Having a beautiful, functional, Squarespace website is just the beginning.  To ensure your Squarespace website gets visibility by ranking higher on Google, and helps you attract your target audience, you also need to pay attention to your SEO.

In this article, we’re sharing 9 essential Squarespace SEO tips to help you with just that!

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.  It is, as SEMrush describes “a set of processes aimed at improving a website’s visibility in search engines, like Google, with the goal of getting more organic traffic”.

SEO Tip 1:  Research and add the right keywords and key information to your content

Using tools Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush and Ahrefs, you can find relevant keywords that have a good balance of search volume and competition.  Incorporating these keywords naturally into your content, titles, and headings is a great way to ensure your Squarespace website gets better visibility.

SEO Tip 2:  Optimise your Squarespace page titles and descriptions

Each page on your Squarespace website has an area where you can add specific a SEO title and description.  If this isn’t filled in, Google will naturally choose the content from the body of the page and populate it, therefore it’s key that these areas are filled in using the right keywords.

You can find the SEO title and description for each page under:

• Website -> Pages -> [Page Name] -> Click on the cog on the right-hand side -> SEO (on the left-hand side of the pop-up)

Extra tip: Keep the SEO title between 50-60 characters long and the SEO description between 150-160 characters long. These are the optimal lengths for each area.

SEO Tip 3:  Create high-quality content and Blogging

Content is king when it comes to SEO. Writing informative, engaging, and original content that provides value to your key target audience will help you rank higher on Google as it showcases authority. Regularly updating your Squarespace blog with articles and ensuring each post targets specific keywords relevant to your niche also showcases your expertise to your target audience and shows Google you are an expert in your niche.  Equally important is consistency in Blogging.

Extra tip: If you can, a minimum of one blog article a month will help your Squarespace website rank better. 

SEO Tip 4:  Use heading tags appropriately

Google “reads” each page of your Squarespace website and can identify the structure and importance of your content based on the heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc).  Therefore it’s super important to organise the content using headings and subheadings.  The H1 tag should be used for the main title of the page (and only used once on a single page), while the H2 and H3 tags can break down the content into sections and sub-sections. 

Here’s an example of a heading hierarchy that we created for a recent project.

SEO Tip 5: Compressing and optimising images on your Squarespace website

Page load times are a huge deal.  If your images are big in file size and take time to load, Google penalises you.  This ultimately means you won’t rank as highly as you could.  Therefore another Squarespace SEO tip is to compress and optimise your images before loading them onto your Squarespace website.  Along with compressing the images, you should also rename the images with naturally descriptive keywords and always include alt text.  Doing this not only helps search engines load the page quickly, but it also helps them to understand the content of your images and it improves your Squarespace website accessibility.

Extra tip 1: Squarespace recommends a file size of 500kb per image, but we aim for a file size of 250kb as, unfortunately, Squarespace naturally increases the size of an image upon upload.

Extra tip 2: You can use Image Compressor, TinyJPG or TinyPNG to compress your images before uploading them to your Squarespace website.

SEO Tip 6: Enable SSL for security on your Squarespace website

Google favours secure websites. Enabling SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) on your Squarespace website ensures all data is secure between your browser and the website.  It increases the trust factor between your Squarespace website and Google, and also any visitors to your website, including your target audience, thus can increase your ranking and visibility.

SEO Tip 7: Utilising the built-in social media integration

Adding and connecting your social media profiles with your Squarespace website can increase your website's visibility and therefore drive more traffic to your website.  Adding social sharing buttons to your blog posts and sharing your content (posts) on social media encourages visitors to your website, therefore helping you to rank higher on Google and attract your target audience.

SEO Tip 8: Connect your Squarespace website to Google Search Console and submit your sitemap

GSC is Google’s native platform where you tell Google you are ready to be found on search engines.  It allows you to see all kinds of data, including te the keywords people are using to search for you.  It’s a super easy process and can be done within your Squarespace site.

Related article and a video guide:

• Connecting Google Search Console to your Squarespace website (includes a step-by-step tutorial and video)

SEO Tip 9:  Monitor and analyse your Squarespace website performance

By regularly monitoring your Squarespace website's performance using tools like Google Analytics and Squarespace’s built-in analytics you can track key metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and user behaviour.  These insights can be used to further enhance your SEO strategy as you’l be able to make data-driven decisions.  Another tip to help you rank higher on Google and attract your target audience.

Conclusion

By following these 10 essential Squarespace SEO tips, you can enhance your Squarespace website’s visibility, attract more of your target audience, and achieve better search engine rankings. The main thing to remember is that SEO is an ongoing process, that takes time and consistency.

We’ve recently been helping to manage our clients' Squarespace websites and work on their unique Squarespace SEO website strategy.  If this is something you are interested in, do get in touch and let us know.

Are you interested in working with KSD to improve you're website’s SEO? Get in touch for a no-strings-attached chat.