10 Proven Ways to Rank Higher on Google
The key to successful SEO for your Squarespace website is a combination of content and strategy. Maximizing the use of these two concepts will provide you with a solid SEO standing to increase your website’s visibility online.
Utilizing Squarespace’s powerful SEO tools to their fullest potential will help boost your website’s ranking in Google search results. These built-in features include image alt text, page SEO descriptions, and URL slugs. Squarespace websites also provide you with added value features including a sitemap to submit to Google, mobile optimization, SSL security, and more.
Show Up On Google With Proven SEO Strategies
You’ve probably landed on this post because you need serious help increasing your website’s visibility online.
Our services include valuable SEO strategies including Keyword Research, Image Optimization, On-Page SEO, and Blogging.
This post walks you through each of these strategies and shows you how they can be implemented throughout your new business website.
1. Keyword Research
DISCOVER WHAT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS SEARCHING FOR ON GOOGLE
Keyword research is the most important technique for improving SEO. Your keywords should reflect what your audience is searching for. We use the word ‘keyword’ all the time; this does not mean it consists of only one word. Often a keyword consists of multiple words in a phrase. Keywords produce the very best results in building a sustainable, long-term SEO plan for your website.
Find keywords isn’t as hard as you may think. Start by brainstorming a few words or phrases that pop into your head when you think of your business. What types of words would your customers use when trying to find businesses like yours? For example, for our web design agency we may use the keyword “Web Design for Business.” We would type that keyword into Google and see what results come up.
As we type in that term, we see that Google is also recommending other search terms that describe my website well. These terms would include “Websites for Business Owners” and “Website Designer for Small Business”. We will add these keywords to our list. We try to stick to general terms that describe our website and services as a whole. For keywords that are not the focus of our site but are relevant, we would make them the subject of blog posts.
Now that you’ve added a few keywords to your list, keep compiling additional keyword ideas. Take all of the relevant search terms that Google recommends and add them to your list. Google tells you that this is what people are searching for, so this is what you want your website to rank for. You’ll want to compile a comprehensive keyword list that includes as many keywords as possible. The more keywords and variations of keywords you include, the better chance you have of climbing improving your website’s visibility in search results. Once your keyword list is complete, we’ll use that list in certain areas of the backend of your website if you add our SEO Services to your website design project.
2. Compress Images
SPEED UP PAGE LOAD TIMES BY REDUCING THE SIZE OF YOUR IMAGE FILES
It’s important to compress your images, as large image files can slow down your page load times. In general JPEGs are smaller and more SEO-friendly than PNGs, so use JPEGs whenever possible. PNGs should only be used when you need a transparent image background.
Background Images should be no larger than 2500 pixels wide. Larger images are unnecessary and smaller images may appear blurry. Images that are not background images should be a maximum of 1500 pixels wide.
After converting PNGs to JPEGs and resizing your images accordingly, we compress the JPEG images to 500KB or less if possible. Of course, we make sure not to sacrifice image quality when compressing your images.
3. Optimize Images with Keywords
ADD KEYWORDS TO YOUR IMAGE ALT TEXT FOR SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY
Alt text tells Google exactly what your image is about and more importantly, what your website is about. we make sure to incorporate keywords from your list into various image alt tags throughout your website.
When you add an image to your website in Squarespace, you see an empty space titled “IMAGE ALT TEXT”. This is where we add the alt text for your image. Images such as background images and gallery images, do not have the alt text option. In these cases, we create a new filename for your image with alt text before adding it to your website.
Going back to our website example, if we added an image of our founder in front of a laptop, we could make the alt text something like “Small Business Website Designer building a Custom Squarespace Website.” This tells Google what the image is about and also helps the website rank for the keyword “Small Business Website Designer ”. We do this for all of the images on your website and use as many relevant and high-ranking keywords as possible.
4. Add Keywords to your URL Slugs
COMMUNICATE WITH GOOGLE VIA KEYWORDS IN YOUR URL SLUGS
A URL Slug is the portion of a URL that appears after the domain name. For example, our website’s domain name is www.luminosacreative.com. The Portfolio page on our website could have a URL slug titled “/portfolio”. Instead we use one of our keywords here such as “squarespace-web-design-portfolio.”
Google uses the info from all of your page URLs to rank your website in search results. We make sure to optimize these page URL slugs with keywords from your list to improve your Google search ranking.
5. Create SEO Descriptions for your Website Pages
INCLUDE KEYWORDS IN YOUR SEO DESCRIPTIONS TO HELP GOOGLE UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR PAGE IS ABOUT
When a page of your website appears in search results, the page SEO description is the text that shows up underneath your page title. We make sure to optimize the descriptions for all your pages so that users and Google know what each page is about. We include descriptive, clear, and concise sentences which include your keywords.
6. Craft Powerful Headlines with Keywords
HEADLINES THAT INCLUDE KEYWORDS HELP GOOGLE DETERMINE THE TOPIC OF YOUR PAGE
The strategy of including keywords in headings throughout your website is to help visitors (and Google) better understand your content. Google uses your website’s text to determine where to rank you in search results. This is why it is vital to do effective keyword research, and sprinkle those keywords strategically throughout your website.
Each page on your website should have a headline (H1, H2, H3, or H4) at the very top that includes a keyword. For example, on our website’s Home page, we made the main H1 heading at the top: “Creative Squarespace Websites designed to Shine” because that describes exactly what we offer and is a high-ranking keyword related to our Home page.
We also include keywords in various H2, H3, and H4’s throughout your website. Google notices if you organically inject your keywords into headers throughout your site. You’ll want to come up with headlines that are both captivating for your website visitors and SEO-friendly. For example, if you were a Portrait Photographer in NYC and you were writing content for your Services page, you might want to include these two headlines: “NYC Portrait Photography” and “Capture the Memories of Your Senior Prom”. These headlines will grab the attention of your visitors and will tell Google exactly what you offer so that you can be ranked among the best portrait photographers in NYC.
7. Create a Blogging Strategy
SHARE HELPFUL TIPS WITH YOUR AUDIENCE TO BOOST YOUR SEO RANKINGS
To make it to the very top of Google rankings and drive real traffic to your website, a regular blogging strategy is essential. When brainstorming blog post ideas, you must use a variety of on-page SEO techniques to allow your blog posts to communicate with Google and actually rank. Here are some tips on how to optimize blog posts for SEO. Our SEO Service includes a detailed version of this action plan, along with other tips for a long term blogging strategy.
Plan each blog post on your website to revolve around one keyword.
Incorporate your keyword into an intrituing blog post title.
Optimize your Blog Post URL with your keyword
Use your keyword in headlines and body text
Paste your keyword into Google to see what other people are writing about
Optimize your post’s images (Including thumbnail)
After you’ve published your post, submit a new sitemap and index the new blog post page
8. Remove All Dead Link from your Site
PREVENT BAD BOUNCE RATES BY CHECKING FOR DEAD LINKS
Dead links are bad for SEO because if a user lands on a broken link, they may leave your website immediately. This will give your website a bad bounce rate which is no good in Google’s eyes. We make sure there are no dead links on your website by creating 301 redirects, so the website navigation is seamless for your visitors.
9. Index Your Pages and Submit Your Sitemap
SUBMIT YOUR SITEMAP TO GOOGLE TO ENSURE YOUR WEBSITE UPDATES ARE VISIBLE
Google Search Console helps you manage your site's presence in Google search results. Submitting your sitemap to Google and indexing your website pages allows any changes you made to your website to show up in Google Search Results faster. By submitting your sitemap, you’re asking Google's bots to review your site now and this helps Google update search results with your new content.
For each website build or resign, we make sure to submit your new sitemap and index each of your website’s pages. When your request indexing for each page, it allows Google bots to get the latest updated version of each page on your site. This will speed up the process so Google can begin indexing and ranking your website in search results.
10. Hire a Professional for your SEO Strategy
ENSURE YOU’RE IMPLEMENTING A SUCCESSFUL SEO STRATEGY BY HIRING A PRO
Our Squarespace SEO Services includes the following:
✓ Complete SEO implementation for all primary website pages
✓ Extensive keyword research based on your target audience and industry
✓ Image optimization for all images on your website
✓ Images updated with metadata + how to add metadata to images on your own
✓ Sitemap update utilizing high ranking keywords from targeted research
✓ URL redirects for all changes to page URLs
✓ A guide on how to create strategic blog posts that rank highly on Google
✓ A list of SEO-friendly blog post ideas + how to write SEO-friendly blog posts
✓ Set up of Google Search Console + submitting your sitemap for indexing
✓ A detailed action plan on how to maintain your site’s SEO in the future
Explore more
Your designer
I'm Sharon Calle, a Squarespace website designer and founder of Luminosa Creative. I work with inspired women entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them grow profitable and sustainable brands. To work with me get in touch here.