Squarespace Search Engine Optimization: The Basics
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When it comes to search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, there are many different components to the strategy that can help to propel a small business’ website into the search engine spotlight.
Squarespace offers comprehensive SEO tools to help streamline the process of optimizing a website. Understanding what tools the platform offers and why SEO is so useful is key to building an effective website that brings in high-quality web traffic.
In this article, we will define examine the process of optimization and how it works on Squarespace, as well as comparing Squarespace’s SEO to its competitors – Wix and WordPress. Plus, we will also cover some of the top questions related to the topic
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Defining SEO
Search Engine Optimization is the practice of implementing specific tactics and virtual tools in order to optimize a website and its content to be found more easily by search engines. SEO also helps to bring more relevant visitors on to a website because it allows for site owners to focus in on a target audience that they want their content to reach.
Optimization of a website is done so that programs and software used by search engines – such as Google’s crawling and indexing process – are able to understand the information on the website and relay it as search results to specific queries.
What is SEO?
SEO is essentially an umbrella term that covers several different actions to be taken in order to improve a website’s overall readability by search engines. Here are just a few examples of the many different actions that can be taken in order to best optimize a website that fall under the SEO category:
Researching and using keywords that will help a website to appear in highly specific search queries. This also helps with avoiding keywords that are overly saturated with search results and would be hard to rank a site with.
Using a particular type of formatting for written content that emphasizes the keywords used through the use of titles and headers.
Creating a sitemap that can be submitted to Google and essentially is a digital map of a website that can be used by search engine technology to explore the website and gather information.
Though SEO can be quite complicated on the surface, there are many opportunities for website owners to utilize website building platforms, such as Squarespace, that offer tools and services built into the platform to assist site owners in their optimization quest.
Additionally, consider checking out the SEO packages we offerthat are designed to help small businesses gain more web traffic and visibility online.
What is the Best Way to do SEO for Your Website?
While it is more ideal to have a fully-optimized website, there are several simple tasks that can be completed that can drastically improve your website’s SEO and search engine ranking. Here are some basic, but highly important, SEO factors that should be done on every website:
Creating page titles and descriptions
Choosing a well-constructed URL that clearly represents the topic or niche of your website
Adding Alt text to images so that search engines can analyze and understand any pictures used on the site
Adding anchor texts that help visitors to navigate the website and find relevant information
One of the easiest ways to manage and master SEO is by using a platform that has built-in features for this purpose. This allows for website owners to not need as much technical expertise and makes optimization much more approachable to small business owners looking to bring their business online.
How do I Increase My SEO Ranking on YouTube?
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With over 2 billion monthly users, YouTube is a useful tool for business. Like with search engines, it has systems and algorithms in place to help find the most relevant content to show in search results. In order to improve the optimization of a YouTube video or channel, there are a few simple steps to take. These are:
Use a keyword within the title
Write a short and concise video description
Include the keyword within the video file name
Use tags related to the keyword and topic of the video
Choose a category for your video
How can I Improve My SEO 2021?
There are many ways to improve SEO easily and efficiently. We offer simple and free guides for SEO on Squarespace to follow, as well as a weekly newsletter with SEO tips.
It is also pertinent to use analytical tools in order to monitor how effective the SEO measures in place currently are and identify areas of weakness that need improvement. SEO factors are constantly changing and often kept secret by search engine providers, so keeping track of analytics is key to staying ahead of the curve.
What is Search Engine Optimization on Squarespace?
Squarespace keeps track of the most relevant and current SEO factors that help websites rank and provides built-in features to aid website owners in the processes of technical SEO that tend to be more complex.
According to Squarespace:
“As the host for millions of websites for over a decade, we’ve implemented various strategies to help your site appear in search engine results. Squarespace has the technical side covered for you—there's no need to search for plugins or get under the hood.”
As such, using Squarespace’s platform to build a website can greatly improve the process of optimizing a site to bring in higher quantities of relevant visitors.
Does Squarespace Have SEO?
Squarespace has built-in SEO features and analytical tools for users to utilize. Additionally, Squarespace offers a number of free resources to read and review in order to ensure a website is in its best condition for optimization. One extremely helpful resource offered by Squarespace is their SEO checklist for before, during, and after the launch of a website.
Most of the built-in features are on the technical side of SEO, so the website owner will still hold the responsibility for properly formatting and creating content that emphasizes keywords and phrases.
How Do I Increase SEO on Squarespace?
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After a site has been optimized both on the surface and technical levels, the next crucial step is to monitor the website through analytics. Analytical tools will help site owners to see how much traffic they are getting and how effectively their SEO tactics are performing.
It can also be extremely helpful to take Squarespace-specific online courses that help site owners – especially those entirely new to SEO.
Is Squarespace Good for SEO?
Squarespace is definitely good for SEO, though it can sometimes be a bit confusing as to how upfront. This is because rather than offering plug-ins, the platform includes all the needed technical actions and features in order to achieve good optimization.
Additionally, Squarespace tends to be highly approachable for beginners thanks to its simplification of the more complex elements of search engine optimization, such as generating a sitemap or getting an SSL certificate. Moreover, small businesses operating from Squarespace can spend more time creating the website and related content rather than spending heaps of time on back-end technical necessities.
Is Squarespace Bad for SEO?
Squarespace is not bad for SEO, though it does lack some of the more complex and nuanced elements that result from hosting a website without the use of third-party platform. Despite lacking some complexity, Squarespace’s features are still effective nonetheless and are incredibly easy to use, making them perfect for small business owners new to the online search engine territory.
Squarespace SEO vs. WordPress SEO
There are several website building and hosting platforms that offer SEO features as a part of their service. Two of the main ones that are often compared in terms of what features and tools they have to offer are Squarespace and WordPress.
The reality is that there is a greater amount of complexity and freedom that comes with the WordPress platform and features. However, this level of freedom can become detrimental for those users who are less familiar with the many factors that contribute to search engine optimization – especially those who have little to no experience with the technical side of the process.
Squarespace SEO is great out of the box, meaning that it is highly approachable and requires little to no prior knowledge on how to efficiently optimize a website. Users will still need to have some knowledge of how to optimize site design and content, but Squarespace also covers this base with its many templates that include a significant portion of the proper formatting needed for SEO.
Is Wix Better for SEO?
Wix is another popular website building and hosting platform that offers a variety of SEO features. Wix offers a strong set of basic SEO features, though it is sometimes criticized for not offering enough control or customization over these features. When it comes to comparing Wix to Squarespace or WordPress, Wix isn’t quite on the same level of complexity.
How Does Google Rank Businesses?
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Google Search includes a feature that will provide a list of businesses within a search result if those businesses are relevant to the query. It works by searching through indexed information about different businesses in order to recommend the best ones to the searcher.
In order for a business to be more likely to show up within this list, the owner should employ the use of Google My Business. Google My Business allows for users to enter information, photographs, and more about their business to be featured on a search result.
This in turn allows for Google to analyze and index information about the business much more directly and thoroughly, thus majorly increasing the chances that the business will rank higher in search results.
SEO vs. SEM
SEM, or search engine marketing, is a strategy used that relies on paid tactics such as advertisements posted in search results in order to bring in web traffic. This type of marketing often utilizes keywords to appear in specific search results as a customized ad at the very top of the result page.
The major difference between SEM and SEO is that search engine optimization aims to draw in more organic traffic, meaning that no advertisements or paid tactics were used. SEO can ultimately be just as effective as SEM. As such, learning how to best utilize and apply SEO tactics are crucial for small businesses not wanting to build up too many overhead costs.
Final Thoughts
SEO is a critical component in the success of a small business’ website and can help to bring in much more high-quality and relevant visitors that are more likely to become consumers of the business. Squarespace’s platform offers effective tools to help users streamline the back-end and technical processes, making the SEO process simpler overall as well.
