How to Do SEO on Squarespace: The 29-Point Checklist I Run on Every Site (2026)

Most “Squarespace SEO tips” posts are the same ten generic points with the platform’s name pasted in. This isn’t that. It’s the checklist I actually run, written as a list of things to check, in the order they matter, with where each one lives inside Squarespace. If you’d rather read about what people get wrong first, start with my Squarespace SEO mistakes post, then come back here to fix them.

Short answer: make sure Google can see the site, give every page one specific job and a proper title, write pages that answer the question in plain sentences, compress and name your images, keep the blog focused, verify Search Console, then earn a handful of real links. Twenty-nine checks below. Tick them off and you’re ahead of most Squarespace sites in your area.

Before anything else: two settings that hide your whole site

I check these first on every site someone sends me, because a surprising number of “why don’t I rank?” problems end here.

• “Hide from search engines” is off. Marketing → SEO. If it’s on, every page carries a noindex tag and Google will not list you, however good the rest is. It’s meant for staging and it gets left on after launch constantly.
• The site isn’t password protected and isn’t still on a trial. A site visitors can’t open without a password is a site Google can’t crawl. Check Settings → Site availability.

Site-wide settings (Marketing → SEO)

• SEO site title and description are set. The site title is appended to every page title by default, so keep it to your name or your name plus what you do: “Design by Ency” rather than a sentence.
• The homepage has its own SEO title and description. The homepage’s SEO title should say what you do and where, not just your brand. Mine reads “Squarespace Website Designer UK | Design by Ency”.
• Business information is filled in. Settings → Business information: legal name, address, phone, opening hours. Squarespace uses it in your contact details and it’s the starting point for local search.
• SSL is set to Secure. Settings → Security & SSL → Secure, with HSTS on. Every page should load on https with no mixed-content warnings.

Every page: title, description, slug, one H1

Open any page’s settings (the gear icon in the Pages panel) and work through the SEO tab and the General tab. This is the single highest-value hour you can spend.

• A unique SEO title under 60 characters, with the page’s main search term near the start. “Services” tells Google nothing; “Squarespace Web Design for Clinics | Design by Ency” tells it everything.
• A unique SEO description under 160 characters that reads like a reason to click, with a number or a specific in it. Google doesn’t always use it, but when it does, this is your advert.
• A short, readable URL slug. General → URL slug. Lowercase, hyphens, no dates, no “new-page-1”. If you change a slug on a live page, add a redirect (see the technical section).
• Exactly one H1 on the page, and it says what the page is about. Squarespace treats heading levels as styles, so it’s easy to end up with three H1s because they looked right. Use Heading 1 once, Heading 2 for sections, Heading 3 inside them.
• “Hide this page from search results” is off for every page you want found, and on for thank-you pages, test pages and anything half-finished.

Content: one job per page, answers in plain sentences

• One search intent per page. A page can rank for one idea well or five ideas badly. If your services page covers web design, branding, SEO and photography, split it. Each service gets its own page with its own title.
• The answer is in the first two paragraphs. If the page is “how much does X cost”, the number appears above the fold in a sentence Google (and ChatGPT) can quote. Marketing fog doesn’t rank; specifics do.
• Enough words to actually answer the question. There’s no magic count, but a service page with three bullet points can’t beat a competitor who explained what’s included, who it’s for, how long it takes and what it costs.
• Internal links in the body text, not only in the nav and footer. Every page links to two or three related pages with descriptive anchor text (“my website redesign service”, not “click here”). This is how Google works out which pages matter on your site.
• A short FAQ on the pages that get questions. Real questions clients ask, answered in two or three sentences each. It wins “People also ask” placements and it’s exactly the format AI answers lift from.

Images

• Compressed before upload. Squarespace serves responsive sizes, but it can’t fix a 6 MB photo. Export at 2,500px on the long edge, run it through Squoosh or TinyPNG, aim for under 500 KB, under 200 KB for anything that isn’t a hero.
• Named before upload. IMG_4823.jpg says nothing; squarespace-web-designer-liverpool.jpg says something. You can’t rename after upload, so do it on your desktop first.
• Alt text on every image that carries meaning. Describe what’s in the picture in a sentence; include the keyword only if it’s honestly in the picture. Purely decorative images can stay blank.

Blog

• Every post targets one specific search. Not “design tips” but “how to add a favicon in Squarespace”. The specific posts on this site bring in nearly all of its non-brand search traffic; the broad ones bring in almost none.
• Each post has its own SEO title, description, excerpt and slug (Post settings → Options and SEO). The default post URL includes the date; take it out of the slug and the format setting so posts don’t look stale in a year.
• Posts link to a money page. A how-to that ends with “that’s it!” earns nothing. End with one honest line and a link to the service that solves the bigger version of the problem, as I do at the bottom of this one.

Technical: the five-minute checks

• Search Console is verified and the sitemap is submitted. Squarespace builds yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml automatically; you still have to tell Google about it. Verify with the DNS record or the HTML tag in code injection, submit the sitemap, then look at the Pages report monthly for anything “Crawled, currently not indexed”.
• Redirects exist for every URL you’ve changed or removed. Settings → URL Mappings, one line per redirect: /old-page -> /new-page 301. Renaming a page without one throws away everything that page had earned.
• Your domain resolves one way. Pick www or non-www as primary in Domains and let the other redirect. Two live versions means Google splits your signals in half.

Local search (if you serve an area)

• Your area is in the words, not just the settings. City in the homepage title, the H1 or the first paragraph, a line in the footer with the address, and a dedicated page for each place you genuinely serve, with real local proof on it, not a template with the town name swapped.
• A Google Business Profile that links to the site, with the same name, address and phone number as your footer, categories set, and a steady trickle of reviews. For “web designer in [town]” searches the map pack often sits above the organic results, and the website alone can’t get you into it.

Off-site: the part Squarespace can’t do for you

• A handful of real links from relevant sites. Not directories bought by the hundred. Suppliers, clients you’ve built for (a “website by” credit in their footer), industry round-ups, local press, a guest piece. Five good links beat five hundred junk ones, and they’re the difference between page two and page one for competitive terms.
• Consistent mentions elsewhere. LinkedIn, Instagram, any directory you’re already in: same business name, same URL with the www (or without, whichever is primary), same description of what you do. AI search engines in particular build their picture of you from these.

Measure once a month, not once a day

Open Search Console, Performance, last 28 days against the previous 28. Look at three things: which queries grew, which pages have lots of impressions but few clicks (those need a better title and description), and which pages dropped. Then change one thing and leave it four weeks. SEO rewards patience and punishes fiddling.

That’s the whole list. Nothing in it needs a plugin, though SEOSpace is a decent dashboard if you want one place that nags you about the page-level items. Everything above is a setting or a habit, which is why a one-person Squarespace site that does all of it can outrank an agency-built site that did none.

Frequently asked questions

How do I do SEO on Squarespace?

Check Google can see the site, give every page a unique SEO title and description with one target phrase, write content that answers the search in plain sentences, compress and name your images, set up Search Console and submit the sitemap, add redirects for any URL you change, then earn a few genuine links. The checklist above walks through each of those in order.

Is Squarespace good for SEO?

Yes. It handles the technical basics (clean HTML, mobile layouts, SSL, an automatic sitemap, fast image delivery) better than most self-hosted WordPress sites I inherit. What it can’t do is write your titles or earn your links. Almost every Squarespace site I audit that isn’t ranking has a settings or content problem, not a platform problem.

Do I need an SEO plugin for Squarespace?

No. Squarespace doesn’t have plugins in the WordPress sense, and every SEO setting you need is built in. Tools like SEOSpace sit on top as a dashboard and checklist; useful if you want prompting, not required.

How long does Squarespace SEO take to work?

Fixes to titles and indexing show up in two to six weeks. Ranking for competitive terms in your area takes months and usually needs links as well as on-page work. If someone promises page one in a fortnight, they’re either targeting terms nobody searches or they’re lying.

Should I pay someone to do Squarespace SEO?

If you have the time, the list above gets you most of the way for nothing. If you don’t, pay for someone who shows you Search Console data and explains what they changed and why. My own SEO growth plan works that way, as an add-on to a site I’ve built or as a standalone monthly plan; and if you just want to know where you stand first, the website health check is the place to start.

Rather hand the whole site over than work through a checklist? I’m a Squarespace website designer working with businesses across the UK, and SEO is built into every site from the first page title. If you’re weighing up who to hire, here’s my list of the best Squarespace designers in the UK.

Congrats! You’ve officially reached the bottom of the article.