Squarespace Template Must Haves for Consultants
The term consultant refers to any person who provides professional advice or specific expertise in a particular field (usually business or science) to either an organisation or an individual. Clearly, this is a pretty broad field with lots of room for difference between consultants in different niches. Despite these differences, there are a few things that all consultants need to look for when creating their own websites.
A personal website is a non-negotiable for all service providers - which is essentially what consultants are. Websites provide an online space which you actually own (unlike LinkedIn or Facebook) that will allow you to build a strong personal brand, get visible on search engines and showcase your offerings to the world. Plus, it’s a fantastic place to send people that you meet through networking and relationship building.
Why a premium Squarespace template?
Coral Way premium Squarespace template
Squarespace offers unparalleled opportunities for customisation, updates and building a unique and effective online space. Working with a premium template as opposed to one of Squarespace’s on free offerings gives service providers the very best start to their websites. The functionality, website structure and content formatting will all be arranged for you by professional web designers like us. All you need to do is plug and play your copy and images and go live to start getting noticed by your perfect clients - talk about web design done the easy way!
Now that you’re set on using Squarespace for your consulting business, what are some must-haves to look for in a premium template?
Personality-packed template design
As a consultant, your number one goal should be building a strong and unique personal brand. This will help you carve out a focussed and profitable niche, and build your status as a go-to expert in your field. The easier it is for people to categorise and understand your personal brand, the easier it becomes for them to recommend you and your consulting services. It’s crucial that you select a Squarespace website template that allows you to showcase your unique brand personality so you can start building your niche and areas of expertise.
Consulting is a competitive field, and a bland and boring website will do nothing to help you stand out from the competition. You need to make sure you choose a design that is packed with visual interest and flair (that you can add your own personal spin to, of course) so that you always have a unique market position. This will also help you take up space in the minds of your ideal customer as you’ll be unique and interesting - it’s a win win!
Another consideration is your niche. Consultants tend to have very specific areas of expertise so that they can make the biggest impact with their work. Human beings read visual styles like a language so making the most of your visuals will actually work as a signaller to your niche industry or expertise that you understand their area and know your stuff. Consider a template that ‘mirrors’ the style of your target industry so you immediately signal that you work in that area.
Plenty of customisation options
Consultants are essentially service providers, and those services are likely to evolve and change over time. It’s important as a consultant that you have control over your most important digital market asset - your website - and can keep on top of the needs of your business by editing as and when you need to. Squarespace allows it’s users to easily edit and update their websites from anywhere in the world so you’ll never have to limit your business growth again.
Feeling penned in as a business owner is a terrible feeling, so it’s important that your website can adapt and change as you do. Decided on a pivot to a different consulting area? Easily update your Squarespace template to reflect that change rather than waiting on a developer to do it for you. Taken on a 6 month contract and are no longer available for other consulting projects? Easily make that clear on your website so that you can focus on the work your currently doing.
Dynamic imagery options
When building a consulting business, it’s important to build a lot of strong personal connections with other business owners. These will (hopefully) become your customers, so a well-known and well-liked personal brand is a must! One way consultants can build this personal connection with their audiences (even those they haven’t met yet) is with a powerful personal brand. Using plenty of personal images allow your website visitors to get to know you and start to understand how your personal brand.
Trust and integrity are essential to building a strong personal brand as a consultant. A website with plenty of photos shows that you’re ‘open’ and willing to put yourself out there. Consultants that hide behind stock photography or walls of text can feel less legitimate and trustworthy as their not willing to put a face to a name. Another bonus of using lots of imagery of yourself as a consultant is that it makes you immediately recognisable in important circles! You can arrive at networking and relationship building events one step ahead, as a lot of people will already be familiar with your name and face.
Squarespace offers heaps of different ways to make use of photography and video in your website, from image backgrounds, shape frames and dynamic hero banners.
Tried and tested website functionality
Something that we don’t need to do when setting up your consulting business website is reinvent the wheel. As web designers, we already know the types of flows, user journeys and functionality that works for consultants and online service providers. When you opt for using a premium Squarespace template, you’re investing in tried and true web design strategies being done for you. No more trial and error, no more time wasting, just effective and tested website strategies.
User Experience (UX) is a crucial element of any great website design. It helps your customer make sense of your website so that they can efficiently find the information that they’re looking for and make that all important enquiry. Not only this, but UX also impacts the effectiveness of your SEO. Happy users usually means happy bots, so the better your user experience the better your SEO as well. A premium Squarespace template does this difficult work for you, so that you can focus on setting up your consulting business to be the best it can be.
Matching digital brand assets
We’re going back to personal branding now, because it really is that important for consultants to master! A surefire way to boost your online personal brand as a consulting business is to have a consistent look and feel across all your digital touch points. What do we mean by this? Using a consistent colour palette, consistent typography and coherent design style across your website, social media, slide decks and other digitals will strengthen your brand and show off your professionalism. It’s an easy, effective way to solidify yourself as an industry leader in the consulting space.
Luckily, our premium Squarespace templates all have the option of adding matching social media templates too! We want to make it as easy as possible for you to create a powerful online brand.
Powerful SEO options
Saving the most important consideration for last - make sure any website template you choose includes powerful and usable SEO functionality. SEO (search engine optimisation) is the key to getting your consulting business visible on search engines and discovered by as many ideal customers as possible. Take the time to learn a bit about keywords and optimisation strategies so that you can ensure you’re making the most of your Squarespace SEO.
A large portion of your SEO score is based on the usability of your website. How easy is your website to navigate? How easy is it to use on mobile phones? How readable is your content? All of these things play a huge part, and Squarespace makes them super easy with features like their mobile editor and SEO titles and descriptions. As a consultant operating largely online, SEO should be a big consideration so make sure you’re choosing a Squarespace website template that allows you the options you need.
To wrap up, consultants are usually highly specialised individuals in a competitive marketplace. Utilising a Squarespace website template can save you time and energy and will give you a head start on your competitors with their done-for-you strategy and SEO options.
If you’d like to discuss the website needs of your consulting business in more depth, you can view our services here or book a free coffee chat here.
