Simple SEO and AIO: The Squarespace Checklist to Get Found on Google in an Age of AI

Your Squarespace website is beautiful, but is it being seen? Many small business owners assume their SEO is "covered" because Squarespace handles the technical backbone (like Sitemaps and SSL). While that’s true, ranking on Google requires intentional effort.

The good news is that Squarespace now offers powerful AI tools that turn tedious optimisation tasks into quick clicks. Follow this definitive two-part checklist to ensure your site is perfectly optimised, leveraging AI to save you time and boost your visibility.

Part 1: The Squarespace SEO Foundation

These are the fundamental, one-time steps that build the strategic core of your site's SEO.

1. Master Your Keywords

• Do Your Homework: Identify 3-5 core search phrases (keywords) that potential clients use to find your service or product. Think about intent—what is the person hoping to achieve when they search?

• Focus Your Pages: Assign one primary keyword/topic to each main page of your website (e.g., your "Services" page might target "what your company does," while your "About" page targets your name and expertise).

• Integrate Naturally: Use your primary keyword in the main body text, an image file name, and one H2 or H3 heading on the target page. Avoid "keyword stuffing." Write for humans first, search engines second.

2. Connect to Google

• Verify with Google Search Console (GSC): This is Google's free tool that monitors your site's performance. You simply must connect your Squarespace site to GSC.

  • Action: In Squarespace, go to Settings → Marketing → SEO Appearance. Follow the instructions to link your site and submit your sitemap (yoursite.com/sitemap.xml).

• Set up Google Analytics (GA4): Track how users find and interact with your site.

  • Action: Connect your Google Analytics 4 account under Settings → Advanced → External Services.

3. Optimise Content Structure

• One H1 Per Page: Ensure your most important page title (usually a block of text at the top) is marked as a Heading 1 (H1). This tells Google the main topic of the page.

• Use Descriptive URLs: Edit the URL slug for every page, product, and blog post to be short, descriptive, and include a keyword.

  • Bad: /blog/post-101

  • Good: /guides/squarespace-seo-checklist

• Build Internal Links: Link relevant words in your blog posts to your service pages, and link from your home page to your portfolio. This keeps visitors on your site longer and helps Google crawl your content.

Part 2: AI SEO (AIO) Optimisation - A Time Saver

Squarespace's AI SEO tool, often found under the umbrella of their AI Optimisation (AIO) features, is designed to quickly fill in missing metadata and image alt text across your entire site.

This saves you hours of manual work and ensures you meet the "completion" requirements that Google looks for.

The AI Optimisation Workflow

Step 1: Set Your Brand Identity

The AI performs better when it knows who you are.

• Action: Before starting, ensure you have set up your Brand Identity in your Squarespace settings. This gives the AI context on your business, tone, and what you offer.

Step 2: Run the SEO Report

This report identifies all the missing metadata on your site.

• Action: Go to Settings → Marketing → SEO Appearance. Look for the SEO Report (or similar completion score panel).

Step 3: Improve with AI

Click the prompt to "Improve with AI" (or similar phrasing). The AI will then generate suggested content for the following two critical SEO areas:

1. Page Titles and Descriptions (Metadata):

   • The AI will analyse your page content and business description to suggest compelling SEO titles (the blue link in search results) and meta descriptions (the snippet below the title).

   • Your Action: Review Every Suggestion. The AI is great at drafting, but you must ensure the generated text includes your target keywords and sounds like your brand. Edit as needed, then save.

   • Pro Tip: Keep titles under 60 characters and descriptions under 160 characters for optimal display on Google.

2. Image Alt Text:

   • The AI will scan your website, identify images missing descriptive text, and automatically generate suitable Alt Text for them. Alt text helps visually impaired users and tells Google what the image is about.

   • Your Action: Bulk Review and Refine. The AI is excellent at describing the image (e.g., "A person typing on a laptop with coffee"). You should refine this by adding relevant keywords (e.g., "Freelance web designer typing on a laptop while working on Squarespace projects"). Save the changes.

Final Verdict on Squarespace AI

The AI SEO tools are not a replacement for a solid content strategy and keyword research (Part 1). They are a powerful tool for optimisation completeness and time saving. Use the AI to fill the blanks, then apply your strategic human knowledge to refine the results and make them truly effective and relevant to your products and services.

Prefer to Focus on Your Business?

While the Squarespace platform and its new AI features make SEO far more accessible, we know that consistent optimisation and strategy can feel like another full-time job. If the idea of diving into keywords, metadata, and analytics reports sounds less than thrilling, that’s where we come in. jvh.digital specialises in ensuring your Squarespace site is not just beautiful, but strategically optimised to drive the right traffic and leads.

Why spend your time wrestling with settings when you could be serving your clients? Get in touch today to discuss how we can handle your digital presence, freeing you up to focus on what you do best.