Everything you need to know about Squarespace Page Titles

What makes up a website? Do you think of a collection of pages that display a variety of content? If we agree that a website is something along those lines, the next question to ask yourself is how does a visitor move around the site?

First off, there’s the home page where visitors initially land on your website. From there they navigate around to different pages of the site. Users often hop between pages by clicking through to the content they’re looking for, and that’s often indicated by the Page Title. For example, if you want to read the blog, you’ll click the “Blog” link. Or if you want to shop a brand’s products, you might click “Shop” or “Products”.

As a website owner, your goal is to make it as easy and straightforward as possible for visitors on your site to access the information they’re looking for.

This is where Page Titles come in!

Page Titles are how you indicate the content and context of a web page to someone on your site. Every page on a website, Squarespace or otherwise, has a Page Title so it’s super important to set them up correctly.

Today I’m going to share the nitty-gritty about Squarespace Page Titles with you. You’ll learn about:

Page Titles - what they are and basic information
Best practices in how to name a Squarespace Page Title
How to set up a Page Title on a new Squarespace page
How to edit or update the Page Title on an existing Squarespace page
How Page Titles affect Squarespace SEO

Newbies often overlook Page Titles because they don’t understand what they are or what role they play in a website, which is why I’m here to share this valuable information with you to clear things up!

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Naming a Squarespace Page - Navigation Title vs Page Title

Every page in your Squarespace website has two name fields : a navigation title AND a Page Title. Both of these titles can be edited in the Page settings. This goes for both new pages or existing pages.

Example Index page for a “Services” web page.

The navigation title is the link that appears in the navigation menu of your website. There’s a limited amount of space in the menu which is why navigation titles should always be concise and short.

The navigation title doesn’t have to be the same as the Page Title, however!

Page Titles will appear on the page itself as well as in search results and other places, so you have more flexibility here and can go for a longer Page Title if it makes sense.

An easy way to illustrate the difference between these two name fields is with a website’s About page. You will probably set the navigation title to “About”, but you might set the Page Title to “About Our Team” or “About [Company Name]” or “Meet [Name]”.

Note: When you edit/assign a navigation title, the Page Title will automatically change to match it. To edit both titles separately, edit the navigation title first and then edit the Page Title before saving your changes.

Squarespace Page Title - Naming Best Practices

Now that you know how to edit or assign a Page Title, let’s talk strategy!

Page Titles are important for two main reasons

user experience
search engine optimization.

In order to get the most bang for your buck, you must understand how Page Titles display and why they’re being used. Once you’ve got this, you’ll be able to name your Squarespace website’s Page Titles correctly.

Page Titles appear in several places, including on your website, in search engine results, in web browser address bars, and for social sharing to indicate a specific page of a website.

I like to think about Page Titles as clickable headlines for a given result/chunk of content. As such, the Page Title name of a web page is should be an accurate and concise description of the page's content.

People often ask me how long Page Titles should be and I’m here to clear up any confusion! Google typically displays the first 50–60 characters of the Page Title name so if you keep your Page Title within this length, the Page Title will to display properly in search results. Squarespace limits Page Titles to 100 characters or fewer but it’s best to keep the title under 60 characters for best display results. When the Page Title is too long, search engines like Google usually cut it off by adding an ellipsis ("...") which means that important content could get left out.

When you set the name of a Page Title, you are conveying the content of the web page to both human users/visitors and search engines. Page Titles should therefore be easy to understand and use real, simple language. Think about what a visitor to your site would look for and go with that.

I also recommend that you avoid using all caps for your Page Titles. They are harder to read and can impact the character display limit since upper case letters take up more space than lower case ones.

Each page on your Squarespace website should also have a unique Page Title. Visitors and search engines will have an easier time understanding the content and it’ll lead to higher click through rates. If you sell products on your website, it might be challenging to come up with unique Page Titles for every page on your site if you have a lot of products. If this is the case for your site, I recommend breaking down the Page Title into sections that include product names and categories. A good format to work with is “[Product Name] - [Product Category] | [Brand Name]”, for example “Round Tortoiseshell Sunglasses - Eyewear | Rayban” or something.

Next up, let’s talk about keyword stuffing. Google will penalize you if it sees that your Page Titles are stuffed full of keywords because they create a negative user experience and are redundant. This means that you shouldn’t have Page Titles that are just a long list of keywords or variations of the same keyword. For example, “Legal Services” is a better Page Title than “Legal Services, Top Legal Services, Best Legal Services, Legal Services Vancouver”. Page Titles that are stuffed with keywords offer zero value and search engines can already understand keyword variations so it’s unnecessary and crappy to look at as a visitor to your site. Read this post to learn more about keyword stuffing and why it should be avoided if you want to master Squarespace SEO.

How to set or edit a Squarespace Page Title

To set or edit a Squarespace Page Title,

Log into your Squarespace site. From the Home Menu, click Pages.
Hover over the Page Title.
Click the gear icon next to the title.
Enter a new title under Page Title.
Click Save.

This goes for both new and existing Squarespace pages.

Squarespace Page Title Display Options by Template

Certain Squarespace templates (grouped together by template family) display the Page Title and page description at the top of the page.

If your Squarespace website uses one of the following templates, the Page Title will display at the top of the page so you should take that into consideration.

Adirondack
Avenue
Five
Flatiron
Montauk family - Julia, Kent, Montauk, Om
Momentum
Pacific family - Charlotte, Fulton, Horizon, Naomi, Pacific
Tremont family - Camino, Carson, Henderson, Tremont
York family - Artesia, Flores, Harris, Jasper, Jones, Lange, Shibori, York

Learn more about how these particular Squarespace templates display Page Titles here.

Another thing to consider about Page Title displays is that Index pages often include Page Titles as navigation or section overlays. Learn more about that here.

Squarespace Page Titles and SEO

Page Titles have an impact on SEO (search engine optimization) in three main areas:

1 Search Engine Results

Your Squarespace Page Title almost always shows up in search results and indicates the content of a particular page. This will help people decide whether or not they want to click on the link and visit your site, which is why it’s important to name the Page Title with SEO in mind.

2. Web Browsers

Page Titles also show up in web browsers, notably in browser tabs. The Page Title acts as a placeholder, which is why it’s best to use easily recognizable titles with important keywords near the front of the Page Title. This way, if someone has multiple tabs open at once in their browser, they’re able to easily identify and click over to your content.

3. Social Networks

Some social networks will use and display the Page Title when you share a web page on their platform.

Remember that SEO is an art, not a science. There’s so much to learn about Squarespace SEO which is why I have written about it a lot - it’s the most popular topic on my blog by far. Check out my Squarespace SEO page for more resources, blog posts & video tutorials and get your copy of my Squarespace SEO Checklist below for free!

SQUARESPACE SEO SERIES

This article is part of my series on Squarespace SEO. 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.

Final Thoughts

Page Titles impact user experience on your website AND play a role in SEO so they are worth setting up correctly! If you are working on a new Squarespace website, you know now how to set up the Page Title field for maximum impact - yippee! If you already have a Squarespace website up and running but you now realize that the Page Title fields haven’t be set up in the best way, don’t worry - just go back and make any changes needed! Better late than never :)

Now it’s your turn to tell me, how have you filled out the Page Titles on your Squarespace website? Are your page titles the same as the navigation titles? Do you favour short & sweet Page Titles or longer, more robust ones? Do you have a better understanding on Page Titles and how they affect SEO? I’d love to know so leave me a note in the comments below!

No matter what type of website you have, it will benefit from Page Titles that are set up with SEO in mind, so I encourage you to start where you are and work on improving your SEO a little bit at a time.

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

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 week and while I don’t talk about SEO every time, I can guarantee that you’ll still find the newsletter topics interesting, entertaining and worth your time.

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 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.