How to Set Up SEO On Your Squarespace Site
Squarespace small business owners - struggling with what in the world you are supposed to do about SEO?!
I’m there with you. I had no idea what SEO was or why I needed it so badly - I just knew that it was an integral part of business, and I needed to figure it out FAST.
If you are in the same boat, I’m going to walk you quickly through what SEO is and how to set it up on your Squarespace website.
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
Basically, it’s the practice of setting up your website so that it performs REALLY well on search engines like Google. You know how you search for “wedding photographers in Denver” and a bunch of people show up, with pages and pages and pages? The better your SEO ranking for those searches (i.e. keywords), the higher you will show up on those searches (and the more that potential customers will see you!)
Keywords = Phrases that you can rank for
I’m not going to fully explain keywords, but you can find great articles about them if you search quickly on Google! Basically, keywords are those searches that people are doing in Google to find you - like “wedding photographers in Denver.” You want to be constantly incorporating different keywords throughout your website to increase your ranking as more people find you. To find keywords that you might want to rank for, you can use the Google Keyword Planner (under Google Ads) to look up different keywords, find similar phrases, and see how competition in ranking is and how popular a search may be!
Now you know what SEO is and keywords are - what do you do about it??
Incorporate keywords EVERYWHERE on your site. Title your images before/after uploading them with keywords (denver-engagement-photographer-mount-falcon-session-1.jpg). Fill out your Site title, site description, and page descriptions, including a keyword to 2 in each - these are what show up on Google as descriptions when someone searches your site, so don’t write a bunch of nonsense!
Add easy sharing buttons for EVERYTHING. The more that people are linking to/sharing your website, Google recognizes you as a reliable source and moves your up in search engine ranks!
Make sure your BLOG TITLES INCLUDE KEYWORDS. Blogging is a GREAT way to move up in ranks quickly, but make sure that every blog title is a keyword - something that someone might literally search on Google. Also, incorporating more images (with keywords) is something that search engines love, so make sure to include optimized images on your blog posts.
Enable SSL. Basically, this is just a security certificate (free) that says your site is secure. YOU NEED THIS - otherwise, Google thinks your site could be unsafe and won’t want to suggest you to other users.
Use your Squarespace analytics to see what is working. You can use your analytics tracking in Squarespace to see what pages are doing the best, and also what phrases you are ranking for (if you set up your site to link with Google Analytics). Looking at data is the BEST way to see how you are doing and improve your own SEO ranking - so use that free tool!!!
SEO is confusing, and it takes a WHILE to start ranking for things, but it is SO important to set up in order to establish your presence online! Just start with a few of this tips at a time, and I promise it will get easier the more you work at it!