Build a Website for Your Landscape Architecture Company
May 25, 2018
Presented by: Forrestt Williams
Length: 50:51
You’re running a small business, and you have neither the time nor the knowledge to make a slick-looking website. Unfortunately, a strong Web presence is essential for doing business in this day and age. But fortunately, it's not as difficult as you might think. This webinar will show you the ins and outs of using Squarespace to create a professional website. We'll also go over some helpful tools for improving your search engine optimization (SEO) so potential clients can find your site easily. With our help, you'll be showing off your firm's best side online in no time.
Webinar Contents:
Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)
Build a Website for Your Landscape Architecture Company
- Intro/TOC
- What Makes a Good Website?
- Logo, Branding & High-Quality Images
- Squarespace vs. Wordpress
-
Squarespace
- Templates & Themes
- Customizations
- Pages
- Fresh Content – Quality Photos
- Promote Your Website!
0:00 – 4:44: Intro/TOC
4:45 – 8:34: What Makes a Good Website?
Good websites have the following:
- Quality content
- Professional-looking design
-
High-quality images
- High-resolution images
-
Obvious navigation for easy-to-find information
- Clear calls to action
- Mobile optimized
- Search engine–friendly
Fortunately, Squarespace and Wordpress templates already meet most of these requirements: Search engine–friendly, mobile optimized, professional-looking design.
Examples of bad websites (6:37)
Example of a great website (EDSA) (7:44)
8:35 – 14:59: Logo, Branding & High-Quality Images
Logo & branding (8:35)
Clean, professional logo
Color scheme
Font consistency
High-quality images
- Land F/X Photography Webinars:
Logos (9:39)
Examples of bad logos (9:39):
- Papyrus font
- Hand-drawn
- Busy/cluttered
Examples of good logos (10:42):
- Clean
- Iconic
- Simple
- Often representative
Fonts & colors (12:14):
-
Rules of thumb:
- Use 1 to 3 fonts in your designs and website.
- Use a consistent color palette.
Font resources:
Color resources:
Example fictional company identity (13:30)
Photos (14:20)
High-quality photos really do matter.
- Check out our photo contest for examples of high-end photography from our clients.
Resources: Land F/X Webinars
15:00 – 17:12: Squarespace vs. Wordpress
Wordpress (15:20)
- Relatively easy
- Ubiquitous: 12% of all websites
-
More flexible
- More options, plugins
-
Can be tricky
- Updates, server maintenance, etc.
- Entry-level business package: $25/month (as of 2018)
- Includes domain name
Squarespace (16:16)
- -Extremely easy to use
- -Great support
- -Great documentation
- -Low learning curve
-
-Hassle free
- No updates, server maintenance, etc.
- Entry-level package: $30/month (as of 2018)
- Includes domain name
17:13 – 40:17: Squarespace
Templates & Themes (17:43)
Creating a site (18:15)
Organization & page structure (19:05)
- Home page
-
About page
- About your company
- Photos of employees
- Bio
- Contact page
- News or blog
- Testimonials
-
Projects/gallery
- Showcase your work
Adding a logo & project photos (21:10)
Customizations (21:56)
Even though the themes/templates are fantastic, you’ll want to customize yours so it stands out. Just a few changes will help:
- Fonts
- Colors
- Non-template content blocks
Examples of quick customizations using the style editor (23:00):
- Colors (23:45)
- Fonts (24:35)
How to apply a color palette to a site (24:45)
Example of a finished site (27:50)
Pages (30:45)
Examples of project photos added to a site (30:45)
Example of an About page (32:18)
Example of a Contact page (32:58)
Example of a Testimonials page (33:25)
Question: Can you provide a resource for royalty-free landscape photos and videos? (34:40)
Answer: One good royalty-free resource is pexels.com, which is where we sourced the video footage on our example site.
Creating a page banner with video underlay in Squarespace (36:18)
Editing a page and changing text, photos, filters, etc. (37:25)
Question: Does Squarespace take care of hosting and domain names? (38:40)
Answer: Yes, Squarespace will host your site and will either help you procure a domain name or use an existing domain name if you already have one registered. Your URL will show in the URL bar, and the site won’t have any Squarespace branding on it.
40:18 – 45:24: Fresh Content – Quality Photos
High-quality professional photos make a huge difference. (40:18)
- Learn how to take them yourself.
-
Land F/X photo webinars:
- Landscape Architecture Photography: Composition, Light, and People
- Intro to Landscape Architecture Photography Pt. 1
Don’t forget to enter our Land F/X Photo Contest! (41:50)
Regularly updated content (44:04)
- Don’t let your site become “stale.”
- Add photos on a regular basis.
-
Consider a blog or news section.
- But only if you keep it updated regularly!
45:25 – end: Promote Your Website!
Search engine optimization (SEO) (45:33)
-
Fortunately, Squarespace does all the heavy lifting for you regarding:
- Metadata
- Optimized Html
- Etc.
Reciprocal linking (46:03)
- Find out whether any of your clients, especially larger clients, will link to your website in return for you showcasing them on your website.
Google Search Console (47:09)
Sign up and register your site.
More Web promo basics (47:25)
Social media (47:25)
- Link to your website from your Facebook, LinkedIn, Houzz, Instagram, etc.
Google Local Business (47:50)
- Fill out your profile at google.com/business
Put your URL on all your promotional materials (48:10):
- Business cards, print ads, etc.
Additional resources mentioned in webinar:
Logo creation:
Color palette generators:
Font resources
fontsquirrel.com
fonts.google.com
Land F/X Photography Webinars:
Intro to landscape design photogaphy pt 1.
Landscape architecture photography
Great website examples:
SEO Resources:
google.com/business
google.com/webmasters
analytics.google.com