I started this Blog only in June 2024, so it's still very much in it's infancy to the point I don't feel like im in full swing with it just yet. Afterall, I don't have a lot of time on my hands currently as you may have gleaned from some of my other posts.
One of the major setbacks I have had was completely changing the site, not once but twice and although I seem to have gotten rather efficient at it due to my increased knowledge and experience with such things, it is still a time sink, time that could have been better spent writing.
Blogger
Initially I chose Blogger (formerly known as Blogspot) as the platform to use, and I used it for 6 months before changing to Squarespace before going back to Blogger just 2 months later.
Initially I chose Blogger for the following reasons:
- Free - when you are getting started and don't really know if it is something you will continue with long term, no point wasting money.
- Google operated - A trusted source for platforms and usability
- Easy to setup - Simple menus with clear and concise options. Not overwhelming like some.
- Easy to use - Once setup, making posts is straightforward.
Issues with Blogger
I had quite a few bugbears with my blogger site initially and it was mostly around site design. The included templates are basic and not very contemporary and you are very limited on how to change them with the customization interfaces unless you know HTML, CSS etc. Which on that point, a plus is if you do know how to use those, you have access to modify to your hearts content, something which is missing from a lot of platforms. This makes it good for the novices and experienced alike, but not ideal for someone in between.
I spent days fighting with Blogger coming up with my original site design. It was based on the Soho theme but had to wrangle through trial and error on how to get it to be properly responsive and appearing well on difference screen sizes, and then the home page was literally just the blog feed - there's no option to make a nice landing page within the built-in editor. Options for Site structure was lacking too - you can create stand alone pages or blog posts. You cannot easily structure the stand alone pages with sub pages etc..
The text editor is also quite buggy. I have gotten used to it though. Spacing between paragraphs can go awry and each post takes a bit of back and forth viewing the preview to get it right. Including this post.
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| My home page designed with Squarespace |
Squarespace
I played around with Squarespace last year at work. It was more out of spite against the web developer we employed for our company site - he charged an arm and a leg for a site which looked terrible and dated. Using a Squarespace trial I was able to design a modern landing page in just a few hours that looked far sleeker and professional.
Naturally I went to Squarespace when I felt my own site needed to up it's game, so in January this year I designed the site within a day and over the next week imported content, tweaked the layout and structure and I was stoked with it. It looked really professional and was simple and easy to use.
Squarespace is not free
First off though, Squarespace is not free. You can do a 14 day trial free but then you need to pay. I was happy enough that I splurged $300+ for a years subscription. Later I upgraded to the $450 business plan as this was the level that unlocks things like CSS and Header code injection (needed if you want to monetize with ads later) . It also unlocked the store function, so I thought what the hell I will dabble in that too.
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| My Squarespace blog feed and showing page creation options |
Designing with Squarespace
Designing a site or page with Squarespace is super easy. There are predesigned pages to select from depending on the indent - such as for blogs, selling, portfolios or taking bookings. From there each page can be designed using their block system - simply select, drag and drop the blocks you want (such as text, images, gallery's, forms etc..) and you can move them around the page and configure them to your liking. Setup is an absolute breeze whilst still allowing creative freedom.
Integration and SEO
Squarespace is well optimized for SEO to help your pages get clicks. Each page and each post has dedicated SEO options for things like tags and titles. Integrations are another bonus - you can connect your site directly to social media such as Facebook or Pinterest so that when you make a new blog post, it automatically posts to those platforms. Very handy and saves a bit of time.
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| My store page on Squarespace showing Printify custom products |
Store
I had no intention of selling things on my website, but as this was unlocked with the business plan I gave it a go. There are multiple suppliers that integrate directly with Squarespace for drop shipping. The one I used was Printify, where you can select from a number of products, apply your designs, set pricing etc.. and they synchronize to your store page. All very slick and easy to use. I didn't make any sales though, but I didn't expect to. It was just fluff that looked good!
Why I left Squarespace
After just two months I decided to stop using Squarespace. The main reason is the cost. The subscription plus domain is nearly $500 NZD per year. The thought was maybe I can take the time to setup something decent on a free platform, especially as I've got 10 months left with Squarespace so plenty of time to get it right.
Customization was another one. Yes you have plenty of creative options and can use a bit of CSS, but really all of the code is locked away and you cannot tweak it. I'm no coding wiz, but I know enough from creating basic websites using nothing more than notepad 20 years ago to be able to find and change things a bit. This downside was highlighted with the sites rather terrible performance, not limited to my site but Squarespace sites in general. They all score quite badly for site performance and there is nothing you can do to improve it.
See the performance numbers below. Squarespace scores high for accessibility, best practices and SEO. For comparison my previous basic Blogger site scored in the 70's across the board. Research on the topic of the relationship between site performance and SEO shows mixed opinions and nothing conclusive, but anyone could conclude that better site performance is preferable to worse site performance!
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| Squarespace poor site performance |
Back to Blogger
I played with Wordpress.com last week. Everyone says to go the self hosted route with Wordpress.org, but it's a far more complicated beast and more than what I want to deal with - I just want a simple site where I worry about writing and not much else. Wordpress.com is good for this, but on the free plans you are extremely limited with design, more so than just about any other platform, so it was a pass.
Blogger on the other hand I know has potential and I could never fault it's usability, just the design. I dived into finding a good custom template and trialed a good 30 or so, including running performance tests as well as mobile tests before settling on one.
The template I went with and what is on the site now is the
Lite G Blogger template. It cost me a one-off $20 which in hindsight is an absolute bargain and I highly recommend it.
Before I go a bit more into that, check out the performance scores. Much improved, I just need to figure out how to reduce the LCP on mobile as its dragging the score down. I resized all of my main images but did not alter the score so I must be something in the script for that element.
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| Much improved Blogger site performance |
The template took a bit of setting up, a full day in fact though they supply a really good guide to take you through each aspect. The layout screen is full of gadgets and there was a bit of trial and error in figuring out what each one does and how it displays. Once that was done, I deleted everything I didn't need and was able to structure everything nicely with good navigation.
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| A snippet of the layout screen showing widgets. If I showed them all it would be 5 pages. |
Aside from the widgets you can customize various colours and fonts through the normal (and easy to use) Blogger interface and see the changes in real time. One minor annoyance was I could not change my top bar to black, as my logo is usually white text and I could not change the size of the logo, so I had to re-do it and make do. When changing to dark mode though you can't see it, and on mobile when toggling dark mode, the Lite G logo sometimes appears and I have no idea why. I've contact the developer for a solution so hopefully I can have that fixed - not a biggy if I can't though.
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| Showing the Blogger theme customize screen |
There are also plenty of neat features that are well outside what you cannot normally do with Blogger. For instance, mouse over the items on the top menu and you'll see images with posts appear, or the dark mode toggle on the top right corner, or the trending ticker along the top. Really nice touches that give the site the look and feel of a 'proper website'. Quite possibly the best $20 I have ever spent!
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| My new Blogger based Website |
In closing
I am very happy with the new site, how it looks and operates. It gives the illusion that I have more content than I actually do, which currently is a good thing with the site being quite young still.
I would highly recommend using Blogger particularly with a good custom template versus any of the other free platforms. If you need more capability and are willing to pay, and put in the work and learn (or hire a developer), then skip interim options such as Squarespace and Wordpress.com and go straight for a self hosted Wordpress.org site.
Let me know what you think of my new site in the comments!
