Your Quick-Start Guide to Master Squarespace SEO
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I saw someone post today in a Squarespace Facebook group I’m in, asking about Squarespace SEO. I rattled (a shortened) version of this off in a reply comment, then thought, hey, that’d make a good blog post!
My best ideas come when someone asks me a question and starts a dialogue.
I don’t know about you, but when I try to think of something on the spot, my brain goes completely blank. If you asked me to pick my favorite song, my brain would go ‘what even IS a song?’. But if we had a discussion on music and songs, I could give you an extensive history on the Beatles and why In My Life is my all-time favorite.
Anyhoodle, all that to say, I was inspired to write this Squarespace SEO post for you. I know SEO is a HUGE topic and there are so many layers and nuances and it can be overwhelming. So I wanted to provide you a quick start guide to getting started.
01. Figure Out Who Your Ideal Client Is
Understanding who your ideal client is forms the foundation of effective SEO - on Squarespace or any platform. This ensures your SEO efforts are targeted and effective.
Define Your Audience: Consider demographics, interests, and what problems they're looking to solve.
Analyze Client Behavior: Look at existing clients to understand common characteristics and preferences.
Until I create my own resource, I always recommend Tonic’s (free) Attract and Repel guide for this.
02. Conduct Interviews With Your Ideal Clients (If Possible)
Whenever possible, direct interviews with clients or potential clients can offer invaluable insights. You can find out important things like:
Who are you talking to?
What are they looking for?
What are words or phrases do they use when describing their pain points or ideal solution?
These conversations can highlight what terms or phrases they use when searching for your services online.
Prepare Open-Ended Questions: These allow for more detailed responses.
Analyze Responses for Common Themes: Use these insights to guide your SEO strategy.
03. Research SEO Keywords
If you don’t know much about SEO, you probably (maybe) know at least that SEO keywords are considered important.
Keywords are the cornerstone of SEO.
Tools like Keywords Everywhere can be a low-cost, effective way to identify the terms and phrases your potential clients are using. (Keywords Everywhere is what I currently use. It’s currently $12 a year for the basic level.)
Use Tools for Research: Look for keywords with high search volume but moderate competition.
Understand Search Intent: Align your keywords with what your clients are actually looking for.
TIP: I find using long-tail keywords is easier to target for, especially when you’re just getting started!
Keywords Everywhere gives you search results. Say you’re a relationship coach in Portland, OR, looking up SEO Keywords to use on your website.
You’ll see lots of stuff value if you have your extension turned on:
‘People Also Ask’ (TIP -this section is great to use for FAQs on your website!)
On the right-hand column, you’ll see:
Metrics
Related Keywords
People Also Search For
Long-tail Keywords (not pictured, my screenshot cut off, sorry!)
I know if you’re totally new to SEO, this part takes awhile to get, but hopefully you’ll find this bit a good jumping off point.
04. Incorporate Keywords Into Your Site Title & Meta Description
Your site title, meta description, and headers (H1, H2, H3, & H4) are prime real estate for SEO.
Incorporating keywords here boosts your site’s visibility.
DO use natural language, and DON’T keyword stuff.
Balance SEO with Readability: Ensure keywords fit naturally into your content.
Be Specific and Relevant: Tailor your titles and descriptions to accurately reflect the content of your page.
Recommendations for Site Tile and Meta Description
SITE TITLE: Squarespace recommends you keep the title under 60 characters and include one or more keywords.
META DESCRIPTION: Add a site description - Add a short (50-300 characters), relevant, readable description of your site to your SEO site description.
Note: In addition to your site title, you can add a page title and meta description to each page.
05. Optimize Your Site Images and Videos
Optimized images and videos can significantly improve your site's SEO performance.
When I create websites for my clients, I ALWAYS painstakingly compress and resize every single provided or sourced photo to ensure their not enormously-sized. When you have large photos or videos, they take longer to load on your site, leading to high bounce rates (people getting impatient and peacing out) which then negatively affects your site’s SEO.
Compress Files: This reduces load time, crucial for SEO.
Use Descriptive File Names: Include SEO keywords in your image and video file names.
Squarespace offers a few additional tips:
Add alt text to images - In addition to increasing accessibility for visitors who use assistive screen readers, alt text also helps search engines identify the content of a page.
Give your images readable file names - Image file names may also be used as alt text. Follow our best practices when creating your image file names.
Keep your pages nimble - To ensure your site loads well, we recommend keeping images under 500 KB and overall page size under 5 MB.
Read more👉 How Do I Optimize Images in Squarespace?
06. Create Consistent, Helpful Blog Post Content
SEO is not just a set it once and forget it deal. You need to put in the work. ESPECIALLY if you’re in a competitive industry.
Regularly updating your site with relevant content and targets SEO keywords is a surefire way to improve your SEO. Blog posts are an excellent way to do this.
Focus on Quality and Relevance: Content should be informative and interesting to your audience.
Use Keywords Strategically: Incorporate them in a way that feels natural and adds value.
If you’re an AI user, you can use ChatGPT to help generate ideas, but please for the love of god do not use it to create blog posts. The content is tired, regurgitated, and now that it’s been around awhile, it’s over-use of certain words (Unleash, Delve Into, and so on) is a dead giveaway that you didn’t write it yourself.
Read more 👉 7 Benefits of Blogging For Your Business
06a. Keep Writing Helpful Content in Perpetuity (😅)
Consistency is key in the realm of SEO — and, TBH, in online business and entrepreneurship overall.
Regularly updating your site with fresh, relevant content keeps your audience engaged and improves your search engine ranking.
Plan a Content Calendar: This helps in maintaining a steady flow of content.
Notepad: Keep a list of ongoing ideas so you’ll always have something to inspire, even when you’re feeling meh.
Listen to Your Audience: Adapt your content based on feedback and engagement metrics.
07. Use SEOSpace to Continually Refine and Update
SEOSpace (affiliate link) is an easy-to-use, jargon-free SEO plugin made specifically for Squarespace users. It provides Squarespace users with actionable insights to improve their rankings and get more organic traffic to their website.
They have a Chrome extension, and they offer both free and paid plans. It is the current darling of the Squarespace SEO world, so give the free version a whirl and see what you think.
08. Increased Traffic and Interest
SEO is a long-term strategy. After 3-9 months-ish of consistent effort, you should see increased traffic and interest.
Sometimes you’ll see quicker results, but by the same token, depending on how crowded your industry is, sometimes it’ll take longer.
Be Patient: SEO growth is gradual.
Analyze and Adapt: Use analytics to understand what's working and refine your approach accordingly.
Key Takeways
So, you've made it through the essential steps to start working on your Squarespace site's SEO.
Great job! It's a process that takes time and effort, but it's totally worth it.
Understand who your ideal client is.
Chat with people, if you can, to get insights.
Use tools like Keywords Everywhere for finding the right keywords.
Add those keywords into your site’s title, descriptions, and headers.
Make sure your images and videos are optimized.
Keep your site filled with fresh and interesting content.
Regularly use tools like SEOSpace to keep making your site better.
SEO is about making sure the right people find and love your site.
It's about being seen and creating a space that really speaks to your visitors.
Stick with these steps, be ready to adapt, and you'll see more and more people checking out your Squarespace website.
