Quick Tips: SEO & Blogging With Squarespace
Blogging is a great way to engage with your target audience, position yourself as an expert in your field and (bonus!) improve your SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization. One of the best ways to improve your SEO is to continue to add new and relevant information to your site, and the easiest way to do that is by blogging. But once you’ve written your blog post, there are a few simple things you can to do within Squarespace to improve your SEO even more.
Name Your Posts Intentionally + Set the URL to Match
Naturally you should be blogging about things that relate to your business and that your potential clients will be interested in (if you’re blogging about unrelated things, it may be time to reassess your content strategy). Once you’ve chosen a topic and written your article, think about what people will search for if they are looking for this information on the internet. Then make sure that the title of your blog post reflects that and set your URL to match. These will be the first things that Google looks for.
To do this, first access the edit panel of your blog post. This is the first panel that appears when you start a new post. If you've already started your post, you can access it by selecting the post in your blog list and clicking the EDIT button that appears to the right of the title. Once you've opened the edit panel you can update the title in the first field and then click on the Options tab in the upper right corner to update the post URL like shown here.
Include A Thumbnail + Excerpt
While you’re in the blog settings panel, go ahead and add in a thumbnail image and excerpt. Not only will search engines index this, but it’s what will be pulled into the preview when you post to social media. You can make this the same or different from what you include in your blog post, so it’s a great place to include some keywords you think people will be searching for.
Format Your Blog Posts With Headlines
Your blog posts should be skim-able for reader so they can scan your text for the information they are looking for; but this also is a great way to format your posts for SEO. Search engines are also “skimming” your text and they place a higher value on headlines if they are used correctly.
Include Links Within Your Text
A great way to not only make your site easier to navigate but to improve SEO is to include links within your text. So when you are writing about something that you’ve previously written about, go ahead and link to it! Or if you reference an article that you read that you think might be interesting to your readers — link to it!
PRO TIP: Try making your links a full phrase instead of a single word. This makes it easier to see for readers as well as entices them to click.
Add Relevant File Names To Your Images
Google and other search engines technically don’t “see” photos and images. So you have to give them a little help by adding captions and file names to your images.
Do this in the settings panel that appears when you upload an image and typing your keywords in the Filename field. If you've already added an image, you can access the settings panel by hovering over your image block and clicking the EDIT button that appears.
PRO TIP: Be sure that you format your photos before you post them so they load efficiently.
Blogging is important for your SEO, but by adding in these extras you'll be sure that you're optimizing your posts as much as possible. That way you'll start to see results over time if you use these tips and blog consistently.
Are you optimizing your blog posts for SEO? Do you have any other tips or tricks to improve blog SEO?
