Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you’ve wanted to know about brand strategy, web design, and working with me — including the questions you didn't know to ask.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
-
The practical answer: because the handoff between specialists is where things go wrong. When strategy, copy, and design are made by different people in different phases, something almost always gets lost — even when all three are excellent at their jobs. Nobody is holding the whole picture.
The honest answer: because I'm wired for the whole. My natural mode is big-picture thinking — connecting dots, synthesizing disparate pieces into something coherent, seeing how the strategy should shape the copy and how the copy should shape the design. When I have to hand off part of the vision to someone else, something gets lost that I can't get back. Working on the whole project from beginning to end isn't just more practical. It's how I do my best work.
My specialty is not in any one element, but in the synthesis itself. I’m a specialist at offering this particular process with clients specifically like you. -
The diagnostic is 45 minutes. The Clarity Session is 90 minutes plus a follow-up document. [The Story + The Style] typically takes six to ten weeks from kickoff to launch, depending on scope, how quickly feedback comes in, and whether photography needs to be arranged. I'll give you a specific timeline in your project agreement.
-
It depends on what you have and what you need.
If you have an existing Squarespace site that just needs updating, that's often possible without starting from scratch.
If your current site is on a different platform, or if the underlying look or story needs rethinking before the design can be addressed, we'd likely start fresh. The diagnostic is the right place to figure out which situation applies. -
Yes! That's exactly the point. When you purchase both “Clarify & Compose” and “Craft & Convey” you get a fully done-for-you engagement: strategy, copy, brand identity, and a complete Squarespace build. You show up, do the thinking with me, and review the work. I handle everything else.
-
Yes. The Clarity Session is a standalone brand strategy engagement — you leave with a positioning statement, a Blueprint of what makes you singular, and the tools to express it. If you want to take that and work with a different designer, or write your own copy, or hand it to ChatGPT — that's completely fine. The Clarity Session is designed to be useful on its own.
-
My primary clients are creatives, coaches, consultants, and therapists. I understand the particular challenge of translating relational, experiential work that offers often intangible, ephemeral, or abstract results into language and a presence that does it justice.
Because of my own personal training and life experience, I also very often know the industry jargon, I understand the ethical concerns around how certain practitioners present themselves, and I know what their clients are looking for when they land on a website. -
Yes, in a few ways. I teach every client how to manage and update their own Squarespace site — it's designed to be easy, and you won't need me for routine updates. For larger changes, ongoing copy work, or future projects, I'm available to past clients on a priority basis. We can discuss what makes sense for your situation after launch.
Working with me:
The Basics:
-
A good website does three things well: it clearly communicates who you are, what you do, and who it's for; it earns trust quickly; and it makes it easy for the right person to take the next step. Design matters — but only insofar as it supports those three things. A site that looks beautiful but doesn't convert isn't a good website. Neither is one that explains everything but leaves the visitor unsure what to do next. The best websites feel like a natural extension of the person or practice behind them. They are credible, specific, and easy to navigate.
-
A refresh updates the look and feel of what you already have — new template, updated copy, better photos. It assumes your core story and positioning are sound. A rebrand starts from scratch: it revisits who you are, what you do, who you serve, and how you talk about it — and then builds the visual and verbal identity from there. Most of my clients need something in between: their story has evolved and needs articulating, but the underlying practice is solid. The diagnostic helps figure out which applies to you.
-
It depends on what you're starting with. If you have a clear, current story and just need someone to build a site around it — a designer might be all you need. But if you're not sure how to talk about your work, if your copy sounds like everyone else, or if every version of your elevator pitch feels slightly off — the strategy has to come first. A designer without a strategy is just making guesses look polished. The diagnostic will tell you which situation you're actually in
-
This space has a lot of jargon — some of it useful, some of it invented to sound impressive. I've put together a brand language glossary that defines the most commonly used (and misused) terms in plain English. Download it here →
The Investment:
-
The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends that practices under $5M invest 7–8% of annual revenue in marketing. That’s roughly $10,000–$12,000 a year for a practice billing $150K.
A well-built brand and website is a one-time investment that works for years, not a recurring expense.
Most of my clients find that the investment pays for itself within the first few months, either through new clients who found them online, or through the confidence to charge what their work is actually worth. -
Here's a picture of what quality work actually costs in 2026, based on current market data, regardless of who you hire.
Brand strategy and messaging typically runs $2,500–$5,000 with a freelance specialist, and $5,000–$20,000 with a boutique agency.
Website copywriting from an experienced freelancer runs $750–$3,000 per page or $5,000–$15,000 for a complete site content package.
A simple brand identity (logo, color palette, typography) adds another $500–$5,000.
A professional Squarespace design build runs $2,500–$8,000 with a freelancer.
If you're purchasing each service separately, you're realistically looking at $11,000–$36,000 — plus the time and energy of briefing multiple people and hoping they produce something coherent together.
On the lower end of the market, you'll find designers charging $1,500–$3,000 for a site build — but that typically means template customization without strategy, copy, or brand identity. You get something that looks okay but doesn't do the work it needs to do.
The honest answer: a brand and website that actually works is a $5,000–$15,000 investment when done well.
I know this is a big investment—one that I want you to feel good about making. That’s why you’ll start with the diagnostic to figure out exactly what you need and how to make the most of whatever budget you have before you commit to anything. -
No hidden costs from me. My project agreements are itemized and clear. The main additional costs to budget for are your Squarespace subscription (roughly $200–$300 per year on an annual plan), a custom domain if you don't already have one (around $20 per year), and professional photography if needed. I'll flag anything else relevant to your specific project before you commit.
-
No. I build semi-custom Squarespace sites using premium templates that I customize extensively to fit your brand.
This is a deliberate choice, not a limitation. Squarespace is genuinely excellent for service-based practitioners: it's professional, mobile-responsive, easy to manage after launch, and doesn't require a developer to maintain.
A fully custom build can cost $15,000–$30,000 and often isn't necessary for my clients. Semi-custom gets you 95% of the result for a fraction of the cost and timeline.
Tech & Squarespace Stuff:
-
Every site I build includes foundational SEO setup: page titles, meta descriptions, alt text on images, clean URL structure, and copy written with search intent in mind. I also write with AIO (AI search optimization) in mind — which means structuring content so that AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews can accurately summarize and cite your work. Organic search takes time to build — typically six to twelve months before you see meaningful traffic — but a well-built site compounds over time. The foundation matters.
-
They have different jobs. Social media is for discovery and staying top of mind — it keeps you visible to people who already know you exist. Your website is for conversion — it's where someone goes when they're seriously considering working with you. A practitioner who gets most of her clients through referrals doesn't need a huge following. She needs a website that closes the deal when a warm lead lands on it. The two should be consistent in voice and visual identity, but they don't need to be equally active to be effective.
-
Great question. For service-based practitioners, Squarespace is almost always the right choice. It's well-designed out of the box, consistently mobile-responsive, easy to manage without technical knowledge, and includes hosting, security, and updates in one subscription. WordPress gives you more flexibility but requires ongoing maintenance and technical management most solopreneurs don't want. Wix is more accessible but has limitations at a professional level. Unless you have very specific technical requirements, Squarespace gets the job done beautifully.
-
Yes, that’s one of the beauties of choosing Squarespace, and it’s a core part of what I deliver.
Every project includes a how-to Loom video and a live walkthrough of your site so you know how to make updates, add content, and keep things current without needing to call me.
Squarespace is genuinely easy to manage, and you shouldn't have to depend on anyone else for routine updates to your own site. -
Yes. Every site I build is reviewed and optimized for mobile before launch. Squarespace handles responsive design natively, and I make sure every page looks and functions as well on a phone as it does on a desktop, which matters, since more than half of web traffic now comes from mobile devices.
-
Absolutely. Blogging is built in and well-developed. You can have multiple contributors, schedule posts in advance, organize them with categories and tags, and even import existing posts from WordPress or Blogger. It's a solid foundation for ongoing content and SEO.
-
Yes. You can sell physical products, digital downloads, services, and memberships directly through your site. For a practitioner selling a course, an ebook, or a handful of physical items alongside your core services, Squarespace handles it well. It's not built for high-volume retail, but that's rarely what my clients need.
-
Yes. Squarespace's native integration with Acuity Scheduling lets clients book and pay for appointments, classes, or consultations directly from your site, which is especially useful for coaches and therapists. It runs as an add-on rather than something fully built into your core plan, with its own separate subscription.
-
Yes. Squarespace supports Stripe, PayPal, and Square as payment gateways, so you can collect payment for products, services, or bookings directly on your site without sending people elsewhere to check out.
-
You can buy a domain anywhere and connect it to your Squarespace site. They don't have to come from the same place. My strongest recommendation, and the simplest option, is buying it directly through Squarespace: one place to manage everything, no hidden fees, and seamless integration with your site. It runs about $20 a year for a standard .com after the first free year. If saving a few dollars a year matters more to you than convenience, registrars like Cloudflare or Spaceship offer true at-cost pricing closer to $10 a year — but you'll be managing your domain and your site in two separate places, which adds a small amount of complexity. For most of my clients, the convenience of one login and one bill is worth the few extra dollars a year.
-
A domain provider (or registrar) sells and manages your web address the "yourname.com" part. A web platform (or host) like Squarespace is where your actual site lives and gets built. They're two different things that work together: your domain points visitors to wherever your site is hosted. You can buy your domain from one company and host your site on another. They just need to be connected through your domain's settings.
Think of your domain as a plot of land you own, and your website as the house you build on it. Sometimes you rent the land from one company and build with another, and sometimes, like with Squarespace, the same company sells you both.
Still have questions?
I’m happy to chat.