26: Squarespace SEO: 5 tips that will Boost Your Site's Visibility in search

Jan 25

Ever spent hours crafting the perfect website, only to have crickets chirping in response? Those days are a thing of the past, Squarespacer! This episode of ThinkInsideTheSquare dives into 5 SEO (Search Engine Optimization) secrets to help your website shine in search results and attract the audience you deserve. Here is an overview of the five tips covered:

Squarespace SEO Tip #1:
Know Your Keywords (But Be Realistic!)

Keywords are the words people type into search engines. While you might dream of ranking for broad terms like "best website ever" (we've all been there!), competition for those spots is fierce. Instead, focus on specialized keywords that truly reflect your niche.

For example, if you're a baker specializing in gluten-free cupcakes, target terms like "gluten-free cupcakes near me" or "paleo cupcake delivery." This way, you'll attract the perfect audience who's actively searching for what you offer.

Squarespace SEO Tip #2:
Optimize Your Content (It's Easier Than You Think!)

Once you have your keywords, sprinkle them throughout your website content in a natural way. Include them in your page titles, descriptions, and even within the body text itself. But remember, Google is smart! Stuffing keywords everywhere won't do you any favors. Focus on creating valuable and engaging content that speaks to your audience's needs.

Squarespace SEO Tip #3:
Tell Google About Your Awesome Content (Don't Be Shy!)

Google can't find your website if it doesn't know it exists! Luckily, there's a simple solution: submit your sitemap to search consoles like Google Search Console. Think of it like sending Google a map of your website, so it can easily find all your amazing content and share it with the world.

Squarespace SEO Tip #4:
Social Media is Your Friend (For More Than Just Likes)

While social media posts might not directly influence search rankings, they can be a powerful traffic driver. Promote your website on your social media profiles, and make sure your profile information includes relevant keywords. When someone finds you on social media, entice them to visit your website with a captivating bio and a clear link in your profile.

Squarespace SEO Tip #5:
Link Within Your Website (It Keeps Visitors Engaged)

Internal linking is a website superpower you might not know you have! Imagine your website as a conversation. When someone finishes reading one page, you want to suggest something else interesting for them to explore next. Use internal links to connect related blog posts, services, testimonials, or anything that keeps visitors engaged and clicking around your website. This not only helps visitors find what they're looking for, but it also tells Google that all your content is valuable and interconnected.

By following these 5 simple SEO tips, you'll be well on your way to boosting your Squarespace website's visibility and attracting the audience you've been waiting for. Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. But with consistent effort and these handy tips, you'll be ranking higher in search results before you know it!

Want to delve even deeper into the world of Squarespace SEO? Tune in to the entire episode of Think Inside the Square for more advanced strategies and expert insights from Squarespace guru Becca Harpain. You'll also find helpful links and resources in the show notes, so you can take action and supercharge your website's SEO today!

building a good website takes a lot of effort let's get your hard work in front of the people who are looking for you in this deep dive into Squarespace SEO you'll learn the five tips that can boost your site's visibility in search results get ready to make Google your best friend and attract the audience that's trying to find the content you create we're going to supercharge your online presence in this episode of think inside the
square welcome to think inside the square a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a Squarespace website that you're proud of I'm your host Becca harpan Squarespace expert and creator of insidethe square.com and in this episode I'm going to be digging into my five favorite tips that can help you boost your rank in search engine results for a transcript of this episode along with the links to any resources mentioned visit insidethe square. codcast the term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace Incorporated this content is not affiliated with Squarespace
Incorporated before we dig into the five tips I want to do a quick rundown on what SEO is and why it matters we all know what Google is the way we search today it's a little different than it was 10 years ago we ask our Googles and our alexas a lot more than we did before but Google search on a computer a phone or a tablet it's still a common way that people find information SEO is optimizing your website content for those searches search engine optimization when you do SE WR your website pops up higher in search results when people are looking for the stuff that you offer or you talk about Squarespace has some built-in SEO features like SEO metadata for every page SSL being enabled automatically if you don't know what SSL is don't worry it's good and Squarespace also has an SEO checklist that I think everyone should use I've linked to it in the show notes inside the square. podcast but aside from that I want to talk to you about five things that you can do to boost your rank on Google the first tip be realistic when it comes to your keywords keyword research is important and you probably know exactly what words you want to rank for you're using those in your site title and your page titles and inside the page content itself even in your url but the truth is there are billions of websites out there and you might be a weekend athlete trying to compete at the Olympics here's what I mean by that I have a dear dear friend he's a tattoo artist in Portland we're hanging out at his house and he's telling me hey I've got this Squarespace website and I really want to rank for tattoo artist Portland how do I get on the first page of search results for tattoo artist Portland and I told him you buy an ad that's the only way he's going to get to the top of that page in any record time tattoo studios for the last 10 years every tattoo convention that's been in Portland for the last 10 years every travel blog article about tattoos in Portland they are all going to outrank him they've been there longer they've gotten content they've invested their time into backlinks he has a brand new website and if he's trying to get on top of search results for tattoo artist Portland that is going to be an uphill battle that could literally take now here's the trick he can reach the top page in search results but it needs to be for his Niche he's really well known for his negative space tattoos and for his knitting tattoos his wife my bestie she is amazing at knitting and he started doing some knitting themed tattoos for her that she and her knitting Pals just absolutely love that right there that's his way to number one he doesn't even have to add the city of Portland to the end of his Search terms for that he can optimize his Squarespace portfolio for knitting themed tattoo and yarn tattoo and all kinds of variations and I bet you in a few weeks he's going to be at the top of quite a few search results so that's my number one tip for you if you don't take away anything else from this episode if you don't like any of the other four tips I'm about to share that one right there is key be realistic when it comes to your keywords now if you do want to rank for a keyword that is super popular and has a lot of competition you can get there over time and one of the best ways to do that is to rise in rank for keywords that are more specialized go after those terms that truly describe what you do so the Right audience can find you the more traffic you get from those specialized terms and the longer your websites there those rank factors will get your website primed and ready to show up for those higher competition terms when it's time so again my number one tip is to make sure that you're realistic about the keywords that you're optimizing your website for you put them inside the content of the pages you're creating you use them inside the titles for those pages you can even use a keyword in the URL as well but my second tip is that I want to make sure you use those keywords inside the metadata every page every blog post every product you'll find underneath the settings for that particular page an SEO option this is where you can add a title and a description now to be totally transparent here Google does not always use that data sometimes they'll look at your site and they'll think content on the page describes it better than you did in this special SEO metadata section so it might just use content from the page but on the off chance that it's going to use what you wrote we need to optimize it so how do you do that here's an example of what I did for one of my recent blog posts this recent tutorial I put out there was all about the new way to edit the header of your Squarespace website the title of this blog post is how to edit your Squarespace header but my SEO title is how to edit the Squarespace header Das Squarespace menu tutorial because people will use the word header and the word menu now inside the blog post itself and the SEO description I also use the term Main navigation all three of these header menu main navigation they can all be used for a search for this tutorial so I wanted to put all of those variations in different spots of the specific blog post that way Google can see it's a related term even if it isn't the actual title so again the real title how to edit your Squarespace header that's the main search term that I thought people would be using or I should say search phrase that's the main search phrase that I thought people would be using to find this Tut tutorial but someone might say Squarespace menu tutorial and someone might say how to change main navigation in Squarespace I want to make sure header menu and Main navigation are inside the SEO optimized area for this particular blog post so again I use those variations in the title The SEO title the description and in the content itself one last time because I realized I'm kind of rambling here the actual SEO title for the page I use the title of the blog post how to edit your Squarespace header then I added a dash and added Squarespace menu tutorial okay awesome now let's go on to the third step the third step here is to make sure that Google knows your new content exists Google is busy it is not going to spend time eagerly waiting for your next blog post but you can tell it that it's there so it has it on hand to share when someone searches for it you need to submit your site to Google and to Bing to have it crawled so that it knows what words your content is related to to and can decide when to share it with others if you haven't done it yet submit your site on search console I'll add links to the steps in the show notes for this episode at inside thesquare
docodont sure you can just sit back and assume Google will find it eventually and they probably will but do yourself a favor tell Google you made it get that page crawled so it knows to share the new stuff with people searching for it yes every time you make a new page or make a big change now don't abuse this feature last time I checked there was a limit the new rumor in my SEO circles is that you can request a specific URL 10 times a day and a specific URL in the pages it links to directly two times a day but honestly once is enough don't abuse this power when you are ready like you spell checked the page you checked all of your links you looked at it on mobile you're really ready to launch this new page your blog post or your updated one then request that Google crawl it through search console and let Google do its thing okay that's three out of five let's do a quick recap before I share the final two make sure you're creating content that your audience will be able to find keyword research is important but go with your gut here use the word that your audience uses to describe you and get specific you are not going to make it on the first page for tattoo artist Portland in a week so find your specialized keyword and work it that brings me to tip number two that SEO data for every single page I want you to add that specialized keyword inside the content of the page but also in the title and that ever so important SEO metadata even if Google decides not to use it it's so important to have it there make sure the text there is something optimized for that specialized keyword and it's enticing so people want to click on your link again specialized keyword is definitely the theme here and that SC data it's available for every individual page blog post and even individual products look under the settings for that page and you'll find an SEO section just like the example that I shared for my blog post don't be afraid to include more than one specialized term in the title my blog post itself was titled how to edit your Squarespace header my SEO title how to edit your Squarespace header D Squarespace menu tutorial and the third tip that I sh shared make sure that you update Google and let it know that your new site content is there especially when you update old stuff too you can do this with Google search console and I only recommend submitting a change once all righty on to the new stuff number four don't underestimate social you won't find a link to an Instagram post in a Google search it's not how it works but you can find a link to a profile make sure that the profile for your business has key words and make sure you share your content on there but if someone reaches your profile from search the first link they can click on should be directly to your website I have a link in the show notes that will teach you how to make a landing page specifically for Instagram but that will boost your website traffic make sure that they're going directly to your website and again I'll have that tutorial in the show notes inside thes square. codcast the final tip that I want to share is about internal linking this one is really underused and I I think a lot of people need to take advantage of this once your site is up Google knows about it you're sharing it with everyone you're listing it on your social profiles you can use internal linking so that anyone on your website has something to do next if you have a Blog related articles is the best practice here use a summary block to link to articles on your blog that of the same category or tag and if you don't have a Blog links to your services or to your testimonials or case studies give your audience something to do next something to explore you can definitely have your main call to action be contact us or hire us or whatever but internal linking not only tells Google that all your content is important and supports itself but it encourages people to explore your site and not leave right away when they leave without doing anything that's called a bounce and your bounce rate is an important factor in your search engine rank so make sure that you have Pages linked to other pages and you recommend things for them to do next all right there you have it friend five important tips that you can use to boost your Squarespace website in search engine results getting it in front of the right people thank you so much for listening to this episode of think inside the square I hope you loved it I have a lot more tips and tricks to share with you about making an amazing Squarespace website that's Uniquely Yours so be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you happen to be listening to this episode thanks again for listening and most importantly have fun with your Squarespace website bye for now
hey there squares spacer still tuned in I have a favor to ask I'm still pretty new to this podcast stuff but I heard that reviews are really really helpful wherever you're listening to this podcast can you give me a review I'd really appreciate it I want to know that you're loving the content I put out there and if there's anything you want me to cover in an upcoming episode let me know email me anytime support inside the square. thanks again for tuning in and most importantly have fun with your Squarespace website [Music]
SEO checklist: support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002090267
Instagram Landing Page Tutorial: insidethesquare.co/squarespace-tutorials/ig-landing-page
Search Console: support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205813918-Verifying-your-site-with-Google-Search-Console