8 Squarespace SEO Best Practices to Implement Right Now
I’m going to come right out and say it. As a former WordPress snob and employee of a marketing agency that specializes in SEO, I was wary of Squarespace’s SEO capabilities.
Back when I was building WordPress sites exclusively, I used a little plugin called Yoast SEO to tweak my websites’ SEO settings and add in meta titles and descriptions (aka the copy that comes up in the Google results when you search for something).
Yoast is a powerful plugin, and since it can’t be used on Squarespace, I (mistakenly) thought Squarespace’s SEO was subpar. Spoiler alert: I obviously learned that that’s untrue!
Squarespace is an all-inclusive platform, meaning that it was built to include most of the “plugins” that one would need to build a powerful website. With Squarespace, you don’t need to search for and install dozens of third-party plugins because most of the functionality you need is already there: including SEO settings!
I’m going to take you through the 8 Squarespace SEO settings you absolutely NEED to implement on your website to set your site up for future success with Google.
SEO can be a boring topic to some, so I’m going to try my best to make this quick and simple! Let’s jump right in!
Identify and Implement Your SEO Keywords
I listed this step first because you’ll use it in nearly all of the following steps in this list. The first thing you need to do when getting serious about your site’s SEO is a little keyword research.
Google has a free keyword research tool that you can use to figure out which words and phrases you need to be using basically everywhere on your website (your copy, blog posts, image names, and more...but we’ll talk about that later on!).
All you need to do is enter words or phrases related to your business, and a list of relevant keyword ideas will pop up. Save these keywords to a note on your computer or phone and incorporate them into your website copy, blog posts, and even image names when it feels natural. This sounds simple, but it really makes a big difference in your site’s SEO!
Pro tip: Google will try to get you to spend money and run an ad campaign in order to use this tool. If you aren’t ready for that yet, no worries! There’s a way around this: just click the “Experienced with Google Ads?” link underneath the three advertising goal options and follow the steps to bypass spending money.
Add a Site Title and Description
Your site title and description are what comes up in the Google results when someone searches your business name. It’s crucial for SEO to have a clear and descriptive site title and description for your site. You’ll want to have your business name in the title, as well as a few words on what you do. Make sure to incorporate one of your SEO phrases from your keyword research, and don’t exceed 60 characters (if it’s longer than that, Google might cut it off!).
You can edit your site title by going to Design > Logo & Title
Make sure it clearly explains your product/service and includes your business name
Don’t exceed 60 characters
Example: Premium Squarespace Website Templates | The Simple Site Shop
Now, let’s edit your site description! This is the two-three sentences that’ll appear underneath your site title in the Google results. You only get up to 300 characters for this, so you really want to make it count. Clearly explain what you do, who you do it for, and where you’re located (unless you’re an online business).
You can edit your site’s meta description by going to Marketing > SEO
Clearly and concisely answer what you do, who you do it for, and where you are located
Don’t exceed 300 characters
Add Titles and Descriptions for Every Page on Your Site
I’m sorry to tell you, but you’ll basically need to do the same exact thing on all the pages on your website (trust me, it’s worth it in the end!). Go to the settings for the page you want to update. If you click the SEO tab, you’ll see options for editing your SEO Title and SEO Description.
Your title should describe what’s on the page, followed by your business name
Try to incorporate your keywords. If your page title is just “Portfolio” but you’re a florist, you can write “Wedding Floral Design Portfolio” as your title to make it more descriptive
Example: About Our Squarespace Templates | The Simple Site Shop
Clean Up Your URLs
Okay, before you click out of your Page SEO Settings box, make sure to check your URL and make sure it’s clean! Google prefers URLs that describe what the page is actually about (instead of random numbers and letters).
Squarespace automatically puts the name of your page at the end of your URL so it’s already clean, like this:
www.thesimplesiteshop.com/services/
However, you can do even better than this - make it more descriptive with your keywords!
www.thesimplesiteshop.com/custom-squarespace-design/
Optimize Your Blog Posts
Take everything you just learned and commit it to memory - you’ll need it for each of your blog posts, too!
Squarespace allows you to change your blog post’s meta title, description, and URL. This can be super advantageous if you take the time to do it!
Here are some quick tips for optimizing your blog posts on Squarespace:
Whenever possible, try to exceed 2,000 words with your blog posts. Google likes long-form content!
Go back to your little note of SEO keywords and phrases and incorporate them in your blog posts wherever it feels natural.
Go to Settings > Blogging and make sure your default URL format is simply /Post-Title. Make sure the box only says /%t
Keep your blog titles short and make sure they include your top keywords whenever possible!
Write a clear and descriptive description for your blog post that entices people to click to your website in the search results.
Turn On AMP
If your website has a blog, you’ll most likely want to turn on AMP (aka Accelerated Mobile Pages). This will make your blog posts load faster on mobile devices, which is a big plus for SEO (because Google loves super fast pages!).
To turn this setting on, go to Settings > Blogging, then scroll down to the very bottom where you’ll see the section for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Check the box there, and you’re good to go!
Important note: There are a couple drawbacks to using AMP. First, Accelerated Mobile Pages won’t register in your Squarespace Analytics. So, if you’re a big analytics person, this might not be ideal for you (but if you use Google Analytics, this doesn’t apply - Google Analytics will still show you your numbers on AMP pages). Also, because AMP works by cutting down the content on your page so that it loads faster, there’s a possibility that any summary blocks or newsletter blocks could be removed from the page on mobile. Weigh the pros and cons to figure out if AMP is worth it for you!
Name Your Images
This is a time-consuming but extremely important step for Squarespace SEO, and I see a lot of people out there that aren’t doing this. Every image on your site needs to have a custom name.
Here’s the thing: search engines can’t see images. If your image is named “IMG-123.jpg”, Google has NO idea what that image is showing; therefore, you’re missing out on some serious SEO benefits!
When you title your image, you should include what the image is showing while also including a few of your SEO keywords. For example, if you’re a hairstylist in Charlotte, North Carolina, and your picture is showing you coloring a client’s hair, your image should be titled something like, “Charlotte-NC-hair-stylist-color-blonde-hair.jpg”.
And, you guessed it, you need to be doing this for every image on your website - including blog images!
Add Your Business Location
This step only applies if your business has a physical location. You’ll want to add your business location information to your Squarespace website so Google knows where it is!
Go to Settings > Business Information to add in your business address and contact details.
This way, your site will be more likely to show up in the search results when someone searches for one of your services in your city!
When someone types in a product or service into Google, it’s likely that they’re looking to purchase that particular product or service. This isn’t just a Facebook ad that you’re blasting to people who might not be interested in buying your product right now - these people are actually looking for a business like yours!
That’s why it’s so important that you implement all of these SEO action items so that when people are searching, YOU come up!