SEO FAQ

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of making your website discoverable to visitors and potential customers. We regularly receive questions during our SEO with your Squarespace Site webinar, and we decided to boil them down into the most frequently asked types of questions. 

We then asked our SEO team here at Squarespace for their expertise, and here’s what they had to say:

1. Multilingual sites: How does an extension like Weglot work with SEO? 

Weglot is an integration that can be added to your Squarespace site to automatically translate your site into a number of languages. In addition to translating your site content, Weglot also bakes in some best practices for multilingual SEO, such as: 

1. Dedicated language URLs: Weglot automatically creates subdirectories or subdomains so that Google indexes your translated pages. 
2. Hreflang tags: These help Google understand the language of your pages and who they should serve. Weglot automatically adds these tags to your site.
3. Metadata translation: Beyond translating your front-facing content, Weglot also translates your metadata. This includes your SEO title and description and image alt text to ensure your site is optimized for multilingual SEO. 

2. AI and SEO: Is using AI to generate SEO titles and descriptions okay or could this hurt a site’s rankings? 

AI can be a valuable tool to support SEO efforts but it should complement your overall strategy instead of replacing it. AI can be used to generate SEO titles and descriptions as long as the following guidelines are followed:

1. Relevance to content:  The title and description should accurately reflect the content of the webpage it's associated with.
2. Keyword inclusion: Relevant keywords in both the title and description should be included to increase the chances of your page ranking for those terms.
3. Unique title and description: Titles and descriptions should be unique to the page
4. Call to Action (CTA): You should consider including a CTA in the description to entice users to click. Phrases like “learn more”, “get started”, or “discover” can encourage users to click on your website’s URL.

3. Keywords: What are the differences between head and long-tail keywords and when to use them? 

Head keywords, also known as primary keywords, are specific and broad search terms that represent the main topic or theme of a webpage or website. They are usually one to two words long and are the most competitive and high-traffic keywords in a particular niche or industry.

Long-tail keywords are specific and longer keyword phrases (usually consisting of three or more words) that are more precise and targeted than head keywords. Unlike head keywords, which are shorter and more general, long-tail keywords are used by people who are looking for something very specific.

Head keywords can be used to target a broad audience, when competing in a highly competitive niche, while long-tail keywords can be used to target a more specific audience, or to capture low-competition opportunities.

Examples of head keywords vs. long-tail keywords:

1. Head Keyword: "Digital Marketing"
2. Long-Tail Keyword: "Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses"

4. Keywords: How often should I surface keywords in my site content? 

The frequency with which you should include keywords in your site content, known as keyword density, has evolved over the years in SEO. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how often you should use keywords because it depends on various factors, including type of content, the competitiveness of your niche, and user experience. Here are some guidelines to consider:

1. Focus on user intent
2. Place keywords strategically (metadata, heading tags, within the first 100 words of your content, throughout the body of your content where it contextually makes sense)
3. Use keyword variations
4. Regularly update and refresh content with up-to-date keywords

5. Bonus: What are some SEO tactics to avoid? 

To maintain a healthy and effective SEO strategy, it's essential to avoid certain tactics that could harm your website's rankings and reputation. Here are some SEO tactics to avoid:

Keyword Stuffing: Keyword stuffing involves overloading your content with keywords in an unnatural and spammy way. This practice not only disrupts the user experience but can also lead to search engine penalties. Focus on providing valuable, user-friendly content instead.

Low-Quality Content: Thin, low-quality, or duplicate content is detrimental to SEO. Google rewards websites that offer valuable, comprehensive, and unique content. Avoid publishing content that provides little value to users.

Cloaking: Cloaking is the practice of presenting different content or URLs to search engines and users. This deceptive tactic is against search engine guidelines and can result in severe penalties.

Paid Link Schemes: Buying or selling links to manipulate search rankings is against Google's guidelines. Instead, focus on earning natural, high-quality backlinks through content quality and outreach.

Link Farms and Link Schemes: Participating in link farms, link exchanges, or other artificial link-building schemes can lead to penalties. Aim for organic link-building strategies that focus on relevance and quality.

Hidden Text and Links: Concealing text or links from users but making them visible to search engines is considered manipulative and deceptive. This practice can result in penalties.

Intrusive Interstitials Pop-ups or interstitials that interrupt a user's experience immediately upon entering a webpage can negatively impact mobile SEO. Google has specific guidelines on what types of interstitials are acceptable.

Over-Optimization: Over-optimization, also known as "over-SEO," occurs when you excessively optimize your content and website for search engines to the detriment of user experience. Keep a balance between SEO and user-friendliness.

Ignoring User Experience: A poor user experience, including difficult navigation, intrusive ads, or irrelevant content, can harm your site's rankings. Prioritize user experience to keep visitors engaged.

Great post @Parker_SQSP! Great to see the SEO Team sharing their knowledge 👌

Thin content is something I see a lot on Squarespace sites - you have to have enough value and content on a page to communicate to Google what you want to rank for!

There's no point having a stunning site with tonnes of images, if no one can find it.

Your point on user intent is also super valuable too - by matching the intent, smaller websites can actually outrank larger sites more easily than one might think if their on-page SEO is done right.

@Parker_SQSP Question regarding "Hidden Text and Links" Does this then apply to image captions and links when formatted as a poster, stack or card layout etc in 7.0.  which hides image captions and any associated links by default.  Thanks.

@Parker_SQSP Super interesting, thank you!

Could you elaborate a little more on user intent and how it relates to keywords?

— Hannah
Studio Founded

thank you so much for your valuable content