A Beginner’s Guide to Smarter SEO in Squarespace
Each week, I sit behind this screen and dutifully tap away at my keyboard so I can share awesome content with you. As bloggers, we all know how great consistently posting can be for our brand. The next piece of the puzzle is making sure you’re getting your content in front of the right people. The answer? SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
It sounds techy and advanced, but SEO is basically Google taking a look at your post and deciding where to put it in search results. This allows Google to ensure that when someone searches for something on the web, that first page of results is going to show high-quality answers. If you’re new to the subject, I’d recommend checking out this free video course on SEO through the Google Digital Garage.
In this post I’m going to answer a few common questions you might be facing as you dive into optimizing your Squarespace site and then (this is where it gets good), I’ll be sharing the checklist I use to write each post on my website.
Is SEO in Squarespace good?
In short: yes! The article I linked in the last paragraph provides an up to date list of all the “under the hood” SEO features Squarespace offers. Are a lot of them over my head? Yep. The big highlights are mobile optimization, meta tags, redirects, clean URLs, and a site map.
Oftentimes the “good” part of SEO comes down to your ability to research keywords and write posts following SEO best practices that Google recommends (see my checklist below).
However, there are a few things that are good to check off when you start optimizing your website SEO that are a bit more on the backend. This post by Squarespace is extremely thorough on lots of topics, but especially focus on the “Before Publishing” section for a list of things to do that aren’t necessarily related to the posts themselves. This includes site title, description, SEO page descriptions, adding a 404 page, making sure your URL structure is how you want it, and ensuring SSL is activated.
Does WordPress have better SEO than Squarespace?
I feel like “Squarespace vs. Wordpress” is one of the most common questions asked by people starting a website. While each platform has its differences, I truly believe that it ends up coming down to you and the content you provide. Minor differences in a web platform aren’t going to decide your success in the endeavor you choose.
I used to have a Wordpress website and SEO was a large reason I thought I should go with it. You can download a ton of popular plugins like Yoast, which are referenced a ton in how-to articles for SEO success. Squarespace isn’t as big on the plug-ins, which can make it seem like it’s lacking in functionality.
However, in this article, Squarespace references how all the functionality you would expect in an SEO plug-in is already built into their site. It’s important to remember that SEO plugins are often more like checklists as you write your post, not providing the actual SEO itself. Pair that with the modern and user-friendly design and the intuitive platform and I think that makes Squarespace a real winner.
“Squarespace has the technical side covered for you—there’s no need to search for plugins or get under the hood.”
My Squarespace SEO Checklist for Writing Blog Posts
Let me start this section with a gentle reminder that SEO can be overwhelming and complicated at times. Remember that it’s more of a marathon than a sprint, especially if you’re writing evergreen content. Start small, keep learning, and set your sights on a fully optimized website 🤓
I use this checklist as a reminder of the basic things I need to do each and every time I write a blog post. It could surely be more advanced but it’s currently tailored to the time and schedule I have so feel free to add or subtract to find the right fit for you.
My SEO Basics Checklist
After selecting a topic, do keyword research in Ubersuggest for 3 keywords related to that topic.
Write a headline using my top keyword and consider including 1 power word as long as it doesn’t make it sound spammy.
Use Google to brainstorm questions I could answer in the article. I do this by looking at the dropdowns in the “People Also Ask” section
When writing the post, be sure to sprinkle in the keyword where it naturally fits.
Use H2 headings to break up the content into digestible chunks. Sprinkle keywords into H2 titles where it makes sense.
Make sure images have purposeful titles describing what it is and a keyword if possible. Use this info to fill out the alt text section when you upload the image.
After publishing the post, add the categories, tags, and post description in the blog post settings.
