I’m sure those of you that have a blog with Squarespace, can already attest to the improved traffic and leads you’ve received as a result of blogging. But as you know, there are always new things to discover, and I’m also sure you’re always constantly looking for tools, tricks, and techniques to continue to refine your blogging efforts. In today’s blog post we’re simply going to look at 7 Quick Tips for blogging with Squarespace. These will range from tips to setting up a Google analytics account, SEO tips, writing tips, to tips that will help you manage your content on the go. Let’s jump straight into it.
#1 Create a Google Analytics Account
While not Squarespace specific – as this is a tip I’d recommend for any blogger – I will include Google Analytics here as it’s easy to overlook especially if you’re a small business owner with lots on the go.
You need to create a Google Analytics account so that you can track your traffic. Where is your traffic coming from? What social media channels? What country? What is the demographics of your traffic? How long do they spend on your site? What is your most popular article? What is your bounce rate? These, and many, many, more metrics can be analyzed with Google Analytics.
While Squarespace offers some stats, Google analytics will allow you to delve deeper. To setup Google Analytics for your Squarespace blog follow these steps:
- Sign up for a Google account (if you don’t have one already),
- Sign up for Google analytics (it’s free).
- Follow the instructions to add your website to Google Analytics
- You will be given a tracking code.
- Within Squarespace Home Menu, click Settings, click Advanced, and then finally click External Services.
- Paste your unique tracking code in there and you’re good to go.
#2 Create an SEO Checklist
This is a tip that I read in a post on Red Lantern Creative. It’s a simple, yet an incredibly effective tip for blogging with Squarespace.
As we know, WordPress users have access to a plugin known as the SEO Yoast plugin. This plugin gives you a ton of features. It lets you write your meta-description, insert your keyword, and in turn analyzes your content to let you know what your keyword density is, what it scores on the Flesch Reading Ease Test and much, much more. Here’s an example of what this looks like in action:
Squarespace, though as we know doesn’t have this plugin. However, what you can do is mold your Squarespace blog posts around the recommendations made by the plugin. In effect what you’re doing is creating a checklist which you can follow each time you create a blog post. This ensures you optimize your blog posts every time – without fail – when blogging with Squarespace. Assuming you’ve done your keyword research, here’s a quick checklist you can use to optimize your blog posts on Squarespace:
- Keyword inserted into the title?
- Keyword inserted into URL?
- Keyword in the first paragraph?
- Keyword in the body of your post (avoid keyword stuffing)?
- Keyword in heading and sub-headings?
- Keyword in excerpt/meta description?
- Keyword included in your image Alt Tag?
- Is post length 300 words or more?
#3 Add “Subscribe to Blog Posts”
You want your readers to comment on your blog posts. This creates engagement and ensures your site doesn’t look like a ghost-town. While it’s all very well to have a ton of comments on your blog, what does it say about your company if you’re not responding to comments? To solve this problem we simply suggest that you subscribe to your own blog posts. By subscribing, you’ll get an email every time there’s a comment on your site.
To do this click on Home Menu, Edit Profile, and Subscriptions.
#4 Classify, Publish, and Schedule Posts
As someone who loves writing, I’m continuously playing around with my writing process. When I started, I found that I would edit as I went along. The problem with this, I find, is that it stifles the creative process. I found I was trying to be perfect the piece as I went along, instead of letting my creative juices flow.
What I now do (or try do) is get it all out on paper in one go. Consider applying this to your blog writing process. Create the first draft and save it in the Needs Review Category. Then come back to it later with a new set of eyes and make the necessary edits. Once edited it is now the final draft and you can either hit publish, or schedule your post to go live at a later stage.
The schedule feature works particularly well if you’re creating a backlog of articles for scheduling over the next few months. It ensures a constant flow of articles even when you’re not in front of your computer.
#5 Create a Blog Excerpt
Blog excerpts are teasers of your post. If you don’t enable this, your blog post displays in full. This can be rather annoying for readers, especially when you have long blog posts. So simplify their navigation process by creating blog teasers so they can quickly scan your blog to see what content interests them. Follow these four steps:
- Visit your blog page by clicking Home Menu, Pages, and Blog Page.
- Choose your post and then click edit.
- Add a post excerpt by clicking on Options.
#6 Add a Thumbnail Image
It’s important to have an image and a suitable image at that, as it grabs the readers attention, improves click-throughs, and increases the chances of more shares. Humans are after all visual beings.
So while you’re creating a blog excerpt, take things further, make your site more social media friendly, and add a thumbnail image. This is the image that will be visible when shared on social media channels like Facebook. This is the image readers will see in addition to the blog title and meta-description.
#7 Download the Squarespace Blog App
A final tip to blogging with Squarespace is to download the Squarespace Blog App. With the App, you’re able to write, edit, tag, and schedule posts from your smartphone. Managing and responding to blog comments is also possible. This means instant access on the go. And if you find a typo that you missed after publishing, you’re able to immediately fix it.
There we have it – seven quick tips for blogging with Squarespace. Do you have any additional tips? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.