Let’s talk SEO, or search engine optimization. Most business owners are already aware of the importance of SEO, but let’s just face it, learning the ins and outs of how it all works is just plain hard (not to mention time consuming and ever-evolving). Without the budget to hire a professional SEO analyst, you may feel left in the dark when it comes to getting your content seen online.

Fortunately, there are ways to set up your SEO from the get-go that will enable you to start getting your content seen online–if you know where they are and how to set them up. That’s why I’m here! I’m here to offer up those essential tips to you so that you can optimize your SEO the best you can without a professional SEO analyst.

1. Adding Your SEO description

You SEO description is what registers from Squarespace to other search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. When you google your website, your SEO description is the smaller text under your site title describing what your website is and who it’s meant for. You’ll want to put your keywords here, but make sure you form complete sentences that make sense. If you just throw in keywords randomly, Google will see this as “keyword stuffing” and ignore your site altogether. You definitely don’t want that!

Pro tip: Your SEO description can be any length you want, but we recommend limiting it to 160 characters for optimal results.

Here’s where you can add your SEO description in Squarespace.

2. Adding Page Descriptions

Your page descriptions, you guessed it, describe what each specific page on your website is about. This is another opportunity to add keywords targeting your audience. Write 1-2 cohesive sentences explaining your what your page is about for each page on your website, even the unlinked ones!

If your page is popular enough, Google will even show specific pages under your site (called sitelinks) with the page descriptions right there for everyone to see before even clicking your site. #goals! Even if you don’t have sitelinks yet, the page descriptions are still registered with Google, therefore are still important to add!

To add page descriptions, log into your Squarespace website and head over to Pages. Then find the page you’d like to add a description to, hover over it, and click the little gear icon on the right. This will bring up a box on the right of the screen with several different options. You’ll see the Description is the third option down. Feel free to write your description here. Again, for best results, try to limit this to around 160 characters.
 

3. Using alt text.

Alt text is the text behind your images. For instance, let’s say you sell jewelry and you have an image of a bracelet on your website. When you upload your image in Squarespace, you’ll have the option to add alt text to it. This the the text that will show up if for some reason the image can’t load, communicating to the user what the image is. It is also what registers with Google and other search engines to let them know what the context of the image is and if it is relevant.

If you are like me, your image names may not always contain lots of keywords targeted to your audience. If you upload an image called bracelet_1.jpg, you can boost your SEO by changing the alt text to something like “Gold beaded lotus bracelet for yoga lovers. Handmade in California”. Can you see how that is much more targeted to a specific audience, than just “bracelet_1.jpg” is?

I recently wrote up a tutorial walking you through exactly how to do this on your Squarespace website. You can view that here.
 

There you go! Those are 3 simple ways to boost your SEO. I highly recommend implementing them if you haven’t already. Of course, hiring a professional is always recommended to see the best results. If you are in the market for an expert, shoot me a message and I can give you several great recommendations.
 

Also, if you are having trouble coming up with keywords and content ideas, check out this super awesome website.