SEO for Squarespace: How to Rank Well on Google
You want your website to be loved by the parties that matter: yourself (of course!), your customers, and…Google.
A lot of people forget about that third one. You see all these stunning, flashy websites all over Pinterest and you think, “I want a website like that.”
But what good is a beautiful website if nobody can find it?
That’s where SEO comes in. The acronym stands for search engine optimization, or a list of things you can do to get your website to rank higher in search results on search engine websites (aka: Google).
If you’re a small business owner, you’ve likely heard of it. Maybe you’ve even sat down to look into it and shut your laptop feeling confused and overwhelmed (which is completely understandable).
That’s why we’re breaking down all things SEO for Squarespace today. These are our top tips and actionable steps to help your website rank well on Google — and get more traffic!
A Few FAQs Before We Dive In…
Why is SEO important for your business?
If you aren’t prioritizing SEO on your website, you’re losing business to your competitors who are.
Sure, there are many other strategies to market your business and generate leads, but many require ongoing effort and time.
Imagine that you’re relaxing on the couch watching your favorite show, or you’re at the park with your family on a sunny day. You get an email that someone has purchased your product or scheduled an appointment with you. You ask them how they found you, and they say, “I just searched on Google and your business came up!”
That’s the dream, right?
And you didn’t have to do anything in the moment because you already set yourself up for success online with a high-converting website and SEO strategies that drive traffic to it.
The bottom line: leveraging SEO can help you achieve big results for your business for months and years to come.
Are the SEO tips in this blog only applicable to Squarespace websites?
While this blog is all about SEO for Squarespace (because that’s the website platform we specialize in), you should know that these tips are not exclusive to Squarespace. They’re applicable to all website platforms! Whether you’re on WordPress, Wix, or something else, you can implement these strategies on your website for SEO success.
Squarespace is our go-to platform for small business websites because it’s low maintenance, easy for our clients to use, and has many baked-in features to make business owners’ lives easier (among many other things!).
Is Squarespace good for SEO?
Maybe you’ve heard that some platforms are better than others for SEO. Maybe someone has even told you that Squarespace is bad for SEO and that you should switch to their platform.
The truth is — it doesn’t matter what platform you’re on, as long as you’re optimizing it!
6 Steps to an SEO-Friendly Website
1) Find Your SEO Keywords
Before you can implement your SEO tactics and strategies, you’ll need a few good keywords.
Keywords are the foundation of every SEO strategy. Simply put, keywords are the words and phrases that people type in to find things on Google (i.e. “contractor in Nashville”, “snickerdoodle cookie recipe”, “SEO company San Diego”).
Where do I find good SEO keywords?
To find your keywords, you’ll need to do some research. Our favorite tools for this are Ubersuggest (this is what we use!) and Google Keyword Planner.
We love Ubersuggest because it’s easy to find quality keywords. The free version allows you to search three different keywords per day. The other option, Google Keyword Planner, lets you perform unlimited searches, but it can be more difficult to find what you’re looking for.
For the purposes of this example, let’s head over to Ubersuggest. Type in 1-3 phrases that describe your business and hit the search button. Let’s say you’re a florist in Charleston. You can type in something like “florist Charleston” and dozens of related keyword ideas will come up.
(Pro Tip: if you’re a local business, be sure to include your city or the area you serve in your keyword phrases.)
You’ll see a results page like this:
How do I choose which SEO keywords to use?
You’re looking at two key metrics here: volume (the number of searches for this keyword per month) and SEO difficulty (a number from 1-100 that tells you how competitive each keyword is).
You want to use keywords that are a good mix of high volume (meaning enough people are searching for this keyword) and low SEO difficulty. Staying in the green range for SEO difficulty is ideal, but if your industry is really competitive, a low number in the yellow range is acceptable. Just ignore the pink ones.
For this example, we have several ideal options to choose from!
How many SEO keywords do I need?
It’s a best practice to have one focus keyword for every page of your website. If our Charleston florist website has four pages, we’d need a keyword for each page.
Based on the search volume and SEO difficulty in these results, we’d choose:
Florist charleston sc
Florist charleston south carolina
Florist in charleston south carolina
Florist in charleston sc
You might be thinking, “Okay, cool. Now what the heck do I do with these keywords?!” Keep reading and we’ll tell you everything!
2) Implement Your SEO Keywords on Your Website
On-page SEO is just what it sounds like — working your SEO keywords into each page on your website.
Here are some key places you’ll want to incorporate those A+ SEO keywords you just researched.
Sprinkle your SEO keywords throughout the heading and paragraph content on your page.
When Google’s robots “crawl” the pages on your website, you want them to be able to see your keywords peppered throughout the copy.
Try to add your focus keyword in these places on each page:
Your H1 tag (heading 1) if it makes sense
At least one H2 tag (heading 2)
The first 100 words of copy
Wherever else it makes sense in your copy
Remember that Google is smart and can tell when it’s being tricked, so only incorporate your focus keywords in your copy where it feels natural to do so. Avoid “keyword stuffing” or using your keyword too many times on your page — this can negatively impact your ranking.
Make sure you’re following the correct heading hierarchy.
Squarespace gives you four heading options: heading 1, heading 2, heading 3, and heading 4.
What to know about heading hierarchy for SEO:
There should only be one heading 1 per page.
You should only use headings in the correct order. Meaning, don’t skip from an H2 to an H4 without using an H3 in-between.
Google loves websites with content that is structured in an orderly manner, so this is important!
Optimize your page’s SEO title and description.
SEO titles and descriptions (also known as meta titles and meta descriptions) are what you see in Google search results. They describe the page and what content you’ll find on it.
Here’s an example:
If you don’t manually optimize these, Google will pull from the copy you have on the website page. When this happens, it most likely won’t look clear or intentional, and the content it pulls won’t entice users to click on your website to get more information.
In the example above, our focus SEO keyword for that page is “small business consulting” so we made sure to work that into our title.
To edit your SEO title in Squarespace:
Go to Pages.
Hover over the page and click the gear icon.
Click SEO in the left sidebar.
Enter your page title in the space for SEO title.
For best results, keep your title under 60 characters.
To edit your SEO description in Squarespace:
Go to Pages.
Hover over the page and click the gear icon.
Click SEO in the left sidebar.
Enter your page description in the space for SEO description.
For best results, keep your description between 75-100 characters. (Google will cut it off if it’s too long!)
Google doesn’t need to see your focus keyword in your SEO description. Focus on using clear, actionable language (ie: learn, read, view, browse, etc.) to entice searchers to click.
3) Optimize your image files for search
When Google’s robots search your page, they can “see” your images, too.
Okay, they can’t actually see what they look like, but they can read the file names and the “alt text”.
1. Rename Your Images
If your images have file names like IMG_7739.jpg, you’re missing out on opportunities for Google to see your focus keyword.
Rename your image files to include your keyword, like: “banner-image-florist-charleston-sc.jpg”.
2. Add Alt Text
The purpose of alt text is to help people who are visually impaired know what the images on your website are depicting.
Here, you’ll want to describe each image (while adding in your focus keywords). For example, if you have an image of a bride holding a bouquet of flowers on your website, your alt text could be “bride holding bouquet of peonies and greenery”.
You’d also want to add your focus keyword (only once) to the end of that sentence: “bride holding bouquet of peonies and greenery - florist charleston sc”.
4) Clean up and optimize your URLs
You can (and should!) customize your page URLs to add in your SEO keywords.
Have you ever seen a messy URL that looks something like this?
www.domainname.com/blog/5-03-22/38hs7rjv
Google doesn’t love this. It looks spammy and doesn’t describe what’s on the page, so it won’t help your rank. Instead, you’ll want to clean it up and add in your focus keywords.
www.domainname.com/blog/seo-tips-for-squarespace
This URL slug is short, descriptive and includes a focus keyword. Notice that each word is separated by a dash. This is because Google can’t read “seotipsforsquarespace,” and you can’t use spaces in URLs.
To edit the URL of a page in Squarespace:
Go to Pages.
Click the gear icon next to the page you want to optimize.
Add the new URL under URL slug.
Note that we don’t recommend changing the URL on your “core” pages (pages like contact, about, services, shop). You want those to be as simple and clean as possible. But go wild optimizing your blog post URLs and other interior pages!
5) Build a Custom 404 Page
You know when you click a broken link on a website, and it takes you to a page that says something like “Uh oh! That page no longer exists!”
That’s a 404 page. Google likes it when you make a custom one.
This is Squarespace’s basic 404 page. It’s boring, simple, and it doesn’t tell you where to go next.
People on the internet don’t have much patience for errors like this one. If your 404 page looks something like this, it’s an easy way to get users to bounce from your site.
Luckily, Squarespace allows you to create your own custom 404 page!
Ideas for What to Add to your 404 Page
Fun little touches that fit with your branding. Here are some geat examples of fun 404 pages that turn a frustrating error into a pleasant experience for users.
Links to other pages on your site. You need to help users find what they’re looking for! Route users back to your home page. Or, link to other pages on your website, like your services or product pages, your blog, or your contact page if they have a question or need help.
A contact or booking form. Help your clients get in touch with you directly or schedule a call with you — right on your 404 page.
How to Create a Custom 404 Page on Squarespace
Create a new page like you normally would.
Add content and blocks to your page using some of the ideas above.
When you’re done, head back to the main menu and click Design > 404 Page.
Choose your new page from the dropdown and hit save!
6) Create and Implement a Content Strategy
If you want your website to rank well on Google, you need a content strategy.
Think about it: the more pages you have on your website, the more content you have, and the more opportunities you have to rank for SEO keywords.
Two Options for Creating Content on Your Website
1. Create a blog and post consistently.
Good news: Google values consistency over quantity, so no need to burn yourself out writing two blogs a week. Blogging once or twice a month is just fine, as long as you do it consistently. So create a blogging schedule you know you can stick to and make it happen! *Pro Tip: Weekly blogging is a sweet spot!
2. Create a portfolio and add to it.
Don’t love writing? Portfolios are an excellent option for service-based businesses. If you’re an interior designer, you can post images from your latest projects along with a few paragraphs talking about the project.
If you’re a location-based business, this is an especially good opportunity to rank for location keywords.
How to Optimize Your Blog or Portfolio
Be sure to optimize each blog post or portfolio page by working through the best practices we mentioned above:
Perform keyword research to find a focus keyword for your blog post or portfolio piece.
Add your focus keyword to your title.
Optimize your SEO titles and descriptions.
Clean up your URL and add your focus keyword.
Properly name your image files and add alt text.
Work your focus keyword into the copy a few times.
When you can, link internally to other blog posts or portfolio pieces on your website. Google likes internal links!
Google loves a consistent content strategy. But beyond helping you rank higher on Google, it helps you look credible in the eyes of your customers and clients. It shows that your business is active and that you’re an expert in your field. Plus, it creates more opportunities for people to land on your website, whether that be through Google or social media.
How to Get Google to Love Your Website
These are just a few of the ways you can optimize your website for the search engines (oh yes —there’s a lot more!).
If reading all this felt overwhelming to you, take a deep breath, you don’t need to do all of these things right now. Even implementing a few of these steps can help improve your rank on Google.
Just pick a few of these strategies to tackle right now and work your way through the list. Remember that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
Feeling inspired to learn more about website design and strategy? Dig into some of our other blogs about improving your website! 👇🏼
P.S. If you need help with SEO for Squarespace, you can Schedule a Call with us to talk about what your needs are and how we can help Google ❤️ your website.
More soon,
Mara
WEB DESIGNER + SEO SPECIALIST
P.S.
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