Squarespace and SEO: What You Need to Know in 2025

Why This Matters

Picture this: you've poured your heart (and no small sum of cash) into a shiny new Squarespace website. It looks perfect. Sleek, professional, brimming with promise. Now all that's left is for your ideal customers to find you on Google, right? Except, weeks or months later, you’re still the internet’s best-kept secret.

If you’re a small business owner or creative, this feels like a nightmare scenario, especially when you start reading endless SEO horror stories in Facebook groups or hearing tales of others “switching to WordPress and seeing instant results.” Suddenly, you're questioning every decision, wasting hours on tech forums, and getting that sinking sense you’ve hit a costly dead end.

This anxiety leads countless business owners to rip up a perfectly good Squarespace site in pursuit of mythical SEO gold elsewhere. Your site’s success in Google depends far less on which platform you use and much more on what you do with it.

If you've ever worried that sticking with Squarespace will doom your search rankings, keep reading. This article will show you exactly where Squarespace stands in 2025, what you absolutely must get right, and why swapping platforms isn’t the SEO fix most people think.

Common Pitfalls

Let’s cut to the chase: most people waste time fretting about website platforms and miss the things that genuinely move the needle.

The usual missteps include:

• Platform obsession
  “I heard WordPress is better for SEO…” If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard that, I’d have retired by now. There’s no magical SEO boost built into any platform. Google doesn’t rank you higher just because you chose 'the right' builder.

• Over-optimising the wrong things
  Hiding behind meaningless tweaks, such as meta tags, endless plugin installs, or yet another “SEO checklist,” while ignoring the hard graft of creating what your visitors are actually looking for.

• Neglecting site basics
  People get dazzled by design and forget about mobile friendliness, lightning-quick load times, and making sure Google’s robots can crawl the site without tripping over themselves.

• Assuming technical limitations will hold them back
  Most businesses will never hit the ceiling of what Squarespace or any mainstream platform can do for SEO, at least not until they’ve doubled down on fundamentals.

• Burying content in a beautiful but shallow site
  A gallery of glossy images with zero context or a site that reads like a deserted noticeboard won't rank, no matter how slick your template.

If you recognise yourself in any of those, don’t panic. Every seasoned web designer has fallen into these traps (sometimes more than once). The good news: Squarespace is perfectly capable of taking you where you need to go, provided you follow the right steps.

Step-by-Step Fix

1. Ruthlessly Prioritise Great Content

Here is the slightly boring, unvarnished truth: your content is what Google cares about. Not the flashiness of your theme, but the answers, substance, and value you provide.

Action:
– Write pages and posts that address the real questions, problems, or aspirations of your ideal customers.
– Use language they’d actually search for, but sound natural doing it; nothing gives away an amateur faster than a page stuffed with awkward keywords.
– Organise your content logically. If you have multiple services, each gets its own detailed page. Don’t cram everything onto a single “what we do” section.
– Use headings, bullet points, and brief paragraphs. Google prefers structure, and so do humans.

Real world example: A local yoga studio on Squarespace doubled its traffic not by redesigning, but by publishing fortnightly guides to common yoga injuries, complete with FAQs and at-home stretches.

2. Optimise the Structure for Clarity and Effectiveness

Squarespace sites make it easy to whip up something that feels modern and inviting. However, it’s surprisingly common to neglect the nuts and bolts that determine how Google sees your site.

Action:
– Give every page a clear, descriptive title (the bit that shows up in search engines), using the main keyword for the page if it fits naturally.
– Fill out meta descriptions in the ‘SEO’ panel; these are your shop window in Google results. Make them inviting, not robotic.
– Use clean, short URLs. Squarespace is good at this by default, but double-check your links aren’t a jumble of random numbers or technical gobbledegook.
– Add alt text to all images by describing what they show. This isn’t just for SEO, as it helps visually impaired users too.
– Create a simple main menu (avoid 15-item dropdowns). Google does not like confusing navigation.

3. Don’t Neglect Technical Basics (But Don’t Obsess, Either)

For most small business sites, the technical hurdles of SEO are relatively minor. Squarespace takes care of most complex work, but a few checks are still essential.

Action:
– Test your site speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights. If you’re scoring below 60, look for massive image files or unnecessary home-page videos.
– Make sure your template is mobile-friendly (Squarespace does this well, but always check on your actual phone).
– Connect your site to Google Search Console. It’s free, takes two minutes, and lets you submit your sitemap so new pages get indexed quickly.
– Keep your site SSL-secure (that green padlock at the top). Every Squarespace site includes this, but don’t switch it off accidentally.

4. Consistently Update and Improve

Think of SEO like tending a garden. Launching your site is just planting the seeds; regular updates keep things growing.

Action:
– Aim to publish a new blog post, guide, or portfolio update every two to four weeks.
– Keep existing information accurate—if your services, prices, or opening hours change, make sure your site reflects it straight away.
– Use Google Analytics to spot which pages get the most attention, then improve or expand those.
– Periodically review competitor sites: what are they explaining or offering that you’re not?

5. Build Backlinks by Focusing on Relationships and Value

Backlinks from other reputable websites pointing to yours can significantly boost your search rankings. Shortcuts and paid link schemes are risky and often counterproductive.

Action:
– Reach out to local press or business directories to feature your business. Many are happy to list you, especially if you offer tips or commentary.
– Partner with other businesses in your niche for guest posts or mutual links.
– Share genuinely useful resources on social channels, which sometimes get picked up and linked by others in your field.

6. Understand When You Might Outgrow Squarespace

At some point—usually after your business has grown over the years—you may need features or flexibility beyond what Squarespace’s template-based approach provides. This might include custom booking engines, advanced schema markup, or complete design control.

Action:
– If you’re routinely running into Squarespace’s limitations, note down the specific features or functionality you need.
– Research and estimate what moving to a custom solution (for example, a bespoke WordPress site) would require.
– For many businesses, this point comes much later, and by then, increased revenue can justify the investment.

What Most People Miss

Many SEO articles overcomplicate things because it’s easier to sell technical services than to admit that focusing on the basics matters most.

Consistent effort and a strong focus on your audience’s actual needs make the most difference. The businesses that succeed are the ones regularly publishing useful answers and building meaningful connections, whether locally or online.

By polishing the basics, maintaining consistency, and treating your website as a living resource instead of a static project, you can improve your search rankings over time.

The Bigger Picture

Getting your Squarespace SEO working well requires ongoing effort and attention. When done correctly, it forms the backbone of sustainable, predictable growth. You gain a website you control that becomes a reliable stream of ideal clients, bookings, or sales—unlike relying on unpredictable social platforms.

Over time, investing hours into high-quality content builds on itself. You’ll reduce your ad spend, establish real authority in your field, and rest assured knowing people searching for your services can find you.

If your goals include scaling your business, hiring staff, expanding your services, or pivoting to a new market, a solid SEO foundation will make the process easier and with less risk.

Jargon Buster

• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): All the tweaks and techniques used to help your website appear higher in Google search results when people look for your services.
• Backlinks: Links from other reputable websites that point to your site; like gold stars in Google’s eyes.
• Metadata: The page titles and descriptions ‘under the bonnet’ of your site, helping search engines understand what your content is about.
• Alt text: Short descriptions of images on your site, making them accessible to users with impaired vision and ensuring Google can ‘see’ your pictures.

FAQs

Does using Squarespace improve SEO automatically?
No, not even slightly. Your site’s results depend on what you publish, how you structure pages, and whether you’re giving Google the right signals—never the logo in the corner.

Is there a major difference in SEO between Squarespace and WordPress?
Not for the vast majority of users. Both offer the essentials: clean code, mobile friendliness, customisable titles and metadata. What matters most is your own work, not the platform itself.

Can I succeed in Google with a Squarespace portfolio/photography/retail site?
Absolutely, as long as you add rich, relevant copy alongside your images and keep your information up to date.

When should I consider moving away from Squarespace for SEO reasons?
Consider a new platform if you start encountering technical limits, such as a need for complex features, integrations, or advanced schema requirements. By that stage, investing in something bespoke is reasonable.

Are Squarespace’s built-in SEO tools enough?
For nearly all businesses, yes. Complete your page titles and meta descriptions, check your URLs, and you’ll outperform most competitors who stick to default templates.

Do I need to hire an SEO consultant?
Not initially. Early wins come from your own understanding of your business, not industry jargon. If you have implemented the above steps and want deeper insight, then a consultant can add value.

Wrap-Up

Squarespace may not be a miracle shortcut for SEO, but it also will not prevent you from ranking well, provided you follow proven steps and focus on substance. Your decisions and effort matter much more than your choice of platform.

Persist with continuous improvement: publish helpful content, keep your site current, address mobile and technical fundamentals, and earn links from trusted sources. By taking this approach, you put yourself in an excellent position to surpass competitors who worry more about finding the ‘perfect’ platform than about doing the work.

Want more helpful systems like this? Join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.