From a purely SEO standpoint, is SquareSpace a good option? Obviously, WordPress is preferred for the ability to optimize it with plugins, metadata, titles, and image tags. But, what if you want to use the other platform, are you sacrificing organic traffic?
Here’s a comparison of Squarespace vs. WordPress for SEO.
Squarespace vs. WordPress for SEO
Let’s start by comparing these website builders. If you are selecting a platform simply for the ability to optimize your searchability, you’ll likely have better luck with a WordPress website. This is not to be confused with wordpress.com, which is another builder similar to Squarespace.
Using a builder doesn’t mean that you can’t rank for search engine traffic. For example, there are a few Squarespace success cases you can look at:
Updater – The Moving App
According to Ubersuggest, the site receives over 211,000 organic hits a month. It’s ranking for 88,475 keywords. Obviously, they are doing really well with their SEO, even though the site is built on Squarespace.
The Architects Guide – Career Advice and Product Reviews
The Architects Guide is getting over 566,000 organic visits per month and ranking for 326,000+ keywords. That is fantastic! These guys are on top of their SEO game and increasing their traffic each month.
The SEO Cons to Squarespace
Many people love the platform and simple-to-use builder that it offers. When it comes to SEO for bloggers, a photography website, or other needs, there are a few drawbacks such as:
- Difficult to add rich snippets to the website. It’s not impossible, but the basic user wouldn’t know how to do this.
- Can’t create breadcrumbs, or a secondary navigation system to show the user’s location on the website. With the use of breadcrumbs, your users will be able to figure out where they are on your site and where they want to get.
- Not best for beginners in the SEO game. You’ll have to be able to add specific coding to the site to optimize your search engine strategy.
- No SEO plugins. Yoast is an SEO plugin that many WordPress users install on their sites to help them with their strategy.
As you can see, there are cons to the platform for search engine rankings. It’s not impossible, but it is going to require more skill. That’s why some of our clients will build their websites on Squarespace, because it’s easy to use in that regard, and then hire us to manage their SEO. So why would you choose Squarespace vs. WordPress for SEO?!
Why WordPress is Preferred for SEO
Pretty much, most digital marketers are going to recommend WordPress over any other platform. There are a lot of built-in features that help with your rankings. Even still, installing a few plugins like Yoast SEO will help to increase your organic traffic. This plugin makes it easy to optimize your content.
The reason everyone loves Yoast is that it allows you to write custom metadata, titles, control how your page is crawled by search engines and more.
In addition to that plugin, there are other plugins you can install that will help with site speed. This is a huge consideration for your page rankings. And, on WordPress, you are able to upgrade your hosting to a faster server if your site is still struggling once you have compressed the images.
Use WPamplify to Manage Your Search Engine Optimization
Some of our clients want to build their own websites and manage them because they need to update their content regularly. If they are having a hard time using WordPress, they often want to switch to a builder like Squarespace. In that case, it’s easier for them to handle their site from day to day, but they need help with their SEO, especially on that platform.
Regardless of which platform your website is built on, whether you choose Squarespace or WordPress, our team of experts can help you. We have a process that we use to help our clients increase organic traffic, which leads to more calls and clicks to their site. Get in touch with us today if you are ready to get started.
