Your Squarespace Website and Google
You’ve made an investment in your Squarespace website and now your site has launched! Exciting times!
The next stop is Google…you search for your website and its not there.
Why? The website is live so why isn’t it showing in Google immediately?
Once your website is live Google will take some time to find it. Google won't commit to a timeframe but in our experience new sites can take a few weeks to months to fully appear in Google. In this post we offer some tips on how to speed up that process.
These same tips apply to those times when you make changes to your website and want Google to have the “latest and greatest” version of your site in their search engine (replacing the previous one).
Google Search Console
One way that you can monitor your website’s progress on Google is to use the Google Search Console. This is a free tool, all that is required is a Google Search Console account. If you don’t have an account already, you can create one here Google Search Console.
Link the Google Search Console to Your Website
The account needs to be linked to your Squarespace website by logging into your site and going to Settings > Third Party Tools > Connected Accounts and adding the Google Search Console.
The additional bonus in linking the Google Search Console to your website is that the keywords that visitors are using to find your site will be viewable using the Squarespace Analytics tools (Search Keywords are shown in the Traffic section of Squarespace Analytics in your website’s Admin Panel).
When you link your website to the Google Search Console the connection should automatically verify your site ownership to Google and enable the Search Console and its various functions.
Your Squarespace Website Sitemap
Squarespace automatically creates a sitemap for your website but it doesn’t submit it to Google, we recommend that you manually submit it via the Google Search Console. The steps are:
Login to your Google Search Console account.
Select your property (website).
In the left-hand menu, click on "Sitemaps."
Click on the "Add/Test Sitemap" button.
Enter sitemap.xml after your domain (e.g. https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml).
Click "Submit."
After the sitemap is submitted Google will start crawling your site.
Check the “Coverage” report in the left-hand menu of the Google Search Console to see if there are any website indexing issues.
Resolve any issues and if needed you can resubmit the page for indexing.
To submit a page (or pages) for indexing:
In the left-hand menu, click on "URL Inspection."
Enter a specific URL and click "Enter." This allows you to see how Googlebot sees your page.
If needed, you can use the "Request Indexing" option to expedite the indexing process for that specific page.
We recommend indexing each page individually, including blog posts.
Proactive Monitoring
Regularly check your Google Search Console for messages, indexing updates, issues, tips and alerts.
Share, Share, Share!
There are many opportunities to promote your Squarespace website, the more times you share your link and its clicked on or your website is accessed, the better. Here are a few ideas for where you can add your website URL:
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All email platforms have a signature block where you can add your website URL as a quick way for potential website visitors to click through to your website.
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All social media platforms have a website URL block especially designed to link through to your website.
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While these aren’t clickable links because they are printed materials, potential website visitors will see your URL and can type it into their internet browser.
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These could include local community forums, business directories or specialised directories that relate to your business. An example may be a list of local yoga instructors, adding your profile and website URL to this list provides an opportunity to bring visitors to your website.
Adding a “Google Business Profile” also provides another opportunity to promote your business with your website URL (the bonus is that its free).
