When selecting a user-friendly website building platform for your small business’ website, you’ve probably heard of Squarespace, an increasingly popular alternative to WordPress and Wix. Squarespace allows you to easily create pages, professional portfolios, blogs, galleries, and e-commerce websites without having to deal with HTML or PHP code.
What makes Squarespace special is its vast offer of elegant, beautiful, and highly responsive templates as well as it being search engine friendly and a decent start for SEO. In just a few clicks, the platform allows you to create a website that will look refined and professional in both desktop and mobile devices.
The service is slightly more expensive than most of its famous competitors, however it ensures a sophisticated look and an easy editor for its users. The question that arises is — what about search engine optimization (SEO) for Squarespace? Are the websites created with this platform easily indexable by search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo?
We’ve tried Squarespace ourselves and checked many popular website templates offered by the service and we can say that the short answer is — yes, Squarespace is search engine friendly.
Considering that proper Squarespace SEO is so focused on content, it’s up to the users to make sure the right keywords are used in the right places. This golden rule will improve your SEO and will boost your website’s ranking in every major search engine.
Based on our research here are the 5 most important Squarespace SEO tips.
1. Site Title
Squarespace asks you to input a site title (which is not the logo; it’s the title that will appear when people find you on Google, aka a title tag.) It’s a great chance to start using your keywords!
Remember: your keyword is not your name or the name of your business, rather the type of service you offer. Therefore, writing “Illustrations and Maps” (see picture), “Wedding Photographer,” and so on, will help the people who are searching for that specific type of service on Google find you.
Few people will type “Kerry Hyndman”. Many people, instead, will search for “Illustrations and Maps.”
2. Site Description
Since in the title you can use only one or two keywords, take advantage of the site description to use all of the remaining ones. In the example picture above, you can see there are several keywords such as “digital product design,” “development studio,” “gorgeous logos,” and “smart design.”
Describe your business with a sharp, straight to the point kind of sentence. Then embellish it, personalize it, make it more unique and out of the box, all while focusing on your main keywords.
3. SEO-friendly Theme
Of course you want to pick a theme that will make your website stand out. You want it to look great both on desktop and mobile, you want it to be sleek and elegant… but don’t forget about the importance of SEO features!
Image-only themes are not good for search engine optimization. If there is no content other than images, it will be almost impossible to perform well on Google. Remember, content is king.
4. Local SEO
If you own a local business, such as a restaurant, your contact page is probably the most important element of your website.
Make sure you include the correct address and phone number, which will appear on Google when people search for local services. Adding opening times, if needed, can be useful, too.
Contact pages now also include social media links which will lead the visitors to your pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. Most people love to connect via social media to get a sense of who you really are; never forget that.
Don’t forget to get yourself a Google Business/Local page to represent your local business, that definitely helps with local SEO for Squarespace as well.
5. Permalinks
Get straight to the point — use keywords in your permalinks rather than numbers, dates, and other useless words. Permalinks play an important role in SEO, therefore you want to make sure each and every one of them is simple and accurate.
Be consistent: once you choose one pattern for your links, stick to it. If you decide to adopt a new pattern, change all of your previous permalinks. It takes time and dedication, but it’s very useful.
After following these simple 5 Squarespace SEO tips, you should experience some search engine ranking improvements. Let us know which tip helped you the most in the comment below and don’t hesitate to share your own Squarespace SEO tips!