Squarespace Falls Short As A Content Management System

I’ve been using (and cursing) the Squarespace Content Management System for over a month now, and I must say that free blogging services such as Blogger and WordPress (not to mention paid services such as Typepad) have much more flexibility and accuracy when it comes to Search Engine Optimization and operating in HTML mode. I’m quickly growing tired of:

Broken tags, especially the most basic ones

The inability to customize page titles (especially for “child” pages…by default, Squarepace pulls the page title from your file name)

No functionality for inserting keywords (I don’t want to hear that keywords are passe…do you really want to take that chance?)

Odd behaviors such as uploading replacement files and still accessing the old one (even though a mouse hover points to the new URL)

Not having access to your directory tree

Their refusal to provide raw server logs for inspecting serious user problems and error messages (they say the logs don’t exist!!)

These aren’t quirks with easy workarounds; these are serious problems in conception, service, customer appreciation and functionality. Also, the Squarespace customer support is a tad worse than mediocre; they have a documented tendency to literally throw up their hands and say there’s nothing they can do to resolve your issue,

The bottom line? Avoid Squarespace like the plague. If you’re a client, they certainly don’t care about you. Why should we care about them?

I’ve been using (and cursing) the Squarespace Content Management System for over a month now, and I must say that free blogging services such as Blogger and WordPress (not to mention paid services such as Typepad) have much more flexibility and accuracy when it comes to Search Engine Optimization and operating in HTML mode. I’m quickly growing tired of:

• Broken tags, especially the most basic ones
• The inability to customize page titles (especially for “child” pages…by default, Squarepace pulls the page title from your file name)
• No functionality for inserting keywords (I don’t want to hear that keywords are passe…do you really want to take that chance?)
• Odd behaviors such as uploading replacement files and still accessing the old one (even though a mouse hover points to the new URL)
• Not having access to your directory tree
• Their refusal to provide raw server logs for inspecting serious user problems and error messages (they say the logs don’t exist!!)

These aren’t quirks with easy workarounds; these are serious problems in conception, service, customer appreciation and functionality. Also, the Squarespace customer support is a tad worse than mediocre; they have a documented tendency to literally throw up their hands and say there’s nothing they can do to resolve your issue,

The bottom line? Avoid Squarespace like the plague. If you’re a client, they certainly don’t care about you. Why should we care about them?

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