Five Quick & Easy Squarespace SEO Tips
SEO can be confusing in the best of times, and it's rapidly changing sooo fast in this fun and weird new AI world of ours.
… So you might be tempted to not even know where to start, and just sort of... not do anything.
I don’t recommend that.
So in this post, I wanna give you some quick wins.
I’m going to share five quick tips that will help you boost your SEO that you can start on TODAY.
And nope, I'm NOT including things like keyword research because yeah, everyone knows that's a thing, but it's also time-intensive and subjective.
I want to give you some quick and EASY wins for Squarespace SEO, not more homework to get lost in.
Five Quick Tips to Help You Boost Your SEO today
Tip 01: Optimize Your Squarespace Site Structure
Building a solid foundation is key to any successful endeavor, and the same goes for your Squarespace website. You'll want to organize your content logically in a way that creates a hassle-free experience for your website visitor.
Why
Hierarchy is important to SEO because it's important to people with visual impairments who use screen readers.
What does that mean? It means things like Heading 1, Heading 2, Paragraph 1, Paragraph 2, etc are used in optimal order, and not for visual effect. This is something I see A LOT of people, including web designers, get wrong.
How
One thing you can do ASAP is head to your website and make sure there is only ONE Heading 1 (H1) per page. It should be at the top of the page, and it should ideally have your keywords or pertinent information about your website. Your H1 should include what you offer, who you are, or who you serve.
If you still feel like more homework once you're done making sure you only have one H1 per page, well, first of all, here’s a gold star 🌟 for you. Second of all —
Ensure that 1) H2 is the sub-heading for each new section you have, and then make sure 2) you're only using P1 or P2 for any body text.
To recap:
One H1 per page
H2s as main section headers per page
P1 or P2 as all text body (NOT H1, H2, H3, H4, etc)
By creating a user-friendly and well-structured site, you'll not only improve your SEO, but also enhance the experience for people with visual impairments, as well as the overall user experience.
Tip 02: Open External Links in New Windows
Did you know that Google tracks how long people spend on your website?
The longer they spend, the more engaged they are, and to Google, that means you have some good quality stuff!
So when you're linking out to external sites, why send your peeps away? Keep your visitors around and obsessed with your content.
Why
Not only for Google, but also for a clean user experience. You have great content on your website or blog, right? And you've worked on providing helpful information in the area of your expertise. So don't go sending your visitors somewhere else without a way back to you.
How
Open the Link Editor and add the URL
Click on the Gear Icon
Turn the ‘Open in New Window’ toggle on
Click on ‘save’
Click on ‘apply’.
Note: You don’t need to do this for internal links. And for accessibility best practices, it's best to note when a link opens in a new window for screen readers and people with visual impairments. You can do it like so: Click this link to find something unexpected (opens in new tab).
Tip 03: Optimize Images
A picture is worth a thousand words, but it shouldn't take a thousand seconds to load your website 😜
If you're like, 'Janessa, I keep hearing I need to optimize images, but what does that actually mean?', then you're in exactly the right place. Check out this article on optimizing images in Squarespace to read more, but briefly —
There are a couple things you can do:
Size
Compress your images to reduce their file size. You can do this in bulk on a Mac, by using an app like Tiny PNG (opens in a new tab), or resizing individually on your PC. And one thing that's cool is that if you use Canva to create images or graphics, there is now an option to check 'compress on download' that is amazing.
The images should be no bigger than 500 KB (and if possible, they should legit be under 250 KB, especially if you have a lot of images on your site)
Squarespace recommends a maximum of 2500 px for a full-width image or banner
Names and Alt Text
This helps search engines understand what the image is about, and also makes your content more accessible to users with visual impairments.
DON’T keyword stuff, and DO try to make it helpful.
Alt text example: Woman at typing on computer keyboard and looking happy
File name example: jpk-design-web-design-services-1
Tip 04: Create a Custom 404 Error Page
We've all encountered those pesky 404 error pages when we click on a broken link or mistype a URL. But who says a 404 page has to be a dead end? Instead, turn it into an opportunity to guide your visitors back to your site's main content or suggest related pages.
Why
A well-designed custom 404 page not only prevents frustration, but also helps retain visitors on your site, reducing bounce rates and giving your SEO a little boost. Check this post for great examples of quality 404 Error pages.
How
Create the 404 page under the Not Linked section.
Use the slug /404.
Hide that page from search results on the SEO tab of the page
From your dashboard go to > Pages > System Pages > 404 Page and select your custom page from the dropdown list.
Add a funny or on-brand personality-packed message.
Add a Search bar.
Add links to direct them to popular blog posts, or your most popular services or products
Tip 05: Use 301 Redirects
Sometimes, you need to make changes to your site's structure or URLs. But what happens to the old pages that search engines have already indexed? Enter the mighty 301 redirect!
By implementing proper 301 redirects, you're telling search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location. This happens when you change a URL slug, for example, or if you want to direct visitors from one web page to another.
Why
This preserves the SEO value of the old page and ensures that both users and search engine crawlers are directed to the correct content. Don't let broken links ruin your SEO rankings. Here's a link where you check for broken links on your website (opens in a new tab).
How
In Squarespace, navigate to > Settings > Developer Tools > URL Mappings
Note: Squarespace moves things around frequently, so if you can't find it, just hit the backslash button and type in 'URL Mappings' and it'll pop up.
301s always have the same format:
/oldslug -> /newslug 301
Example: If you want to change a blog post title from 'Five Quick and Easy Tips for Squarespace SEO' to 'Squarespace SEO Tips', you'd navigate to the URL mapping section, and then type:
/blog/five-quick-and-easy-tips-for-Squarespace-SEO -> /blog/squarespace-seo-tips 301
And there we have it.
Five quick and easy-breezy tips you can do today to optimize your Squarespace website for SEO.
SEO isn’t a one-time fix, it’s an ongoing effort. If you create valuable and original content that brings visitors to your site and enact these five tips, you'll have a good foundation to grow your traffic and your business.
