Update August 2026: I wrote this post in 2020! Technology has moved on a lot since then and these days, it’s all about AI. However, many of the tips in this post are valid for AI searches as well, so if you follow these best practices, they will also help your AI discoverability.
Everyone talks about SEO these days and with good reason: people use Google and search engines to find answers and services. Many people are intimidated by SEO and I was no exception when I first started out. It was only when I noticed that I had landed on page one of Google that I looked at my own practices and realized that I had unwittingly done a lot of things right when it came to my SEO.
10 Best Practice SEO Tips
Optimize your Website. This includes configuring your Squarespace SEO settings (from your dashboard, go to SEO/AI Visibility) and using keywords in strategic places, like H1 and H2 and page descriptions. Also, go into your page or blog post settings and click on the SEO tab and add a great title and compelling description, this is a great place for keywords as well. Make sure, though, that you keep the language natural; Google does not like keyword stuffing or duplicate descriptions.
Get your website indexed. Sign up for Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap for indexing. In Squarespace, the sitemap URL is always https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Update Your Website Regularly. Google loves active sites, and if you’re anything like me, then you love tinkering with your site!
Check your Website for Broken Links! Broken links throw 404 errors, and if you have a lot of them, Google won't like it! Here is a great website where you can get your links checked. Fix or remove any broken links, or redirect any pages that no longer exist but might still be linked somewhere. This way your visitors still see a valid page, and Google is happy, too.
Customize your 404 page. Create a fun and useful 404 page that keeps visitors on your website by offering a search function and links to other pages on your website. Give the page a /404 slug and connect to it via > Design > Not Found/404 Page. Click here to see an example.
Get your business listed in Google My Business and Yelp. This is a must for businesses with a physical address, and even if you work from home and don’t want to list your address (for obvious reasons!), you can define a service area as long as you work with local clients. Start here with Google My Business. Another good place for driving local traffic to your business and website is Yelp! Get started here.
Blogging! I don't blog as much as I probably should, but a handful of my posts drive a lot of traffic to my website. Blogging is a great tool for boosting your visibility if you enjoy writing and sharing content. What should you blog about? How-to posts are some of the most effective! Think about questions people may ask about your area of expertise and write the answers as blog posts.
Configure your website SEO/AI Visibility settings. You can find them in your main dashboard. Set some time aside to familiarize yourself with this area of your website and watch the “Watch and Learn” videos.
Guest Posts. I've written guest posts and also host my own. As with blogging, both are great strategies for driving traffic to your site.
Get High-Value Inbound Links. These are links from reputable high-traffic websites. These could be professional organizations you work with, or articles you write on platforms like Medium, Quora, or Huffington Post. In my case, for instance, I have high-quality links from Squarespace Market Place, Online Courses directory and Squarespace Circle.
Get Help from the Pros!
SEOSpace helped my new website get to Page One on Google within 6 months! If SEO/AI visibility intimidates you, this is the app for you. It is the only SEO Plugin and Audit Tool for Squarespace. Their support is great, too.
