Boost your Squarespace SEO with these practical tips
Do you have a Squarespace website and want to rank higher on Google?
This blog post gives you 11 practical tips for improving your Squarespace SEO on your own, so you don’t need to hire an expensive SEO specialist.
Here's what you can do yourself:
Squarespace has put together an SEO checklist, so be sure to take a look at it. It covers all the basics. Taken as a whole, it might seem like an overwhelming list, and you might not know where to start. That’s why I’m highlighting the most important points in this blog post:
1. Add SEO titles and SEO descriptions
You can do this by going to the settings for each page (click the gear icon) and then navigating to the SEO tab. In the SEO description, don’t just list a bunch of keywords; instead, craft 1 or 2 well-written sentences that place the most important information as close to the beginning as possible.
Tip:
You can hide pages you don’t want to appear in Google search results by clicking “Hide Page from Search Results” at the bottom of the SEO tab. This applies, for example, to your privacy policy, cookie policy, and thank-you pages.
For your homepage, it works a little differently:
To do this, go to Settings (the gear icon at the bottom) > Marketing > SEO Appearance.
The SEO Title Format uses a placeholder code for your site’s title (%s). This is the name you gave your website when you created it, and you can also edit it in the Header settings.
If desired, you can manually add text after this code.
For the SEO site description, use 1 or 2 catchy and clear sentences that include important keywords.
2. Add alt tags
Add alt text to your images. Use relevant keywords for this.
Before uploading your image, be sure to give it a relevant name, such as “Squarespace-specialist-Netherlands.jpg” instead of “IMG_3281.jpg”.
You’ll find the Image Alt Text field in the settings of each Image Block (Content tab).
Tip: For images you use in blog posts: go to the Design tab. Enter relevant keywords for each design option (Poster, Card, Overlap, etc.), even if you aren’t using that specific design option. Squarespace saves this information “behind the scenes.”
For example, click on "Poster," enter your keywords, then switch your image back to "Inline" and click "Save."
3. Resize your images
Google considers page speed important and favors fast websites. So make sure your images are no larger than 500 KB—preferably even smaller than 250 KB.
Do you have a lot of images on a single page? If so, make sure that the total size of all images does not exceed 5 MB.
Images used across the full width of the page should be approximately 2,000 to 2,500 pixels wide. Images displayed at a smaller size on your website may only need to be 1,000 pixels wide. Save them in JPG format. PNG files often become very large. Unless you’re working with a transparent background (such as your logo), in which case you should use the PNG format.
To reduce the file size of your images even further, run them through the TinyJPG tool.
4. One H1 heading per page
When you create a page, you can choose between Heading and Paragraph text.
It’s best to use only one Heading 1 text per page. This is the most important text for Google. If a page is filled with Heading 1 text, Google won’t know what’s important anymore.
Be sure to include important keywords in your heading text.
Tip: Set the text for Heading 1 and Heading 2 to the same size if, for example, you want to use multiple headings on a page that are all the same size. Set the most important one for Google as Heading 1 and the others as Heading 2.
5. Use the SEOSpace plugin
If you want to check whether you’ve taken advantage of all SEO options, you can install the SEOSpace plugin—it’s like Yoast for Squarespace. After installation, you can run a scan that shows you how your site is performing. Then you can get started using the tips provided by the plugin. After a month, you can run another scan to see how much your website has improved in terms of SEO.
6. Use Google Search Console
Create an account on Google Search Console and submit your site there. You can manually upload your sitemap to give Google a hand. Be sure to do this whenever you make major updates to your websites.
You can also inspect a new page at the top of the search bar. After entering the URL, you can see whether Google has already indexed the page or not. If not, you can request indexing immediately. If you don’t do this, you’ll have to wait until Google happens to visit your site again (which could take months) and notices that a new page has been added. So if you request it yourself, it happens faster.
Be sure to check out this blog post about Google Search Console.
7. Smart URLs
Keep your URLs short and clear, and include your most important keywords.
The URL slug (the last part after the ‘/’) doesn’t have to be exactly the same as the title of your blog post. Remove any unnecessary words. The ideal length is 3 to 6 words.
If you use the duplicate option for a page or blog post, Squarespace will automatically generate a new URL. Be sure to update it right away so you don’t end up using a URL that includes a strange string of characters without realizing it.
8. Categories and Tags
Use categories and tags in your blog. Keep in mind that tags are not categories, and vice versa. And don’t just randomly create a ton of tags. Keep them relevant and think ahead about what people might search for online.
9. Create your own custom 404 page
Create your own custom 404 page instead of using Squarespace’s default “Page Not Found” page. For example, include key navigation items, popular blog posts, and/or your contact information on your custom 404 page. After all, you want visitors to stay on your website and click through to another page.
Check out my blog post on how to create your own custom 404 page.
10. SSL certificate
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and ensures better data security between the server and a web browser. Google gives preference to websites that have an SSL certificate. For new Squarespace websites, this is automatically enabled and included in your subscription fee.
If you have an older Squarespace website, you can enable SSL by going to Settings > Advanced > SSL. Be sure to enable HSTS Secure as well (even if SSL is already enabled automatically).
You can tell if a website has an SSL certificate by looking for the closed padlock icon in your browser's address bar.
11. Update your website regularly
If you created your website in 2017, launched it, and haven’t made any changes since, Google won’t find your website very interesting. By blogging regularly, for example, you provide fresh new content. Google likes that.
You can also go back and update old blog posts every so often.
SEO is a long-term process
Most of the points listed above are one-time tasks and provide a solid foundation. But achieving a good ranking on Google isn’t just a matter of entering a few keywords and then sitting back. You have to keep working on it. SEO requires patience. SEO is a long-term effort.
12. Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes, Squarespace offers a variety of SEO options, and with the right optimizations, you can rank well on Google. Just make sure you take full advantage of all the settings. To do so, follow the tips in this blog post and use the SEOSpace plugin.
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Absolutely. With the right tips and tools, you can improve the SEO of your Squarespace site yourself, step by step. For example, you can use the SEOSpace plugin.
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This depends on many factors, but with regular updates, you’ll often see improvements in Google within a few weeks. Track your metrics weekly, keep fine-tuning, and keep an eye on your competition.
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That’s hard to say. If you don’t do any SEO for your WordPress website, you won’t suddenly end up at the top of the search results. You have to put in the effort there, too.
WordPress is generally a bit faster than website builders like Squarespace and Wix. But that’s only a small part of what Google considers important. So if you make sure your Squarespace website is well-optimized for SEO, you can rank just fine with it.
