It’s here, it’s here!

We’re about to kick off a brand new year and one of the first things I do as a Squarespace SEO expert is make sure that you have what you need to hit the ground running.

I present to you : How to get started with Squarespace SEO in 2024!

This might me my… fifth (???) time publishing a similar annual post and the numbers don’t lie - this post is hands down one of the most popular blog posts & video tutorials I publish all year :)

Whether you:

are a total beginner at Squarespace SEO and are looking for someone to walk you through a simple step-by-step plan to get started
have dabbled a bit in Squarespace SEO already but want to make sure that you have the basics covered CORRECTLY so you can move on to more intermediate SEO goodness

Then this blog post & video tutorial is for you! Everyone is welcome in my little corner of the internet :)

Consider this Squarespace SEO 101 for 2024!

It’s your step-by-step beginners guide to Squarespace SEO. There’s nothing I love more than making sure my hunnis are set up for success right from the very start, so I’m here to guide you through the process!

Because look, I get it. Squarespace SEO isn’t exactly the easiest or intuitive subject in the world! There are many moving parts and remember I was once in your shoes - I know how daunting it feels when you’re just starting out.

You want to increase traffic to your website so that you can grow your online business, but maybe you don’t know where to begin. Sure, you can turn to Google but it feels like you’re about to go down one heck of a rabbit hole lolllllll there are so many conflicting strategies, recommendations and approaches so you get overwhelmed and just do nothing. Whoops.

Luckily for you, you have come to the right place!!!

As a Squarespace SEO expert and the leader in this super random little niche, it’s legit my job to help you out with this :)

So, I’m giving away all my best tips here, pulling away the internet curtain if you will, and holding your hand to make sure it actually gets done in 2024!!

This is the kind of insider info that I give to my 1-on-1 Squarespace SEO consulting clients and also students in my signature online course, Top Squarespace SEO.

But since I’m not one for secrets and truly want the best for anyone with a website, I’m giving you the goods here totally for free!

Oh, and I’ve even recorded a video tutorial so that you can follow along in real time, peep over my shoulder and see exactly how it’s done on a Squarespace website.

If you’ve ever found yourself asking for direction or someone to literally lay it out, steps 1-3 of what do on your Squarespace website to improve SEO, then this is it!!! You’ve come to the right place :)

Best of all, it’s all up to date and ready to go for 2024! Tech moves fast and last year’s post/video is already different haha

Alright, enough intro - I know you’re hyped to get started so let’s dive straight in.

SQUARESPACE SEO SERIES

I have so many tips to share on the subject that it would have been crazy to put it all in one article! There are many misconceptions about Squarespace SEO which is why I've dedicate so many posts to this topic. Enjoy!

Click to view all posts in the Squarespace SEO Series

Work with Charlotte - explore my Squarespace SEO Services

Get started with Squarespace SEO in 2024

Squarespace version 7.0 & 7.1

This video tutorial and blog post shows a demo website using Squarespace version 7.1

The process is pretty much the same if your website is on Squarespace version 7.0 - a few things might be different in terms of Squarespace’s back end layout/where the different settings are located BUT it’s basically the same - don’t panic if yours looks a little different than mine, you’re smart and will still be able to follow along, I have faith in you :)

Step 1. Do a basic keyword brainstorming exercise

We’re going to kick things off with a fun & easy little exercise to get you thinking about KEYWORDS and what you want your website to rank for!

Essentially what we’re doing here is putting ourselves in our ideal audience (and target client / customer’s shoes) and asking ourselves, “what are these people typing into Google that I want my website to rank for?”

Think about the words/combinations of words you want someone to be searching for online … those are essentially the keywords & keyphrases you’re trying to get your website & web pages/blog posts/product pages/etc. to rank for!

Keywords are the link between what people type into a search engine, and the content that appears on your site that Google crawls & indexes in order to decide what to return to the searcher.

So, grab a pen & paper, the notes app on your phone, heck even a blank Google doc and let’s get started!

Please follow along and watch THIS video: Keyword Brainstorming Exercise for Squarespace SEO - easy step by step guide using free tools

Don’t over think it, just start writing down a list of words or combinations of words that you want someone to type into Google and see your website in their search results.

For example, your name, your brand/business name, the main services that you offer (e.g., Seattle Wedding Photographer), the products or items you sell (e.g., linen shirt for babies), the type of content you create (e.g., plus size sustainable fashion), what the image is showing (e.g. a marble coffee table with an earthen vase & bouquet and other decorative items), etc.

If you fall under multiple umbrellas, include them all and put a star next to the most important ones!

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to begin with clarity around the keywords you’re trying to get your website to rank for. Once have you this list in place, then it will help you out in a few minutes as we start filling in other settings - so be patient, we’ll apply this in a hot sec!

Step 2. Connect and VERIFY YOUR Squarespace websITE WITH GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Google Search Console is a free service that helps you manage your site's presence in Google search results.

In order for your Squarespace website to be crawled and indexed, you must first connect your domain and verify your site with Google Search Console. If you skip this step, you literally will not be able to do SEO and you’ll get exactly zero traction online haha so make sure you get this up and running if you haven’t already! It’s essential.

Although it might sounds daunting to “connect your domain and verify your site with Google Search Console”, it’s actually super easy to do and even those who are technically challenged can follow along!

Read this post for more information: Squarespace SEO Series - Connecting your website with Google Search Console

First thing’s first: log into the back end of your Squarespace website (duh).

CONNECT VIA YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT

In the Home Menu, click Settings, and then scroll down to the “Third Party Accounts” header and click Connected Accounts.
Click Connect Account.
In the Connected Accounts menu, select the account you'd like to add (Google).
Log in with your account name and password, and then click Authorize.

These are the steps (above) if you have NOT YET connected and verified your Squarespace website with Google Search Console. It will literally take you 2 minutes to do so if you haven’t yet, go do it now!!!!

If you have already connected & verified your Squarespace website with Google search console then when you follow these steps you will see the Google “G” and it’ll show that you have connected your Squarespace website to a certain email address already (OR multiple email addresses, that’s fine).

NOTE: I recommend that whoever OWNS the Squarespace website connects & verifies to their account. Meaning that if you are a web designer building a site for someone else, you do not connect to your account and instead you show your clients how to do this themselves. If your Squarespace website is currently connected to someone else’s account, then I suggest you connect to your account and then remove theirs. It’s always best to own it yourself, ya know?

Step 3. fill out the SEO SITE DESCRIPTION and SEO titles

Next up, you’re going to take advantage of Squarespace’s primary SEO field that’s built directly into their platform. The SEO site description represents your website’s homepage. In most cases, search engines (like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) will show this description in search results for your homepage if they don’t find content more relevant to a visitor's search terms.

Image to the right for example

To fill out the SEO site description:

In the Home Menu, click Marketing, then click SEO Appearance (you can also get here from Settings > SEO appearance).
Edit the SEO Site Description field
Optional but recommended: Add additional keywords to the SEO Title Format fields for the Home, Pages and Items sections
Then click Save.

I also want to point out that you can get to this same SEO site description field via your homepage’s page settings (so if you’re in the main dashboard > Website > your homepage). Go to your homepage, open the page settings, go to the SEO tab and then you’ll see this:

I also want to point out that you can get to this same SEO site description field via your homepage’s page settings. Go to your homepage, open the page settings, go to the SEO tab and then you’ll see this (below)

Click on the link where it says “EDIT WEBSITE SEO SETTINGS” and you’ll be redirected to the SEO site description field.

Step 4. ADD SEO DESCRIPTIONS TO PAGES AND COLLECTION ITEMS

This next step is something that many people overlook because they don’t realize that Squarespace has this built in feature in the first place!

In step 3 (above), we filled out the SEO description for your website as a WHOLE, basically telling Google what the entire website is about.

In this step 4, we are going to drill in and do something similar, but now on a more granular level - for each page, blog post, product page, gallery page, etc. on your Squarespace website! We’re helping Google figure out what each page/post/product/whatever is about here!

Also FIY, collection items just means blog posts, product pages, galleries, events pages, portfolio pages, etc.

I love these SEO description fields because you can tailor each section to be super keyword specific and give search engines the full overview that they need in order to rank your page/post/etc. higher in online searches. These SEO descriptions are associated with each individual page/post/whatever on your site and search engines will show this description in search results for that page/post/whatever if they don’t find content more relevant to a visitor's search terms.

So yes, that means you MUST add unique SEO descriptions to every single page on your website. And for best results, you should do the same for every blog post too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

TO ADD AN SEO DESCRIPTION FOR A PAGE:

In the Home Menu, click Website > Pages.
Hover over the page title, then click to open page settings.
Click the SEO tab, then enter your description in the SEO Description field.
Click Save.

TO ADD AN SEO DESCRIPTION FOR A COLLECTION ITEM:

In the Home Menu, click Website > Pages.
Click a Blog Page, Products Page, Events Page, Gallery, or Portfolio Page.
Click the SEO tab, then enter your description in the SEO Description field.
Click Save.

Again, let me remind you that you must repeat this process for every page or collection item where you want to add an SEO description!

Make sure that you’re not just copying and pasting the same SEO description either - each one should be specific and relevant to the page/collection item it’s associated with and duh, keyword rich.

Again, let me repeat that - DO NOT COPY & PASTE THE SAME SEO DESCRIPTION FOR EACH PAGE!!!! It must be unique to the page/post/gallery/etc.

Step 5. Audit existing website content - are they hitting your target keywords?

In this step, you’re going to think critically about all the pages that currently exist on your Squarespace website…. all the pages, the blog posts, the product pages, the galleries, all that goodness.

If you look back to that list you made above in Step 1’s keyword brainstorming exercise, how do those keywords actually show up across your website? Are they being included within the content? Are there any glaring gaps?

Also, have you created enough specific content around particular keywords/keyphrases… or are just hoping that one page alone will bring in enough traffic to keep you afloat?

So, in this audit step, you’re going to go through each page ONE BY ONE, and look it over with a critical eye.

Obviously you’re looking over the on-site seo factors of the page’s content but we’re also taking it a step further.

Maybe your pages are fine but you realize you need to create more content around your target keywords if you want to rank higher…. this means it’s time to start blogging, my friend! This post will help you out to make sure your blog posts convert.

Or perhaps you realize that you haven’t set up the Services pages correctly and they aren’t doing you any SEO favours - you need to rework them to be more effective and keyword rich so that google can crawl and index them properly. If this is the case, I recommend my video training How to build and design SEO-friendly Services pages on your Squarespace website.

Looking at the products that you sell in your online shop, maybe you realize that you currently just have very basic info but it needs to be beefed up in order to bring the shopper closer to a purchasing decision. Because duh, the goal is more traffic to the item so that you can increase sales! This video training How to create seo-friendly product pages and descriptions on your Squarespace website will help you out.

Also, if you have old out of date pages or pages/posts/galleries that you no longer need, delete them! We are not bringing that digital clutter into 2022.

TLDR :

Audit each page/post/product/gallery on your website ONE AT A TIME and ask yourself two questions:

How can i make this page more SEO-friendly
What can I do to help get the visitor closer to a purchasing decision (if you sell products/services/affiliate referrals, etc.)

This review stage is HUGE and will have a massive impact! Take care of the content you already have and spend a little time making it better :)

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, your beginner’s guide to Squarespace SEO in 20244

I’ve laid it out for you in 5 simple steps to follow so get started on that today and chip away at it over the next little while!

Once you have completed all of these steps, you’ll have a solid foundation and will be ready to move on with your Squarespace SEO journey. Yay!

Don’t skip the basics and if you realize you haven’t done these steps yet, don’t panic - just go back and do it now, better late than never!

You’ve got this, hunni.

Cheering you on,

Charlotte xo

Exciting news : my signature online course, Top Squarespace SEO, will be opening for enrollment again soon - sign up for the TSS waiting list here!

You can also sign up for my newsletter (right here or below), where I often share Squarespace SEO tips, tricks and high-quality exclusive content. I send out regular emails, mostly focused on Squarespace SEO & websites but in a fun & accessible way, and I can guarantee that you’ll find the newsletter topics interesting, entertaining and worth your time. My open rate is insane and way above industry average, something I’m super proud of #humblebrag

Finally, shameless plug: hit me up with any specific questions you have about Squarespace SEO and your website because I’m your girl. You can reach out to me directly if you’re interested in working together on your website and we can talk about whether or not you would be a good fit for my consulting and ongoing services. I can’t take on every request to do Squarespace SEO consulting but I do pick a few websites and businesses to work with every month and I’d love for you to be one of them.