Why static
Your website should work harder than your platform does.
Squarespace and WordPress are fine tools. But they optimise for the person building the site — not the people finding it, using it, or paying for it. Here's what's actually different when I build your website from scratch.
At a glance
The differences that matter.
My builds
Hand-built static sites
Typical platforms
Squarespace, WordPress, Wix
Page load time
Under 1 second
3–8 seconds
Google PageSpeed score
100 / 100 / 100 / 100
50–80 average
Schema markup (JSON-LD)
Built in, every page
Requires plugins or manual code
AI readability (llms.txt)
Included
Not available
Hosting cost
$0–$5 / month
$20–$50 / month
Security vulnerabilities
No attack surface
Regular patching required
JavaScript shipped
Near zero
500KB–2MB typical
CMS / drag-and-drop editor
No
Yes
Self-service daily updates
Requires a developer
Built in
01 — Speed
Your visitors feel the difference before they see it.
When someone clicks a link to your website, a Squarespace or WordPress site has work to do. The server wakes up, queries a database, assembles the page from templates, runs PHP or JavaScript, and finally sends back the result. That takes time — usually 3 to 8 seconds on mobile.
A static site has already done that work. The page is pre-built and sitting on a CDN edge server near your visitor. They click, the page appears. Under a second. No spinner, no blank screen, no content jumping around as scripts load in.
53% of mobile visitors leave if a page takes more than three seconds. That's not a design problem — it's a platform problem. The fastest template on Squarespace will never match a purpose-built static site, because the bottleneck isn't the design. It's the architecture.
Static site
~0.4s
Squarespace
~4.2s
WordPress
~5.8s
Wix
~6.5s
Average mobile load times. Source: web.dev, HTTP Archive 2024.
02 — Findability
A website nobody finds is a website nobody uses.
Squarespace and WordPress will generate a sitemap and let you set a meta description. That's the basics. But the basics aren't enough anymore — not when Google is choosing between your site and a hundred others, and not when AI assistants are deciding which businesses to recommend.
Every site I build includes JSON-LD structured data — schema markup that tells Google exactly what your business is, where you're located, what you offer, and how to display you in rich results. Not a plugin that outputs generic boilerplate. Hand-written schema that matches your actual business.
I also include llms.txt — a machine-readable summary of your business for AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Most businesses don't have this. The ones that do are the ones these systems can confidently recommend. This is Generative Engine Optimisation, and it's the equivalent of claiming your Google Maps listing in 2009.
JSON-LD structured data
Hand-written schema markup that tells search engines exactly what your business does — not generic plugin output.
llms.txt for AI assistants
A machine-readable file that helps ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini understand and recommend your business.
Semantic HTML throughout
Proper heading hierarchy, landmark regions, and meaningful markup that crawlers and screen readers both understand.
Open Graph and social cards
Every page has correct titles, descriptions, and images for sharing on social media and messaging apps.
Auto-generated sitemaps
XML sitemaps built at deploy time, not by a plugin that might break on the next update.
Clean URL structure
Human-readable URLs without query strings, session IDs, or platform artifacts like /p/ or /?page_id=.
03 — Experience
A website that feels like it was made for your visitors.
Squarespace sites look polished in the builder. But load one on a phone over mobile data and the experience changes. Fonts swap in late. Images load out of order. The layout shifts as third-party scripts initialise. The page is technically there, but it doesn't feel solid.
A static site renders complete on first paint. What your visitor sees in the first frame is what they get. No content jumping. No spinner where a hero image should be. No cookie consent banner covering half the screen before they've seen a word of your content. The experience is buttery — instant, smooth, and respectful of their time.
This matters more than most people think. The feel of a website shapes trust. A page that loads cleanly and scrolls smoothly signals that this business pays attention to detail. A page that stutters and shifts signals the opposite — even if the content is identical.
No layout shift
Pages render complete. No content jumping as fonts, ads, or scripts arrive late.
No unnecessary JavaScript
Platform sites ship 500KB–2MB of JavaScript. Static sites ship near zero. The difference is visceral.
No cookie banners or pop-ups
No tracking scripts means no consent banners. Your content is the first thing visitors see, not a legal notice.
Works on any connection
Tiny page weights mean your site loads fast on 3G, regional mobile, or a congested café Wi-Fi.
Accessibility built in
Keyboard navigation, screen reader support, proper focus states — built from the start, not retrofitted.
04 — Your business
A website that serves the owner, not the platform.
Squarespace and WordPress are designed to keep you inside their ecosystem. Your design, your content, your SEO settings — all locked behind their interface and their subscription. Stop paying, and your website disappears. Want to move? Good luck exporting a Squarespace site into anything usable.
A static site is just files. You own them. Host them anywhere — Cloudflare, Netlify, Vercel, a USB stick. There's no subscription keeping the lights on, no vendor holding your content hostage, no platform deciding to raise prices or sunset a feature you depend on.
And there's nothing to hack. No admin login, no plugin vulnerabilities, no database to breach. WordPress powers 40% of the web and accounts for 90% of hacked CMS sites. A static site has no attack surface at all. It's just HTML on a CDN.
You own everything
Your website is files on your computer. No platform lock-in, no export headaches, no subscription required to keep it live.
Nothing to hack
No database, no admin panel, no plugins. Static sites have zero attack surface — nothing to exploit.
$0 hosting is real
Cloudflare Pages and Netlify host static sites free. Your hosting bill drops from $50/month to nothing.
No maintenance treadmill
No WordPress updates, no plugin conflicts, no PHP upgrades breaking your site at midnight.
Scales without thinking
A viral post or seasonal spike doesn't crash your server or trigger overage charges. Static files just work.
Clean handover
If you ever move on, the next developer gets clean, documented code — not a tangled WordPress theme with 30 plugins.
05 — The honest tradeoff
You can't drag and drop. And that's fine.
A static website doesn't come with a visual editor. You won't log in and rearrange blocks or publish a blog post from your phone. If you need a text change, a developer makes it. That's a real tradeoff, and it's worth being honest about.
But here's the thing — most businesses don't update their website every day. Or every week. The average small business website gets meaningfully updated a few times a year: new photos, a service change, a seasonal adjustment. For that cadence, having a developer make the change is faster and produces a better result than fighting a page builder.
And when you do need frequent content — a blog, a product feed, event listings — a headless CMS can be connected to a static site, giving you an editing interface without the performance penalty.
Great for
- — Business websites
- — Portfolios
- — Landing pages
- — Service businesses
- — Directories
- — Restaurants and venues
Good with a headless CMS
- — Blogs
- — Product catalogues
- — Event listings
- — Team/staff pages
- — News and updates
Not the right fit
- — Social networks
- — Real-time dashboards
- — User-generated content
- — Complex web applications
- — Sites needing daily owner edits
06 — The scorecard
Numbers don't lie.
Google PageSpeed Insights measures four things that directly affect your search ranking and your visitors' experience. Here's what platforms typically score versus what I build to.
Performance
How fast the page loads and becomes interactive
My builds
Sqsp
WP
Accessibility
How usable the site is for people with disabilities
My builds
Sqsp
WP
Best Practices
Security, modern standards, and error-free code
My builds
Sqsp
WP
SEO
How well search engines can find and index content
My builds
Sqsp
WP
Platform scores are averages from HTTP Archive and CrUX data, 2024. Individual sites vary.
A website that works for everyone.
Fast for your customers. Cheap to run for your business. Perfectly readable by Google and AI. That's what a static website does.