Squarespace SEO Settings
Squarespace SEO settings are the built-in options for controlling how a Squarespace site is indexed, described, and structured for search engines.
Start here
- Fill in the site-wide SEO title and description first.
- Add page-level titles and descriptions for important pages.
- Connect Google Search Console and submit your sitemap.
- Always create a 301 redirect when changing a page URL.
- Check that you haven't accidentally hidden pages from search.
These settings are your fastest path to better search visibility without touching code.
What I'd do first
- Set the site-wide SEO title and description in Settings > SEO. Don't leave them blank.
- Edit page-level SEO title and description for every key page (homepage, services, blog posts).
- Connect Google Search Console from Settings > Third Party Tools > Connected Accounts.
- Submit your sitemap at
/sitemap.xmlin Search Console. - Set up 301 redirects (URL mapping) before changing any page slugs.
Plain-English take
Think of Squarespace SEO settings as the control panel for how search engines see your site. You can write a default title and description that shows up in Google results, tweak those for individual pages, hide pages you don't want indexed, and set up redirects when you move pages. The platform also generates a sitemap automatically. It's not as flexible as a custom CMS, but it covers the basics well.
When it actually matters
- Launching a new site: Without these settings, your pages have no titles or descriptions – Google will guess and likely show something ugly.
- Restructuring pages: Changing URLs without redirects kills your existing rankings.
- Trying to rank for specific terms: Page-level SEO titles give you a shot at ranking for your target keywords.
- Debugging indexing issues: Search Console connection lets you see crawl errors and submit pages for indexing.
What I got wrong
- I assumed the site-wide SEO title would automatically apply to all pages – but pages with no individual title fall back to the site-wide one, which is rarely optimized.
- I changed a page URL and forgot to create a 301 redirect. Lost a month of traffic before I noticed.
- I thought the sitemap was automatically submitted to Google – it's generated, but you still need to submit it manually in Search Console.
- I accidentally checked 'Hide page from search results' on a blog post and wondered why it wasn't showing up.
Next step
Quick answers
Where do I find the SEO settings for a single page?
Go to the page editor, click the gear icon (Settings), then find the SEO tab. You can set a custom page title, description, and URL slug there.
Does Squarespace support meta robots tags?
Yes – the 'Hide page from search results' option adds a noindex tag. For more advanced directives you'd need custom code or a plugin.
Sources
Primary documentation is linked directly. Anything commercial is marked nofollow.
- Squarespace Help Center: Adding SEO descriptions — Official instructions for page-level SEO descriptions.
- Squarespace SEO Guide: 10 Steps - July 2025 — Official PDF covering titles, descriptions, Search Console, sitemaps, redirects, and tracking.
- Squarespace SEO Checklist - 2022 — Official checklist covering titles, descriptions, slugs, images, and sitemaps.
- Google Search Central — Google's official documentation for indexing and search best practices.
Notes from Callum Bennett.