We love Squarespace because it's so easy for our clients to keep their sites updated long after we've finished working together. When most clients come to us, they've heard about SEO but haven't yet worked the right keywords into their site. If you'd like to DIY it, this Squarespace SEO checklist is for you!
Squarespace is built so search engines like Google can index it cleanly. But the content you add and how you present it still play a big role in how easily people find you. And trust us, you want to show up in those search results. People are looking for your services, and if they're not finding you, they're finding your competitors.
As you prepare to launch (or refresh) your site, work through this list to make sure it's set up for search engines and visitors alike. On Squarespace 7.1, most of these settings live in the SEO/AI Visibility panel, under SEO Settings.
Squarespace SEO Checklist
Before launch
Do keyword research. This is step one. You need to know the exact words and phrases people use to find you and your competitors, because those are the search results you want to show up in.
Add a site title. Even if you're using a logo, add a site title, because search engines may index that text. Keep it under 60 characters and include one or more keywords.
Add an SEO site description. This short description represents your homepage and may appear below your site title in search results. Squarespace recommends 50–300 characters. Search engines usually cut descriptions off around 160 characters, so put the most important part first. You'll find it in SEO/AI Visibility > SEO Settings > Search appearance > Home.
Add your location. Your site has a better chance of showing up in local searches if Google and your customers can see where you are. If you have a physical location, create a contact page with your address and a map. If you work from home and don't want to share your address, just list your city (for example, Washington, DC). We also recommend setting up a free Google Business Profile. If customers don't visit you, you can hide your address there and list the areas you serve instead.
Connect a custom domain. A custom domain (rather than the built-in .squarespace.com URL) strengthens your brand and makes it easier for potential customers to find you.
Connect to social media. Link your social profiles to your site and make it easy for people to share your pages.
Add a browser icon (favicon). Your favicon shows your brand in browser tabs, in search results and elsewhere on the web. If you don't add one, Squarespace uses its own default icon, which looks less professional.
Add social sharing images. These images appear when you or anyone else shares your site on social media. Add one for your whole site, plus one for each page, blog post, product and event. Otherwise the image that shows up may not make sense to the viewer.
Add SEO descriptions to every page. Give each page a unique, readable SEO description that sums up its content (again, 50–300 characters, with the key message in the first 160 or so). You can add them to individual blog posts, products and events too.
Add alt text to your images. Short, descriptive alt text helps search engines understand your images and makes your site accessible to people using screen readers. While you're at it, keep image files a reasonable size so your pages load quickly.
Check your title formats. Control how your page titles appear in browser tabs, social shares and search results. You can set formats for your homepage, pages and collection items (such as blog posts or products) under SEO/AI Visibility > SEO Settings > Search appearance.
Create a custom 404 page. Why does everyone always forget this? If you don't create one, Squarespace shows generic text, and that's a missed opportunity! Add links to the popular or important parts of your site so visitors who hit a broken link stay with you instead of heading back to search results. It's also a great chance to make people laugh. Tip: hide your custom 404 page from search results so it isn't indexed as a regular page.
Choose your blog post URL format. If you're blogging, choose how your post URLs are created. Pick whatever fits your needs, but we recommend always including the post's title.
Check your URL slugs. URLs work best when they reflect what's on the page. If you save a blog post, product or event before giving it a title, its URL slug may end up as a random string of characters. Check the slugs on every page and item, and change any that don't use real words.
Confirm SSL is on. Squarespace automatically gives connected domains a free SSL certificate. Just check that your SSL panel is set to Secure, so visitors (and Google) see a safe HTTPS site.
After launch
As soon as your site is live, we recommend you:
Connect Google Search Console. Squarespace has a built-in connection: open Analytics > Search keywords and click Connect. Once you're verified, you can see how people find you in Google and manage how your site appears in search results.
Ask Google to index your site. In Search Console, submit your sitemap. Squarespace creates one for you automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. To ask Google to look at a specific new or updated page, use the URL Inspection tool and click Request indexing. Google will get there on its own eventually, but this can speed things up.
Verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools. Not everyone uses Google! Bing's results also power Yahoo search and Microsoft Copilot. If you've already set up Search Console, you can import your site straight into Bing Webmaster Tools.
Connect Google Analytics. Today that means Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Create a GA4 property, copy your Measurement ID (it starts with "G-"), and add it to Squarespace to track visits and see where your traffic comes from.
Make sure AI search can find you. AI-powered search tools like Google's AI Overviews, Copilot and ChatGPT pull from clear, well-organized sites. In Settings > Crawlers, leave "Block known artificial intelligence crawlers" unchecked if you want your site to show up in AI answers. Squarespace 7.1 also lets you add an optional llms.txt file under SEO/AI Visibility > SEO Settings. It's a newer, still-evolving standard, so treat it as a nice extra rather than a must.
We hope you found this Squarespace SEO checklist helpful!
Need help, or don't want to spend time figuring this all out? Contact us. We love building websites that are beautifully designed AND fully optimized for search.
