Squarespace SEO: the complete checklist, with the exact setting for each fix

What Squarespace does for SEO automatically (and what it leaves to you)

Squarespace does more on its own than most site builders. Knowing the split saves you from fixing things that are already fine.

Sources: How Squarespace optimizes your site, Squarespace's robots.txt and Search Console errors.

The 5 Squarespace SEO checks to do first

If you only have one hour, do these. Each one either blocks Google entirely or costs you clicks every day.

1. Make sure Google is allowed in. Open Settings > Crawlers and confirm "Block search engine crawlers" is unchecked. Also confirm the site is published on a paid plan with no homepage password. Squarespace says trial sites are not indexed.
2. Connect Search Console and submit your sitemap. Analytics panel > Search keywords > Connect. Then in Search Console, open Sitemaps and submit sitemap.xml.
3. Write a unique SEO title and description for your 10 most important pages. Pages panel > gear icon > SEO tab. Lead the title with the phrase people search, and keep the description near 150 characters.
4. Add alt text to image blocks. Squarespace image blocks have no alt text unless you type it in the Image alt text field.
5. Check every slug you ever changed has a 301. Squarespace does not redirect old slugs for you. Add each one in Settings > Developer tools > URL mappings.

Sample from the checklist

Here are three real rows from the sheet, unedited.

How to set SEO titles and descriptions on Squarespace

There are three levels, and each uses a different place:

• Site-wide title formats: SEO/AI Visibility panel > SEO Settings > Search appearance, then the Home, Pages or Items tab. Formats use variables: %s is the site title, %p the page's SEO title, %i an item's SEO title. A clean page format is %p | %s. Keep %p in the Pages format and %i in the Items format, or titles break in browser tabs.
• Pages: Pages panel > hover the page > gear icon > SEO tab > SEO Title and SEO Description.
• Blog posts: open the blog > hover the post > ... > Settings > SEO.
• Products: double-click the product > Marketing > SEO and URL > Edit.

Squarespace accepts descriptions from 50 to 300 characters and cuts them at 400. Google usually shows around the first 150 to 160 characters, so put the reason to click first. On version 7.0, site-wide settings live in the older SEO appearance panel instead. (Squarespace: title formats, SEO descriptions)

Squarespace 301 redirects: the URL mappings syntax that works

Squarespace redirects live in one text box: Settings > Developer tools > URL mappings (older menus and many guides call it Settings > Advanced). Each line needs four parts: the old path, an arrow made of a dash and a greater-than sign, the new path, and the type.

/services/whitening -> /teeth-whitening-austin 301
/blog/[name] -> /journal/[name] 301
/old-promo -> https://brightsmile-dental.com/offers 301

Rules from Squarespace's guide that trip people up:

• Lines run top to bottom and the first match wins, so put single-page rules above [name] pattern rules.
• ?, & and # do not work in redirects (RSS feeds aside), so filtered category URLs cannot be redirected.
• The old page must be deleted or disabled, or visitors see the page instead of the redirect.
• The box holds 400 KB, roughly 2,500 lines.

The URL Mapping Builder in the checklist generates these lines from two columns and flags each of those problems before you paste. (Squarespace: URL mappings) Moving a whole site? Use our site migration SEO checklist. The full syntax guide: Squarespace 301 redirects.

Is Squarespace good for SEO?

Yes, for most small business, portfolio and small store sites. Squarespace sites rank when the content answers the search and the basics above are done. The real limits are specific, and you should know them before you choose it:

• You cannot edit robots.txt. It blocks /config, /api, /search and tag, month and author filter URLs on every site.
• You cannot edit or remove the built-in structured data. Extra JSON-LD needs code injection, which needs the Core plan or higher.
• The cart and checkout noindex cannot be removed (you would not want to anyway).
• There is no bulk editor for page SEO fields, so a 200-page site means a lot of clicking.

None of these stop a well-written page from ranking. Weak titles, missing descriptions, unredirected slugs and huge images are what hold most Squarespace sites back. The full verdict: Is Squarespace good for SEO?

Squarespace SEO and AI search

Squarespace added an SEO/AI Visibility panel on version 7.1. Three settings matter:

• Settings > Crawlers > Block known artificial intelligence crawlers is off by default. Turning it on asks bots like GPTBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended to stay out. Google says blocking Google-Extended does not change your Google Search ranking or inclusion (Google).
• AI Visibility > Check results runs prompts to see how often AI tools mention you.
• SEO Settings > LLMS.txt publishes an llms.txt file. It is optional: no major search engine or AI crawler is known to rely on it.

What moves AI answers is the same as what moves Google: pages that answer questions plainly, with headings, lists and short FAQ sections, and business facts that match your Google Business Profile. Which bots the checkbox blocks: Squarespace AI crawlers and llms.txt.

Search Console warnings you can ignore on Squarespace

Squarespace's own help center lists these as normal:

• Blocked by robots.txt for /config, /api, /search and tag or filter URLs.
• Excluded by noindex tag for cart and checkout pages.
• Duplicate homepage for /home (Squarespace asks Google to index / only).
• Page with redirect for http to https or www to non-www.

Act on these instead: Not found (404) for URLs that had clicks or links, and Soft 404 on sold-out products. For every other indexing reason, see our indexing problems fix guide. Setup and every warning: Squarespace and Google Search Console.

Who this checklist is for

• Owners who built their own Squarespace site and want it found on Google.
• Squarespace designers who hand sites to clients and want a launch checklist they can reuse.
• Store owners on Squarespace Commerce with products that get impressions but few clicks (start with Squarespace product page SEO).
• Bloggers who want posts found (Squarespace blog SEO).
• Anyone moving to Squarespace from WordPress or Wix who needs the redirect syntax right the first time.

Related checklists

• Technical SEO checklist
• Local SEO checklist for Google Business Profile and NAP
• Title and meta description swipe file
• Internal linking playbook
• Search Console audit checklist
• Wix SEO checklist

Use SEOmatic's check_site on mysite.com and tell me whether Google can index my Squarespace homepage. Check robots.txt for Googlebot and for AI crawlers, and list the top fixes with the Squarespace menu path for each.

Use SEOmatic to run the Squarespace SEO checklist on mysite.com.

1. Run check_site. If "Block search engine crawlers" or a password is blocking Google, stop and tell me how to fix it in Settings > Crawlers.
2. Call connect_seomatic so I can sign in and connect Google Search Console.
3. Run get_started for the overview and top 3 actions.
4. Run gsc_insights (action sitemaps) and confirm sitemap.xml is submitted and processed.
5. Use gsc_performance (action top_pages) to get my 20 most important URLs, then gsc_indexing (action batch_inspect) on them. List any that are not indexed with the reason.
6. Run site_audit and list missing or duplicate SEO titles and descriptions, noindex leaks, dead pages and broken internal links.
7. Run gsc_insights (action ctr_outliers) and list pages with a click rate far below their position. Check the results page first (serp_competitors, action features) in case an AI Overview or map pack is taking the click.
8. For each problem, give me the checklist row, the Squarespace menu path, and the fix. Squarespace lets outside tools edit only Commerce products, so:
- For products: stage new SEO titles, SEO descriptions, URLs or image alt text with task_manage (action create) and show me show_approval_cards. Nothing goes live until I approve.
- For pages and blog posts: write the exact SEO title, SEO description or alt text for me to paste in the page's SEO tab. After I paste, record it with task_manage (action paste_done) so SEOmatic checks the live page.
- For 404s with clicks or links: write the exact URL mappings lines (`/old -> /new 301`) for me to paste in Settings > Developer tools > URL mappings, specific rules first.
9. End with a table: check, status (pass / fail / cannot check), fix, who does it (SEOmatic after approval, or me).