076: Squarespace SEO: 22 actionable things you can do (Part three)

Beginner’s Guide to Squarespace SEO (PART THREE)

Getting your website found on Google search results is one of the biggest goals of website owners. Whether your site is built on Wordpress, Shopify or Squarespace, good SEO (search engine optimization) strategies are key to your site showing up on the first page of Google for keywords specific to your business.

There is a checklist of SEO tasks that I teach my website design clients that they must go through every time they update their blog or add new pages to their website. Here are 22 of them. Why 22? Well, I was born on the 22nd but that’s not why we have 22 steps. It just happens to be 22 items for this Beginner’s Guide.

Go here for Part One (1-8)
Go here for Part Two (9-16)
You are reading Part Three (17-22)

22 SEO Tips for Optimizing Your Squarespace Website

I call this a Beginner’s Guide because these really are the first steps to get your site set-up for SEO. There’s always tons you can do but if you do these 22 things, you will be off to a great start. Some are to one-off steps, while others can become part of your SEO checklist for whenever you upload a blog or add a new page to your site.

Optimize Your Pages

18. Name Your Pages
When you create a new page in Squarespace, it automatically gets the name “New-Page”. Make it a habit to immediately name your new page according to its content. So call it “About” or “Work with me” instead of leaving it at the auto-generated name title. This is important not only for you, to know what your pages are, but also for SEO as your pages make more sense and can drive traffic according to what they are searching.

19. Have Unique Page Descriptions
Having the same page descriptions across all of your pages is not going to help you. Craft bespoke descriptions for each page adding relevant keyword descriptors without overly repeating them. You can click on the wheel icon next to each page and click over to SEO where you can now add descriptions and see how they will appear in search results.

20. Have a custom 404 Error Page
There are always broken links on websites - that’s the natural wear and tear of running a website - what is known as “link rotting”. You can fix those broken links periodically, and I have created a separate video showing you how to find and fix broken links. But when someone does click a link that is broken, a 404 Error page will show up. Make sure that you create a customized 404 Error Page that keeps the conversation going further instead of the user-experience being a dead end. I will make a video on this for you to be released on Sept 26th that will show you just how to do this.

Do this periodically

21. Remove Broken Links
As I mentioned in point # 20, cleaning up your site periodically to make sure there aren’t broken links is a good practice. Think of it your website Spring Cleaning that you really can do anytime of the year. Here’s the video showing you some free tools to do this easily.

22. Get many many backlinks from authority websites
Backlinks are still important for Google Search results. But the quality of backlinks is even more important than the quantity. If your site is linked with high authority websites that are reliable and trustworthy, then that’s a good quality backlink. Showing up in podcasts or writing guest posts or being interviewed on an authority site are some good ways to get quality backlinks.

23. Learn about new SEO requirements
Things are constantly changing and the tech world is no different. Make it your goal to keep an open mind and learn about new SEO requirements as new developments in technology take effect. One way to do that is to go to experts who make it their mission to bring these new changes to you and keep you up-to-date as a result.

My biggest lesson ⎯ Create a website with the end-user & user-experience in mind

In summary: It’s interesting, you’ll find that whenever you do something on your site to optimize SEO/Search Engine results, the same actions are also helping your visitor in some way. So you can see the direct correlation of making your site really work for your site visitor and your site getting found higher in search results. Make that your focus and you will naturally help your site get new and regular traffic.

Your Turn:

What do you think of the message in this blog article? Do you have a course created or are you planning on one? If so, let me know in the comments what your course is all about/will be about. Chime in! I’d love to hear from you!

~ Sophia

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075: Squarespace SEO: 22 actionable things you can do (Part TWO)

Beginner’s Guide to Squarespace SEO (PART TWO)

There is so much you can do to help your website appear in search engine results. I covered the first eight steps in part one of this blog + video. Here’s the next installment. Go ahead and put this into place in your own SEO strategy for your business.

Here are all the parts:
1. Go here for Squarespace SEO - Part One (Steps 1-8)
2. You are reading Part Two (Steps 9-16)
3. Go here for Squarespace SEO - Part Three (Steps 17-22 coming next week)
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22 SEO Tips to get found in Google Search Results

SEO is an approach that is more than just a checklist. But a checklist is a good start. We can go deeper into SEO as a strategy and as a mindset approach after the basics are put into place.

Steps 1-8 are found in the previous blog post.

Ramp up your blogging action

9. Publish useful content
This is part of the long-term approach to SEO. When you create useful content, people will find your website and your business becomes highly valuable to your audience

10. Write long-from blog posts of 2000 words or more

Research says that long-form articles tend to be ranked higher because they are more likely to dive deep into a topic rendering that post very useful to the reader.

11. Publish consistently

Aim to publish at least weekly, if you can. Otherwise whatever schedule you choose, try and stick with it for a couple of years. (Yes, a couple of years, at least!).

12. Use shorter URLS

Somehow a url that says sophiaojha.com/seo is perceived better for rankings than: sophiaojha.com/the-article-about-squarespace-that-every-one-should-read

13. Have shorter anchor links

When you link text in the body of your pages or blogs link only a short bit of text. So for example, Squarespace Fundamentals is better than learn about my beginner live workshop called Squarespace Fundamentals.

14. Include links to other content on your site inside your blogs

This helps Google read your site better. So link to different pages on your own site as much as you can (and as much as makes sense).

15. Use only one H1 title
You can use multiple H2 headers but only one for H1.

16. Use multiple heading tags (H2 and H3 Tags)
Break up text using H2, and H3 headers.

Some research that supports point 16:
1. ”Multiple heading sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content, making it easier for users to navigate through your document” - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?utm_source=wmx_blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tls_en_post&visit_id=637013956090808420-4146294996&rd=2

2. https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking

Now on to Part Three >> for steps 17-22.

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My biggest lesson ⎯ Follow a SEO checklist for each blog post.

In summary: There is a lot you can do to boost your SEO when you set up your blogs. Follow the above steps each time you write a new blog and that will help you content be found better.

Your Turn:

What SEO tips were new to you and which ones have you already put into place! If so, let me know in the comments what your course is all about/will be about. Chime in! I’d love to hear from you!

~ Sophia

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074: Squarespace SEO: 22 actionable things you can do (Part One)

Beginner’s Guide to Squarespace SEO (PART ONE)

Getting your website found on Google search results is one of the biggest goals of website owners. Whether your site is built on Wordpress, Shopify or Squarespace, good SEO (search engine optimization) strategies are key to your site showing up on the first page of Google for keywords specific to your business.

Getting your site optimized for SEO is more than about a list of steps. It’s about your mindset and your overall approach to it. But there are some items that you can check off from a list. And here are 22 SEO steps you can do to get your site better prepared to be found in search results.

(There is a checklist of SEO tasks that I teach my website design clients that they must go through every time they update their blog or add new pages to their website. Here are 22 of them. Why 22? Well, I was born on the 22nd but that’s not why we have 22 steps. It just happens to be 22 items for this Beginner’s Guide.)

This is Part One (Steps1-8)
Go here for Part Two (Steps 9-16)
Go here for Part Three (Steps 17-22)

Watch Video Below:

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22 SEO Tips for Optimizing Your Squarespace Website

I call this a Beginner’s Guide because these really are the first steps to get your site set-up for SEO. There’s always tons you can do but if you do these 22 things, you will be off to a great start. Some are to one-off steps, while others can become part of your SEO checklist for whenever you upload a blog or add a new page to your site.

Do this once:

This first batch of steps you need to do just once. You just set it and forget it.

1. Add your site to Google MyBusiness
This is one of the things you can quickly set up so that your website is found when people do a local search. You can set it up for free here: https://www.google.com/business You can come back to it and make fill it up with more detailed info but at least have a presence set up first.

2. Make sure your site is Mobile Friendly or Mobile Optimized
This should not be a problem if your site is on Squarespace as your website is mobile optimized right off the bat. You can drop your url here and see if your site is mobile friendly: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

Go ahead and make sure the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is activated. Go to Settings > Blogging > check Use AMP

3. Submit your site to Google Search Console
This is useful for many reasons. One of them being you get data about what keywords people are using to land on your site. If you have a Squarespace website, you are in luck because now connecting your site to Google Search Console is easy as a few steps. You go to Settings > Connected Accounts > Click Connect Account button > then click on Search Console.

Here’s an article from Squarespace that helps you do just that:
https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001014647-Google-Search-Keywords-Analytics
And here’s one more specifically about Search Console:
https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205813918-Verifying-your-site-with-Google-Search-Console

4. Activate “HTTPS”
When this new requirement was issued, I remember a lot of our Wordpress colleagues pulling their hair out. Switching to HTTPS shows Google that your site is secure and they even reward that when it comes to ranking your page. This is an exact quote from the Google people:
“…we're starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.” - https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

Again, if your site is a Squarespace website, this is all about a few clicks. Just go to Settings > Advanced > SSL > then check Secured and HSTS secure.

Optimize Your Images:

5. Include at least one image in each of your blog posts
According to a study done by the people at BackLinko, adding at least one image to your blog posts increases its ranking. Source: https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking

6. Name your images before uploading them
Name your images (for example on your desktop) before uploading them with relevant keywords before uploading to Squarespace. Instead of the file saying IMG007, name it to “SEOtips” or something like that, that’s relevant to your business. This again adds more information for Google Crawlers.

7. Make sure the image size is 500KB or less
This just helps your site to load quickly. The quicker your site loads the better it is for SEO. Plus, you will retain more visitors on your site The more information-overload our society gets, the lower the attention spans, it seems.

8. Use Alt-text behind every image to add more keyword juice
Because Google crawlers cannot read images the way they can text, you must use alt-text behind every image. This gives Google more information about the content on your pages. Do that by adding a text after uploading an image in the section where it says “optional”.

More steps coming in next week’s blog

Now on to Part Two >> for steps 9-16.

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My biggest lesson ⎯ Adopt a value-giving mindset to boost your SEO results.

In summary: Taking a long-term approach to SEO will take you far. Install these steps, but think, “How can I turn my website into a valuable resource for my audience and prospective clients/customers”.

Your Turn:

What do you think of the message in this blog article? Which of the SEO steps you’ve already put into place and which ones were new? Let me know in the comments as I’d love to hear from you!

~ Sophia

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