Your Ultimate Squarespace SEO Guide

Website traction is not about a beautifully designed website with stunning images; it's about whether the site is optimized for SEO. Such a site will rank high on search engines and be seen by internet users searching for your Squarespace store.

In this Squarespace SEO guide, we'll give you some tried and tested tips to ensure that your site gets noticed by search engines, so your customers can find you.

Is Squarespace good for SEO?

Squarespace comes with built-in SEO tools, so website owners don't need to worry about the technical aspects of SEO. Understanding how to use these tools to optimize your site is crucial to your online success.

The problem is, it's not as simple as that. SEO is complicated and difficult to get right. Even with Squarespace's SEO abilities, you have to know what you're doing to get good results.

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The Squarespace sales pitch is that it comes optimized for SEO, but the reality is website owners can't just leave SEO up to Squarespace. That is why we offer you this Squarespace SEO tutorial 2023.

Look through a short video guide with tips on how to set up your new store right after you’ve transferred the data from your previous store into it:

How to do good Squarespace SEO?

In this Squarespace SEO tutorial for beginners, we will discuss tips to improve SEO fro Squarespace.

1. Turn on SSL

Google gives preference to sites that are secure. Squarespace offers a free SSL certificate; turn it on.

2. Do keyword research

Keywords are the basis of SEO for Squarespace. The core of Squarespace SEO is keyword research. Keyword research will help you find the best keywords to target, giving you insight into the terms your target audience use to find you and businesses like yours.

A good keyword research tool is invaluable for this purpose.

3. Use a custom domain name

One way to do this is to use keywords in your domain name, which will give an indication of what your site is about. Choose a keyword targeted to your audience to include in your domain name. It should be relevant to your business. Choose a top-level domain extension like .com, .org, or .net. and keep your domain name short and easy to remember.

4. Customize your URLs

Customize your URLs by using keywords in them. Your URLs should make sense, especially for product and service pages. The URL should be descriptive, short, indicative of the content, and easy to understand.

Tip: URLs should be based on user needs rather than the name of a product or service.

Short and clean URLs do well on search engines and users also trust them more.

Note: look through the Cart2Cart Blog for useful tips & tricks on how to migrate data across various shopping cart solutions.

5. Organize your content with tags and/or categories

Google likes to navigate through organized content. Make life easy for Google with tags and/or categories. Also, add image tags to help Google.

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6. Post high-quality content

Write and post superior content that is well-written, of a certain length, and offers useful information that adds value.

7. Optimize content length

Content length that ranks well ranges between 1,300 and 2,000 words.

8. Use good formatting principles

Your writing should have a heading and several subheadings. Use short paragraphs to make the work more readable. Break the writing up with bullet points, and use italics and bold to highlight content.

9. Invite blog comments

Comments on your blogs are a great way to engage with your audience and find out more about them. You can use the information to better target your audience.

10. Respond to comments

Responding to comments from your site visitors is a way to give your business a human face and people actually engage with people, not entities.

11. Optimize your blog images.

Use high-definition images that you compress so they don't slow down your page loading time.

12. Use internal links

Use internal links that link to other content on your site. Google is responsive to internal links.

13. Build backlinks

Building backlinks is great for Squarespace SEO. You get the most out of backlinks if you use them to link to good content on sites relevant to your website content. Search engines promote pages that feature many backlinks.

14. Use related posts plugins

You can also links that refer to related posts. There are plugins that do that for you automatically. This trick is great for sales and for SEO for Squarespace.

15. Use external links

This is another practice that is favored by Google. Link to other websites whenever applicable.

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16. Post regularly

The intervals between publishing content are not as important as posting regularly. The point is to produce high-quality content regularly.

17. Optimize your meta description

Meta descriptions are those short blurbs displayed on the Search Engine Results Page. Users read it to see what the page is about. It's often the thing that makes users decide to click on a page, so pay attention to your meta descriptions.

FAQs

Can Squarespace sites rank on Google?

Yes, Squarespace websites can indeed rank on Google and other search engines. Squarespace provides a solid foundation for implementing good SEO practices, and many Squarespace websites have achieved high search engine rankings. However, like any website, the success of ranking on Google depends on various factors and the effort you put into optimizing your site.

Here are some factors to consider when aiming to rank your Squarespace site on Google:

  • Content Quality and Relevance
  • On-Page Optimization
  • Site Structure and Navigation
  • Mobile Responsiveness
  • Image Optimization
  • Page Speed Optimization
  • External Links and Backlinks
  • Structured Data Markup
  • XML Sitemap Submission
  • Monitor Analytics
  • Consistency and Patience

SEO takes time to yield results. Consistently apply best practices and monitor your progress over time.

What's the best template for Squarespace SEO?

Squarespace has several templates that are excellent for SEO. One of them is the Bergen Template. The good news is you don't have to pay for it. It’s a free template from the latest version of Squarespace.

If you use Bergen, search engines can easily find your website. The template allows access to the whole range of Squarespace SEO tools.

This template doesn't have too many elements – it is ready for you to tailor to your needs. In addition, the loading speed is above average and that applies across all devices.

Is WordPress better for SEO than Squarespace?

Both platforms have SEO capabilities out of the box. Squarespace has a lot of SEO features, including custom URLs, responsive content, generating an XML sitemap, URL redirections, and more.

WordPress also has great SEO features out of the box, but the platform also has a phletora of SEO apps for users to optimize their sites for SEO. However, to get the best out of WordPress in terms of SEO, you really need to be able to code.

So, while WordPress has more to offer, most people will get more out of Squarespace because it's simpler to work with.

Does Squarespace have an SEO plugin?

No, Squarespace doesn't have an SEO plugin. That is because Squarespace comes with SEO built in.

Can you get good SEO with Squarespace?

Yes, Squarespace does offer good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) capabilities, and you can achieve effective search engine visibility with proper optimization practices. While Squarespace might not be as customizable as some other platforms, it provides several built-in tools and features that can help improve your website's SEO performance. Read the article to find more detailed information about the best tips & tricks to achieve good SEO with Squarespace.

While Squarespace provides tools to optimize your website for SEO, it's important to remember that SEO is an ongoing effort. Regularly monitoring your site's performance, keeping up with SEO best practices, and adapting to changes in search engine algorithms are essential for maintaining good SEO rankings.

Is Squarespace 7.1 better for SEO?

Squarespace 7.1 introduces some improvements that can positively impact SEO, but it's important to note that both Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1 versions offer solid SEO capabilities. Squarespace continually works to enhance its platform's SEO features, and while Squarespace 7.1 includes certain updates, the choice between versions may depend on your overall website design and functionality needs.

Ultimately, both Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1 can offer good SEO capabilities. Choose the version that best aligns with your website's design, functionality, and customization needs while keeping SEO best practices in mind. Regularly updating your content, optimizing metadata, and following SEO guidelines are crucial regardless of the version you choose.

Is Wix better than Squarespace SEO?

Both Wix and Squarespace offer SEO features that can help improve your website's search engine visibility, but the effectiveness of SEO depends on various factors, including your website's content, structure, and optimization efforts.

Ultimately, both Wix and Squarespace can provide effective SEO capabilities, but your choice should be based on a holistic assessment of your website's needs and your comfort with the platform. Consistently implementing SEO best practices, producing high-quality content, and engaging in link-building efforts are essential regardless of the platform you choose.

We hope you find this basic Squarespace SEO tutorial useful.

Are you planning to migrate your store? If you are thinking to migrate from your existing store to another one, the Cart2Cart Shopping Cart Migration tool can accomplish it for you with no fuss. Ours is an advanced automated migration tool that transfers all your data to another platform quickly, and securely.