Squarespace’s marketing promotes its “built-in SEO tools,” which can sometimes confuse new users. What exactly are the platform’s free SEO tools? How do they help your site? Here we look at Squarespace’s SEO plugins and features.
First, is Squarespace good for search engine optimization? Yes. Any question about SEO effectiveness stems from the platform’s early years—as user-friendly DIY website builders gained popularity, developers on platforms like WordPress often used SEO concerns as a tactic to discourage users from switching.
Our experience as Squarespace designers since 2013 has been positively echoed by our clients. The feedback section on our website reflects the widespread satisfaction with the SEO-friendly platform. It’s important to understand that “SEO-friendly” does not equate to “automatic rankings,” a common misconception among those new to optimization. Online success requires a bit of groundwork—this is true for all platforms.
Squarespace SEO Tools vs Features
What about Squarespace’s advertised SEO tools? The platform integrates with Google Search Console—which is one of the key SEO tools for small businesses—but many of Squarespace’s listed “tools” are more accurately described as “features.”
Squarespace’s SEO features include:
Fully customizable title tags and meta descriptions
Creating your XML sitemap and robots.txt file
The ability to hide pages from search engines
Automatic URL canonicalization
If some of the items above are confusing or unfamiliar, that’s precisely the point—Squarespace automatically manages important technical SEO tasks on your behalf.
The platform considers their static SEO checklist to be a “tool,” but this is a stretch. However, a more dynamic tool to review individual webpages for basic best practices, such as compressed image files, is likely in the works.
Note, all Squarespace versions and templates can be optimized.
Squarespace SEO Plugins
Squarespace’s support documentation states that no plugins or custom code are required, which is accurate for the vast majority of sites. This is a key benefit of using modern website builders, which are designed to work out of the box.
While Squarespace’s authorized extensions list includes SEO-adjacent plugins, the majority of sites do not need these for standard functionality.
Weglot: This extension handles website translation and multilingual SEO. Note, if you have a small site with limited language options and translators on your team, you can build your own multilingual site to avoid recurring subscription fees.
TinyIMG: This Squarespace SEO plugin minimizes image files which can impact page speed. It was originally developed as a plugin for the Shopify platform and might be helpful for large ecommerce sites or gallery-based sites. For smaller sites, you can simply use free tools like Squoosh to optimize an image prior to upload.
If you’re a former WordPress user looking for a “Yoast for Squarespace,” it’s important to know that you don’t need a separate SEO plugin. Squarespace already has built-in SEO features and takes care of most technical SEO, making outdated plugins like Yoast unnecessary. This is a strength of Squarespace, as checklist plugins often contribute to SEO misconceptions and over-optimization, which can negatively impact rankings.
By eliminating the need for plugins, Squarespace simplifies the SEO process and reduces the risk of harmful practices. Keep in mind, online optimization is not completely hands-off and you still need to understand digital marketing basics or hire help. Google’s John Mueller offered practical advice on Twitter to small businesses: “never self-host, avoid plugins, buy your domain name, use a simple & reliable platform…”
Google’s John Mueller on Twitter
It’s worth noting that some blogging sites do occasionally use custom code for SEO purposes, such as qualifying certain outbound links, which will likely be included in future updates.
SEO Integrations
After publishing a website, you’ll want to proactively tell search engines about your business and products. Squarespace offers integrations with important Google services such as Search Console, Analytics, and Merchant Center. We include these on our list of useful free optimization tools for small businesses.
Conclusion
Squarespace addresses key SEO elements with ease. The platform’s emphasis on simplicity means users can focus more on content creation and less on technical SEO.
The platform’s built-in features can help enhance your website’s visibility and ranking in search results without plugins, making Squarespace an excellent choice for anyone looking to build a successful SMB website and strengthen their online presence.
Important: Remember, “SEO-friendly” does not equate to “automatic rankings,” a common misconception among those new to optimization. SEO success requires learning the fundamentals—this is true for any platform. If you need to get up to speed fast, we offer customized SEO sessions tailored specifically to your business.
More Resources
Explore how to learn SEO for free.
Read our Squarespace-specific SEO tips.
See the best SEO tools for small businesses.
Read our comprehensive review of Squarespace.
Learn about common SEO myths.
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