Squarespace SEO (2023) — Simple Guide to Ranking | 12 Key Steps

Summary

In this Squarespace SEO guide by Matt Walsh from Style Factory, viewers are provided with 12 essential tips to enhance their site's visibility in search results. The guide covers registering with search engines, site speed optimization, keyword research, crafting compelling titles and meta descriptions, and utilizing rich snippets. It also emphasizes the importance of unique content, clean URLs, engaging blog posts, and building quality backlinks. The video promises to increase organic traffic and sales, with additional resources available in the description.

Takeaways

• 📌 Register your Squarespace site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help it get indexed faster.
• 🔍 Submit a sitemap to Google and Bing using Squarespace's automatically generated sitemap at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
• 🚀 Ensure your site loads quickly by minimizing web fonts, compressing images, limiting external scripts, and turning off animations.
• 🔑 Conduct keyword research to find popular and less competitive keywords for your products and pages using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.
• 🏷️ Use clear and keyword-focused titles for your pages and products, starting with the target keyword for better search engine categorization.
• 📚 Utilize headings properly (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to improve content accessibility and search engine indexing.
• 🌐 Write engaging meta descriptions that are short, accurate, and include target keywords to increase click-through rates.
• 📝 Make sure product titles and descriptions are unique to avoid duplicate content issues that search engines may penalize.
• 🖼️ Optimize image alt text and file names with focus keywords for better search engine understanding and accessibility.
• 🔗 Use clean, SEO-friendly URLs that are short and simple for better user experience and search engine preference.
• 📝 Add rich snippets with Schema markup to your products and pages to provide additional content information like star ratings or prices.
• ✍️ Use Squarespace's blogging tool to regularly post high-quality, informative posts to drive traffic and improve search rankings.
• 🔗 Build backlinks to your site by reaching out to other site owners in your niche for 'votes' of quality content, avoiding risky practices like buying links.

Q & A

What is the first step recommended for Squarespace SEO in the video?

The first step is to register your site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help it get indexed faster.

What is a sitemap and why is it important for Squarespace SEO?

A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the pages on your website. It's important for Squarespace SEO because it helps search engines like Google and Bing to crawl and index your site more efficiently.

Why should you avoid using a large number of web fonts on your Squarespace site?

Using a large number of web fonts can slow down your site's loading speed, which is a factor that search engines consider when ranking sites.

What is the purpose of keyword research in improving Squarespace SEO?

Keyword research helps identify popular and relevant keywords that users are searching for, allowing you to optimize your site's content to rank higher in search results.

How can you find out the popularity and ranking difficulty of your preferred keywords?

You can use dedicated keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to determine the popularity and ranking difficulty of your preferred keywords.

What is the significance of page and product titles in Squarespace SEO?

Page and product titles are significant because they are treated as key pieces of information by search engines when categorizing content, and they appear as the largest component of a search result.

Why is it recommended to use headings instead of bold text on Squarespace pages?

Using headings makes it easier for search engines to index content accurately and improves accessibility for users with visual impairments who use screen readers.

What role do meta descriptions play in Squarespace SEO?

Although not a direct ranking factor, well-written meta descriptions can encourage more clickthroughs to your website, and clickthrough rate is considered a ranking factor by search engines.

Why should product titles and descriptions on a Squarespace site be unique?

Unique titles and descriptions are preferred by search engine algorithms, as duplicate content can negatively affect your site's ranking in search results.

What is the importance of optimizing alt text and image names for images on a Squarespace site?

Optimizing alt text and image names helps search engines understand the content of the images on your site, which is a factor in the indexing process.

What does 'clean URLs' mean in the context of Squarespace SEO?

Clean URLs are short, simple, and easy to understand URLs that are encouraged by search engines like Google for better SEO.

How can rich snippets benefit a Squarespace site's SEO?

Rich snippets provide additional information about the content of a page or post, such as star ratings or prices, which can help search engines and users better understand the page, potentially improving clickthrough rates and rankings.

Why is it beneficial to use the Squarespace blog feature for SEO purposes?

Regularly posting high-quality, informative blog posts on relevant topics can improve a site's performance in search results, as search engines favor sites with fresh and engaging content.

What is the role of backlinks in Squarespace SEO and how can they be obtained?

Backlinks are considered 'votes' for the quality of content by search engines, improving the ranking of your site. They can be obtained by reaching out to other site owners in your niche and persuading them to link to your content.

What is the Style Factory SEO toolkit mentioned in the video and how can it help with Squarespace SEO?

The Style Factory SEO toolkit is a collection of resources designed to help improve SEO, including downloadable cheatsheets and extended free trials of popular SEO apps, which can provide further guidance and tools for boosting rankings.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Squarespace SEO Basics

Matt Walsh introduces the video guide on Squarespace SEO, emphasizing the importance of high search rankings for organic traffic and sales. He suggests registering the site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submitting a sitemap, and ensuring fast site loading. He also touches on the significance of keyword research to identify 'sweet spots' for traffic generation and advises using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush for this purpose.

05:04

🚀 Enhancing Squarespace SEO with Content and Technical Tweaks

This section delves into the technical aspects of Squarespace SEO, including optimizing page and product titles with target keywords, using headings effectively, and crafting engaging meta descriptions. It also advises on avoiding duplicate content, optimizing alt text and image names, and using clean URLs. Additionally, it introduces the concept of rich snippets and the importance of a Squarespace blog for driving traffic, as well as the value of backlinks in improving SEO rankings.

10:05

🛠️ Final Tips for Boosting Squarespace SEO

The final paragraph wraps up the video with additional SEO tips, such as the importance of unique product titles and descriptions, the use of Schema markup for rich snippets, and leveraging the Squarespace blog for SEO. It also highlights the significance of backlinks and advises against buying links or engaging in risky link swap schemes. The paragraph concludes with a mention of the free Style Factory SEO toolkit for further resources on boosting SEO rankings.

Keywords

💡Squarespace SEO

Squarespace SEO refers to the practice of optimizing a website built on the Squarespace platform to rank higher in search engine results. The video's theme revolves around this concept, providing a step-by-step guide on how to achieve better search rankings. For example, the script mentions various techniques such as registering the site with Google Search Console and optimizing alt text for images.

💡Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their website's presence in Google Search results. In the context of the video, it is highlighted as a crucial first step in Squarespace SEO, emphasizing the importance of telling search engines that your site exists.

💡Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is a service that allows webmasters to interact with the Bing search engine and presents information about their websites' presence in the Bing index. The script mentions registering the site with Bing Webmaster Tools alongside Google Search Console to help get the site indexed faster.

💡Sitemap

A sitemap is a file where all of the pages on a website are listed. It allows web crawlers or search engines to crawl the site more efficiently. The video script explains that Squarespace automatically generates a sitemap, which is essential for submitting to search consoles to facilitate faster indexing.

💡Page Speed

Page speed refers to how quickly a website's pages load on a user's browser. The video emphasizes the importance of a fast-loading site for SEO, as search engines favor quicker sites. Techniques such as image compression and minimizing external scripts are suggested to improve page speed.

💡Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of discovering which search terms people enter into search engines when looking for content or products similar to what a website offers. The video describes it as a vital part of improving search rankings, with tools like Ahrefs or Semrush recommended for identifying 'sweet spots' in keyword popularity and competition.

💡Page and Product Titles

In the context of SEO, page and product titles are critical as they serve as the main headline for a webpage and significantly influence how search engines categorize content. The script advises starting titles with the target keyword and provides instructions on how to edit these titles in Squarespace.

💡Headings

Headings are used in HTML to define headings and subheadings within content. The video script suggests using proper headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) instead of bold text to structure content, which aids search engine indexing and accessibility for those using screen readers.

💡Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are short snippets that describe a page's content and appear in search results under the page title. Although not a direct ranking factor, a compelling meta description can improve click-through rates, which indirectly affects SEO. The script advises keeping meta descriptions concise, accurate, and including target keywords.

💡Unique Content

Unique content refers to material that is original and not duplicated from other sources. The video warns against using the 'Duplicate' feature in Squarespace excessively, as it can lead to similar or duplicated titles and descriptions, which search engines may penalize.

💡Alt Text

Alt text is an HTML attribute used to describe the content of an image for search engines and users who may not be able to view the image. The script explains the importance of optimizing alt text with target keywords while ensuring it makes sense for screen reader users.

💡Clean URLs

Clean URLs are straightforward, readable web addresses that are preferred by search engines for SEO purposes. The video script advises using short, simple, and understandable URLs, and provides guidance on how to edit and redirect URLs in Squarespace to prevent broken links.

💡Rich Snippets

Rich snippets are a type of structured data that provides additional information about a page's content, such as star ratings or prices, which can enhance search result listings. The script mentions adding Schema markup code to Squarespace pages or products to implement rich snippets.

💡Blogging

Blogging refers to the creation and updating of blog posts, which can drive traffic to a website. The video script encourages using Squarespace's blogging tool to regularly post informative content related to the product niche, which can improve search rankings.

💡Backlinks

Backlinks, or inbound links, are links from one website to another. They are considered an important aspect of SEO as they act as 'votes' for content quality. The video script discusses the value of earning backlinks naturally through high-quality content and warns against practices like buying links or participating in risky link swap schemes.

Highlights

Introduction to a guide on Squarespace SEO with tips for high search rankings.

Reminder to subscribe and enable notifications for Squarespace content.

Importance of registering your site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for faster indexing.

Submission of a sitemap to search engines using Squarespace's automatic generation feature.

Optimizing site speed by minimizing web fonts, compressing images, and limiting external scripts.

The necessity of keyword research to identify popular and less competitive search terms.

Use of tools like Ahrefs or Semrush for effective keyword research.

Ensuring page and product titles are clear, start with the target keyword, and are edited via Squarespace's SEO settings.

Proper use of headings to improve content accessibility and search engine indexing.

Crafting engaging meta descriptions to increase clickthrough rates and potentially improve rankings.

The uniqueness of product titles and descriptions to avoid duplicate content penalties.

Optimizing alt text and image names for better search engine understanding of visual content.

Advocating for clean, SEO-friendly URLs to enhance user and search engine experience.

The use of redirects to avoid broken links when changing URLs, especially for high-performing pages.

Adding rich snippets to products and pages for better understanding by search engines and users.

Leveraging the Squarespace blog feature to drive traffic with informative and in-depth posts.

The significance of backlinks as 'votes' for content quality and their impact on SEO rankings.

Advice against buying links or participating in risky link swap schemes to maintain site integrity.

Introduction of the Style Factory SEO toolkit for further resources and SEO app trials.

Transcripts

Hey there, it’s Matt Walsh from Style Factory, the go-to site for ecommerce reviews and advice.

In this guide to Squarespace SEO, I’m going to walk you through the key steps you need

to take to ensure that your Squarespace site ranks highly in search results.

So stay tuned to the end to get all our tips on how to increase your site’s organic traffic

and sales.

But before I get going, a quick reminder to subscribe to our channel and click the notifications

bell.

This means you won’t miss out on any of our Squarespace content going forward.

OK, let’s start with something that's quick and easy to do, but also very important — telling

search engines that your site exists.

One — register your site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools.

Registering a site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools is a key starting

point for Squarespace SEO.

By registering your site with these services, you’re telling Google and Bing about your

website and helping it to get indexed faster.

Once you’ve registered your site with these two services, you then need to submit a sitemap

to them.

​​Helpfully, Squarespace generates a sitemap automatically for you — it’s simply yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

In both Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, you submit this sitemap URL by going

to your site’s dashboard, and then clicking ‘sitemaps.’

Two — ensure your Squarespace site is loading quickly.

Search engines give fast sites preference over slower ones.

To ensure that your Squarespace site loads as quickly as possible,

avoid using a large number of web fonts on your site

use image compression tools like Tiny Png to reduce the size of your store’s pictures

keep use of external scripts on your store to a minimum

switch off animation effects

Three — do your keyword research.

A vital part of improving your Squarespace site's search rankings is ensuring that your

store’s pages and products contain the keywords that people are actually searching for.

This means performing keyword research.

Keyword research involves finding out three things:

the keywords that people are using when looking for sites or products like yours

the volume of searches for those keywords how difficult it is to rank for each keyword

When you have these three pieces of information, you can identify ‘sweet spots’ – keywords

that are popular enough to generate a good amount of traffic, without being so popular

that there are lots of other sites already dominating search results for them.

Getting this data involves using dedicated keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.

These let you find out how popular your preferred keywords are, and how difficult it will be

to rank for them.

You’ll find links to some videos about how to use Ahrefs and Semrush for keyword research

in the video description, along with free trials for both products.

Four — get your page and product titles right.

One of the most important elements of a web page is its title.

Search engines treat it as a key piece of information when categorizing your content,

and your title shows up as the largest component of a search result.

You should ensure that your Squarespace web page titles are never vague in nature, and

always start with your target keyword.

To edit your home page title in Squarespace, click Marketing > SEO in your site’s dashboard.

Then, use the options provided to enter your home page title.

To edit other page titles, just navigate to your page in your Squarespace dashboard, click

the cog icon and the SEO tab.

Then, edit your title using the ‘SEO Title Format’ field provided.

Editing titles for products and blog posts involves a similar process — you’ll find

a link to our guide on doing this in the video description.

Five — use headings properly.

Instead of using bold text to break up the text for your Squarespace pages or products,

always apply Heading 1s, 2s, 3s and so on to do so.

This will make it much easier for search engines to index your content accurately, and will

also make it more accessible to any of your store visitors who have a visual impairment

and use screen readers.

Six — use engaging meta descriptions.

Meta descriptions are the summaries of web pages that appear under page titles in search

results.

Although Google says that they aren’t a ranking factor, a well-written meta description

can encourage more clickthroughs to your website.

And because the clickthrough rate of a search result IS considered a ranking factor, it’s

important to get meta descriptions right.

Your meta description for your Squarespace products and pages should:

be short (120 to 156 characters in length is best)

be accurate include your target keywords.

To edit your home page's meta description in Squaresapce, click Marketing > SEO and

enter it into the ‘SEO site description’ field provided.

To edit a meta description for other types of pages, locate your page, post or product

in your Squarespace dashboard, access its SEO settings, and use the same ‘SEO site

description’ field to enter the relevant information.

Seven — ensure your product titles and descriptions are unique.

A common way of speeding up the process of adding content or products to a Squarespace

site involves using the 'Duplicate’ option.

While this is a quick way to add a new page or product to your Squarespace site, it can

lead to a lot of similar or even entirely duplicated titles and descriptions being created.

This is something that search engines algorithms don’t like, so always remember to make your

titles and descriptions as unique as possible.

Eight — optimize your alt text and image names.

Search engines don’t just examine the words on your website when indexing it — they

factor in its images too.

To do this, they look at two bits of data associated with your pictures: ‘alt text’

and file names.

To add alt text to images on Squarespace pages or posts, it’s usually a case of navigating

to your page or post, locating the relevant picture and double clicking on it.

You’ll then see a box appear containing an image alt text field.

Enter your alt text in here, making sure that it contains any necessary target keywords

— while still making sense to those using screen readers.

As for optimizing file names, this involves a similar process — locate your image, double

click on it and enter a file name into the ‘filename’ field provided.

When doing this, ensure that your focus keyword is in the file name, and that the file name

is short.

Now, it’s worth saying that the process for editing alt text and file names varies

slightly depending on whether you’re working with embedded images, background images or

product images.

There’s a link to a resource in the video description which explains the different processes

in more depth.

Nine — use clean URLS.

Using ‘clean’, SEO-friendly URLs is something that is encouraged by Google.

Clean URLs are short, simple and easy to understand.

For example, if you were selling a blue guitar on your store, it would be better to use a

URL slug of blue-guitar for the relevant product page instead of something long and complicated.

To edit a URL in Squarespace, go to the page, product or post you wish to edit, access its

settings, and locate its URL.

Then, enter your URL into the 'URL’ field into the box provided.

Now, if you are changing an existing URL, you’ll need to create a redirect to it.

You can do this in Settings > Advanced > URL mappings.

Doing so prevents users (and Google!) encountering broken links, and lets Google know that you

have changed the URL.

Now, changing the URLs of pages that aren't currently performing well in search results

is usually fine — but if you’re thinking about changing the URL of a page that IS already

ranking highly, it’s often best to take an ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix’ it

approach.

Changing the URL of a popular page can also affect its 'social proof', because it will

reset the stats displayed on your social shares counter for that page to zero.

Ten — add rich snippets to your products and pages

Rich snippets are pieces of 'structured data' that can be added to your content to help

search engines and users understand what a page is about.

Rich snippets provide additional information about the content of a product, page or post

— for example, star ratings, author or prices.

To do this you’ll need to manually add some Schema markup code to your Squarespace pages

or products.

You’ll find a link to a resource to help you with this in the video description.

Eleven — use your Squarespace blog to drive traffic.

Sites that feature in-depth, informative blog posts on topics that people are interested

in tend to perform much better in search results than those that don’t.

Squarespace comes with a really good blogging tool, so make sure you make the most of it

— you should aim to regularly post high-quality posts about key topics in your product niche.

You can learn more about how to blog effectively in our video about increasing blog traffic.

You’ll find a link to this in top right corner of the screen, or in the video description

below.

Twelve — build backlinks to your site.

Backlinks are links from another site to yours, and they are a really important part of SEO.

This is because search engines view backlinks as ‘votes’ for the quality of a piece

of content.

Generally speaking, the more backlinks you have to the products and pages on your Squarespace

site, the better they’ll rank in search results.

To get backlinks, you usually have to ‘reach out’ to other site owners in your niche

and persuade them to link to your content.

This can be hard — but it’s easier to do if the content you’ve created on your

store is really strong.

One thing that you should generally avoid doing is buying links — search engines are

wise to this practice and can penalize your site in search results if they discover evidence

of it.

Link swap schemes can be risky too.

And that’s it: 12 key tips to help you improve your Squarespace SEO.

I hope you’ve found this video useful, but if you’re interested in learning even more

about how to boost your rankings, check out the free Style Factory SEO toolkit.

This contains a host of useful resources including downloadable cheatsheets and extended free

trials of popular SEO apps, and you’ll find a link

to it in the video description.