7 Things Squarespace Will *Not* Do to Help Your SEO [& How to Handle Them]

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When it comes to built-in SEO optimization, Squarespace is one of the best platforms out there. 

With built-in features like an automatic site map, page descriptions, automatic redirects and AMP, Squarespace offers a ton to users right out-of-the-box for SEO. Most of the time, these features are enough for small business owners, freelancers, entrepreneurs etc. to run a well-designed and highly functioning site.

However, there are a few things that Squarespace does not offer in the way of SEO. 

The items in this list are things that you should consider when it comes to hosting your own website on Squarespace.

*Again, every website is unique. We absolutely love Squarespace sites. But the more educated you are about what you can and cannot do, the more confident you’ll feel about choosing a website platform that’s truly right for you.

So, let’s take a look at a few SEO optimizations you can’t do with Squarespace:

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1. Page Speed Optimization: 

Squarespace doesn't allow you to vamp up site speed. Yes, you can make adjustments to your design and code, but you cannot make adjustments to the back-end structure of your site as a whole. Sometimes, this can lead to less-than-ideal results on Google's Pagespeed Insights.

However, you can combat this by being on the lookout for a few things that can slow your page speed down:

• Keep your pages under 5 MB

• Use fewer fonts (no more than two fonts on your site)

• Remove custom code that might be weighing your site down

• Streamline your URL redirects

If you follow these guidelines, the page speed that you’re able to achieve with Squarespace should suffice just fine.

2. Removing Unnecessary JavaScript (JS): 

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If you’re looking to remove unnecessary JavaScript from your site, you won’t be able to do so with Squarespace. On Squarespace, parts of the code will run no matter what, and you won’t have an option to clear it.

For example, as you can see here, clearing this unnecessary JS would clear around 147 KB. Unfortunately, though, it won’t be possible through the Squarespace platform.

3. Robots.txt & XML Sitemap: 

Like we mentioned above, Squarespace automatically generates the robots.txt file and XML sitemap for your website without you having to do anything. However, it won’t let you edit these features.

While this isn’t usually an issue for smaller websites, it may not be ideal for larger sites that would like to do a bit more customization.

4. Custom Canonicalization

One of Squarespace’s cool features is that it will add self-referencing URLs for you by default. However, there can also be a downside to this. If you add a custom canonical URL using the advanced page injection option, you can then possibly end up with multiple conflicting canonicals on the page, which is an issue for SEO. 

5. Adjust DNS Lookups

Each DNS lookup typically takes around 20 to 120 milliseconds. And unfortunately, a browser cannot download anything from the host until all lookups are complete. This can cause a poor user experience and damage your SEO.

If you want to adjust or reduce DNS lookups on your Squarespace site, you’ll have to do so by finding a different host for your site. For example, hosts like GoDaddy and Rackspace can have pretty sluggish DNS times. But hosts like Cloudflare and Digital Ocean normally perform a bit better in this department. 

6. Make Few HTTP Requests

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If you’re finding that your site is making too many HTTP requests, you may need to manually go into your Squarespace account and manually adjust some things. 

Start by getting rid of unnecessary images and reducing the file size of all remaining images. Then, set your website to load JavaScript files asynchronously. These things should help lower the amount of HTTP requests you are seeing from your site. 

7. Compress Components 

Some websites offer automatic compression when uploading images to your website. Squarespace does not. Instead, you’ll need to be sure your images are compressed before uploading them. You can learn more about best practices for image file sizes, etc., for Squarespace here. 

Conclusion

Remember, these are just a few things to consider when it comes to Squarespace and SEO.

However, as we mentioned above, it’s important not to forget that Squarespace natively offers a lot of amazing features. You can learn more about Squarespace’s built-in SEO functionality here!