SEO & Squarespace

Highlighting Features & Busting Myths about SEO and Squarespace

As a web designer & developer, I naturally get a lot of questions about SEO or search engine optimization. As a Squarespace designer & developer, I also get plenty of questions about how choosing the platform itself affects SEO. This can be a complex and confusing subject with lots of information out there meant to confuse and conflate things and there are plenty of myths that I love busting whenever possible. Let’s do this!

The Backstory

Somehow back in the day, Squarespace got a bad rep when it comes to SEO. This may have been relevant in the early days of the service (Squarespace 5, anyone?! 😜) but the current platform which all new websites are built on features a robust toolkit when it comes to SEO. The best part is that no third-party apps are needed to be able to work on the SEO features of your site and you don’t need to get into any super-technical code either. 

Built-In Squarespace SEO Features

• All Squarespace sites are optimized for mobile and all templates have been scanned with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool to ensure that they are mobile-friendly. Google prioritizes mobile-optimized sites in search results. 

• Areas where you can edit the search engine and page descriptions on both a site-wide and per-page basis. No third-party plugins are needed for this!

• Sitemaps are automatically generated and itemize all of the URL and image metadata on your site. Everything is given proper priority and is ready to index regardless of the template you choose. 

• SSL Certificates are included in every domain that is connected to a Squarespace site. SSL-secured websites rank higher than those that are not secure. 

• Squarespace automatically generates clean HTML markup that can be read by search engines when your site is indexed without the need for any extra code or tags.

• The tags that improve search engine indexing (alt, title, meta, and link tags) are automatically included. 

• Clean URLs for all primary pages that are easy for search engines to read and index.

• If you have multiple domains or use a custom domain on your Squarespace site, automatic redirects ensure that search engines will only see your primary domain.

• Easy enabling of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to create lightweight versions of every page on your site so that they can load faster when people view your website on their phones. Sites with AMP may rank higher in mobile searches. 

• Products on Squarespace are structured so that data like the product name, image, description, price, and URL so that Google can display this information as a rich search result. 

• Automatic and easy integration with Google Search Console so that you can see Google search keywords analytics directly in your Squarespace analytics platform. 

The Secret to Getting Seen: Content

One of the greatest misconceptions out there is that SEO is as easy as adding a plugin (something like Yoast if you use WordPress). The real truth is that plugins like Yoast are nothing more than a checklist. You’d be just as well off printing an actual to-do list and putting it on a clipboard next to your desk. These plugins do nothing for your SEO just by being connected. The secret to getting noticed is having great content, something that is completely independent of what platform your site is on or what SEO tools you may be using. That being the case, I know that people love checklists so here’s one you can work off of: 

• Site Title (less than 60 characters, include keywords)

• Site Description  (50-300 characters, make it a readable description)

• Location Info (i.e.  a map and business contact information)

• Use a Custom Domain 

• Connect Your Social Media Accounts

• Add SEO Descriptions (for each page, 50-300 characters) 

• Page & Title Formats (for all individual pages, home, blog, shop)

• Custom 404 Page 

• Clean Blog post URLs (include post title in URL)

• Clean Page slugs (use real words and make it relevant)

• Verify site with Google Search Console

• Index your site with Google

• Verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools

• Connect your site to Google Analytics

• Regularly check Google analytics search keywords panel and update content as needed

• As content updates and changes over time, be sure to redirect or fix any broken links using URL redirects

• Update your site frequently by blogging

• Use keywords strategically 

• Use Squarespace’s built-in features for creating headings

• Add alt text to images

• Add social sharing images to every page

• Give images readable file names 

• Use tags & categories on blog posts, products, and galleries

• Link to other relevant content on your site 

• Keep images under 500KB

If you’re looking for a great article that goes into more depth on some of these topics, I highly recommend checking out this post from Style Factory: Squarespace SEO (2021) — Checklist and Tips which has been updated for 2021 and has step-by-step info on a lot of the items on the list above!

eCommerce Website Setup Checklist

Whether you’re getting ready to launch your first online biz or have been at it a while, it seems like the list of things you need to do BEFORE you can actually get to work is never-ending. Things can definitely seem overwhelming at first mostly because there are so many moving parts that all magically need to come together. Use this handy checklist to work through all of the various tasks that will help make sure you have a successful launch!

Business Stuff

✔ Consult with lawyer and/or accountant, if needed

✔ Select & set up your payment processor account (Stripe or PayPal)

✔ Prepare Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies

✔ Write out Refund & Return Policies

✔ Research tax rates applicable to your business type, products & region (again, an accountant is your friend here!)

✔ Research what types of shipping options you'd like to offer

✔ Document the process you will use to fulfill orders

✔ Document the process you will use to add orders to your accounting system or CRM if needed

✔ Set up a specific branded email address that you'll use for all commerce activities if desired

Product Info

✔ If exporting your store from another platform, prepare a CSV file

✔ Write product & service descriptions, including specific details & specifications

✔ Decide what customer information you'll need to collect with orders

✔ Document all product variations in a spreadsheet along with costs

✔ Decide how you will document and track inventory, if not using Squarespace

✔ Organize product photos & thumbnails in a folder, plan a photoshoot if needed

✔ Organize products into categories & plan what tags you'll use to help improve search

Marketing Info

✔ Plan marketing activities that you'll use to promote your store, including social shares

✔ Set up your Shoppable Instagram, if using

✔ Consider putting together a list of FAQs for your site to help customers

✔ Schedule or create coupon codes, discounts, or promotions

✔ Select & set up your email campaign platform (MailChimp or Squarespace Campaigns)

✔ Review the Analytics panel so you can understand and track future store traffic, purchase funnels and button conversion rates

Using Squarespace as your CRM

Alright, alright, alright - so Squarespace isn’t a “CRM” in the most traditional sense. But if you’re a small eCommerce business, it offers everything you need to sub as one, and (bonus!) all the tools you need to manage your customers are all right there in one place. Squarespace can help you manage everything from inventory to orders, payments, and refunds. It can even help you manage your customers (or - better yet - help them manage themselves).

Who this works best for:

• Businesses that sell solely via their website (i.e. not a brick and mortar location)

• Businesses that mostly sell physical or digital products or things like subscriptions or memberships (not so good for service-based businesses, jump to the bottom for my rec on that)

• Businesses with smaller inventories

• Businesses with a small team

How to Run Your Online Business With One Login

(Hint: it’s all in Squarespace)

• With Customer Accounts enabled, customers can access all of their payment methods, shipping addresses, shopping carts, and order information in one place. The system will even help them reset their password on their own if they forget it. TL;DR all of this saves you admin time while also helping your customers feel totally taken care of. Moving along…

• Even if you don’t have customer accounts enabled (or it’s not available on the plan you’re on) - you can still see all of that information in one, organized place online.

Other cool things you can do:

• View key information for each customer like order history, email address, the total number of orders, average order value, and total money spent.

• View customer information like name, email address, shipping & billing addresses

• Add information to each customer account that’s private just to you and your team - things like tags and notes to help you take great care of your customer’s experience.

• Email customers directly from their profile in your store’s back end, or if you use the Squarespace app call or email them directly.

• Resend emails they may have missed like order confirmations or shipping confirmations

• View and manage their subscriptions

• View and manage orders for digital products including resending download links

• Fulfill orders & send order fulfillment notifications with tracking info

• Print order details for packing slips

• View charges

• Handle order cancellations

• Process full or partial refunds

• View and manage inventory

• Search for inventory by product titles, tags, and categories or SKUs

• Edit stock levels and receive notices when stock is running low

• View and gift card purchases

If all of this isn’t cool enough, you can also export your order information as a CSV file so that you can provide it to your bookkeeper or accountant. If you use Xero, this can even be done automatically.

Another great option if you’re looking to manage all of your business activity in one place is looking at using Squarespace Scheduling. All of its built-in features make a great substitute for a lightweight CRM system.

Simple Guide to Comparing Web Platform Costs

People sometimes object to investing in Squarespace, or a website in general. “Why do I have to pay for Squarespace when WordPress is free” is the question I hear the most among that crowd. The truth is that when you break down the cost of Squarespace and other platforms, including WordPress, no website platform is free. Squarespace, however, provides consistent, comprehensive services essential to maintaining a live website at a cost that makes it super accessible for small to medium businesses.

When it comes to choosing a platform for your business website, you want to look into a few key features by asking the following questions:

• Does the cost include web hosting? If so, what are the storage and bandwidth limits?

• Does the cost include SSL certification (security/encryption)?

• Does the platform have enough native features to let you avoid dragging in third-party products or plugins?

• Is the platform usable in a way that is easy for you to manage on a day-to-day basis?

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is the service that allows your website to be accessed online. It’s different from domain hosting, which is the service that provides you with the unique URL with which your site is pulled up. With Squarespace, web hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth is included in the cost of each plan. Storage is important because it determines how much content you can have on your website and bandwidth is important because it facilitates how many users can visit your website. Unlimited storage and bandwidth mean you can build an enormous blog, online store, image gallery, or whatever your business needs and as many people as possible can visit it. If you had to hire a stand-alone web hosting service, this could cost you as much as a Squarespace plan alone in annual costs - without any of the other features.

Security & Why It’s Important

The web is a crazy place, quite frankly. If you’re going to have any kind of exchange of information between your website and users, you’ll need to have an SSL certificate. This provides the necessary encryption to protect the user's information, whether they’re filling out a form or purchasing a product. The value of an SSL certificate is typically around $99 per year with the additional task of installing it onto your site. With Squarespace, you’re automatically provided an SSL certificate. The cost is built into your plan without any additional work needed.

Ask About Native Features

Platforms such as WordPress are “free,” but they’re also limited in what they can provide for you. If you want to have a form on your WordPress site, you’ll need a third-party product to do that. If you're going to build a store, you’ll need another third-party product. These additional items are known as plugins, and they come with technical and security risks that can destabilize your website and put your customer’s data at risk. They also all come with their own costs so you’ll need to ask about those, too.

Squarespace, on the other hand, has a robust lineup of native features that allow you to embed limitless custom forms for lead generation, build a robust (or simple) online store, host a blog, create image galleries, add video and podcasts, and more. Because they’re all developed by Squarespace, they don’t require any additional cost or work. Moreover, they’re stable and safe because they’re built into the system. In short, native features save you money, time, and a lot of headaches.

Platform Usability Should Factor Into Your Decision

Unless you know that you will never take on the task of managing your website, it’s important to look at how usable the platform is. Squarespace offers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor that removes the technical challenges from building a webpage, updating content, and making changes to your site navigation, and so on. Businesses often choose Squarespace because they feel that after the initial development they can handle making small changes on their own. That’s a time and money saver in itself!

Why Platform Choice Matters

Ultimately the goal is to have a stable, functional website that can represent your brand online, help visitors learn what they need to know, and possibly have them convert right there on the site. Compromising any of the features above can put those goals at risk and lead to visitors having some negative brand interactions.