Squarespace SEO Best Practices to Drive Traffic To Your Coaching & Consulting Website
Did you know this?! According to Hubspot:
It's estimated that Google processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second...
Translating to 5.6 billion searches per day...
And approximately 2 trillion global searches per year…
The average person conducts between three and four searches each day.
People are looking for your content right now!
So, how do you make sure your content is front and center when people search for your services?
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
I know what it's like to build a great website and hope your audience finds you organically. I get it!
But it's not quite that simple...
The wide world of SEO can be daunting, but with a little time and intention, SEO can increase your website’s visibility, improve your search engine rank, drive more traffic to your website, and, ultimately, increase your sales.
As a business owner, SEO is crucial for getting more targeted traffic and building your business while providing an excellent experience for your clients.
The key to successful SEO is providing quality copy and content that's painless to navigate, easy to read, and meets your target audience's direct needs.
It’s your opportunity to work with search engines that want to send users to relevant websites with high-quality, honest content.
One of the reasons I love Squarespace is that it was designed with a vast array of built-in features to optimize your website quickly and easily.
I'm going behind the dashboard and looking at Squarespace SEO best practices you can implement now to optimize your website for search engines, increase your website’s visibility, and drive home more traffic.
First Step: Do a Keyword Search
Before we dive into the backend of your Squarespace, you must begin with a keyword search. Performing a keyword search is the foundation of your SEO strategy. These words and phrases will be what the search algorithms use to determine the relevancy of your content.
There are single, long-tail, keyword phrases, and low-competition keywords, just to name a few types of keywords. Some keywords are related to the industry or niche, and some are related to the client. A low-competition keyword is easier to rank for because large brands aren’t spending a lot of money trying to attract people to that keyword.
Here are three places to begin developing your list of keywords:
YOUR AUDIENCE AND INDUSTRY LANGUAGE.
Find where your audience hangs out online and look at their discussions and questions. What are they asking for? What types of questions and concerns do they have? What do they like about your service or industry? The type of words they mention should be added to your list of keywords to use throughout your site.
USE KEYWORD PLANNING TOOLS.
Google Ads Keyword Planner is a great way to expand your keyword search. This tool comes as part of your Google Ads account. When you create a new account, select the link that says to create an account without starting a campaign if you’re not ready to create paid Google ads. You can also continue without adding billing information to get to the tool. You can use the planner to help you find relevant keywords and keyword phrases and assess the competition level of the keywords you choose. Other tools to try include SEMRush and Ubersuggest. You can start with a trial and see what works best for you.
USE GOOGLE TRENDS.
This is a great way to find out what’s trending in terms of what people search for in each niche. Through Google Trends, you’ll be able to find content ideas and related searches and see how topics and niches perform seasonally.
As you begin adding your keyword to your site, be sure not to “keyword stuff.” Don’t pack in keywords on your site just for the sake of getting ranked on search. This can actually hurt your chances of ranking higher and upset the algorithms.
Whether it’s your homepage or on your blog, focus on just a few keywords. Be sure to keep the client experience at the top of your mind and create natural and easy-to-read content.
Next Step: Implement Your Built-in Squarespace SEO Tools
Squarespace SEO is a great way to make the site more accessible, usable, and searchable. These SEO strategies are right on your Squarespace website’s backend, and will not only help search engines connect your content to the right users, but will also make your website more attractive to your ideal client.
As we know, your audience and potential clients are the most important factor in your website. So, let’s get to it! Here are Squarespace SEO strategies you can implement right now.
CONNECT A CUSTOM DOMAIN:
Elevate your brand by using a custom domain. I recommend using your company name and a “.com” extension, so your clients can easily find you.
BE SURE TO ENABLE SSL:
In your Settings Panel, click on Domains and check to see if your linked custom domain has SSL Certificate Status set to enabled. Sites without SSL may be penalized.
UPDATE YOUR SITE TITLE:
Search engines pick up your site title. Be sure to include your business title or tagline. Squarespace recommends using 60 characters or less and including strategic keywords. For example, my site title includes my business name, Sharece O’Neal Creative, and Squarespace Web Design. Notice the keyword phrase there?
UPDATE YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION:
Add a short, relevant, readable description (up to 300 characters) of your site to the Site Description section. This will appear below your site title in search engine results. This is a great place to add relevant keywords and keyword phrases you picked up from search engines.
ADD YOUR LOCATION:
If customers can see your location, this increases your chances of appearing in search results for your area. I recommend having a Contact page that includes your address and a map if you have a physical location.
CONNECT TO SOCIAL MEDIA:
Update the social sharing sections to link to your social media profiles. You’ll have the option to push out content as you publish it. This encourages your audience to interact with your website and blog content.
ADD A BROWSER ICON:
This is also known as a favicon. This small icon will appear in the browser tab next to your site title. It may also appear in search results and reiterates brand cohesion.
ADD SOCIAL SHARING IMAGES:
These images will appear on social media sites when someone shares your content or link. You can add one for the entire site or one for each blog post.
ADD SEO META DESCRIPTIONS:
This is the meat of your SEO strategy! Update your SEO descriptions for each page as well as each blog post. Keep your descriptions under 300 characters and add relevant keywords.
CREATE A CUSTOM 404 PAGE:
Design a custom 404 page with a personal message in your brand’s voice and tone as well as with links to important pages of your site. I also recommend adding a search bar to this page so your visitors can type in exactly what they’re looking for. This keeps people on your site longer rather than hitting the exit button.
CHOOSE YOUR BLOG POST URL FORMAT:
Squarespace will automatically create a blog post URL for you, but it may not be easy to understand. Create a convention that’s related to your post title and easy to understand. You may want to include keywords or a date in your URL slug.
CHECK ALL URL SLUGS:
Make sure your URL points to the content of your page or blog post. As an example, for my blog post titled “8 Signs It’s Time to Redesign Your Website”, the URL is https://www.shareceoneal.com/blog/8-signs-its-time-to-redesign-your-website. It’s easy to understand and includes relevant keywords.
Quick Tip: The automatic URL Squarespace provides for blog posts or events includes random letters and numbers. Be sure to update this before publishing your content.
My favorite SEO tip…
KEEP YOUR PAGE AND IMAGES LIGHT:
Page speeds and load times can significantly impact your search engine ranking. Squarespace recommends keeping your images under 500KB each and the overall page size under 5MB.
A slow-loading website can drive your audience away without them having a chance to get to know you. This barrier can kill your conversion rates, damage your user experience, and reduce your chances of making the sale or connection.
In addition to hurting your conversions, Google penalizes websites with slow load times by reducing your search rankings. That alone should be motivation to redesign your website! Luckily, Google has a tool called Test My Site, that allows you to check your website load times. Any page load speed above 3 seconds is hurting your conversions.
I love the Squarespace makes it easy to cover the basics of your on-page SEO strategy. With a little time and intention, you’ll start to see the benefits of increased traffic from search, more email subscribers, and ultimately more sales.
I’ve created a quick checklist to guide you through implementing each step of your Squarespace SEO. Download it here: Squarespace SEO Checklist for Coaches & Consultants
