Biggest wastes of time for Squarespace SEO and growing your website.jpg

Buckle up hunni because we’re going to cover a juicy topic in today’s blog post - the biggest wastes of time when it comes to Squarespace SEO and growing your website!

Everyone wants to grow their website - increased site traffic, reaching more of the right people online (who represent your ideal audience/clients/customers), bigger and better business opportunities, etc.

Like, duhhh that’s what we all want!

SEO is an essentially fool-proof way to get all of those results. It’s all about ensuring that your website shows up in higher rankings in online search results - this improved positioning is what’s going to skyrocket your site visits and help you grow your site’s audience like wow.

That being said, there’s a right and wrong way to do Squarespace SEO :)

As a Squarespace SEO expert, I’ve truly seen it all - people often come to me for help because whatever they’ve been doing in the past just isn’t working. Over the years I’ve noticed that some SEO efforts aren’t moving things forward at all - in fact, these missteps often do more harm then good!

So what’s a website owner to do? Where do you start? How do you know that you’re spending your time and energy wisely?

My friend, if you want to skip over all the Squarespace SEO wastes of time, you’re in the right place. I’m telling you exactly what to avoid, what to focus on at different stages of your Squarespace SEO strategy, and how to get the biggest impact from the very start.

I’ve included a live video replay which you can watch below, otherwise just skip down to the main blog post content if you prefer to read :)

Ready to dive in? Let’s go!

Live video replay from April 30, 2020

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 to this topic. Enjoy!

Click to view all posts in the Squarespace SEO Series

Visit my Squarespace SEO page for lots more resources.

Efficient & effective vs ‘busy work’

When it comes to Squarespace SEO, you could theoretically spend hours/days/WEEKS working on this project yet have nothing to show for it. Whomp whomppp.

This is why it’s SO important to prioritize SEO tasks that are both efficient and effective. The worst thing is looking back on your efforts and realizing that it hasn’t made an impact and that time has been wasted - which, sadly, is something that many of my clients experience before coming to work with me.

I see this a lot with clients across all industries - they reach out after they’ve spent lots of their time/energy doing SEO work and are frustrated that they haven’t seen even the slightest results. Usually it’s because they haven’t worked with a clear goal or direction in mind (at no fault of their own, no one’s an expert in everything!).

I really can’t stress enough that if you’re going to begin working on Squarespace SEO, the best thing you can do is pick & choose a strategy that doesn’t waste your time - and instead focuses on updates/upgrades that are both efficient and effective. RESULTS and OUTCOME are the goal!

Let’s look at this further.

1. Trying to do everything at once

If you’ve ever typed “grow your website” into Google, I’m sure you’ve landed on some massive blog post that touts “25 ways to grow your website!”. Do this, do that, do it all!

This listicles don’t contain bad advice, necessarily, however if you try to tackle it all at once without much of a plan, you’re going to end up in a ‘jack of all trades, master at none’ situation. You’ll have done a little bit of Squarespace SEO work for each point, but you won’t have done a thorough job or likely your efforts won’t have been enough to actually show an impact.

Simply put: if you try to do everything all at once, you won’t do anything well.

Not only are you spreading yourself very thin, but you also won’t be giving each task the focus or dedication it deserves.

For example, imagine you spend a little bit of time updating page descriptions, but you’re also going to audit your site, update old blog posts, changing url structure and setting up redirects, AND renaming & reformatting all the images on your site. Not to mention more advanced SEO strategies like backlinks and keyword research. OMG NO, it’s too much to do all at once!

This is where the flop comes in hahah it’s a total waste of time!

Instead, it’s better to come up with a game plan and work through each point in sequence, after it’s been fully completed. Make it step by step and don’t move on until each task has been done thoroughly and correctly!

2. Focusing on quantity over quality when it comes to backlinks.

Backlinks are basically anytime another website links to yours (e.g. a guest post, feature in a roundup, a Q&A feature on a media site, profile on you/your business, etc.)

You can read all about the benefits of backlinks for Squarespace SEO here.

These are super important from SEO point of view but one of the main reasons is that it signifies to search engines like Google that your website is legit since other legit websites are linking back to you. Google will also make note of any similarities in content to see websites that are compatible.

Domain authority (fancy tech term) - your domain is more legit and has more weight.

Backlinks allow you to take advantage of the traffic that other websites are already getting, because these links send people back over to your website.

The waste of time here is that people aren’t pursuing the right kind of backlinks. For example, if you leave a blog post comment and leave your website’s URL in the comment section, that’s not going to be helpful at all. Same thing with leaving links on sites like Reddit or Quora. However, if you get a feature or proper link within the actual blog post itself, then THAT will be a valuable link!

Also, don’t pay a link farming site to add links to your website on shady websites, just to plaster your website around the internet. I promise you that it will do more harm than good!

If you’re going to get a backlink, make sure that it’s strategic and actually benefits you and will help you to grow your website organically.

3. Not taking advantage of paid traffic

In the past, I used to feel that paid traffic was simply ‘pay to play’ and it’s great while you’re paying for ads but all of that traffic dries up the moment you stop paying. I was so gung-ho on SEO because it’s a longer term marketing strategy.

However when it comes to paid advertising, I see the massive value it presents with businesses that have had to change & pivot to more online models lately (thanks to the pandemic and all the changes it has caused).

Paid advertising gets you in front of more people, as a short term influx of traffic that might keep your business afloat in a way that you might not have needed before.

The waste of time is not taking advantage of it long term. I recommend that while your’e setting up your site to continue to get these visitors from paid traffic to come back to your website - drive traffic then set up email newsletter, point them to products/services, stick around to read blog posts, etc. Might require you to make changes to the layout or format of your website but trust me, it’ll pay off!

The goal here is to make paid traffic work for you in both the short and long term. Don’t just pay for ads that bring people to your site without coming up with ways to get them to stick around and re-visit in the future! Focus on longevity!

4. Don’t even start in the first place!

Shocker that this is the biggest one LOL

People are online more than they EVER have been in the past, it’s actually insane how much screen time we’re all having now.

If you’re not growing your website and taking advantage of all this online traffic and the opportunities this presents to you and your business, then you’re missing out.

Act on all the info out there - strike while the iron is hot! Take action!

People want and need what you have on your website.

If you don’t master SEO then you won’t bridge the gap and connect with all of those people - your website won’t be pulling it’s weight.

SEO let’s you get ahead in the online space which has a direct impact in growing your website and online business. You’ll see traffic increase which also leads to more newsletter opt ins, product sales, inquiries about your services, affiliate payouts, etc.

Final Thoughts

As your beloved Squarespace SEO expert, it’s my duty (and pleasure!) to support you on this journey. It’s a topic that I love and I’m truly passionate about SEO because I’ve seen first hand just how much of an impact it has on growing websites and improving online business.

When it comes to Squarespace SEO, I don’t ever want to think about you wasting your time and energy because that is NOT the vibe that I’m here for. Instead, I want you to work on each tasks, see results and carry on confidently because you’re like “dang, this actually works”.

Do what works and focus on taking action that’s actually going to pay off - and then thank me later ;)

Now it's your turn to tell me, have you done any SEO work on your Squarespace website yet? What has worked and what hasn’t? Have you ever tried a strategy and felt like it was a total waste of time?

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 - this is where SEO comes in so I totally understand the questions people have about moving over from WordPress.

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.