Squarespace is a popular website builder that’s easy to use and utilized for its attractive templates, mobile-friendly designs, and no-experience-necessary setup process. But what about functionality, performance, and scalability? And is Squarespace good for SEO? Keep reading for answers to these questions, plus insights from our digital marketing agency about the best websites for SEO:
SEO for Squarespace & How it Falls Short
If you’re only following a basic SEO checklist that includes page titles, meta descriptions, and alt text, a Squarespace site makes it easy for you to optimize those SEO features without the need for plug-ins. With secure hosting and built-in structured data for most content, it’s understandable why so many businesses use their templates.
However, businesses that really want to go deeper with SEO need to understand the limitations of using a website builder like Squarespace. Here are a few ways it falls short and why it matters:
Technical SEO
Squarespace is known as a closed system, which means you’re unable to edit server code and have limited backend access. For technical SEO purposes, this doesn’t give you complete control over robots.txt, sitemaps, complex URL structure, and more.
Why It Matters: Squarespace’s default settings and restrictions control how much optimization you’re allowed; in the long run, this only hurts SEO.
Schema Markup
Squarespace automatically generates structured data for product pages and blog posts, which you cannot modify. Manually injecting code is possible for some things but can be prone to error.
Why it Matters: Custom schema markup is vital for search engines, especially AI, to crawl and index (understand and reference) your content. Without it, a Squarespace site can’t clearly define or communicate your business, services, and niche to search engines.
Performance Optimization
Page speed is one of the top ranking factors, but Squarespace handles all of that on their end, so you’re limited as to what you can do to improve loading times and performance. You can’t manually change code, scripts, and media files, causing code bloat and heavy loads.
Why It Matters: SEO for a Squarespace website isn’t flexible enough for fine-tuning code and back-end performance, resulting in low Core Web Vitals metrics.
Large Websites & E-Commerce
Code bloat also affects large websites with hundreds or thousands of pages. One of Squarespace’s biggest weaknesses is scalability. There are limits to navigation structure, checkout customization, product catalogs, and third-party integrations.
Why It Matters: For new or small businesses, starting out with a Squarespace website may seem fine, but as your site continues to grow, you’re likely to run into more and more issues, especially if you’re managing a robust e-commerce business.
Quick Recap: Is Squarespace Bad for SEO?
Here’s the key takeaway: Squarespace checks the boxes for basic SEO but lacks true control and customization when it comes to optimizing page loading times, robots.txt, and XML sitemaps.
Like any other website builder, a Squarespace website can rank well in search engines and attract organic traffic when you implement standard SEO practices like targeting the right keywords, publishing original, high-quality content with clear CTAs, and creating a strong internal linking structure.
The bottom line: Squarespace search engine optimization can be categorized as “good enough”, but is good enough keeping you ahead of the competition and the ever-changing search trends? Probably not.
Looking for the Best Website Builder for SEO?
So maybe the question isn’t “Is Squarespace good for SEO?” but rather “Am I willing to settle with just good enough?”
Here at IMEG, we take website development seriously and make sure every detail of your site is optimized for both traditional search engines and generative AI platforms. And that starts with our own secure, fast, and powerful website builder, decades of SEO expertise, and a digital marketing strategy designed for long-term growth, not just short-term wins.
Curious about how your current site is performing or starting a business and need to build a website from scratch? Let’s talk about your marketing goals! Request a website SEO audit or a conversation about SEO for a new website.
