Squarespace SEO Checklist: 8 Critical Steps
If you are struggling to increase traffic to your website from organic search (Google), your website probably isn’t optimized for Google. In this free DIY Squarespace SEO checklist I will walk you through 8 critical check-list items. Follow these essential steps to make sure your website is going to show up on Google.
If you’d like to get a customized Squarespace SEO checklist, you can use the free version of the SEO Squarespace plugin SEOSpace. It will scan your website, provide a site-wide audit (paid plan), and provide an SEO checklist with easy to follow steps.
Table of Contents
DIY Squarespace SEO Checklist
1) Put Keywords in your site-wide title and meta description
Customizing your site title and description is an opportunity to help Google understand who your website serves. This title and description will also be what is displayed on a search when Google ranks your homepage for a particular keyword or key phrase.
To customize your site title and meta description:
Click on the gear icon of your homepage
Choose “SEO”
Choose “Edit SEO Website Settings”
Put in a custom title and description using words that help identify who your website serves. Feel free to include a primary keyword or keywords that you want to rank for.
Save
2) Optimize individual SEO page title and meta descriptions
Each individual page has the same option to customize the title and description. Google will automatically pull content from the page if you don’t specify this content. However, it is an opportunity to clarify what the page contains and add specific keywords.
3) Compress all images before uploading them (for site speed)
How fast your website loads will contribute to your “user experience”, and therefore how well you rank on Google. Google prioritizes websites with good user experience. The Squarespace platform is fairly efficient in general, but large images will slow your website down! Large images are the number one cause of slow website speed on Squarespace.
It is critical you compress your images before you upload them to your Squarespace website to increase site speed. If you already have uploaded images to your website, the easiest way to check your current images is to use the Squarespace SEO plugin SEOSpace to scan your whole site and see how many images on your website are over 250 kb (and therefore need to be compressed).
If you want to see how your site speed is doing, you can use the free Google Page Speed tool to test your website speed, performance, accessibility, and SEO. Another fun tool is the free Experte page speed tool. This tool will let you test all of your pages in bulk (rather then analyzing one page at a time). My favorite part of this tool is the ability to search page speed by keyword to analyze how your competition is doing. It can help you determine if page speed is a priority for ranking on that particular keyword.
4) Fill in image alt tags
Google can’t “see” images, so it relies on “alt tags” to understand what an image is. It will also prioritize websites with image alt tags because they are more accessible. When you add an image to your page, look for the “alt tag” option and put in a few descriptive words, including some of your primary or secondary keywords. This is a great opportunity in your Squarespace SEO checklist to provide Google with your primary keywords to help search engines understand how the content is related.
To add alt text:
Add an image to your page
If you already added the image, you can click the image and choose the “pencil” icon to make changes
Scroll down a little and look for “image alt text”
Add in your key phrase and hit “save”
5) Do “On-Page Optimization”
Each page should have a“primary keyword” that you want it to rank for. This primary keyword should be in the following places:
Page SEO title
Page URL
In at least one or more H1, H2, or H3 heading(s)
In the paragraph text at least 2-3 times, or more for long pages and blogs
In image alt tags
6) Include backlinks in your blogs
The more content you have on your website, the more content Google has to crawl. Your main website pages will only have so much content on them, so a blog is a great way to add more content. As a bonus, Google loves seeing content updated on a regular basis, and a blog is a good way to push out regular updates.
Blogs are also a good place for backlinks. Outbound and inbound links to other websites helps Google identify the industry you are in and the audience you can best serve. Here are the three types you’ll want to include in your strategy:
Outbound links are links to other websites. These are often found in blog posts and help link you to other industry-similar articles and websites.
Inbound links are when someone else links to your website. These are treated like “popularity votes” on Google. These can come from social media accounts, other people’s blogs or websites, directories, and more.
Internal links are links from one page of your website to another. These are particularly helpful in blogs. It can help Google to tie together “topics” if you link one blog to another one (that is similar).
7) Make sure the design and navigation offers a good user experience
Google prioritizes websites with good user experience. We already discussed site speed in this article, but user experience also includes mobile design, general layout, and overall navigation (not just the top menu). This step is almost always missed and is a critical step in the Squarespace SEO checklist.
Check out your Google Analytics and see how long people are spending on your website. You’ll want to look for about 30 seconds to 2 minutes per page and a bounce rate of around 50%. If you notice people aren’t spending much time on your website or if you have a high bounce rate (above 70%), you are either reaching the wrong people or your website has poor user experience.
If you aren’t sure, or if you are finding people are sticking around long, you can get some expert Squarespace help to improve your navigation, design, and user experience.
8) Make sure you have a separate mobile optimized design
Over 50% of traffic is now on a mobile device. If you must “pinch-in” on a mobile device to view your website, your website is not mobile friendly. Mobile design needs to be done via a separate mobile editor to create an optimal experience for those users. Squarespace has a built-in mobile editor that allows you to configure a user-optimized mobile design!
As mentioned earlier in this article, a poor mobile design means poor mobile experience. This will cause users to leave your website quickly. Google tracks how long people stay on your website and how many pages they visit. If 50% of your traffic is not sticking around, this will affect how well you rank on Google.
Frequently asked questions about Squarespace SEO Checklist
Does Squarespace have an SEO tool? Is there an SEO plugin for Squarespace?
Yes. There is a free extension called TinyIMG that is a SEO page speed and image optimizer to help boost traffic and sales. SEOSpace also makes a Squarespace Plugin and Audit Tool. It scans your website and provides a Squarespace SEO checklist, prioritizes tasks, and provides suggestions and easy to follow steps based on Google’s best practices.
How do I optimize SEO on Squarespace?
The best way to optimize SEO on Squarespace is to compress your images and place keywords on your website. Your can use the tool and Squarespace SEO plugin SEOSpace to audit your website, get a custom Squarespace SEO checklist, and learn how to implement best practices.
How SEO-friendly is Squarespace?
Squarespace is very SEO-friendly! The platform itself is optimized based on Google’s best practices. There are built-in SEO tools where you can place SEO meta data. As long as you follow Google’s best practices, you will rank. Be sure to compress your images, build a site with clean user-friendly navigation and design, place your keywords on your pages and in the SEO-meta data, and fill in image alt tags.
Should I run Paid Google Ads?
When I am working with prospective clients, this is usually one of the first questions they ask. Just like organic vs paid social media, I recommend building your organic search first, then doing paid ads later, if needed. The first organic position on a Google search result page gets 40% of the clicks! That is even more then the sponsored links on top. Plus, investing in a professional keyword strategy and building organic traffic first will help you determine what keywords you want to focus on.
I’m stuck—how do I get some help?
If you’d like some help from a Squarespace SEO expert, I offer several flexible and affordable Squarespace SEO Packages. We can get on a free call and chat more about your needs!
