To help you with your SEO efforts, Squarespace:

• Provides analytic tools to monitor your performance. Use the results to tweak your SEO strategy and maximize your visibility.
• Links up with Google Search Console to see which keywords your customers and visitors use to discover your site.
• Provides default SEO meta descriptions and titles which can be tweaked for easier online discovery.
• Has technical SEO (Including site maps, automatic markup, and mobile optimization) already included for a better user experience.
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These features are great because they provide an out-of-the-box solution to help increase brand awareness, traffic, and conversions. 

You can also use Squarespace for e-commerce, but you’ll need the premium plan for this.

12 Tips for SEO for Squarespace

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the SEO advice out there. There’s on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and even SEO best practices for developers. 

With SEO on Squarespace, you don’t have to worry as much about the more technical side, there are tools to help you manage this automatically.

Still, there’s lots more you can do to help your site rank well in Google, Bing, and other search engines.  Ready to learn more about how to improve SEO on Squarespace? Great! Here are ten best practices.

1. Perform Keyword Research

At the core of SEO is keyword research, and when it comes to Squarespace, this is no different. No matter what builder you use, it’s essential to take the time to find out what keywords your site should target. I’ve written several in-depth guides about keyword research, but I’ll explain the basics here.

Keywords are the words or phrases users type into search engines to find your website. 

Sometimes, they are obvious; for example, a dentist in Chicago will probably target keywords like “Chicago dentist.” 

Other terms might be less obvious, such as “dentist near me” or “root canal.” That’s where a good keyword research tool, like my tool Ubersuggest (it’s free!), can be helpful. 

Type in your main keyword (I used SEO for Squarespace for my example) and see what other terms come up: 

2. Create High-Quality Content

High-quality content is a cornerstone of good SEO on a Squarespace website. It provides fresh content (which Google likes) and offers valuable information your users want and need. 

Squarespace makes it easy to add a blog to your website, though many themes come with them already in place. 

Once you’ve created your blog page, it’s time to get writing. You can write yourself or outsource it to a freelancer. I recommend writing yourself at first to get an idea of what type of content your target audience wants. 

3. Add Internal Links to Important Content

Internal links are links on your website to other pages on your site. They improve user experience by helping users find pages, but they’re also great for SEO on Squarespace websites. 

Internal links help Google understand which pages on your site are most important. Search engines also use internal links to pages on your site.

4. Add SEO Page Titles and Descriptions

SEO page titles and descriptions (also called meta titles and descriptions) are short blurbs displayed in the search results that tell users what they’ll find on your page. 

Get this part of your SEO right, and traffic to your Squarespace website can skyrocket. Ignore them, and Google will create them for you—and they might not be as effective. 

5. Add Optimized Alt Tags to Images

Don’t ignore alt text as part of your Squarespace SEO strategy.

According to Google Devs, alt text is the most important attribute for providing more image metadata.

But that isn’t the only reason for adding alt text to images. Specifically, it:

• Aids accessibility for people using screen readers
• Provides a description when there are image loading issues
• Gives search engines context, potentially enhancing your SEO

6. Find and Fix Broken Links

SEO for any Squarespace website also depends on backlinks. In case you don’t know, there are tons of Google ranking factors, and quality backlinks are right up there among the most important. 

You see, when authoritative sites link to your content, search engines feel your content must be valuable and trustworthy. The result? Higher rankings in the search engines.

7. Use Keywords in Your URLs

Remember those keywords we looked at in step one? To boost an Squarespace site, make sure to include them in your URLs. 

You’ll also want to ensure your URLs are clean and easy to understand, especially for service or product pages. 

8. Optimize Your Domain Name

While domain names aren’t a direct SEO factor, they can impact the overall performance of your Squarespace website. 

For example, if someone wants a dentist in Chicago, do you think they’ll click on a site like www.chicagodentist.com or www.marymandyddc.com? 

9. Integrate With Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool for monitoring and maintaining your Google presence. Integrating it with Squarespace allows the two sites to share data and makes it easier to see where your SEO efforts are paying off and where they’re falling flat. 

10. Integrate With Google Business Profile

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, this is a step you can’t ignore as part of your Squarespace SEO strategy. Google Business Profile is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears in Google Maps and the search results. 

 

11. Create a Custom 404 Page

A 404 page is the page users see when they click on a link that doesn’t exist or has been moved but not redirected. But did you know that 404 pages can boost your SEO and improve user experience? 

12. Check Your SSL Settings

SSL certificates (secure sockets layer) encrypt the data that passes between your website and your server. It improves website security, making it crucial for all websites, especially e-commerce sites. 

Do they impact SEO on your Squarespace site, though? They certainly can.

SSL is not only a good idea, but also a Google ranking factor, which means enabling it is beneficial SEO.