SET & MEASURE SEO GOALS FOR YOUR SQUARESPACE WEBSITE | Squarespace SEO

New year, new you!

2021 and we’re here to slay!

Fresh start! Motivation abounds! Energy up the ying yang!

Let’s do this thing!!!!!

Right? 😇

Jokes aside, there’s a natural reset and sense of focus that comes with the start of a new year. It’s a time for reflection on how the past year unfolded and what we plan for ourselves in the upcoming year.

This is where goals come in! Personally I LOVE setting goals for myself because they give me action items to revisit and work on in the days/weeks/months to come. Personal life, business, whatever! Goals are great :)

So. In today’s blog post/video tutorial, we are going to examine how to set and measure SEO goals for your Squarespace website.

Whether you’re a total beginner or already have some experience with Squarespace SEO, this is one post you don’t want to miss!

As a Squarespace SEO expert and leader in this super random little niche, it’s my job/pleasure to introduce you to things like this and present it in a way that doesn’t make you want to gouge your eyes out LOL!

This is the kind of insider info that I share with my Squarespace SEO consulting clients and students in my online course, Top Squarespace SEO. But since I’m not one for secrets and truly want the best for anyone with a website, I’m giving you the summarized goods here - totally for free!

Read the blog post or watch the video tutorial below - either way, happy goal setting!

Some of you might be totally new to Squarespace SEO and are looking for an introduction to this topic, someone to hold your hand and show you it’s not actually that scary. On the flip side, you might already be familiar with a few points on this list already but maybe you are looking for confirmation that you’re on the right track and haven’t missed anything important. No matter where you are in your Squarespace SEO journey, I know you’ll benefit from this info!

Alright, let’s get to it - read the post and watch the video tutorial below to learn all about setting and measuring SEO goals for your Squarespace website!

I have so many tips to share on the subject that it would have been crazy to put it all in one article! There are many misconceptions about Squarespace SEO which is why I've dedicate so many posts to this topic. Enjoy!

Click to view all posts in the Squarespace SEO Series

Visit my Squarespace SEO page for lots more resources.

Set & measure Squarespace SEO goals

Why set SEO goals?

Basically, SEO is the golden ticket of online marketing that will take you from where you are right now to where you want to be! It doesn’t matter what type of website/business you have, everyone can benefit from the growth that comes from SEO.

An effective SEO plan will help you to increase traffic to your website (duh!) but it’s also about positioning online and how you show up in search results, so that you can reach more of the right people online (potential clients, customers). This allows you to sell more of your products, book more of your services, or drill down on affiliate marketing, which directly translates to more money in the bank.

SEO goals are there to keep you on track and moving in the right direction!

SEO Goal setting exercise

Let’s get back to basics with this fun little exercise :)

Step 1: Set objectives

Grab a pen & paper, open a fresh Google Doc or even load a new note on your phone - either way, we’re going to brainstorm! All you’re going to do here is write down all the ways you want to grow next year, and how SEO can help you.

This might include points like:

Increase website traffic month over month
Double the amount of product sales on auto-pilot
Book 3x more discovery calls
Add 5 new affiliate marketing revenue streams
Grow your email list to 5000 subscribers
Etc.

Don’t overthink it! Dream big, sky’s the limit… but also be realistic.

Step 2: Plan

In this step, we look at all our objectives and the come up with an action plan to actually make it happen. In other words, it’s time to Get Sh*t Done!

Consider things like:

Back end website technical updates (I cover the 3 most important Squarespace SEO settings in this blog post/video tutorial)
Strategic website content creation - usually through blogging, more info on that here
Updating and improving existing website content (web pages, product descriptions, old blog posts, etc.)
Link building and working on an effective backlink strategy
Etc.

This will give you a solid understanding of the action items in your SEO plan. From here, you must assign a date/time to each point in order to actually reach your goal. Ask yourself, when will you get to each point? Will you have it done by next week? Next month? End of Q4? :)

Some SEO tweaks come together much faster than others - for example, it doesn’t take too long to complete all the SEO descriptions on the back end of your site, but coming up with and executing a strategic blogging plan will take a lot more time/effort.

I recommend using an online project management tool like Asana or Trello to keep you on track, but you might also find Google Calendars helpful. Old school pen & paper also works haha

In summary: in order to move forward with your SEO plan, you must turn goals into action items with deadlines.

Ok now that we’ve talked about the SEO goal planning pre-work, let’s move and start looking at HOW you are going to reach those goals!

3 focuses for SEO

1. Conversion

Conversions is a great SEO goal for your Squarespace website and it can show itself in several forms. For example, your goal might be to convert more of your website visitors into paying customers - e.g., more visitors purchase a product, book your services or a discovery call, etc.

But conversions can also include things like getting more website visitors to opt into your email list. I am a huge proponent of using SEO to grow your email list, because so much of online business runs off email marketing, so this is a conversion rate that I always emphasize to my clients!

If you’re using SEO to get more people to your website with the goal of converting more people, this is a real goal you can track over time. You can look at page visits, email newsletter subscriber growth , product sales, etc and really track the numbers in a real way.

Example 1: Let’s say you have a sales page for your product/service and it currently gets 1 or 2 thousand page views per month. Imagine you use SEO to increase traffic to that sales page and now it gets 5 thousand page views per month. If your conversion rate of that sales page stays roughly the same (let’s say around 1-2%) but the website traffic has massively increased, you will see a BIG difference of money earned directly related to your SEO efforts!

Example 2: In this case, imagine that you’re planning out your quarterly launch cycle for the upcoming year. In this case, your goal is to grow your email list so that you have stronger email marketing campaigns by the time the next launch happens. So conversion helps because you use SEO to get more website traffic and then you convert them into email subscribers so that you can sell to them during your launch!

2. Engagement

Engagement looks at how visitors interact with the content on your website. Often the focus of engagement is on blogging and we want to see how people consume it - and if they also like, comment or share the post, or become a subscriber. When you blog strategically with SEO in mind, you can track the engagement metrics to see how your efforts are paying off!

3. Acquisition

This is probably the most popular SEO goal : basically, getting more people to visit your website.

Focus of quantity AND quality when it comes to increasing website traffic. The goal is to show up in online search results for target keywords that your ideal client/customer is searching for, then get them to visit your website and nurture them in your desired way (refer to conversions point above).

The thing to keep in mind is that SEO usually means that you will improve your ranking and show up higher in online search results, which directly leads to more website traffic - and with that comes way more growth and opportunities.

Don’t get distracted by vanity metrics

Anyone who sets an SEO goal wants to show up on page 1 of Google Search Results.

BUT you should never prioritize vanity metrics over direct impact.

For example, imagine you are a photographer and you rank on the first page for “family photography [City Name]”. You need to consider the online searcher’s intent when they are typing that into Google. It’s great if they are looking to hire a professional photographer to do family photos, but it won’t hlep you if they are just looking for ideas of places to shoot at or something. You need to make sure that the increased website traffic drives your business forward.

As such, focus on specific target keywords that your ideal clients/customers might use in online searches, and then make sure that your content nutures these new visits and encourages them to convert (e.g., opt in to your email list, book a discovery call, purchase your products/services, etc.)

Quality AND quantity is needed when working towards your Squarespace SEO goals.

Time and Budget Matter for SEO Goals

Time

How much time can you reasonably put into SEO? Are you a solopreneur with a packed schedule? Are you already spread thin with other business tasks? Do you have to learn everything about Squarespace SEO from the ground up? Will you hire an SEO expert (like me!) to share the workload? Do you still have to enroll in an online course like my course Top Squarespace SEO to strengthen your skills?

Remember that SEO is NOT an overnight fix - you must look at it in terms of months, quarters, even years! Play long term game because Squarespace SEO is a sustainable marketing strategy that will continue to grow and snowball upon itself. It’s not realistic to tripple website traffic overnight if all you’re doing is writing a few blog posts.

Budget

SEO can be done at a variety of budgets - you can totally DIY the entire Squarespace SEO plan if you know what you’re doing, or you could hire the work out to a professional or agency. Depending on the financial resources you have available, this will affect how you work towards you SEO goals.

How to track and measure your SEO goals

The only way to see if you are making progress and are on track to reach your SEO goals is too… LOOK AT THE DATA! 😎

Website Growth Tracker Spreadsheets - 2024

$37.00

This is a MUST. Many people shy away from this step but I’m here to reassure you that it’s NOT HARD and you will get soooooo much value from tracking your progress and efforts!

Turn to Analytics tab of your Squarespace website to get this basic info. Here, you’ll find an overview of important metrics - such as total number of site visit, popular content, referral sites, etc.

Google Analytics goes deeper and gives you much more detailed information. It’s super simple to set up and connect Google Analytics to your Squarespace website but at the very least, start with Squarespace’s Analytics tab and expand out as needed.

Once you’ve gathered the data, it’s time to TRACK the numbers!

You can totally DIY this but to keep things easy, I recommend that you use my Website Growth Tracker spreadsheet template set - don’t reinvent the wheel haha I’ve done the work for you already. This makes it SO MUCH EASIER to keep yourself on track and accountable! For less than the cost of your next Uber Eats lunch, it’s a no brainer.

Click the image to the right to see what I’m talking about here.

Look at the data and adjust as needed

Once you start tracking the data, you’ll be able to evaluate how your SEO efforts are paying off - or, if you’re falling short.

If you aren’t getting the results you wanted in certain areas, you might have to pivot or adjust your strategy/plan. SEO is ever changing and there are many moving parts, but the data will keep you honest and focused!

Go back to your SEO goals that you outlined above, and use the data to see what’s working and what isn’t. Just like Ross says in Friends, “PIVOT” when needed!

Final Thoughts

And there you have it, hunni, a fool proof plan to set and reach SEO goals on your Squarespace website in 2021 - and beyond!

If anyone can do the work and make sh*t happen, it’s you - and always know that I’m here cheering you on :)

There’s a lot to consider with Squarespace SEO and I totally understand that it’s a daunting subject when you’re first starting out, which is why I’m thrilled to help you out with this goal setting tutorial!

Whether you’re just starting out with a brand new website and want to make sure that you’re setting it up correctly, or if you’ve had a site live for a while and now want to grow it to make more of an impact, SEO will get you where you want to go! From web pages to blog posts to product descriptions, these factors should be considered across your Squarespace website if you want best results.

Now it's your turn to tell me, what are your Squarespace SEO goals? What changes or updates are you going to make this year? What are your big plans and how are you going to track your progress over the upcoming months? Any wins you want to share?

Leave me your questions down in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them. As people are spending more time online than ever before, it’s SO important that your website shows up properly in search results so that you can reach your ideal audience online - but you can’t do this without SEO!

If you want more SEO goodness, be sure to check out my Squarespace SEO page for all resources on the topic.

My signature online course, Top Squarespace SEO, will be opening for enrollment again soon - sign up for the TSS waiting list here!

You can also sign up for my newsletter (right here or below), where I often share Squarespace SEO tips, tricks and high-quality exclusive content. I send out emails to my list every Wednesday, mostly focused on Squarespace websites and SEO, and I can guarantee that you’ll find the newsletter topics interesting, entertaining and worth your time. #humblebrag

Finally, shameless plug: hit me up with any specific questions you have about Squarespace SEO and your website because I’m your girl. You can reach out to me directly if you’re interested in working together on your website and we can talk about whether or not you would be a good fit for my consulting and ongoing services. I can’t take on every request to do Squarespace SEO consulting but I do pick a few websites and businesses to work with every month and I’d love for you to be one of them.