Your website doesn’t need another designer. It needs someone who can see what’s not working.
FREELANCE SQUARESPACE DESIGNER + WEBSITE STRATEGIST
I’m Marta — a freelance Squarespace web designer and website strategist helping established service businesses turn unclear positioning, scattered ideas and underperforming websites into something people understand, trust and act on.
Strategy, positioning, SEO and design — handled by one person from start to finish.
I’m probably not the Squarespace web designer you’re looking for if you already know exactly what you need.
If you've got the positioning figured out, the messaging nailed, the customer journey mapped and the SEO strategy sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere, there are plenty of talented designers who can make it look good.
That's rarely why people come to me.
They come to me with questions like:
Why isn't this website generating better inquiries?
Why does my business look cheaper online than it is in real life?
What should we actually be ranking for?
Why are competitors who aren't better than us getting the business?
What does a prospective client need to see before they're ready to say yes?
That's the part I love.
I investigate the business first.
Then I design the website.
Website strategy
before web design.
As a freelance Squarespace web designer and website strategist, I work differently from designers who start with layouts.
Most website projects begin with: What colors do you like?
Mine tend to begin with: Why should someone choose you?
Before I start designing, I look at your positioning, competitors, search landscape, customer decision process and existing website data.
Sometimes that means we discover the website needs a better structure… Sometimes the offer needs repositioning… Sometimes there's a surprisingly valuable Google search nobody has noticed…
And occasionally we discover the thing everyone assumed was the problem… isn't the problem at all.
That's website strategy.
And it's why my websites aren't simply prettier versions of what you already had.
What does a website
strategist actually do?
A website strategist figures out what a website needs to accomplish before deciding what it should look like.
For my clients, that can include:
positioning and competitor research
customer decision psychology
keyword and search-intent research
website architecture
messaging hierarchy
conversion paths
SEO strategy
content opportunities
design direction
Then, because I'm also a Squarespace designer, I don't hand you a 47-page strategy deck and disappear.
I build the thing.
One strategist. One designer. One person who knows your project.
You don't need an agency to build a serious website.
And you shouldn't have to explain your business to an account manager, who explains it to a strategist, who briefs a copywriter, who briefs a designer.
When you hire me, you work with me. I'm the person researching your market. I'm the person figuring out the strategy. I'm the person thinking about your Google rankings at 11 PM because I found something interesting.
And I'm the person designing and building the site.
No junior handoff.
No telephone game.
No pretending I have a 14-person studio.
Just one very experienced, slightly obsessive person who knows exactly why every part of your website is there.
The websites are pretty. The thinking is the point.
A good-looking website is the baseline. What matters is whether it makes the right people understand what you do, see why you’re different and feel confident choosing you. That’s why I don’t start with design. I start by figuring out the business.
I look at your positioning, your competitors, what people are actually searching for, what they need to know before they buy — and where your current website is making that decision harder than it needs to be.
Then I turn that thinking into a website.
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![Custom Squarespace website design for roa Design, a luxury interior design studio working across London, Athens and Europe]()
roa.design
Brand strategy + Squarespace website for an interior designer
A talented interior designer doing high-value work across London, Athens and Europe needed a brand and website that reflected the level of projects she wanted to attract. We clarified the positioning, restructured her services around how clients actually search and buy, built an SEO strategy around her most valuable offers, and created an editorial Squarespace website designed to make the business feel every bit as established as the work.
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![Custom Squarespace website for Hayward Rentals, a vacation rental and property management company in Hayward, Wisconsin]()
Hayward Rentals
Website strategy + Squarespace design for a vacation rental company
This wasn’t simply a redesign. The website needed to help guests find the right property, compete in search and move people from browsing to booking — while working around an external property-management system. I rebuilt the site architecture, search strategy and booking journey around how guests actually choose a vacation rental.
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![Brand and Squarespace website design for The Recordmaker’s Mind, a music coaching and consulting business]()
The Record Maker's Mind
Brand strategy + website for a music coach & consultant
Noel had spent decades in the music industry — as a Columbia Records recording artist, producer and business manager — but his website wasn’t communicating the value of that experience. We turned it into The Recordmaker’s Mind: a distinctive brand for his coaching and consulting work with musicians, producers and other music professionals. The strategy transformed a long, varied career into a clear position built around something his competitors couldn’t replicate: the way Noel understands the people who make records.
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![Custom Squarespace website for psychotherapist Richard Brouillette, specializing in trauma, EMDR and IFS therapy]()
Richard Brouillette
Brand strategy + Squarespace website for a psychotherapist
Richard’s expertise was never the problem. The challenge was making decades of clinical experience — spanning trauma, EMDR, IFS and complex PTSD — feel coherent rather than clinical or overwhelming. We built the website around the people he understands exceptionally well: academics, writers, artists and thoughtful people who have already done a lot of work on themselves. The result is a position that communicates both the depth of Richard’s expertise and the particular kind of client who is likely to feel understood by him.
What my clients are saying
Looking to hire a freelance Squarespace designer? The first question is how much of the thinking has already been done.
Already have the strategy, copy and structure figured out and simply need an experienced Squarespace designer to bring it together? My Squarespace template customization service may be exactly what you need.
Still figuring out your positioning, messaging, SEO, site structure — or why your current website isn't working as well as it should? That's where my custom Squarespace website design and strategy projects come in.
Either way, you work directly with me from start to finish.
Not sure? Tell me what's going on →
Squarespace Designer FAQs
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A Squarespace designer plans, designs and builds websites using Squarespace. But knowing how to use Squarespace is only part of the job.
My projects combine website strategy, positioning, SEO, user experience and custom Squarespace design. The goal isn't simply to give you a better-looking website. It's to build one that makes your business easier to understand, easier to find and easier to choose.
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A website strategist figures out what your website needs to do before deciding what it should look like.
That means looking at your business, positioning, competitors, customers, search demand and the decisions people make before they hire or buy from you. From there, I work out the structure, messaging hierarchy, SEO opportunities and customer journey the website needs to support.
Then I design it.
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A web designer typically focuses on how a website looks and functions. A website strategist looks at the bigger question: how should this website help the business grow?
I do both. You don't get a strategy document that then has to be interpreted by somebody else. The research and strategy directly inform the Squarespace website I design and build for you.
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The biggest difference is that you work directly with the person doing the work.
There's no account manager passing your brief to a strategist, who passes it to a designer, who passes it to a developer. I research your market, develop the strategy, design the website and build it myself.
For businesses that want senior-level thinking without the layers of an agency, that can be a very good fit.
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Yes. I'm based in Europe and work with clients internationally, including businesses in the US, UK and Europe. The entire website strategy and design process can be handled remotely.
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Yes. SEO is built into my website strategy rather than treated as something we sprinkle on at the end.
Depending on the project, that can include keyword and competitor research, search intent, website architecture, page targeting, on-page SEO, metadata, internal linking, technical setup and identifying opportunities for future content.
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I'm a Squarespace Circle Gold Partner and have worked with Squarespace extensively across custom websites, redesigns, SEO and more complex builds.
But Squarespace expertise isn't really the reason clients hire me. The platform is the tool. Figuring out what the website needs to do for your business comes first.
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My custom Squarespace website projects start at $4,000 USD.
These aren't design-only builds. Projects combine website strategy, positioning, SEO and custom Squarespace design, so they're best suited to established businesses that need more than a prettier version of their current website.
If you already have a strong website strategy and simply need help adapting or customizing an existing Squarespace site, I also offer Squarespace template customization from $1,800 USD.
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Yes. In fact, you don't necessarily need to start over.
If you're already on Squarespace, I'll look at what is and isn't working before deciding what should change. That might mean restructuring the site, repositioning the offer, improving SEO and messaging, redesigning the visual system — or a combination of all four.
The redesign follows the diagnosis, not the other way around.
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Custom website projects are quoted according to scope, strategy and complexity. Projects currently start at $4,000.