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In today’s digital landscape, getting a professional website online is faster than ever, but choosing the right platform is the difference between a simple digital brochure and a powerful business tool. While DIY builders like Wix and Squarespace have revolutionized the market by offering sleek, user-friendly designs that anyone can manage, they are just the beginning of what we offer at Candyweb.
Modern Web Platforms: Wix & Squarespace
For many small businesses, speed and simplicity are the top priorities. Wix and Squarespace rule this realm, providing intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces and built-in hosting. We specialize in professional setup and custom styling for these platforms, ensuring your site doesn't just look like a generic template, but a polished, branded experience that functions perfectly across all devices.
Advanced Power: PHP & Joomla! CMS
When your needs grow beyond standard "out of the box" features, robust Content Management Systems (CMS) like Joomla! and WordPress remain the gold standards for flexibility. While builders are great for simple sites, a PHP-based CMS allows for deep customization, complex database management, and advanced functional features without the monthly "app" fees that can plague closed platforms. At Candyweb, we continue to support Joomla! for its sophisticated architecture and vast ecosystem of professional extensions.
Custom Development & Seamless Support
Development time is no longer about building basic pages—it's about integration. We use CMS platforms to quickly deploy common features like document management, secure portals, and custom media galleries. When your business requires something truly unique, we are ready to develop specialized PHP components and modules tailored to your specific workflow. Whether we build it in a modern site-builder or a powerful CMS, we provide the training you need to take the wheel with confidence.
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Starting 2026 with a New Website! We have a fresh new look for Candyweb.us. This site is built on Joomla 6.0, extending the default Cassiopeia template to meet our needs.
Take a minute to hit our Contact Page and let us know what you think! Is there information you're looking for, but can't find? Let us know!
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I'm working in Squarespace today, which I've found to be pretty fun actually. I like how easy the interface is, for me and for my client who is learning to manage her own website. I have to say, for the non-tech user, Squarespace admin interface is much easier than Joomla! or Wordpress or most of the other CMS tools I've worked with.
However... Squarespace seems frustratingly devoid of some basic common features for the modern website, such as the ability to show an image in the blog excerpt.
EVERYONE knows that you need a good strong image to start off your blog post, if you want anyone to give it a second glance. But most of the Squarespace templates DO NOT come with this feature. Not only that, but there isn't a convenient on/off switch anywhere in the admin panel for a user to choose whether or not to show the thumbnail image (or any image) in the blog excerpts which are shown on the blog listing page.
So today I'm working on a site using the Bedford template. After much online searching, I found a solution. You have to open up the CSS and add visibility for the thumbnail image in the excerpt.
Go to Design --> Custom CSS and paste this in the code area
.view-list .excerpt-thumb { display: block; }
Do this, and your thumbnail image (set in the post Options tab) will automatically show up at the top of the post excerpt. Of course, this only works if you have some intro text typed into the 'Excerpt' box (also in the Options tab).
OK! Try it out and let me know how it works for you.
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Whether you prefer www.yourname.com or the streamlined yourname.com, the choice actually impacts your SEO. Search engines technically see these as two different websites. If you don't "force" traffic to one version, you risk splitting your search ranking significance in half—a problem known as a canonicalization error.
Modern Redirects: HTTPS & Subdomains
While modern platforms like Wix and Squarespace handle these redirects with a simple dashboard toggle, custom PHP and Joomla! sites often benefit from a manual .htaccess rule. This ensures that every visitor—and every search engine crawler—is funneled to a single, secure version of your site (HTTPS).
The Technical Fix (.htaccess)
For those running on Apache servers, the mod_rewrite rule remains the gold standard for forcing a specific domain format. By adding a few lines of code to your root directory, you can ensure that anyone typing "www" is instantly moved to the "non-www" version, or vice versa, keeping your site's authority concentrated in one place.
Joomla Implementation
If you are using a CMS like Joomla!, we integrate these rules directly into your existing security layers. This prevents common exploits while simultaneously managing your brand's URL structure, ensuring a fast, professional, and SEO-friendly user experience.
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Understanding Site Access: From FTP to Managed Portals
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Traditionally, this was the primary "key" used to unlock your web server—the specialized computer where your website’s files live. In the earlier days of the web, if we wanted to change a single line of code or upload a new image, we had to use an FTP client to "tunnel" into your server and swap out the files manually.
The 2026 Shift: Why FTP is becoming a "Backdoor"
For many of our modern projects, the traditional 3-item login (Host Name, Username, and Password) is no longer the first thing we ask for. With the rise of all-in-one builders like Wix and Squarespace, there are no files to "upload" in the traditional sense. We manage everything through your account dashboard, meaning we often only need "Contributor" or "Admin" access to get the job done.
Furthermore, modern CMS dashboards like Joomla! and Wordpress now allow us to handle the vast majority of updates, installations, and styling directly through the web interface. This bypasses the need for manual file transfers for most routine maintenance and design tasks.
When do we still need it?
Despite these advancements, FTP (specifically the secure version, SFTP) remains an essential tool for deep technical work. We may still ask for your server credentials if a site update requires "behind-the-scenes" troubleshooting or if we are developing specialized PHP components and custom database scripts that require direct server interaction.
Finding Your Info
If your project requires this level of access, your FTP or SFTP information is provided by your web host, typically found in your hosting control panel under "FTP Accounts." However, many modern hosts now allow you to simply "Invite a Developer" via email, giving us secure access without you ever having to hunt down a password.
