Is Squarespace Good? An Honest Review

At Lillian Purge, we specialise in Local SEO Services and when people ask me whether Squarespace is a good website builder I always feel the answer depends entirely on who is using it and what they want their website to achieve.

In my experience Squarespace is one of the best platforms available for local businesses, service providers, personal brands and professionals who want a clean, reliable, easy to manage website without the technical headaches that come with more complex systems. I have used it for years across dozens of successful local SEO campaigns and I believe it offers a combination of stability, simplicity and design that suits many small businesses perfectly.

Below is an honest review based on real experience running SEO campaigns on Squarespace using Semrush auditing and keyword tracking. I will cover what Squarespace does extremely well, where it has limitations and why Shopify is still the better option for full scale ecommerce despite Squarespace being excellent for almost everything else.

Why Squarespace Works So Well for Local SEO

One of the biggest surprises to people unfamiliar with Squarespace is how strong it can be for local SEO when used properly. I have run numerous campaigns where Squarespace websites ranked extremely well for competitive local keywords. The reason is simple. Local SEO success comes from structure, clarity, content and consistency far more than from technical complexity.

Squarespace gives business owners and marketers a stable foundation with clean code, mobile friendly templates, consistent navigation and fast hosting. Google values these factors because they improve user experience. For local SEO you need pages that load quickly, work on all devices, communicate information clearly and are easy to crawl. Squarespace delivers this without the need for plugins, updates or maintenance.

In my opinion the platform is ideal for:

• trades

• local service businesses

• solicitors

• accountants

• personal trainers

• beauty salons

• coaches

• clinics

• creative freelancers

These businesses rely on strong service pages, location based landing pages, blogs and contact pages. Squarespace handles all of these beautifully.

Ease of Use: Why Small Businesses Love Squarespace

Small business owners do not want to spend hours figuring out plugins, updates, servers or broken features. They want a website that works every day, loads quickly and can be edited easily. Squarespace excels here. Its drag and drop system is clean, predictable and intuitive. You can add new pages, duplicate layouts, upload images, insert contact forms and publish blogs without any technical knowledge. In my opinion this is a major advantage because it allows the business owner or the marketing agency to update the site regularly which benefits SEO.

Platforms like WordPress can be powerful but they require maintenance and ongoing technical oversight. Plugins conflict. Themes break. Updates cause errors. Squarespace avoids all of this because everything is built into the platform. The trade off is slightly less flexibility, but for most small businesses this is not a limitation. It is a relief. They get simplicity without sacrificing professionalism.

SEO Features: Better Than People Expect

Squarespace gives you everything you need for strong SEO including clean URL structures, editable title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, alt text, redirects and schema options through code injection. You can also build blog categories, tag pages and content clusters that support organic growth. When paired with Semrush keyword research and auditing tools, Squarespace becomes a powerful SEO system for local visibility.

The myth that Squarespace is bad for SEO often comes from outdated opinions formed years ago. The modern version of Squarespace is fast, compliant, structured and well optimised. The SEO success I have seen first hand proves it. In my opinion Squarespace gives you the perfect balance of technical reliability and creative control.

Design Quality: Clean, Modern and High Converting

Squarespace templates are well designed but in my opinion they are no way near on the level of Wix. I still believe Squarespace ticks all the boxes for what a local business need but from a design point of view its definitely isnt as good as Wix or Wordpress.

Squarespace templates allow you to highlight key messages, show social proof, display pricing or packages and structure your content in a way that feels natural. The simplicity also ensures that nothing distracts from the core value proposition. In my experience sites built on Squarespace convert well because they avoid clutter and focus on clarity.

Performance and Page Speed

Squarespace hosting is fast, secure and scalable. You do not need to worry about external hosting companies, server issues or technical optimisation. Speed plays a major role in SEO and user experience. Many slow websites are slow because of hosting choices, bulky themes or poorly optimised plugins. With Squarespace this problem disappears because the platform controls the entire environment.

I believe this is one of the biggest hidden advantages for small businesses. They get a fast website automatically without needing to hire a developer to handle technical performance.

We said earlier that Squarespace design features aren’t as good as Wix but I am telling you for an absolute fact that when it comes to speed Squarespace absolutely smashes Wix to pieces.

Content Management: Perfect for Service Based Websites

Service businesses rely heavily on content. They need location pages, service pages, FAQs, blog posts and case studies. Squarespace makes content creation effortless. You can duplicate service pages, build landing page templates, upload images with alt text and organise your blog structure easily. Everything stays consistent which helps Google understand your site.

For SEO agencies like ours this makes Squarespace a dream to work with because you can implement changes quickly. If we want to add new pages for a keyword cluster or publish local content based on Semrush data, Squarespace allows us to do it in minutes.

Reliability and Low Maintenance

Squarespace handles updates automatically. You never worry about site security, plugin conflicts, broken features or theme issues. Small businesses often neglect site maintenance which leads to slow loading pages, broken functionality or even hacked sites on other platforms. Squarespace eliminates this risk entirely.

In my opinion this reliability is one of the strongest reasons to choose Squarespace, especially for businesses that do not have an in house technical team.

Where Squarespace Has Limitations

Although Squarespace excels in many areas it is not perfect. The main limitation is ecommerce. Squarespace does have ecommerce functionality and it works well for simple stores or low volume operations, but it does not compete with Shopify when it comes to advanced ecommerce features, large product catalogues, integrations or fulfilment workflows.

Squarespace’s strengths lie in service businesses, creative brands and local SEO. Shopify’s strengths lie in online retail. If your business sells physical products at scale or needs advanced stock management, Shopify is the better choice. I believe Squarespace could support a small shop with ten to twenty products but it is not built for large ecommerce growth in the same way Shopify is.

So Is Squarespace Good Overall

Yes. Squarespace is outstanding for the type of businesses that benefit most from clean structure, fast loading websites, strong local SEO, predictable layouts and easy content management. It is not a developer heavy platform and it does not claim to be. It is a platform designed for real business owners who want something that looks great, works consistently and supports their SEO strategy without technical frustration.

For service based businesses, local companies, freelancers, coaches, consultants and professionals, Squarespace is in my opinion one of the best choices available. It gives you stability, speed, design quality and SEO potential with none of the complications of platforms like WordPress. If your aim is to rank well locally, publish helpful content, build a clean website and convert visitors into enquiries, Squarespace is more than good enough. It is ideal.

For ecommerce, Shopify remains king. Shopify’s ecosystem, integration options, checkout system and scalability make it superior for product based businesses. I always advise clients to choose the platform that matches their business model rather than forcing a platform to do something it was not built for.

Squarespace gets unfair criticism from people who compare it to platforms it was never meant to compete with. When you judge it for what it actually is and what it is designed to do, Squarespace stands out as one of the best builders for small and local businesses. I have seen countless SEO campaigns thrive on Squarespace using Semrush research and the platform consistently proves that simplicity and structure are more powerful than technical complexity for most service based businesses.

We have also written in depth articles on how to publish a website on squarespace and Squarespace SEO checklist for small businesses as well as our Squarespace Hub to give you further guidance.