Need advice regarding Square website

[acewoodturner]

My son is making me a website using Square. He knows what he is doing regarding getting it working ok as he has a degree in web development.
However when doing a test purchase it is being rejected.
Square's support team via email wish to know my company registration No. as a means of using this to verify who I am and that my business is genuine.
My status is self employed t/a Pens of Distinction. They cannot seem to understand that I dont have to be incorporated with limited company in order to be in business or have a website.
Is there any way round this or just bin them and pick a different website ecommerce provider.
This is really doing my head in as it isnt complicated to understand.

Mike

 

[fisicx]

If he has a degree in web development why is he using Squarespace?

I suspect the problem is because of your account configuration.

But I'd avoid Squarespace if you want to keep your longterm costs down and have a much more configurable website. Someone with a degree in web development could build a good standalone ecommerce site for a lot less than you will be paying Squarespace.

 

[steps to grow]

Hi Mike,

I echo the previous reply. If you are comfortable with web development a Wordpress site would be the way to go.

If not...Can you provide them to a link on the .GOV website which explains the point you are trying to get across?

Wix is an alternative drag and drop and does the job. There help section is very extensive so you could see if your query can be answered there before starting the site.

Hope this helps

 

[Socio South West]

This is really doing my head in as it isnt complicated to understand.

You are right - it is impossible to understand for a geek on the other end of a support line if the computer says NO

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Just make a number up. So long as you aren't showing the number on a public facing page.

 

[Lucky8]

I was on their site last night so tried to get an answer for you - unfortunately the Squarespace online chat operator (who are supposed to also advise on Square) was clueless, unhelpful, evasive and kept mis-reading anything I asked. In the end she thought the answer to the question I asked was you need to see a lawyer to register your company...

If that's what support with Squarespace/Square is like, I might take a look elsewhere...

 

[acewoodturner]

Think I will look at something else. Typical American company.

 

[fisicx]

Surely your son can build you a stand-alone site. You don’t need to rely on a subscription service.

 

[Lucky8]

Agree with @fisicx. 3 years of a web development degree and your son should be able to easily create your website.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Squarespace, Wix all this self build cheap monthly stuff is for hobby sites.

If all you ever need is a brochure site that doesn't rank, and you plan to do no marketing, sales or lead gen, then they may suffice for a business too. If you want anything that ranks, works well to generate leads, or you can scale as your business needs to, then build something properly...

 

[Lucky8]

If all you ever need is a brochure site that doesn't rank,

I was actually thinking of using Squarespace (before the awful chat experience), Wix etc to develop myself just a brochure-type site, 1-2 pages max, to bring together in a summary some of the services I offer, which also exist on their bespoke websites (which aren't brochure like at all).

Don't they rank then? I still want to be 'found', to rank well etc. Someone else in some of my fields has done the same in terms of creating a "this is me" simple website, and he appears on the first page of google if you search for his titles.

Thoughts?

 

[billybob99]

I was actually thinking of using Squarespace (before the awful chat experience), Wix etc to develop myself just a brochure-type site, 1-2 pages max, to bring together in a summary some of the services I offer, which also exist on their bespoke websites (which aren't brochure like at all).

Don't they rank then? I still want to be 'found', to rank well etc. Someone else in some of my fields has done the same in terms of creating a "this is me" simple website, and he appears on the first page of google if you search for his titles.

Thoughts?

Even though they are not the best - its bs to say they don't rank.

At lot of people with no clue end up on Wix - like my friend who thought it would be a good idea to start a gutter cleaning businesses after talking to someone in the pub.

His website is absolutely shocking, bright yellow background, booking calendar that looks like a joke.

His website ranks 2nd in the Google map pack thing and 1st for [service] + [city].

He also hits it with PPC and it converts like crazy, even though the average age of his clients is 65.

If you have even a little bit of a clue, you'd just go with WordPress.

 

[Lucky8]

If you have even a little bit of a clue, you'd just go with WordPress.

May I ask for brief, tangible reasons why (and not Squarespace/Wix etc)? I'm at the point of choosing which way to go for the site, so this is useful info.

 

[Paul Carmen]

@Lucky8 , as billybob99 says it's not actually true that you can't rank a Wix type website, it's just more difficult to carry out some of the technical SEO work, plus often the sites are very slow, poorly designed and laid out.

There are some drawbacks with the platforms, but its often as much to do with the people building them as the platform. Speed, image sizes, the technical SEO setup; e.g. meta setups, URLs, canonicalisation, H tags etc is harder to get right.

However, if you want a couple of pages and the content is good, ranking your brand, or for searches that aren't that competitive is perfectly possible if you do it well... long term scalability and adding functionality is another big issue, but is probably not relevant from what you've said.