SEO Checklist
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of making your website easier for search engines like Google to find and rank, so more people can discover your site when they search for related topics. Squarespace sites are designed for easy search engine indexing, but the content you add is still very important for impacting how discoverable your site is on search engines. Squarespace has created an SEO Checklist for the SEO best practices on a Squarespace site and we have shared that information below.
If you are looking for help with enhancing the SEO on your site, we strongly recommend SEOSpace. They have an easy-to-use Squarespace SEO Plugin to optimize your site yourself. We use the SEOSpace Plugin on our custom website projects and are an affiliate of theirs, which means we earn commissions for those that purchase their plugin using our sponsored link. You can also hire an expert from Squarespace to help enhance your SEO.
Before Publishing Your Site
Site Information
Add a Site Title - Your site title is indexed by search engines, making it important to include an accurate site title even when you use your logo in the header of your website (as opposed to a site title using heading font). To edit your site title, go to any page and click Edit, double click the logo or site title in the top-left corner, and change Site Title to the name of your choice. Squarespace recommends that you keep the site title to under 60 characters and include a keyword or two. Then click Save to save the changes to your site title.
Add a Site Description - Your site description is what appears below your site title in search engine results and explains what is on your site. Squarespace recommends that your site description is between 50-300 characters. To edit your site description, on the Pages menu, click the gear settings icon next to your Home page, click SEO, then click Edit Website SEO Settings. Once in the SEO Appearance settings, you can change your site description and SEO title format. Click Save to save the changes you have made to your site description. Keep in mind that if you don’t add a custom site description, search engines will populate the description based on content on your site.
Add SEO Titles & Descriptions - These are similar to your site description, except they are the descriptions for each page on your website that explain the content of the page. Again, 50-300 characters is the recommended length. To edit your SEO descriptions for each page, on the Pages menu, click the gear settings icon next to each page, click SEO, then add your SEO title and SEO descriptions. Click Save to save the changes you have made to your page SEO titles and descriptions. You will want to be sure to do this for each page on your website.
Site Design
Add a Favicon - A favicon (also known as a browser icon) is the image that appears in the browser tab to the left of your site title. We have provided specific instructions on how to do this in the Adding a Favicon section.
Add Social Sharing Images - Your social sharing images are displayed on social media when your site is shared. This is also the image that appears if you were to text or email someone a link to your site. You can add one image to represent your site as a whole or you can add individual images for each page. We have provided specific instructions on how to do this in the Adding a Social Sharing Image section.
Create a Custom 404 Page - The 404 page is where a visitor is directed when they click a button or hyperlink that is tied to a link that is no longer active. It is best practice to create a 404 page A default page has been created by Squarespace for your 404 page. However, we recommend creating a custom 404 page that has links or buttons to the most popular pages on your site in case someone ends up there on accident. To create a custom 404 page, follow the instructions for creating a Not Linked page in the How to Add a New Page portion of the Fluid Engine section. Once you have created the 404 page, go to the Pages menu, scroll to the bottom and click System Pages. Click 404 Page and then click the dropdown menu and navigate to the 404 page that you just created. Click Save to save the changes you made to the 404 page settings.
Domain and URL Setup
Connect a Custom Domain - You always want to have a custom domain, as opposed to using the built-in .squarespace.com URL that comes with a Squarespace account for free, as a custom domain strengthens your brand and is easier for customers to find in search results. If you haven’t already purchased your domain, we strongly recommend doing so through Squarespace. It is essentially the same price as it would be on other third-party domain providers like GoDaddy and it is much easier to connect your domain to your website when it is being hosted by Squarespace. You can purchase a domain through Squarespace here.
Connect to Social Media - All of our templates have a social links block added to the footer, and in most cases, you will find a social links block on the contact page as well. If you have social media accounts, be sure to connect them to your website to invite your visitors to check out your page and follow you. To connect the icons to your social media accounts, follow the instructions in the Connecting to Social Media Accounts section.
Ensure SSL is Enabled - SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a security technology that encrypts the connection between a user's browser and a website, ensuring that any data exchanged remains private and secure. Squarespace defaults to the Secure setting for all new websites. However, it is best to check to confirm that your site is set to Secure, as insecure sites can have their search engine rankings impacted and will provide users with warnings that may prevent them from visiting your site. To ensure that your SSL is enabled, go to Settings > Developer Tools > SSL > and make sure Secure is selected.
Check URL Slugs - A URL slug is the part of a web address that comes after the domain name, usually describing the page’s content in a concise, readable format to help with SEO and user navigation. Blog posts, products, and events can have random URL slugs automatically generated, especially when you duplicate any of those items. Always be sure to check the URL slug for each of your pages, blog posts, products, and events to make sure that the URL slug describes the page or product appropriately. Page URL slugs can be found by clicking the gear settings icon next to the page name and navigating to the General tab. To change your blog post URL slugs, navigate to the Pages menu, click Blog > Blog Content > click the three dot icon next to the blog post you would like to edit > scroll down to Post URL and edit the URL. It is best practice to use a format with dashes between each word in your page or blog post title (i.e. /check-url-slugs). Click Save to save the changes you made to the blog post settings.
Location Information
Add Your Location – To improve your chances of showing up in local search results, it's important that both Google and your customers can verify your location. If your business has a physical address, it's a good idea to create a Contact Us page featuring your address and a map.
Publish Your Location Online – In addition to listing your physical address on your website (if you have one), you can create a Google Business Profile to list your location, hours of operation, and website for prospective customers to easily access your basic information.
After Publishing Your Site
Squarespace recommends a few additional steps to take once your site has been published to help with boosting your site’s visibility on search engines.
Verify with Google Search Console – Once your site is verified with Google, you can monitor its search performance and analyze how visitors are finding your site. To verify with Google, go to your Home menu and click Analytics > Search Keywords > Connect.
Request Google Indexing – This prompts Google's bots to scan your site, ensuring that your latest content appears in their search results. There are a few different ways to index your site. We will let Squarespace’s comprehensive instructions handle the steps for you to take.
Verify with Bing Webmaster Tools – Verifying your site with Bing allows you to oversee how it appears in both Bing and Yahoo search results. Follow Squarespace’s instructions on how to do so. This process takes place more externally through Bing than the Google verification.
Connect to Google Analytics – Squarespace has a very solid Analytics platform, though it is not nearly as comprehensive as Google Analytics. If you would like access to Google Analytics and its detailed reports, follow Squarespace’s built-in integration instructions to get connected.
Enable AMP – AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a framework that creates lightweight, faster-loading versions of web pages optimized for mobile devices, improving site performance and user experience on mobile. For blogs, enabling AMP creates a simplified version of your site that loads more quickly on mobile devices. Squarespace has a detailed article on Using AMP that you can explore more if you are interested.