Squarespace SEO / AIO Workshop
If you’re a soulful depth-worker who finds SEO / AIO daunting, confusing, or despairing (!) - this free 20-min workshop is for you! I’ll take you step-by-step through some best practices that, over time, can really make a difference to your site’s visibility. I hope you’ll find that SEO / AIO can be much more human and simple than you think, and in contrast to social media, offer a gentler, deeper, more sustainable approach to marketing.
This workshop video is from my Website Template Guide - click to learn more!
What is ‘SEO’?
Let’s first demystify what SEO is. I like to think of Google as a loving match-maker who’s essentially trying to hook up lovely businesses with lovely humans.
Google’s way of figuring our whether you’re a good match is largely based on your website’s (1) relevance and (2) user-friendliness. Search Engine Optimisation is essentially the ways we signal to Google that we are both relevant to someone’s search, and considerate / helpful / human-friendly! Over time, this helps us rank higher in Google when we’re a match for someone’s search.
If you’re a bit of an online introvert / HSP, or just don’t have the time and energy for hours of marketing, SEO is your friend.
When I started this business 9 years ago, I had 2 tiny humans at home and barely any time for marketing. I simply followed some basic SEO best practices when setting up my site, and within months, half my enquiries were coming from Google! I feel very grateful that through particularly challenging seasons of life, when I haven’t had the capacity for much visibility, my site SEO has continued to help lovely humans find my work.
My caveat here is that, while most on-site SEO is largely one-and-done, your ongoing activity - both on and and off your website - has a huge impact on your long-term SEO. More on that later…
What IS ‘AIO’?
While the goal of SEO is to rank higher in search engine results, AI optimization (AIO) is about making your website visible in AI chat responses and overview summaries. Most AI models (like Perplexity AI, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot) will include citations or hyperlinks pointing back to the original source.
is SEO relevant in the age of AI?
Of course, these days more and more people are getting their answers from AI models. This has left many of us wondering if SEO even matters anymore!
Well, AIO actually relies on SEO as it’s foundation, meaning long-standing SEO best practices (such as mobile responsiveness, fast loading speed, keyword architecture, and site metadata) directly impact a site’s AI visibility, and therefore remain very relevant.
Having said that, SEO is evolving in response to how we interact with AI platforms. Traditionally, we’d type short, fragmented phrases into Google, which would often reward surface-level, keyword-stuffed content that matched those exact search fragments. These days, users tend to ask AI models highly specific, multi-layered, conversational questions, which means that AI model tends to reference longer-form content that has enough depth, expertise and humanness to answer these complex inquiries.
In other words, your depth & humanity is good for SEO & AIO!
Of course, AI is a very controversial subject, with some genuinely concerning ripple effects. If you choose to ignore AIO, or maybe even block AI from crawling your site, please know that I fully respect and support your choice! There are so many ways to grow our community and businesses, there is zero need to do anything that feels misaligned.
My objective with this workshop / post is not to convince you of AIO’s importance, but to hopefully bring some reassurance that amidst all that’s changing in the online world, your depth and humanity is not becoming obsolete - it is becoming all the more valuable.
Here’s a summary of the best practices mentioned in the video workshop:
squarespace seo tip #1
(1) Optimise your Images
Many assume that when it comes to website images, the bigger the better, that the higher the file size (KB), the better the resolution (pixels). However, a lot of heavy images can slow down a site’s loading speed, which impacts user experience - and therefore Google’s ‘user-friendly’ rankings.
And so, when it comes to optimising your website images, we want them to be high enough in resolution (pixels), but low enough in weight (KB). Rule of thumb for Squarespace images is that they should be no larger than 500KB, with full-width banner images at around 2000px wide.
If you’re adding images to Squarespace internally (i.e. the stock image library), images are optimised automatically. If you’re adding images externally (i.e. from your computer), Bulk Resize Photos is great for reducing image size while retaining image quality. You can set the exact File Size (KB) and/or ‘Width’ (pixels), and batch resize images to save time. I find that setting ‘Image Quality’ to 90% generally gives me the right balance of weight (KB) and resolution (pixels).
squarespace seo tip #2
(2) your Keywords
Using keywords in your website helps Google connect you to the right people, because it signals that your site is relevant to what they’re searching for. The trick is simply to think about what phrases or questions your ideal client is putting into Google search. You can then add these keywords to the places listed below.
Of course, each page or post will call for different keywords, and the more specific and focused we are with our keywords, the better. However, to create your core keyword phrase (e.g. for your site title, or to batch rename your images), ‘Who? What? Where?’ is a helpful starting point, for example…
“Christina Paul (Who) Squarespace Web Designer (What) Boston (Where)” or
“Online (Where) Somatic Trauma Therapy (What) for Women (Who)”
(I) use keywords in your Image Titles
File name ‘IMG_4356’ isn’t going to do much for your SEO! For Squarespace image blocks, add a keyword-rich phrase to the File Name section, with hyphens between each word!
(II) add alt text to your images
Alt Text is more about Accessibility, but this also supports SEO as it’s boosts your user-friendliness in Google’s eyes. Unlike Image Titles (which use strategic keywords), Alt Text are very literal descriptions that reflect the content of an image for the visually impaired. Because there is no strategy involved, I am very happy to use Squarespace AI tool to generate Alt Text for my images. For this, go to your side menu’s SEO / AI Tab, and click on the ‘Alt Text’ button.
(III) use keywords in your Headlines
Headline fonts (especially H1 + H2) have more ‘SEO juice’ than paragraph / body font. As a holistic website practitioner, I believe in balancing strategy (SEO) with visual and emotional impact. And so, I suggest placing emotionally powerful messaging in your Headlines, while also being mindful that they contain enough keywords. I usually place multiple headlines throughout a page or post to mark each new section. This really supports the visual, emotional and strategic impact of a site.
(IV) use keywords in your site title & description
Your Site Title & Description is what appears in a Google search. To customise yours in Squarespace, search ‘SEO appearance’. Add your core keywords (Who? What? Where?) to the Site Title, and a keyword-rich paragraph to your Site Description. The trick here is to use keywords, while ensuring that your paragraph reads in a natural, human-friendly way. Google is very clever and knows if we’re just keyword stuffing (i.e. not being user-friendly)!
(V) use keywords in your page titles / descriptions
You can add SEO-friendly page titles and descriptions to each of your website pages (head to Page Settings > SEO). Like your Site Description, you want each page’s SEO Description to be keyword-rich, while also reading in a natural, human-friendly way.
While it may be temping to copy-and-paste the same description across multiple pages, this will make Google suspicious of how relevant and user-friendly your site actually is! Tweak your page descriptions so that they’re unique to each page.
squarespace seo tip #3
(3) Your Business Location
If you work with people locally, adding your business address can really help improve your Google rankings. Even if you’re more of an online business, it’s still worth adding your location to off-page settings (e.g. your site / page titles & descriptions), which can help put your business on the Google map, so to speak.
Add your business location / information to:
Your Page Heading (e.g. Couples Therapy, California)
Your Contact page
Your Site Footer
Your Site / Page Titles & Descriptions
I also highly recommend you create a Google Business Profile (just click to set yours up). Relevant businesses are displayed to the right of a Google search page, and are great for connecting your business to your local community. Here’s my client’s Google Business Profile:
squarespace seo tip #4
(4) your site hygiene
Again, Google is looking to recommend relevant, user-friendly websites. And so keeping a ‘neat and tidy’ site is another way to support your SEO. This includes:
(I) your URLs
Keep your URLs short, clean and relevant (e.g. ‘/therapy’ VS ‘/therapy-copy-1’)! Ideally, your URL will contain a keyword or phrase. The same applies to the URLs of any blog posts, products, or event pages as well.
(II) avoid broken links
Check for broken links, and set up a custom or default Error page (Website > System Pages > 404 Page) so that visitors are redirected to a helpful page (e.g. your Homepage), just in case they click on an old or broken link that you’ve missed.
If you’ve transferred your domain from an old site, try using the same URL slugs to avoid broken links. For example, someone might click on an old link (e.g. www.mysite.com/services), but land on an ‘error / not found’ page if you’ve changed the URL on your new site (e.g. www.mysite.com/work-with-me). If you’ve changed your domain name, or for whatever reason need to use different URL slugs, you can set up URL redirects. This automatically redirects old URLs to new ones, and helps retain the SEO ‘juice’ of the original page.
(III) Disable inactive pages
If you have ‘dead’ or duplicate pages, Google might mark you down on user-friendliness. Go to Page Settings > General and ‘Disable’ an inactive page, or go to Page Settings > SEO and ‘hide page from search engines’. If you know a page will no longer be used, just go ahead and delete it.
squarespace seo best practices #5
(5) Bonus: Blogging for SEO
When I say blogging, that includes Podcasting and YouTubing because you can house your episodes into a blog structure on your site, with show notes, transcripts or summaries, to support your SEO.
I’m a huge fan of long-form content as a marketing strategy because blogs, podcasts and YouTube videos tend to have a longer shelf-life and higher ROI than, say, Instagram. Thoughtful content supports both your SEO (Google loves a helpful, active site!), and your AIO, because tools like ChatGPT tend to reference content that has enough depth, expertise and humanness to answer the highly specific, complex, conversational inquiries that people tend to use AI for.
While I love and support blogging for pure self-expression, if you’re wanting to blog for strategic SEO purposes, your blog posts allow you to focus in on very specific topics, which creates powerful keyword-driven content. Consistently posting just a couple times a month (with the right SEO practices!) can drive significant traffic to your site over time. Even if you don’t plan on blogging regularly, it’s worth having a few posts as core content, updating them every-so-often for relevance and activity. As with your regular website pages, you can add keywords to:
Your Blog Content (headers, image titles, etc.)
Blog Settings > SEO > Title & Description
Blog Post Settings > SEO > Title & Description
Blog Post Settings > Options > Tags (like hastags)
Blog Post Settings > URL
All Squarespace’s Collection Pages (blog, shop, events, etc), are structured in a similar way, with similar SEO best practices.
Hey there!
I’m Christina Paul, a therapist turned Brand Therapist, here to help depth-workers share their medicine with the world through branding, websites, and visibility. If you’re feeling a connection, feel free to explore my offerings, find me on Instagram or join my e-community for love letters sent straight to your inbox.
