Custom Squarespace
Website Design
A custom Squarespace website, built from scratch and designed around the actual business. The work covers strategy, design, development, SEO foundation, content migration, and launch. From the first conversation to the handover, the whole thing is mine to deliver.
£2,500
What Core makes possible
This build runs on Squarespace Core rather than Basic. Core is £17 a month against Basic's £12, paid to Squarespace, not to me. What the extra five pounds buys is below, and some of it cannot be done on Basic at any price.
Structured data
Schema markup goes in through sitewide code injection. Basic does not have it, so on that plan this cannot be done at all.
Analytics that actually work
Google Analytics and Tag Manager need code injection too. On Basic you get visitor counts and very little else.
Third-party tools
Booking systems, CRMs, review widgets, anything that needs to talk to the site. Basic cannot run them.
More than two logins
Basic caps at two contributors. Core does not, which matters as soon as more than one person needs to touch the site.
The full build, end to end
Up to eight pages
A page for each thing you do, each one written and built to be found for its own search. The structure gets decided in discovery, before any content is written.
The words written for you
You do not send me copy. I ask the questions, then write every page, every heading and every button. On a one-page site that comes out of a form. Here it comes out of a proper conversation, and it covers a whole site rather than a single page.
Design decided for this project
Layout, colour, type and image treatment all decided for this project, starting from your business and the people it serves. The site looks like the business it belongs to.
Search foundations, page by page
Structured data, clean URLs, meta data, page titles and alt text, written page by page from the start. Retrofitting this later costs more and works less well.
Analytics, Tag Manager and event tracking
Google Analytics and Tag Manager configured, with event tracking on the things worth tracking. You get to see what people do on the site, not just how many arrived. Search Console is connected too.
Your existing content moved across
Everything from the old site brought over and restructured where the new structure improves it. The technical side is mine. You copy and paste nothing.
Tested on real devices
Over half the visitors to most SME sites are on a phone. The build is designed for that visitor first, then scaled up, and tested on the actual browsers and devices people use.
A recorded handover
A walkthrough you keep, covering how to update content, swap images and manage forms. The site is yours to run. A retainer is a separate decision, not a dependency built in.
Thirty days after launch
Included, for anything that surfaces once the site is live and in real use. The launch is the end of the build, not the start of a list of things to fix.
The process
Discovery
A conversation about the business. You don't need to come with a written brief. The right questions get asked in the conversation, and the brief writes itself.
Design
Design happens in two clear rounds. First round is the layout and visual direction, agreed before any development starts. Second round is refinement once development is underway. No endless revision cycles.
Build
Development in Squarespace, with custom code where the design calls for it. Content goes in, SEO foundations are set up, and everything gets tested across browsers and devices before launch. You'll see the staging site before it goes live.
Launch & Handover
Go-live, domain connected, analytics live and tested. A video walkthrough covering how to manage the site yourself, and thirty days of support for anything that comes up. The launch is the end of the build, not the start of a list of things to fix.
Which one do you need?
Two ways in, and they are not a better and a worse version of the same thing. They do different jobs. Most businesses can tell which one they are within about a sentence.
One Page, from £500
The business needs to exist online. Someone has been recommended you, they look you up, and they need to see you are real and get in touch. A sole trader or single-service business does not need more than this.
- New and early-stage businesses
- Solo professionals whose work is their credibility
- One main service, or one main audience
- You want a website, not a website to look after
Custom Build, from £2,500
The website has to produce something. Several services or audiences that each need their own page and their own argument. One page can rank for one thing, and that is a structural limit no amount of budget fixes.
- Several services that each need their own page
- Competing in search on more than your own name
- Booking, CRM or other tools to connect
- An established business with room to grow into it
Start on One Page and the full £500 comes off a Custom Build if you upgrade within 18 months.
In their words
Charles is a great guy and a pleasure to work with. We receive detailed updates, he delivers on time and makes great recommendations. He has become an asset to our organisation. It's a 10 out of 10 from us.
What happens next
Thirty days of post-launch support is included, covering anything that comes up once the site is live and in use.
After that, development work runs at £85 an hour on a site I built, versus £120 an hour standard rate. The lower rate is not a discount: I wrote the stylesheet, so I am not spending the first hour working out what the last developer was thinking.
If you know the work is coming, a support retainer works out cheaper again per hour.
Pricing
All prices are fixed at the start. The scope and price are agreed before any work begins, and the price doesn't move unless the scope does.
Standard Build
Up to 8 pages
Complex Build
10+ pages with advanced functionality
Rush Delivery
2-week turnaround
I build on a Squarespace partner trial, so you pay Squarespace nothing while the site is being made. When it goes live you take over the subscription in your own name, and my partner discount takes 10% off your first year. On Core that is £183.60 for the year, domain included.
Common questions
Why build on Squarespace rather than another platform?
Squarespace's native tools are powerful, well-maintained, and remove the overhead of plugins, security scans, and constant updates. Built from the ground up, it's a streamlined, professional platform that's easy to manage long-term.
Can't I just build it myself on Squarespace?
You can. Squarespace makes it possible for someone without a design background to launch a workable site, and that's a real strength of the platform. What a custom build adds is the strategic and technical work that's hard to do well without years of experience. Schema markup, image optimisation, conversion-focused layout, analytics setup. None of it is glamorous. All of it matters. If you can do that work yourself, you don't need this service.
What do I need to have ready before the project starts?
A rough idea of what the business does and who it's for is enough to start the conversation. Copy and images can be developed during the project, but having them finalised early keeps things moving and avoids the timeline slipping. I'll guide you through what's needed before we start.
How long does a build take?
Typically four weeks from project start to launch. The biggest variable is content. If copy and images are ready when discovery completes, the build moves fast. If content needs to be created during the build, the timeline extends. Rush delivery is available for time-sensitive projects.
What happens at the end of the project?
You get full access to the site and a handover, either a recorded walkthrough video or a live call, covering all areas of the site so you understand how to manage and update it yourself going forward.
Will my site rank for the keywords my clients actually search?
SEO foundation work is included in every build (clean URL structure, meta data, schema, image alt text, sitemap). What I can't promise is a top-three ranking, because that depends on competition, content depth, and time. What I can promise is that nothing on the technical side will be holding you back. For sectors where ranking matters most, ongoing SEO work as part of a support retainer compounds the foundation over time.
Why does this need the Core plan and not Basic?
Basic cannot run sitewide code injection, and that is where structured data, analytics and any third-party tool live. It is not a restriction I have invented, it is where Squarespace draws the line. A Basic site can look identical and still be invisible to the things that decide whether you get found.
I already have a One Page site with you. What happens to it?
It becomes the homepage. Moving from Basic to Core is a plan change on the same site, not a rebuild, so the domain, content and forms all carry across. The full £500 you paid comes off this build if you upgrade within 18 months.