Squarespace SEO Checklist [Free Download]

Squarespace SEO

Nov 29

Write SEO Content, install SEO tools, take a 100-hour SEO course, always optimize images…

Argh!!! It can be overwhelming when dealing with SEO and ensuring that your content ranks. Unfortunately, the millions of information on SEO scattered around the internet doesn’t help.

There is no doubt that you need SEO to make your website rank on search engines and connect with your business’s target audience. SEO is inevitable, but the stress is. You don’t need to break the bank or spend eternity watching SEO courses, especially when you have a business to run. You can get started with this Squarespace SEO Checklist.

Therefore, we’ve made SEO basics straightforward with this Squarespace SEO Checklist. If you are a new Squarespace website owner or want to upgrade your SEO game, this article is for you. I will take you through the necessary steps to set up your website for SEO. Ready? Let’s go!

Step One: Keyword Research

Every good SEO strategy starts with keyword research because SEO depends majorly on keywords. Therefore, if you are to pay keen attention to anything, it has to be Keyword Research. Keywords are a set of terms that your business can rank for. Most of the websites you see on search engine first results whenever you search for a term are ranking for that particular keyword. So, if you want your website to rank for your business keywords, you must choose the right keywords. Let’s take a look at how you can get the process started.

Write Down A List Of Keywords

When kickstarting your keyword research, the first thing to do is have a list of keywords your business type ranks for. Start with the broad keywords available in your business. If you have an ecommerce business that sells women’s clothing, you can start with keywords such as

Women’s Clothing
Ladies wear
Quality women’s clothes

After having a list of broad keywords, narrow it down to specific phrases that you believe your target audience will be searching for, such as;

Affordable Maxi Dresses
Affordable jean trousers
Quality white tank tops

The main goal of keyword research is to find specific phrases that you want your business to rank for and ensure that it is similar to what your target audience is searching for. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways and tools that can help in your keyword research. Let’s take a look.

Check Keyword Demand Using A Set Of Tools

SemRush

SemRush is an all-in-one SEO tool that is worth every penny. Its keyword research feature is one of a kind, and it provides valuable information on a set of keywords. You get additional information, such as Keyword variations, besides the standard metrics, such as CPC, Difficulty, and search volume. These questions include the keyword, related keywords, global volume and SERP analysis. Also, Semrush comes with other powerful features that are beyond keywords. You can check traffic volume, backlink gaps, competitors, etc. This is a highly recommended tool for every website owner serious about SEO.

Google Search

The first way to see what your target audience is searching for regarding a specific keyword is by using the Google search icon. Since Google is the most used search engine, it always comes up with a complete phrase or predicted search terms when you type in a keyword, signifying what people have been searching for. In the picture below, you’ll see different Squarespace phrases just by typing in Squarespace.

Running your main keywords through Google will inform you of new and trendy search terms your target audience uses.

Google Keyword Planner

Although Google Search can be good, it doesn’t provide sufficient information to enhance your Keyword Research. Still, you don’t have to worry about anything because Google also has its keyword planner tool, which happens to be one of the most used keyword research tools in the world. The Google Keyword Planner allows you to discover new keywords for your business either by inputting a set of keywords or putting in the URL of your website. Google will analyze your website and bring up new keywords you can rank for, or analyze the keywords you inputted and bring out similar keywords. Also, this tool allows you to find out the search volume and relevance of any keyword you input. You’ll be able to determine how many searches the keyword and its growth forecast. This is a valuable tool if you are taking SEO seriously.

ManGools

Another helpful keyword research tool is ManGools. ManGools also gives you standard keyword information, but its unique keyword idea generation makes it stand out.ManGools has perfected the acts of suggesting new and exciting keywords you or your competitors might not have thought about, and this serves as a winning edge for your business. ManGools also provides useful related keywords to the original one, giving you many options. ManGools is an excellent tool if you are looking for additional SEO futures.

AnswerThePublic

One tool I love so much is AnswerThePublic. It focuses mainly on generating phrases and questions that include your searched keywords, allowing you to write content that explicitly answers these questions and, in turn, increases traffic. It is a perfect tool for discovering topic ideas to write on. This tool neatly separates these phrases and questions into categories: when, how, can, are, why, etc. You can see phrases or questions that start with the same word, and it also gives insight into additional information, such as the CPC of the phrases and suggestion comparison. So, if you are looking for a sure tool that generates thousands of phrases and questions around your keyword, then answerthepublic will wow you.

After using these tools to determine your keywords, you can start including these keywords in your website copy and content.

Step Two: SEO Website Optimization (Squarespace Website SEO Checklist)

Now that you’ve performed your keyword research and inputted them strategically in the website’s copy and content, the next thing to do is to ensure that your Squarespace website is also optimised to rank on search engines. I have seen these mistakes severely repeated by website owners, which can drastically affect your website ranking on search engines.

Turn SSL Certificate On

SSL Certificate is a security certificate that protects your website from hackers and keeps your website’s data encrypted and safe. It is the padlock sign next to a website’s URL whenever you open a browser tab.

Also, search engines give preference to websites that have an SSL certificate. Therefore, you must ensure that your SSL certificate is turned on.

All Squarespace websites have an SSL certificate, so you don’t need to spend an extra dime. If you don’t use a Squarespace website, then you need to check with your website builder whether your website has one.

To turn on your SSL certificate in Squarespace, head to your Squarespace dashboard and go to Settings. Head over to Advanced and ensure that SSL is turned on. Also, ensure you have Secure (preferred) and HSTS Secure turned on. Once done, you don’t have to worry about unencrypted data or a lack of preference.

Add Favicon

A favicon is that little logo that appears next to a browser tab. It is also the icon you see next to search results. Unfortunately, thousands of website owners often forget to upload a website favicon, leaving their website without any logo. Squarespace also uses the boring black cube to substitute for not having a favicon. However, this can be hurtful to your business on search results. Therefore, having a favicon designed for your website is necessary, and it isn’t as stressful as you may think. All you need to do is reduce your business’s logo to a smaller size and upload it. If your logo is too complicated, you can remove some elements to simplify it.

To upload your favicon on Squarespace, head over to your Squarespace Dashboard, go to Designs, select Browser Icon and upload your favicon. Once that is done, click Save.

Add Site Title, Tagline & SEO Description

Site title, tagline and SEO description appear when someone searches your website. Beyond this, Google and other search engines also rank your websites based on the keywords included in your website’s SEO description, so it is non-negotiable. When writing your description, ensure that it is short concise, but most importantly, it contains the keywords you want your website to rank for. Also, let the description speak about what your business is majorly about, and avoid repeating sentences.

To add your site title on Squarespace. Head over to your dashboard, select Marketing, and then SEO.

Add Website Name with a Keyword

The website name is the site title displayed on your website’s header, so do not forget to add that, even if you are using a logo. To input your website name on Squarespace, go to the home page, click on Edit, scroll to the page's header, and select EDIT HEADER. Under the edit header, select Site Title & Logo, and then write your website name.

Page SEO Title & Description

Search engine crawls each page on your site, and depending on the keyword and the search term of your target audience, various pages may pop up on search engines. Therefore, each website page, including blog posts, must have an SEO title and description. When writing the title and description, ensure it includes the keywords you want it to rank for, especially if they are blog posts or service pages. Irrespective of the page, even if it is a contact page, ensure you include an SEO-optimized page description and title.

To add a description for each page on Squarespace, head over to Pages, click on the gear icon on the side of each page, and select SEO. Next, add the SEO Title and SEO description.

Optimize Page URLs With Keywords

This is a super important step if you plan to take your SEO game to the next level. When you create pages, Squarespace automatically creates a string of numbers in the URL, which can be unprofitable.

Therefore, you should ensure that each page URL contains the keywords you want it to rank for. A classic example is writing a post on the five best ways to learn the Korean language; your URL should contain keywords such as how-to-learn-korean. Therefore, ensure that each URL contains a specific keyword.

To edit your URL slug on Squarespace, head over to your dashboard, click on Pages, select the gear icon next to each page, click on General > URL slug, and edit the URL. Another example is using hair stylist services instead of services for a hair stylist page.

Fill Out Business Information

The business information space in Squarespace is where you can add your location, business hours and other additional info. This is important in Local SEO and can make a huge difference, especially if you offer services to your local environments. It is super easy to set up your business information; you only need to go to Settings and select Business Information.

Compress & Rename Images/Graphics

Big images can slow your website speed, increase bounce rate and hurt your SEO. Therefore, it is important to compress big images to reduce the size and allow your websites to load better. Unfortunately, many website owners overlook this, which can be detrimental. So, ensure you use an image compressor to compress all your images before uploading them on Squarespace. A helpful image compressor is tinypng.com; it is fast and free to use.

When you are done compressing your images, the next step is to rename your images from the gibberish string to a name containing keywords that it can rank for. So, if you use an image of a lady applying face serum in an anti-ageing blog post, you can rename the image to facial-routine-to-prevent-aging. In all you do, do not forget always to rename your images to contain your keywords.

Set Up Custom 404 Page

A 404 page is an error page that comes up when a visitor tries to access a broken or non-existent link on your page. Having a custom 404 page prevents visitors from leaving your site when they meet a dead end because it usually contains links to other pages on your website, such as the home page. Sometimes, encountering a broken link is inevitable, but it can be salvaged if the 404 page contains another link. To create your custom 404 page on Squarespace, head to Design and select the 404 page option.

Check For Broken Links

Your links can be broken, and you won’t have a clue, so you have to check all the links on your website and ascertain their functionality. Go through each link and ensure they are all working. An alternative is to use a free tool called DeadLinkChecker, which automatically detects all the broken links on your website.

Create Redirects For Broken Links

When you detect broken links, you don’t have to panic; you can create redirects for broken links. With a redirect, visitors can still access the page without getting a new link. Creating redirect is pretty straightforward. Head to your Squarespace dashboard and click Settings > Advanced > URL mapping. To learn more about creating redirects, kindly refer to this article.

Add a Call-To-Action Button on Each Page

I have seen website pages that had no CTA button or link, and that can be detrimental to SEO. As a website owner, one of your goals is to make visitors take action, irrespective of the page they are on. One way to increase the conversion rate is to have sufficient CTA buttons on each page, including the contact or about us page. Therefore, ensure you don’t leave pages without at least one CTA button.

Make sure Each Page Have At Least 500 Words

The word count of pages also matters in SEO. A page that is less than 500 words wouldn’t be prioritised in search engine results; therefore, you should ensure that each page contains at least 500 words. I am not trying to say you should include fluffs or repeat sentences. It might not be as important as you think if the page doesn’t have up to 500 words. If it is important and you’ve already included all the basics but aren’t reaching 500 words, you can use SurferSEO to analyze your competitor’s pages. It will give you insight into everything you need to add to your page.

Eliminate Duplicate Pages or Copy

Trust me, You don’t want duplicate pages or copy on your website. It can be damaging to your SEO. Therefore, checking through all your pages and content and eliminating duplicates is essential. A free tool that can be of help is Siteliner. It tells you the number of duplicate pages and copies and where they are. Super helpful, right?

Check All Footer and Header Links

Last, check all footer and header links to determine if they work properly. Any broken links should be gotten rid of or adjusted.

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Step Three: Submit Your Website Information To Search Engines

Many website owners forget to submit their website information to search engines and wonder why their website is not appearing on search results, no matter how they try. The reason why search engines don’t rank some websites is because they don’t know that they exist. Let search engines know your website exists by submitting your website’s sitemap or link to the specific search engine. The two main search engines you should consider are Google and Bing.

To submit your website to Google, you will need to submit it using Google Search Console. You can submit your website here.

For Bing, submit your website here using the Bing Webmaster tools.

Step Four: Create Google My Business

List your business on Google and get discovered in your location using Google My Business. It is easy to set up and contributes tremendously to your Local SEO strategy. You can set up your profile here.

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Step Five: Add Google Analytics To Website

Google Analytics gives you insight into how your keywords bring in traffic and how your website is doing. You can get good insight, such as the total traffic, top-performing pages, average time spent on your website, and so much more. These pieces of information inform you on how good your SEO game is and where to improve. Here is a detailed explanation of how to go about it.

Step Six: Add Citations

Citations are business references, including the business name, address and phone number. Building citations to your site can improve visibility and also serve as a ranking factor in local SEO. Listing your business on established directories proves to Google that your business exists and increases your recommendations. My favorite citation builder is citationbuilderpro.com

related article: Squarespace Blog SEO Guide: The #1 Way To Make Your Blog Posts Rank

Recommended SEO Tools

Some helpful SEO tools can simplify your SEO process and take the load off your shoulders. These tools are highly effective in what they do and provide tremendous results.

Semrush: This is an all-in-one SEO tool that performs every SEO function you can think of. It comes with features such as

Keyword Research
Competitors Analysis
On-page SEO
Technical SEO
Local SEO
Content Management
Site Audit, etc

SurferSEO:

SurferSEO is a tool that helps you write SEO-optimized content that ranks on search engines. It compares millions of top-ranking articles on the topic you want to write about and pulls out keywords that should be included in your content and the number of times it should be included. It also tells you the number of images, words, paragraphs and headings that will make for SEO-optimized content. An SEO content score of 100 also grades your particular content. Beyond this, it comes with a free blog outline generator, giving you headings that are SEO-optimized and are in demand.

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SEOSpace:

This is an SEO plugin explicitly created for Squarespace websites that works on browsers. It analyses your Squarespace website and tells you how it is faring against SEO standards and what to include to make it more SEO-optimized. It uses the traffic light mechanism, which is super easy to understand. It is a must-have for every Squarespace website owner.

Google Keyword Planner:

This lets you discover new keywords for your business and gives you valuable information such as difficulty, search volume, forecast, CPC, etc. You can also directly input your website link and get new keywords you can rank for. One significant advantage is that it is entirely free and offers valuable insights.

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