Squarespace SEO

Squarespace is a platform you can use to build your own website. The tools you can use here are simplified so that people of any coding level can work using Squarespace. This does pose some limitations on the SEO of your website as Squarespace tries to take care of some of the aspects automatically. This reduces the custom input from users. If you’re looking to create a basic site and you’re a first time user it’s good to try out Squarespace. They aren’t as heavy with the technical aspects and they offer elegant website designs to choose from.
squarespace logo

What parts of SEO should you work on?

When working on SEO of your Squarespace website, we focus on three aspects Technical SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO.
  1. With technical SEO search engines look at how well the website is working does it have a quick loading speed, good URL structure, working links, etc. All these aspects are taken into account when determining the visibility of the website. 
  2. On-Page SEO refers to the keywords put on web pages to lead users to your site. When people search they’re looking for specific information and putting in keywords makes your web page easier to find. This isn’t the only thing that matters after all people need to stay on your webpage once they find the site as well. This is why good content is also a must. 
  3. The third is Off-Page SEO this refers to getting backlinks for your website. When you write good content for other websites you’re able to connect these viewers to your site With guest blogging you’re able to get a wider audience and links to your site.
While you need to have all three aspects they need to be maintained regularly to keep up with the competition because everything from keywords to loading speed can change.

Why is it the difference in SEO on Squarespace?

Since this is a user-friendly site a lot of the SEO aspects are taken care of by the platform which gives people little choice on how they can tailor their SEO. There are also some SEO aspects that are problematic in using this platform. Listed below are a few of these issues.
  1. Loading Speed – When creating a website, Squarespace automatically chooses your page loading speed. With the loading speed, you’ll notice that it can’t be changed to your preference. A few things you can do to fix this issue is to reduce the amount of content on the page, the image size, the number of images, using fewer fonts, etc. They are all changes that help reduce the amount of information on a webpage. Usually, if a page is less than 5 MB then the speed of the page should be acceptable. 
  2. Robots.txt file –  This is an important file used to tell search crawlers what site they can and can not analyze. This aspect is totally automatic so website users cannot change anything. Of course, this would only matter for those with actual experience with robots.txt files. Plus, not all users choose to change this because a small mistake in this file could cause severe problems with your SEO. 
  3. Alt Text – Another thing that SEO experts are annoyed with is how hard it is to create alt text for images. This is created so that when the images don’t show up on your website an alternative text appears with a short description of the image. It helps page crawlers understand the context of the image relating to the site and it’s a great way to add more keywords. But Squarespace makes it hard to use alt text leaving many websites without this useful function.
  4. URL Structure – Websites with an easy to remember URL will be searched for more than those without. Not only does a URL make it so that people understand what the webpage is about but search engines also use URL to determine if the webpage will be useful. When URL isn’t structured properly it makes the search engine think that you have pages with similar content which means that your website isn’t seen as useful. 
  5. Problematic Templates – A webpage has to be formatted in a certain way so that the search engine can examine the content properly. One way this is done is by the heading tags. The crawlers use to understand what the webpage is about. But the titles on some Squareshare pages aren’t coded for these heading tags so the engine doesn’t recognize it. This causes problems with SEO.
  6. Deleted Pages – It’s good to get rid of any content that isn’t bringing traffic to your website. But a problem with Squarespace is that its hard to get rid of webpages. Some stay for a while even after they have been deleted for up to 30 days to a year. This is a huge annoyance as there may have been valid reasons as to why you may have chosen to get rid of this content. 
  7. Schema Markup – Google has placed importance with the schema markup as it helps make it easier for search engines to analyze the website properly. So any website with poor schema markups is at a loss to compete. Squarespace has some issues with its schema markups. For example, the event schema doesn’t have the start date and location. Both important information needed to increase the visibility of an event. 

Problems like these mentioned above dissuade those looking to improve their SEO from using this platform for their website needs.

Is Squarespace or WordPress better for SEO?

Both have their own pros and cons when using their platforms with WordPress there are a lot of plugins that need to be installed to do the SEO work required. But once they are installed we can customize the site to suit our needs. While Squarespace makes it so that most of the SEO work is done automatically without the users’ input. This is helpful for those who don’t have the necessary knowledge to work on the SEO aspect of their website. It leaves them with more free time to work on their templates and content for her site.

Why should you use Squarespace?

This is a really easy platform to use. It makes everything intuitive as it doesn’t need to rely on the technical aspects as highly. This makes it so that users are able to focus on the content and aesthetic of the site rather than optimizing it for the search results. It’s also very easy to manage everything and makes it so that you get all the information you need without the hassle. Squarespace is also zero maintenance so once you make your site you’re set. Plus once you subscribe to Squarespace you get a free SSL certificate. This helps secure your connections and protect user data such as credit card information, etc. This is great for business websites as they can rest easy with the knowledge that they’re safe.

Is Squarespace free?

No, Squarespace is not free but you can get a 14-day free trial to test whether this is the right platform for you. After which you’d have to pay $12/month to continue using this site. This may be higher in cost than some other platforms but it depends on what the user is comfortable with using. If you’re aren’t confident in your technical skills and would like a platform that can take care of all the SEO work for you then try using Squarespace. They even have a 24/7 support team that can help you with any site problems you may have. Squarespace has everything from video tutorials to online guides to help make it easy for newcomers to use their site.

Final Thoughts

For those who’re looking for a platform that can help with in-depth SEO work, Squarespace may not be the site for you but if you need something that can help get your website started this user-friendly site is the perfect way to go. They are optimized to work on the SEO aspects so you don’t have to. Using a certain platform doesn’t improve the visibility of your pages it depends on a variety of factors. While a more tech-savvy user might choose a different platform to use all their skills SEO alone cannot beat good content and fulfilling searchers’ needs.

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