SEO Checklist: setting up your website + creating new pages
You only need to update a few things when setting up your site. All of the information in step 02— and beyond is ONLY necessary if you create new pages.
01— initial setup
Before publishing your new website, besides changing photos and written verbiage in the pages to reflect your personal brand, you’ll want to be sure to make a few global changes to your site as well. These changes include:
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Log into Squarespace > View your website > Open up any page > go into Edit mode > click on the logo to update your logo and be sure to update the text section called SITE TITLE. So:
new written site title
new logo image
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Add a browser icon - Your site's browser icon or favicon gives visibility to your site's brand. The icon may appear in search results, browser tabs, and elsewhere on the web.
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Follow these simple steps:
Log into Squarespace > click on your website > go to the gear icon in bottom of righthand sidebar > select SELLING > update Business Information
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Connect a custom domain - Using a custom domain (rather than the built-in .squarespace.com URL) strengthens your brand and makes it easier for potential customers to find you in search results.
Connect to social media - Set up social sharing to link to your social media profiles, push content as you publish it, and encourage people to share your pages.
Ensure SSL is enabled - Confirm your SSL panel is set to the Secure setting. Sites without SSL may be penalized.
Check URL slugs - It’s best to have URLs that reflect the content of the page. If you save a blog post, product, or event before adding a title, the URL slug will be a random string of characters. Check the slugs for each page and item on your site, and change any that don't use real words.
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To help surface your site and its content to search engines, Squarespace recommends doing the following as soon as your site is published:
Verify your site with Google Search Console - After you've verified your site with Google, you can manage your site’s presence in Google search results and review how visitors find you.
Request that Google index your site - This asks Google's bots to review your site and update search results with your new content.
Verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools - Verify your site with Bing to manage your site’s presence in Bing and Yahoo search results.
Connect to Google Analytics - Track visits and other reporting on your site through our built-in integration with Google.
Enable AMP - If you have a blog, enabling AMP creates a stripped-down version of your site that loads faster on mobile devices.
These are things Squarespace takes care of for you. You don’t need to do anything for these items, but it’s nice to know they are happening:
Automatic sitemaps
Automatic tags and clean HTML markups
Automatic SSL security with Squarespace domains (if you’re using a third party company to host your domain like GoDaddy, check with that provider that you have an SSL certificate).
Friendly reminder… When designing these website templates I was careful to include SEO and AI optimization specific to your city and industry (ie: Nashville real estate vs Miami real estate, etc). So if you purchased a template that accurately reflects your place and type of business then the only reason you need to know the info below is if you are creating a NEW page.
02— new pages
The easiest way to build new pages is to find another page similar to the one you are wanting to create (maybe you need similar info on the page, or you just like the design) and DUPLICATE that page.
All of the SEO descriptions and other tedious info will be copied with this. I did the hard stuff for you.
You will only need to update a few things from here, like the content on the page obviously, the url slug, and maybe a few more small details that are unique to the page you’re building.
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It goes without saying but I’ll say it… update the information and images on your new page.
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Before publishing your new page, while still in editing mode switch to Mobile view* and move things around until your site looks good. Whenever you build a page in the desktop view it doesn’t always translate perfectly to mobile view. So you simply need to check the mobile view and rearrange as necessary - this will not effect your layout in desktop mode. You can switch between the two as much as you want to review designs before publishing or saving updates.
*When in editing mode on any page of your website, look in the upper righthand corner to see a desktop or mobile icon. The lighter button is the one you’re currently viewing. Click on the darker icon to switch views. Then click to switch back. Easy peasy.
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In the settings for your pages*, be sure to clean up the url. A url should be:
concise
clearly communicate what your page is about
avoid duplicates or numbers if not necessary
Bad example: /our-company-page2
Good example: /about
It’s about as simple as that. Just knowing where to go in the settings to find this and remembering to double check it before publishing a new page is all you need to do.
*When you are logged into squarespace and editing your site, navigate to PAGES, and hover over the specific page you want to select (lefthand sidebar)… you will see a gear appear to the right. Click on that gear and all the settings for your page appear. The "url slug” section is what you want to edit.
To update other page settings just flip through your list of options within the individual page settings which include:
General (page title and url)
Navigation (don’t worry about this)
SEO (this should be filled out already if you duplicated another page, just check it and make updates as necessary)
Social Image (the image that shows up for searches, definitely always update this for blog posts)
Advanced (don’t worry about this)
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Remember how to get to your Page Settings? (click on “clean urls section to learn how).
Just return to these page settings to navigate to the SEO section where you can easily fill in descriptions and key words for your page.
This might take a little brain power… or googling. To have good SEO you need to
Know your Keywords that are relevant to your business.
Check out LSI keywords: LSI Keywords is a fancy name for “related” words. Use words that relate to your keyword …
A simple way to find LSI Keywords is to type in a Keyword in Google, scroll right to the bottom and see what Google is suggesting as relevant.
This can feel a little overwhelming… I have to do this for every page?? you’re thinking. However, I have already done this when designing your site. The only reason why you would need to know this is if you’re creating a NEW page.