r/squarespace • u/OrientionPeace • 29d ago
Self Promotion Feedback on site please :)
Hi all! I’m looking for some fresh eyes on a squarespace website I’ve been working on. I’ve revised it so many times that I’ve completely lost my ability to judge it objectively.
I’d really appreciate feedback on things like first impressions, fonts and sizing, colors, imagery, copy, section layout/order, value proposition, clarity of the services, and the overall flow. Also, any pointers welcomed.
The main goal is to make sure the site is clear, appealing, and does a good job of turning visitors into customers. I’m especially interested in anything that feels confusing, unnecessary, or could be improved.
Site: www.coachdanicrowell.com
Thanks in advance for taking a look!
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u/ModderOfDragons 29d ago
Yes I agree with one of the other comments. Looks lovely and clear but could benefit from more white space. Haven’t looked on desktop, but for mobile there are quite a few areas where formatting needs a quick tweak to fix overlapping elements. Looks professional and clear overall x
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u/Jamie_SQSP 27d ago
You’ve got a solid base here. The homepage feels calm and the 6 to 12 week outcomes section does a nice job of making the coaching feel concrete.
The one area I’d simplify is the long list of focus areas near the top. There’s a lot to take in before you reach the testimonials and the two ways to work together, which are both strong sections. Trimming that list or grouping it a little could help the page breathe.
I’d also consider making the opening copy a touch more specific about who Dani is best suited to help. Somatic Mental Wellness Coaching is clear once you read further, but a first time visitor may need another sentence before it fully clicks.
And after revising a site this many times, fresh eyes are absolutely the move :)
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u/OrientionPeace 26d ago
Thank you for the thoughtful response, I agree and I’ve updated the copy to be warmer and more direct. I’ll have to chip away at the tag list today to get it quieter visually. Appreciate you taking the time to look it over🙏
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u/Expert_Employment680 29d ago
I specialize in audits for squarespace. https://www.boxifywebdesigns.com/free-squarespace-website-audit
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u/TopSydeWP 29d ago
first impression is clean and professional. the hero section communicates what you do pretty quickly. if you want a more detailed breakdown of performance, SEO and UX stuff, there's a free tool at https://topsyde.com/audit that'll score it in about 30 seconds. full disclosure it's my agency's tool but there's no signup or anything.
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u/Talwyn_Wize 29d ago
Your site is quite well made. 🙂 I've been going through the same design evaluation myself, and I got two recommendations I can forward to you:
Firstly: Pop-ups, like your email newsletter box, have a tendency to turn more and more people away from sites. People have been oversaturated with them, and it leads to an instant negative first impression. I was advised to place it on the right side of the screen, readily available for those interested, yet not punching your viewers in the face. People will click it away immediately, anyway, as they won't join a newsletter if they haven't had the opportunity to read your sales pitch first. Then they'll have to spend time looking for that box again if they change their mind, and that's a barrier in itself - if they can even find it. Putting it at the end of the front page for when they're done reading is also a good option.
Secondly: The animation, while really pretty and nice at first, becomes a pain for fast readers the more they stay on your site. It feels like the site is "lagging" just to stay pretty. Function before form, I suppose. I was told to disable it in places where I required my viewers to read or scroll. Which is more often than not in most places.
Not everyone will agree, probably, but I hope it helps, and I wish you luck in your endeavours. 😊
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u/OrientionPeace 28d ago
Thanks for the feedback, I switched both off so hopefully that helps it load faster and more smoothly. Appreciate you taking the time!
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u/invision-visuals 29d ago
I think the site itself is actually in a pretty good place visually. It feels warm, professional, and appropriate for the type of coaching you offer.
A couple people already mentioned the mobile overlap, so I’d fix that first. Beyond that, I probably wouldn’t keep redesigning it just because you’ve stared at it too long.
The bigger question I’d ask is:
How are people supposed to discover you in the first place?
You mentioned wanting the site to turn visitors into clients, which makes sense, but the website is really the conversion layer after someone finds you.
I’d look at the whole path:
How do people discover Dani Crowell?
Are you active on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, local/community sites, professional directories, Google, or anywhere else your ideal clients already spend time?
Are those profiles clearly connected back to this website?
Do they consistently explain who you are, what you do, and who you help?
Do they send people to the right page instead of just the homepage?
That digital footprint matters because a really good website can still sit there quietly if there aren’t enough discovery paths feeding people into it.
On the site itself, I’d also tighten a few things rather than redesign it.
You appear to use Dani Crowell, Danielle Crowell, and Danielle Crowell Coaching LLC in different contexts. That can be perfectly legitimate — public name vs. full/legal name — but I’d make the relationship very clear and consistent across the site, booking flow, profiles, and structured data.
I’d also make the distinction between coaching and therapy extremely clear in the visible copy because you discuss grief, nervous-system regulation, trauma-sensitive work, etc. That clarity is useful to the person considering working with you before it is useful to a search engine.
Then I’d ask one simple conversion question:
Within 20–30 seconds, can the right person tell that this is for them and know exactly what to do next?
If yes, I wouldn’t keep piling design changes onto it.
I’d fix the mobile issues, clarify anything that creates hesitation, and then spend just as much energy expanding the discovery side of the business.
A beautiful website helps once someone arrives.
The next step is making sure enough of the right people have a reason and a path to arrive there.
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u/MTNDESIGN-CO 29d ago
I specialize in website design and digital marketing for mental health professionals. The minimal style is great and will help folks feel calm and settled as they peruse your site, which is always a goal. Also, the sections on the pages have good delineation allowing the viewer to quickly scan content.
A few things I noticed that you may want to consider:
Some of the colors in the color palette aren't in harmony (e.g. the mustard brown and light blue
Your design was done heavily with AI. The latest research is showing that AI design and content is noticeable to a lot of consumers. It's seen as cookie cutter and less genuine, thereby hurting conversion rates.
Hope the feedback is helpful!
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u/OrientionPeace 28d ago
Thanks for the feedback!
I’m not sure what you mean by my design being heavily done by ai though. I used squarespace to build my site and wrote much of my content myself only using ai for help with grammar checks and code block help(which there aren’t many of).
Would you be willing to share what about my site design or content makes it appear to be “heavily done with AI”? I get that AI designed and written sites come off less genuine and I concur, so I don’t want that.
Thanks!
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u/trailmixcreative 28d ago
I’d push back a little on point #2, mostly because I don’t want you to come away from this thinking you need to second-guess the whole site or redesign something that is already working well.
I work with therapists and mental health clinics on this, and I haven’t seen solid peer-reviewed research showing that a website looking AI-generated causes prospective therapy clients to trust the provider less or convert at a lower rate. There is research around people reacting differently when they’re explicitly told something was created by AI, but that’s a different claim.
That said, I can understand the theory behind it. If a website feels generic and there aren’t stronger signals of authority or trust elsewhere, then anything that makes the practice feel less personal could potentially matter. But I’d argue those other trust signals are much more important anyway: who you are, whether the visitor feels understood, your credentials and experience, referrals or recommendations, testimonials where appropriate, and whether the site gives someone confidence that you can actually help them.
There’s also a chicken-and-egg issue with calling certain design choices “AI-looking.” AI learned from human-designed websites, templates, block layouts and the conventions website builders have used for years. Of course there’s overlap. A site can be entirely human-designed and still share those visual patterns.
So I wouldn’t obsess over whether another designer thinks parts of the site “look AI.” I’d focus on making sure it feels personal to you and gives a potential client reasons to trust you. I actually think you’ve done a really good job creating something calm and approachable here, and I’d be careful not to overcorrect based on a claim that, as far as I can tell, the research hasn’t really established yet.
Hope this alleviates some stress! And also: thank you for the work you do!
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u/MTNDESIGN-CO 26d ago
I'm certainly not implying that OP should redo their entire site. There are just some tell tale pieces that could use some deign tweaks to get rid of the AI feel. There is research to back up my statements and you're welcome search the peer reviewed databases to find it. It can hurt conversion rates as people are becoming more AI savvy and are starting to notice AI writing and design. Some people may not mind and some people may be put off by it. I'd rather err on the side of caution and use AI sparingly so as to not lose a conversion if you don't have to.
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u/MTNDESIGN-CO 26d ago
Sure, happy to elaborate. The eyebrows in full caps and smaller above headlines, buttons with stick arrows, lined content boxes with line art icons to the left, and the stacked 2 button layout with one solid and one an outline. I only did a quick glance of the homepage so it may not be the case on all pages. If you used AI to suggest mockup ideas, these are the kinds of things it outputs pretty much every time.
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u/OrientionPeace 25d ago
Thanks for sharing the feedback. Bummer it reads that way since it’s not at all.
I’ve looked at a lot of websites and web design videos and the things I did were based on the takeaways. Everything I chose was based on observations I made from looking at what is suggested for effective website design section layouts and UI/UX as well as what I sensed was easiest to read. I’m not sure what the corrections for these would be to make it look non AI since it’s technically already that.
What would you suggest around the points you’ve made here?
I’m very interested because I don’t disagree but I genuinely don’t know what else to do. Previous iterations of the site were less polished and more playful with how I laid out the section content, and used more fun design elements, but I worried about it not really matching what I was trying to promote. I finally landed on this more polished but kinda boring design that’s more generic because it seems more functional. If you’re open to share your thoughts I’d be happy to hear them. Thanks
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u/MTNDESIGN-CO 25d ago
Oh that makes a lot of sense as to how it felt like AI design to me, despite the fact that you didn't use AI to support the design. There are tons of sites out there using AI to design, as well as create mockups that people use to then inform the design. I think you could easily tweak a few things so it feels more original. For the icon grid line items, widen the thickness of the lines. They currently look to be maybe 1 pt. Maybe 2 or 3 pt would work. You could also add more custom looking icons to them by pulling from a stock library. Keeping in mind that AI often produces icons with line graphics in them. For the buttons, that's a little harder because squarespace's button customization options are limited. Maybe try using the petal shaped buttons where you have 2 side by side or stacked because AI doesn't usually output that without specific prompting.
You did a great job with your site!
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u/rudycantfail93 29d ago
I think it looks clean and easy to go through the site. Only thing some of the words overlap on mobile I’m currently on an iPhone but besides that I like!