. And so I do stuff with her. And so it's like a course site that she's reaching out. And she also reaches out to universities, and teaching universities and hospitals to work with them. So that's more of like a b2b site. So a little bit of everything. Yeah,

Kenneth Kinney 13:40

well, and I guess I should say business in general versus because it could have been a b2c site. But there's so many businesses, I know who, when you say basic, a basic site, it's still got all the functionality that most of the sites have. And so I know a lot of sass companies, for example. I mean, unless they want some sort of bright, shiny object on there that you're not seeing somewhere else there. You're not really giving up much. And I'm trying to think what you would give up because another thing I was gonna ask that you basically just touched on was apps and tools and what kind of tools do you find that people are not using enough on Squarespace sites? One, for example, we talked a little bit about Shopify integration, how those two work together, but one another one is using heat maps, for example, a lot of people don't know what heat maps are in general. But there are a lot of integrations with other heat mapping tools, and a lot of different things you can load on there. What do you sort of think of as far as apps and tools that are better integrated with Squarespace are the ones that people are not taking advantage of?

Rebecca Grace 14:36

Yeah, there's not many. I can't even think of any apps that I've come across that don't integrate into Squarespace in some way. Because Squarespace is becoming so popular. You know, a lot of times if they do offer an integration for WordPress, they're doing WordPress and Squarespace. There's not I haven't really come across any that don't have a way to integrate in You know, even just a block of code, you put it on a in a code block on the site will integrate it in. I think the most popular ones is Zapier so Zapier can kind of integrate from your website to a whole slew of different things. So that's a super popular one that generally does what, what I wanted to on Squarespace just not just but they bought out acuity, which is their scheduling system. So they didn't have scheduling in there. They are working towards a email campaign system. It's not as advanced as let's say Active Campaign or ConvertKit. But if you're just like, Okay, I want to have a freebie on my site. They give me their address, or their email address, and it sends out a freebie Squarespace campaigns can take care of that. So there's for most businesses, there is a an app or an integration you can use. And yeah, so to clarify, when I say basic, I mean, your general informational site, when I'm thinking more advanced, I'm thinking of, you know, a doctor that wants a client portal that's super secure and has information. That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about advanced versus a basic site. So yeah, there's there's tons of integrations out there the most popular being zapped your acuity or Active Campaign ConvertKit, like your email systems, and that sort of stuff?

Kenneth Kinney 16:23

Well, one of the biggest conversations I have with people looking at these sites is is being found. And we're gonna touch on SEO, with respect to being found, what are some of the top recommendations that you have for improving your SEO on a Squarespace site? What are the things you come across all the time that people just need to improve?

Rebecca Grace 16:44

I think SEO tends to be a topic that people get very overwhelmed with very easy, because you can get very, very technical with it. But the thing to remember is that search engines, let's say Google, are very smart, and they're only getting smarter. And they're starting to read through and be able to sift out the non authentic strategies. So if you're my main thing is just be authentic. And make sure you're providing good quality content. If you are providing good quality content to your viewers, and you are being authentic and true with what you serve and and who you work with, you will work your way up. It's, you know, the people that tend to have a static site that don't have like a blog or some sort of content creation may have a harder time ranking up. And people that are trying to kind of get past or trick the system are the ones that are going to kind of harm themselves in terms of making their way up. So the first thing I look at, especially with Squarespace, is Squarespace has an SEO checklist that has a whole bunch of different strategies and tools and things you can do. So that's the first place we start is just looking through and making sure they're following all of the strategies, Squarespace is recommending they have all the settings, they need to have set, that kind of thing. So that's the first thing I check. And then the next part of that is looking at the actual content on their site, and making sure that they are having the kind of their keywords authentically, there's a whole bunch of different strategies for content. But the main thing is to remember that with whatever you're doing on your site, you're trying to build trust with the search engines, which means you know, your your page titles are not click Beatty, you are you know, people are coming to your site and staying on your site, because you have good quality stuff. So you're building that trust, and then you're properly communicating what the site is about. So you're having proper page titles, your tags, your categories, your keywords, the structure of your page, that kind of thing. So my biggest hope without getting too deep into technical strategies. And in terms, the biggest thing to do is just make sure that you are regularly producing good quality content that people want to come to your site and stay on your site. And as people do that, it will build trust, and you'll work your way up.

Kenneth Kinney 19:12

So let's get a little bit technical, though. How about off page SEO? What's the biggest thing you generally see?

Rebecca Grace 19:19

Yeah, so that is one of the things within Squarespace is checklist is Google Search Console. So having a Search Console account and submitting your Sitemap sounds a lot trickier than it is there's already a sitemap built for you by Squarespace. It's just your domain name slash sitemap dot XML. And you just put that link into your Google Search Console account and it crawls it and then you regularly can kind of check in and it will let you know if there's issues popping up like mobile issues or pages that aren't being read or indexes called that kind of thing. So submitting your sitemap to Google console is the way to get it to crawl your site and really know what's what's going on. On.

Kenneth Kinney 20:01

So you've just mentioned mobile, is there anything about mobile responsive capabilities of Squarespace that we need to call out and pay attention to differently? Because I know from a design aspect, it's really good.

Rebecca Grace 20:13

Yeah. So Squarespace automatically make your pick makes your pages mobile friendly. But there is some adjustments that I like to make using code just to kind of push it a little bit further. And that's more so just you know, resizing some images, tends to be the biggest thing, making sure your background images look good on mobile. But as long as you have the blocks in the right way on desktop, then it'll look good on mobile. So my biggest suggestion is, as you're building your page, look at how it looks on desktop, then flip over to mobile right away and see how it looks and kind of keep going back and forth. That way you're not, you know, playing with your site and getting exactly how you want to look on desktop, and you're so happy, you flip over to mobile, and you're like, This looks horrible. So I always suggest kind of going back and forth as you're designing to make sure that the blocks are, are dragged in the right order. So that on mobile, it's also displaying how you want it to be. But for non coders, and people not wanting to use code, it does do it sort of automatically, I would say 80% of the site will look great on mobile. And then as you get more familiar with code, or if you hire somebody to help you, we can use code to just get that last 20% to be looking good as well.

Kenneth Kinney 21:31

CSS. So when thinking about custom cascading style sheets, or as the kids call it custom CSS, how should people look at adding code to a website or do more cooler things to a Squarespace site, you know, without pushing too many limits and blowing up your site.

Rebecca Grace 21:47

I think the main thing to remember the biggest thing I tell people when they're first starting out, it is very hard to completely ruin and crash your site with CSS. So if you're going to put code on your site, and it's going to crash and destroy everything, most likely it's going to be JavaScript that's written in a different part of the of your your Squarespace site. So if you're just starting out with code, and you're a little bit nervous, CSS is the place to start. And that just adjust your style. So your colors, sometimes your sizing, that kind of thing is is what you're going to be doing with CSS. And that's a great place to start. Because if it doesn't work, you just delete it, or play with it, and you're good to go. So there's no harm in thinking, Okay, if I add this style, suddenly, my website's going to crash, it doesn't work like that in Squarespace. So CSS is a good place to start on that there is lots of free code out there in YouTube and Google, if you're a little bit more serious about using code, then if I put a little plug in there, I do have a resource that a membership out there that you know is for people that are you know, designers that are adding code all the time I have a resource, it's maybe a little bit more efficient for them than YouTube and blogs and things like that. But there are definitely lots of free resources out there to help you with that, such as my YouTube channel, where you can find a whole bunch of just copy and paste stuff. And then you know, alter a word here and there to get it to work for you.

Kenneth Kinney 23:18

Greatly you work as a freelancer to help build out these sites and your site. Very robust, have a lot of content on there. Is there any point where you feel like it would overwhelm you where you would need to take it to another platform or recode it in some form or fashion? Your own site? No, not wouldn't be very authentic.

Rebecca Grace 23:40

I wouldn't think so. Not with the way I'm the functionality that I want on the site. So mine you've got

Kenneth Kinney 23:47

an E commerce page you've got you've got all your other regular pages. You got a lot of images on there.

Rebecca Grace 23:53

I do. I have a lot of I have got ecommerce I've got plugins that I sell through my Squarespace site. I've got my blog on there. I also have a member area like a an area that's hidden behind a paywall. So I do have lots of stuff that that is hosted on there. And I haven't found that, you know, oh, I wish that I had done this on on somewhere else. It's it's been, yeah, I have a couple of different apps and stuff that I integrate in to help me. But for the most part, it's all done right through Squarespace. And yeah, I haven't found that

Kenneth Kinney 24:26

yet, because I'm trying to think of anything else that anybody wants that they can't be, you can add your custom fonts. You can add custom buttons and the way you want to do basic HTML responses change differently. To me, I just I know a lot of the people with very nice sites and it's not because of the functionality or capabilities of the platform 90% of the time, it's based on their color scheme and does it really look professional? Do their images look amazing? There's a you know, a lot of times the difference between one brand or another and a A lot of times even the personal brand is the packaging.

Rebecca Grace 25:02

Yeah. And I would say I've I mean, I've worked with over 100. Squarespace designers one on one. And I have yet to tell somebody that we couldn't do it in Squarespace. So there's if there's a will there's a way, the only time that again that I say, you know, maybe we want to have a separate integration here. Or maybe this isn't for you is if somebody has a massive e commerce Store that they feel Squarespace is stuff wouldn't work for they might have a Shopify site that they integrate in, I've had that where they integrate it into their Squarespace site and have both. Other than that I have yet to tell somebody, nope, we can't do that. And this isn't a platform for you.

Kenneth Kinney 25:42

So when is the right time to hire a freelancer like you to come in? Because there's all kinds of ways of thinking about it, whether or not they just want you to do all the work, and sit down in his discovery call and you put it together? Or do you generally find that it's better served with your time to go in and do bug fixes? Or whatever they may interpret as bug fixes? Or how do you sort of look at that relationship you have with most of your customers, as a freelancer,

Rebecca Grace 26:09

I would say it's generally your time. So if you if you are somebody that just does not have the time, then a freelancer is the way to go. If you're somebody that has the time to play around with it, and you're the willingness to learn a new platform, then try it out on your own first and see and see how it goes. Yeah, I think the main things you mentioned colors, the main things that I say is find a template that is closest to what you want, what do you want it to look like, make sure your colors are consistent, and that it's super user friendly and easy to find their way around your site. So the navigations nice and simple. You have buttons everywhere, leading them to, you know, the different areas of site that that they want, you know, that would be best for them. That's what makes it looks professional. Obviously, a freelancer might do some kind of fancy things to make it have a wow factor. But it's definitely possible to have a really nice looking site on your own. By following the template and, you know, making sure your photos and colors are consistent.

Kenneth Kinney 27:17

Well, it again, you said template, this is just like saying basic, there's so much more that you can do to change up the template. So there's no spoon with this. You know, you've helped me with some code. And by law, you're as a Canadian, you're incredibly polite, which comes comes with the whole territory. But Rebecca is this of all my guests on the show on a shark's perspective. No sharks that I know of in Lake Ontario, next door to you, but what is your favorite kind of shark and why?

Rebecca Grace 27:45

Oh, gosh, um, I don't know if it's my favorite kind of shark. But I recently learned about the existence of a goblin shark. And that kind of terrifies me.

Kenneth Kinney 27:56

Yeah, I've never seen one in person. But I've seen what sorry, I take it back. I've never seen a live one in person. But I've seen you. And that was a mummified in Oh, wow. The pictures are their ugliest can be? Well, Rebecca, it's a special time in the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions that you're going to be asked today? Sure. All right. This is probably going to be too much of a softball based off earlier conversation. But number one, a lot of CSS in a no code website, or not very much.

Rebecca Grace 28:31

I would say if you can do without code that's always best. So if there's a way to do it without code, do that first. CSS renders really fast, which means it loads really fast. So there's no harm in having a ton of CSS. Just make sure whatever code you have in there is necessary and that you're not writing code for something that you don't need to write code for.

Kenneth Kinney 28:51

There's no slowdown errors at all, or I guess that would all be the JavaScript part of it then so there wouldn't Yeah,

Rebecca Grace 28:58

yeah. And and that kind of depends if the if the CSS is written really poorly, or, you know, you're saying okay, I want this text blue and then later down, you're saying I want it green and later down, you're saying I want it red?

Kenneth Kinney 29:10

Well written out Yeah, well written CSS.

Rebecca Grace 29:15

CSS should not slow down your site. Exactly.

Kenneth Kinney 29:17

Alright. Number two. This may seem like an odd question, but stay with me. Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You later made even more famous by Whitney Houston or Dolly's nine to five, made even more famous by the movie nine to five. Which of those two would you pick?

Rebecca Grace 29:35

Oh, I will. I will always love you. I think

Kenneth Kinney 29:39

one of the most played songs of all time. But dolly did a Superbowl ad for Squarespace, where they revamped the song in the commercial from nine to five to five to nine. So if you Google dolly and Squarespace you'll find that video I don't know if it was, I think it was 2021 and it was praising Daya. So number three, For website builders not called Squarespace. We're gonna do the W versions Wix or Wordpress. Wix. Why so? Ease of use

Rebecca Grace 30:11

is Yeah, ease of use less hands on

Kenneth Kinney 30:15

less capabilities, but easier to Yes. Number four. If you could design the websites for these Canadian singers, then who would you choose? And we're gonna do a boy version and a girl pick okay for the girls, Celine Dion or Shania Twain for the boys the weekend or Justin Bieber.

Rebecca Grace 30:37

I have to say, Should I Twain and the weekend?

Kenneth Kinney 30:42

I'm good with with both of those Shanaya was the one I was opposed to, you know, slain had Titanic, but that you can only do so much with me.

Rebecca Grace 30:50

I love Celine Dion, but I'm a country girl through Hendricks I'm gonna have to go with oh,

Kenneth Kinney 30:56

man, I feel like a woman for this answer. Alright, number five. And the most important question that you're gonna be asked today is biscuits or cornbread.

Rebecca Grace 31:05

Oh, I don't know if they can.

Kenneth Kinney 31:09

Gotta gotta pick it's Oh, prisoner's dilemma.

Rebecca Grace 31:14

I'm gonna have to say corn bread.

Kenneth Kinney 31:17

Okay, so it's better with a Canadian maple syrup anyway. Yeah. All right. So Rebecca, where can people find out more about you keep up with what you're doing. See the videos and your Squarespace advice and more.

Rebecca Grace 31:29

Yeah, so my website obviously rebeccagracedesigns.com is the first place to go for seeing all about me. I offer full website design as well as one to one help sessions if you just want a bit of help to get started or with something on your site that the one on one helps the way to go. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Kenneth Kinney 31:52

Awesome. Rebecca, thank you so much for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Rebecca Grace 31:58

Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Kenneth Kinney 32:05

So that was my conversation with Rebecca Grace of Rebecca Grace Designs. She's a Squarespace expert and website designer who helps hundreds of Squarespace designers push past the limitations of the Squarespace editor to design beautiful custom websites that are mobile friendly and search engine optimized. Let's look at three key takeaways from my conversation with her.

Kenneth Kinney 32:25

First, whether your site is on Squarespace or WordPress, Wix or custom built on some other platform for most people in their personal brands. And even with a significant amount of businesses, the platform is not insignificant, but whatever those needs are, they shouldn't trump the user looking at your site. And if they can't find what they need to move forward, then you've got a problem. And a lot of times, developers create an overcomplicated mess that only a handful of people on a team can fix. And while that control is important, it does not always create a user friendly site that can be created with simpler tools that site builders like Squarespace can create leverage simplicity, the intricate site, you think you're building may end up being a lot more for your own benefit than theirs. And that's a problem too. Simplicity should be for their benefit. And if developed the right way, it can serve you as well.

Kenneth Kinney 33:16

Second, building a million dollar site doesn't mean you have to shell out a ton of money, Rebecca, and I will both remind you that there's so much more that like just having a good eye for design, better images can make or break the look of your site. Having well positioned call to action buttons can provide a massive return, having a good style guide. So colors make sense. That's critical. Look with the right photography, I can make almost any site look amazing. I'm still working on my own images to reminds me, I got to start that diet and then get to pictures.

Kenneth Kinney 33:47

Third, although a great website is important for almost all brands, personal and corporate. Remember that it's just one part of the bigger puzzle. It's part of the packaging, and indeed important. Just make sure there's plenty beyond the packaging, so that it can be a great gift to your business. There are a lot of speakers, for example, who think that having the most perfect looking website will do it all for them, and then they spend way too much money. But what if their speech isn't great. It's part of the package, but not all of it. Stay focused on what really matters.

Kenneth Kinney 34:18

Got a question, send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 34:22

Thank you again for the privilege of your time and I'm so grateful to everyone who listens.

Kenneth Kinney 34:27

Please consider writing a review letting me know your thoughts on the show.

Kenneth Kinney 34:30

Go out into the world and design with some grace, because I know your baby's not ugly, and showed us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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