Increase Your Squarespace Website Traffic with SEO
A gorgeous site is amazing but useless if no one can find you on a search. The good news is this has been built into Squarespace from the start. Here’s a good part: you can get it even more visible on search engines, like Google, with no SEO specialist required. Sounds complicated but it is not at all!
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of optimizing your website for higher search engine visibility. It’s one of those step-by-step things because there are a lot of things you can optimize to help you show up when people search keywords related to your site.
Search engines care about:
SEO titles: These are like the headlines for your pages, telling search engines what each page is about.
Page titles: The main title of your webpage, gives a clear idea of its content.
Navigation titles: The labels you use for the different sections of your site.
Blog post titles: The titles of your blog articles, play a big role in search engine visibility.
Headings: The various headings and subheadings on your pages.
To boost your visibility, make sure to use keywords that your target audience is likely to search for in these areas. It's like speaking the language search engines understand!
Is Squarespace SEO Friendly?
Yes, Squarespace incorporates several SEO benefits into its platform. While their marketing literature may sometimes exaggerate with statements like "we build all known SEO best practices into every Squarespace site," the platform does offer solid SEO features.
Here are some built-in SEO benefits:
Sitemaps: To make search engine crawling as pain-free as possible, Squarespace automatically creates an XML sitemap for your site, to help search engines recognize and index all your pages, as well as image metadata, for SEO.
SSL Certificates: Squarespace offers free SSL certificates to every user and keeps a secure connection for your visitor. Enables better SEO as well.
Mobile-friendly: All Squarespace themes are responsive (your content/images will automatically respond to different devices/screen sizes). This mobile-friendly design is important for Google and helps with Google SEO.
Clean HTML and URLs: Squarespace allows for easy indexing of your HTML markup and URLs, helping you get better visibility from search engines.
Robots. txt: Squarespace creates robots. txt file, and you can deny certain spiders if you want.
In summary, Squarespace offers a range of SEO-friendly features that contribute to the overall optimization of your website.
How to do SEO on Squarespace
Keyword Research
While still important, modern SEO relies less on these keyword signals and more on topical understanding and searcher intent. Proper keyword or keyphrase research is critical to ensure you begin with effective optimization. Not only does this help land on some target keywords but it also exposes specific topics and questions users have surrounding those keywords, which can inform your content strategy.
Once you have a list of keywords for each page, Google those topics. Determine how hard it’s gonna be to rank by analyzing the competition. This evaluation should take into account competitors' popularity and authority and social signals, such as share rates. Know that the more competition you have, the harder it will be to outrank them and gain organic traffic.
To perform keyword research, make sure that you do not over-optimize your keyword search, as this can be detrimental to your site ranking. There is no specific keyword density to follow but make sure to strategically place a keyword in the title tag, heading, and body copy. That said, the most important thing is that you write strong content for your audience.
If not, write in your natural way as content creation is the answer. Focus on providing quality content instead of dwelling on keyword density. This means that, well, our content should come first and when going back over it we should be looking for keywords and related terms to make sure, they are integrated. By doing so, it ensures content is still creative, relatable, and organic while maximizing the power of Search.
High-Quality Content
In a world of ever-changing search engine algorithms, generating quality content alone can be a determining factor for ranking. With search algorithms getting more sophisticated, having great, unique, and helpful SEO content is more essential than ever. It was the year of content, but more so the depth of the content, whereas, those who went for content, but cheap content suffered greatly because of it, websites with more depth in quality content saw a serious boost in ranking — Source: Search Engine Journal
Close behind, the most successful SEO campaign is often backed by a solid content strategy that emphasizes high-quality content. As Google gets better and better at serving relevant results, you must structure your work around solving searcher intent. You must write content that naturally caters to the questions and interests of your target audience. You should avoid repeating individual words or phrases too often — instead, use a variety of phrases and ideas related to your topic.
The quantity of content is always secondary to the quality. One is to combine many lower-quality pages into fewer higher-quality pages instead of having pages of lower quality. When you put the reader first and give them valuable information, you create a better user experience and also give search engines enough context to deliver the content of your pages to search users. Data until October 2023: Understanding that content on your website is useful in ranking is also necessary, therefore, the great way is to have a reputed SEO plan with consistent efforts in producing quality content.
Optimize Page Title Tags
Squarespace automatically generates title tags for pages, blog posts, products, events, etc., using the page title and your site name. However, customization is possible if desired. To change Squarespace SEO settings, you can hover over a page, click the settings icon, and then access the SEO tab to make updates. It's important to note that while title tags can be keyword-rich, they should avoid being spammy.
Key considerations for optimizing individual title tags include:
Length: Keep titles under 60 characters to ensure they display well in search results.
Uniqueness: Ensure each page's title is unique, descriptive, and engaging.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing: While keywords are important, steer clear of titles that are merely a list of keywords or repeated variations.
Previewing a Title Tag — Use Moz's free title tag preview tool. It helps in determining your title by how it looks in search results.
The boilerplate language that relates to the page type, such as "Blog 2" or "Contact 3," is one of the most important tips for Squarespace 7.1 users to eliminate. This helps your titles become more relevant and easier to process for your audience.
Google updated the way it serves page titles in 2021. By following best practices, you can avoid Google rewriting your title. These rewrites are intended to help out sites with tag problems, but best practices can help keep them from having to be rewritten at all. At the end of the day, writing accurate, concise and relevant tag lines is crucial to the success of your Squarespace SEO.
Use Keywords in Headings and Meta Descriptions
Using keywords strategically in headings and meta descriptions can significantly enhance the visibility and appeal of your content.
For headings, it's a common practice to incorporate the main keyword of the page within the <h1> tag. Subsequent content can be organized with clarity using <h2> and <h3> tags. Google permits multiple H1 elements on different parts of a page if done appropriately, especially when building pages with distinct sections.
Meta descriptions, short summaries of your pages displayed in search engine results, offer an additional opportunity to leverage keywords. Although descriptions don't directly influence rankings, crafting highly relevant meta descriptions can encourage users to click through to your site. Writing in a natural tone is key to encouraging click-throughs from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It's worth noting that even if you don't create descriptions, Google may sometimes extract other text from your page to better address a searcher's query.
Here's how to add meta descriptions to various pages on Squarespace:
Home page: Navigate to Settings > SEO > Appearance > SEO Site Description.
Individual pages: Go to Pages > Page Settings > SEO > SEO Description.
Blogs, products, or events: Select the specific blog post, product, or event, then choose Edit > SEO > SEO Description.
By optimizing headings and meta descriptions with relevant keywords, you can enhance both the search engine visibility and the click-through rate of your content.
Create a Google My Business page
How to Create a Google My Business Page for Your Business
Creating a Google My Business (GMB) page is the first step to ensure potential customers can find up-to-date information on your business. Google My Business is a tool for businesses to manage their online presence in Google Search and Maps, so users can find and connect with your brand..
Step 1: Sign In to Google My Business
Start with accessing the Google My Business site and logging in with your Google account. If you don’t already have an account connected to your business, create one to connect on.
Step 2: Fill in Your Business Information
Log in, and type in your business name exactly how you would want it to look and sound in your brand. Then select the category that most closely represents your business. This allows Google to better understand what you do and improve your search ranking (for relevant searches).
Step 3: Add your Business Location
You can also add an actual address if you have a physical store so it could be visible on Google Maps. If you have a business that has an online presence or visits customers where they are, you can instead list your service areas.
Step 4: Fill out Your Contact Information
Add your business phone number, website, and other contact information. Doing so makes it more convenient for prospective customers to contact you and builds trust in your business.
Step 5: Verify Your Business
Google needs you to verify that you own a business. Verification is usually performed by postcard to your business address, however, you should be able to verify through phone or email too, depending on your location + type of business.
Step 6: Optimize Your Profile
Once verified, make sure to optimize your Google My Business listing by including quality images, hours, services, and a captivating business description. Post often and gain engagement and SEO results of comment, offer, and patron analysis by continually updating your profile
Step 7: Manage and Monitor Your Listing
After you publish your page, you should monitor it; respond to customer reviews, and edit information if necessary; and use Google My Business insights to monitor performance. Interacting with customers and having relevant, updated information improves visibility and credibility.
Creating and managing a Google My Business page increases your visibility in local search results, while also making it easier for customers to find your business online and increasing your brand’s profile. If you do not have a GMB page created now is the best time to start!
Hide admin pages from search results
Admin or legal pages like 404 error page or privacy policy are not our main pages, we want google to focus on our main pages like services, about, contact etc. This provides our key content with better visibility in search results. To prevent a Google search from getting to a page, click on the cog icon next to the page name in your page list and select the SEO tab. Scroll down and toggle ‘Hide Page from Search Results’.
Mobile optimization
Mobile optimization has become a necessity in the digital landscape of today. Mobile-friendliness is must when more than half of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile devices and people need to have a positive experience accessing your site from a smartphone or tablet if they are going to engage with you, rank well in search, and convert. A mobile website that has not been optimized can mean slow load times, difficult navigation and an increase in bounce rates, and that can make or break your business.
So what is one of the important aspects of mobile optimization? Responsive design A responsive website can adapt its layout and content to different screen sizes, making it easy to read, navigate and interact with the website from any devices equally. So, no need to develop separate desktop and mobile versions of your site, keeping brand and functionality consistent. A mobile-first design approach encourages prioritization of content and usability, ensuring visitors can easily locate what they need without frustration.
Page speed is also a part of mobile optimization. Websites that load slowly, send users away, and search engines like Google take into account page load speed when ranking them. Image compression, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and browser caching are just a few techniques to help cut load times significantly. Furthermore, considering mobile users are a significant proportion of any ongoing business at all, one can additionally incorporate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which can drastically serve to complete the performance boost as it effectively serves lighter versions of the web pages so users are served sooner when accessing your website on their mobile phone.
Mobile optimization is a huge part of user experience (UX). Touch-friendly buttons, readable fonts, and intuitive navigation menus make browsing a breeze. Free of Clutter — Users can be turned off by cluttered layouts and aggressive use of pop-ups, so simple and accessible designs are key. A mobile-friendly menu like a hamburger menu helps visitors navigate efficiently without cluttering the screen.
Mobile-friendly design can also be beneficial for SEO. Google utilizes mobile-first indexing, which means it mainly assesses the mobile version of a site when establishing search rankings. If your site is mobile unfriendly, you run the risk of losing visibility in the search results entirely. You should be able to read text without zooming, images scale correctly, and links are easy to hover over and click on so that you can maintain strong search rankings and improve user retention.
Mobile optimization covers more than just looks; it is also about delivering a holistic experience that aligns with the expectations of the contemporary mobile user. Mobile-optimized design, speed optimization, and an intuitive user interface mean higher engagement, better search appearances, and a better conversion, regardless of whether you have an e-commerce store, a business website, or a blog. Mobile optimization isn't just serving the world today — it's also helping to ensure that your website succeeds down the road.
Add Internal Links
(Adding internal links to relevant pages or blog posts in the body of your content.) It certainly extends beyond just the main navigation menu, and works to the advantage of both visitors to a site as well as search engines.
Internal linking enables users to navigate and find more content within your site that relates to the current page they are on. It adds value and it helps search engines understand the relationship of different pages on your website which is also a hint to search engines that those pages are inter-related.
Instead of mindlessly linking pages together, prioritize making each internal link reflect relevant content to the page at hand. This can be done through the linking of the body of the written text, which should lead users to other relevant articles, tools and information that pertain to the same topic or that discusses the content in greater detail.
Internal linking is, in essence, the art of guiding your website visitors through their journey on your website.
Submit Your Sitemap
Create an account with Google Search Console and submit your sitemap to Google. Likewise, you do the same with Bing. To locate your Squarespace XML sitemap at www. yourdomain. com/sitemap. xml.
However, when you create new content or update your site, it can take a while for search engines to notice. But you can speed things up using free search tools that Google and Bing both offer.
Go to Google Search Console sign up for your Google Search Console account and submit your sitemap to Google Create an account with Bing, submit your sitemap, and do the same. To get your Squarespace sitemap link, type www. yourdomain. com/sitemap. xml.
This effectively assists search engines in quickly crawling and indexing your site — especially relevant when you are publishing new content or updates. It makes practical sense to leverage these search tools robustly to improve the efficiency and visibility of the websites in major search engines.
FAQ: Squarespace SEO Strategies
1. What should I do for search engine optimization on a Squarespace site?
Perform Keyword Analysis. Improve your on-page elements | Titles | Meta | Headers | Create Content | Site speed optimization | Backlinking are a few methods for SEO of your Squarespace site.
2. Do Squarespace Sites have SEO Tools Built-in?
Indeed, Squarespace has SEO features such as customizable meta tags, clean URLs, mobile-friendly templates, and automatic sitemaps. Nevertheless, so, manual optimization is required for improved outcomes.
3. What speed do I need my Squarespace website to have?
Optimize image sizes, turn on browser caching, minimize redirects, and take advantage of Squarespace’s built-in CDN to improve page load speeds
4. From tracking performance, what are the top SEO tools?
Google Analytics for traffic analysis, Google Search Console for indexing problems, and Ahrefs/SEMrush for keyword tracking and backlinks.
5. How long will it take for Squarespace SEO to produce results?
Depending on your competition, content quality, and backlink profile you should see significant results in about 3 to 6 months of SEO improvements.
