When talking about a website's success, it’s important to not just look at the right performance — but also to make sure people can find your website. This is where SEO (search engine optimization) becomes vital.
Being a Squarepace designer, you already know the importance of SEO for your client’s websites, but you may find it very difficult to do because of all the scattered information.
Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered with this guide written in collaboration with SEOSpace, creator of the SEO plugin for Squarespace.
This guide will share five powerful and often overlooked SEO strategies for Squarespace designers to help your client’s websites get the exposure they need to succeed.
So, if you’re ready to drive more traffic and increase your client’s search engine ranking and potentially charge more for your time, read on to learn five expert SEO strategies for Squarespace designers.
Strategy #1: Improve dwell time and reduce bounce rate.
Again, creating a stunning design is only half the battle; a site still needs to be optimized for search engine visibility if it’s going to attract visitors. For improved search visibility, dwell time and reduced bounce rate are two key aspects to remember.
Dwell time is the length of time that visitors spend on your website before leaving, while bounce rate is the number of times visitors leaves after visiting only one page. To keep both metrics at an optimal level, optimizing loading times and ensuring smooth navigation become significant factors.
To ensure an SEO-optimized Squarespace design, provide quality content, include social sharing links at the end of blog posts, and use descriptive anchor text for blog navigation links. This encourages readers to stay on the page longer, improving dwell time and reducing bounce rate. You should aim for a dwell time of “at least” 15 seconds and a bounce rate between 26% and 40%.
Strategy #2: Optimize images and videos for faster loading times.
A site’s loading speed is one of the most essential aspects of SEO. A slow-loading site is likely to have a lower ranking than a faster one, and if your Squarespace site takes too long to load, you’ll lose out on potential customers and visitors.
Fortunately, there are several ways you can optimize your images and videos for faster loading times, as outlined below:
Ensure you compress images before uploading them onto Squarespace - we personally use https://imagecompressor.com/
Limit the number of images on a page and reduce their file sizes without compromising quality.
Never upload a video directly onto Squarespace, always embed it as a YouTube video
You can find more SEO strategies in this comprehensive Squarespace SEO tips post.
Strategy #3: Leverage internal linking.
Internal linking is an often overlooked but potent tool to optimize your Squarespace pages for SEO. Internal links are hyperlinks on your site that link to other pages within the same domain, and they play a crucial role in driving traffic to your site.
Here’s why internal links are essential:
They help establish information hierarchies within your site. This means your visitors can easily find the relevant pages and topics they’re looking for.
They allow you to keep visitors on your website longer by guiding them through various pages and content that builds on what they’ve already read, watched, or listened to.
They provide an easy way for search engines like Google to crawl through your website and index all of its content effectively, allowing them to understand how best to rank all the individual pages in their search results.
So, this is an area you should take seriously the next time you design a Squarespace website.
Strategy #4: Utilize schema markup and structured data.
Another great way to optimize SEO for your Squarespace designs is to use structured data and schema markup.
Schema markup is code on your web page that helps search engines understand what’s on it, such as what type of content, who posted it, when it was posted, etc. Structured data can help you improve the visibility of your website on search engine results pages (SERPs).
You can always use Schema App to add structured data and schema markup to your Squarespace website. But then, you’ll need to add the generated custom codes — here’s a guide on adding custom codes to Squarespace websites.
Strategy #5: Organize your content using header tags (H1 - H3).
When creating content on your Squarespace website, it’s important to use header tags (H1, H2, H3) to organize and structure your content.
Header tags serve two primary purposes. First, they help break up your content into easily digestible sections for your readers. This makes it easier for them to scan your content and find the information they want.
Secondly, header tags provide a way for search engines to understand the hierarchy and importance of your content. When you use header tags in the proper order (H1 for the main title, H2 for subheadings, and so on), it signals to search engines which content is the most important and what the overall topic of the page is.
Top Tip: We often see Squarespace web designers adding more than 1 H1 on a web page - this is bad for SEO, even if it looks good!
Using header tags also helps to make your content more accessible for users who rely on screen readers or other assistive technologies. So, you should optimize your next web design using the correct heading structure for the best SEO results.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I maximize SEO on Squarespace?
To maximize SEO on Squarespace, focus on the following:
Optimizing site content
Using relevant keywords
Creating descriptive URLs
Adding alt text to images
Leveraging built-in features and tools for better search visibility.
Can you get good SEO with Squarespace?
Yes, Squarespace offers many built-in features and tools that can help improve your website’s SEO, such as the following:
Customizable metadata
Clean HTML markup
Mobile-responsive design
Fast loading times
However, achieving good SEO also requires creating high-quality content, building backlinks, and targeting the right keywords.
Wrapping It Up
So, there you have it — five essential SEO strategies to consider when next you’re designing a Squarespace website. You’ll also find this essential Squarespace SEO checklist from SEOSpace to be a helpful resource for boosting your search engine optimization game.