SEO’s, I must start off today’s post by begging for your forgiveness.

Like you, I’m truly shook to my core that it’s taken me this long to talk about today’s topic…. SEO for not linked pages on your Squarespace website.

Like, sorry, what? I’m pretty sure almost every Squarespace website is built with pages in the not linked pages section (mine sure is!), and I’m going to assume that yours has some too, so WHOOPS that I’m just getting to it now! 😅

If you’re just starting out with your Squarespace website, you’re fairly new to the whole build & design topics, then you probably are wondering what the heck Not Linked Pages are! Great, you’re in the right place and I’ll tell you everything you need to know about not linked pages.

And if we take it a step further and put my favorite spin on things, then of course I’m going to fill you in on all things SEO too!

There are many (many!) reasons why you would build pages in the not linked pages section of your Squarespace website, and once you understand how they work and what Google is looking at, then you can get a feel for any SEO considerations that come along with it - meaning, how those pages might show up in online searches.

Do you want traffic to those pages you’ve set up in the not linked pages section, or not? Great question, no right or wrong answer, but lots to consider.

This is the kind of insider info that I give to my Squarespace SEO consulting clients and students in my signature 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 goods here totally for free - no gatekeeping here!

Oh, and I’ve even recorded a video tutorial for you to watch in case that’s more your vibe.

It’s more fun that it sounds - I promise! So without further ado, let’s dive right in.

SQUARESPACE SEO SERIES

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 & videos to this topic. Enjoy!

Work with Charlotte - explore my Squarespace SEO services & programs

Squarespace SEO for not linked pages

Note: At the time of recording, this video shows my website on Squarespace version 7.0 . Your own website might look slightly different if your website is on Squarespace version 7.1 or uses a different 7.0 template, but the tips are still the same!

What are not linked pages?

Not linked pages are any pages that are set up in the “not linked ” section on the Pages panel or dashboard of your Squarespace website.

It means that these pages do not show up in the main/primary navigation (that is visible on to all site visitors of public websites).

If you look at my website, for example, it might look like I only have like 4 pages on my website (Home, Work with Charlotte, Blog and Newsletter) IF all you are going off of is what’s included in the main navigation:

However, that’s definitely not the case - I have SO MANY pages on my website, and the majority of them exist in the “Not Linked” pages section!

Take a look at the screenshot below to see what I mean:

As you can see, I have a lot of pages in the Not Linked Pages section - some of which are enabled live web pages, and others are disabled pages (meaning they aren’t accessible to site visitors or search engines).

Pages in the not linked section don’t show up in the main navigation, BUT they definitely can still show up in online search results! in fact, I have a lot of pages that I’ve created that are located in the Not Linked Pages section that I very much still want to show up in online searches - just because they aren’t in the main nav, doesn’t mean I want them to be hidden!

So, putting our SEO spin on things, pages that are in the not linked section can definitely still be crawled and indexed by Google, and can therefore still show up in online searches.

There are many reasons why you would put pages in the Not Linked Pages section but still want them to show up in online search results (and have great SEO). Maybe we’re talking about the actual blog page, gallery or portfolio pages, services pages, product pages from your online shop, all that jazz!

You have to think about the fact that Google is going to be crawling and indexing your Squarespace website to see all of the pages you have, which they learn by looking at the site map - this is the basics of SEO.

Google will see that you have these pages in the not linked pages section, and unless you indicate otherwise, they will assume that you want these pages to be crawled and indexed so that they can still show up in online searches.

Why you would not want pages in the not linked pages section to show up in online searches

There are several ways you can indicate to Google that you don’t want pages to show up in online search results, or in other words, tell Google not to crawl and index those pages.

1. Disable the page

The first way you can hide a page from the site map and make it so that Google doesn’t crawl and index the page, is by disabling the page.

To disable a page:

Open the page settings
Toggle off the Enable Page (aka disable the page)

2. Password Protect the Page

If Google sees that you have set a page to be password protected, meaning someone can only access the page content behind the password wall, then Google will know NOT to crawl & index that page or show it in online searches.

This makes sense given how the internet work - if the content is password protected, then you definitely don’t want it coming up in online search results.

3. Hide Page from Search

To hide a page from search results:

Open the page settings
Click on the SEO tab
Toggle the “hide page from search results” so that the page is now hidden

Again, if you hide a page from search, then Google will take a hint. They will not include that page in the site map and will not return that page in online search results.

So yes, those are the three things you can do if you have a page in the Not Linked Pages section but you don’t want that page to show up in online search results. If you do not do any of those three things, then the page will show up as normal, with all it’s SEO potential and glory!

Unless you tell Google otherwise, Google will still see pages in the not linked pages section and work with them like normal - even if they aren’t in the main navigation.

Final Thoughts

Now that you understand how pages in the not linked pages section work, I hope you see how they still have lots of SEO potential and aren’t hidden from Google just because they don’t show up in the main navigation!

So take a look at your own website, consider how you’ve set up your pages. If you have pages in the not linked pages section that you do not want to show up in online search results, that’s totally fine, but use one of my tips to hide them from Google otherwise the SEO will carry on as normal.

Hope this was helpful, and I’ll see you again soon in the next post!

xoxo

Charlotte

Exciting news : my signature online course, Top Squarespace SEO, is now open for enrollment and I’d love to have you join us inside the program! Learn all about it here.

If 1-on-1 is more your style, then I encourage you to sign up for my Squarespace SEO Audit & Consulting Sessions! We’ll hop on Zoom, make changes to your Squarespace website in real time, and you’ll get a totally personalized Squarespace SEO strategy to follow moving forward.

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 a few days a week, mostly focused on Squarespace SEO, business and online marketing tips, and a behind the scenes look at what’s going on in my corner of the internet, 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.