If you’re an independent escort looking to create a website to promote your services but don’t have much experience with technology, picking the right platform can feel overwhelming.
You’ve likely heard of WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix but how are you supposed to know which platform is best for you?
In this atricle I will break down the pros and cons of each—including how they handle SEO—in simple terms, so you can decide what works best for your needs.
WordPress.org
WordPress is a free software that is used by over 40% of the websites on the internet. It is estimates that over 1.2 billion websites are running WordPress.
The main reason for WordPress’s success is that it’s free to download, is highly customizable and has a huge developer base that is constantly creating new features.
PROS:
Full Control & Customization – WordPress allows you to customize every aspect of your website. From design to functionality you have full control over everything.
Ownership – You own the website completely and if you host with a sex work friendly hosting company, you won’t have to worry about anyone taking your website down.
Affordable – The WordPress software is free to download so all you’ll have to pay is for hosting and your domain name.
SEO Friendly – Due to the larger number of websites running WordPress, there are a huge amount of plugins available to increase your SEO.
CONS:
It’s A Bit Technical – While the software is free to download you’ll need to install WordPress yourself on your hosting company’s servers, although many hosts will do this for you so it’s not as scary as it sounds.
Steep Learning Curve – To fully customize the website you’ll need to have some level of technical understanding to be able to get the most out of the platform.
Low Quality Developers – Due to the large number of websites that use WordPress there’s a lot of scammers and low quality developers who try to take advantage of you if you don’t know how to use WordPress.
TL;DR – WordPress is your best option for building a high quality fully customized website but to do so you’ll either need to have a pretty high technical understanding or hire a trustworthy sex work friendly developer.
Squarespace
With WordPress you have to find your own hosting and install the software yourself but with Squarespace they handle all of that for you. They have their own custom website builder and they host all the websites on their servers.
You pay a monthly fee and have access to a large number of website templates to choose from.
PROS:
Easy To Setup – Sign up, pick a template, add your content and your website is online!
Large Variety Of Templates – Squarespace has many professionally designed templates that you can choose from.
Hosting Is Included – Hosting, security updates, domain registration is all handled by Squarespace.
Customer Support – Squarespace being a large company has full customer support.
CONS:
Limited Customization – You can tweak templates, but you can’t fully control every aspect of your site.
Increasing Fees – Besides the monthly hosting fee you’ll have to pay for additional features, many of which are free on WordPress.
Limited SEO – The code that Squarespace uses for SEO isn’t great and some additional SEO features are a paid option.
They Don’t Allow Adult Content – White they technically don’t allow sexually explicit or obscene content, they don’t define what this is but they can use this as an excuse to delete your account at any moment without informing you first, especially where sex work is illegal.
TL;DR – Best for someone who wants to get a website online quickly and isn’t too concerned about customization.
Wix
Wix is another all-in-one platform, similar to Squarespace but with more flexibility and a free starting option.
PROS:
Really Simple To Use – Drag-and-drop editor lets you move things around like a scrapbook—no tech skills needed.
Free Plan Option – They offer a free website option.
Lots of Templates – Like Squarespace they have lots of templates you can choose from.
Open To Adult Content – Wix seems to be more open to adult content than Squarespace is.
CONS:
Limited Customization – Once you choose a template, switching to a new one isn’t easy.
Wix Branding on Free Plan – Free sites come with Wix ads, which looks super unprofessional.
Not Ideal for Larger Sites – Advanced features and scalability are limited compared to WordPress.org.
SEO Challenges – The Wix codebase is bloated and not great for SEO.
TL;DR – Best for someone who has limited technical knowledge and isn’t too concerned about SEO.
WordPress.com
Wait, didn’t you already mention WordPress? Yes I did but that was wordpress.org and this is wordpress.com
If you’re confused, don’t worry it’s not your fault. It’s the fault of the nerds at WordPress for creating this super confusing naming structure.
All you need to know is stay away from wordpress.com It’s a page builder similar to Squarepace or Wix but significantly worse.
If you’re going to use WordPress always start with wordpress.org
Which One Should You Choose?
- If your a high end luxury escort and you want full customization and control and the best SEO options → Go with a self hosted wordpress.org website. (These are the websites I build)
- If you want a nice looking but generic website with limited customization → Squarespace is a good choice as long as you’re ok with a template.
- If you need a beginner-friendly, affordable option with drag-and-drop simplicity → Consider Wix, just don’t choose their free option.
