The Visibility Club
| Hey there, Alright, let’s settle this because I’ve left you in suspense long enough: Is Squarespace really that bad for SEO? The answer: Yes…and no. Look, Squarespace is actually my second choice for SEO-friendly website builders—but only because it’s so easy to use. In my humble opinion, nothing beats a WordPress website. So why exactly is Squarespace bad? Let me drop this stat here for you… Squarespace sites get significantly less traffic than WordPress. In fact, ~85% of Squarespace websites get 0 organic traffic! This means that of the 2.96 million live websites using Squarespace, 2.5 million will never get a single organic visitor. But why? 1. Limited SEO Functionality and Customization Options Squarespace is a closed network (great for not getting hacked), but because of this, it lacks some essential SEO features. You can’t customize meta descriptions or titles on category pages which hurts e-commerce websites. Plus, it uses a default schema markup (like Local Business schema) across all its websites, which is not useful at all! This is an advanced but important SEO term, so you’ll just have to trust me here until we cover it in an upcoming newsletter. 2. Performance Issues Impacting Page Speed It’s almost impossible to get images below 100KB on Squarespace AND it doesn’t support WebP (a next-generation image format for faster loading times). This affects most creative businesses who are image-heavy, think: photographers, videographers, or even catering companies showing off their work. Head’s up: this is one of Google’s top factors, so of course it’s going to hinder your site’s ability to rank highly. 3. SEO Knowledge Gap Among Users Squarespace attracts a large user base of creatives and small business owners who are often less familiar with SEO best practices. The platform’s SEO education resources are also outdated or misleading (e.g., suggesting 500KB image size limits, which is quite large for SEO purposes). Without strong guidance, a lot of people just like you might miss essential optimization practices. Basically, Squarespace websites can achieve some SEO success, but they often require more effort and external support than other platforms, especially WordPress. Here’s my ranking of the best website builders for your SEO: WordPress – Still the king of SEO. Squarespace – Second overall, just make sure to follow best practices and educate yourself. Showit – Tied for second with Squarespace mostly because it uses WordPress as the blogging engine. Shopify – Ideal for e-commerce, but it takes effort to rank. Weebly – Has potential. I haven’t built on it yet, but it caught my eye. And Wix? Let’s just say it didn’t make the cut. After 5 years of auditing websites, I’m still waiting to find a Wix site that impresses me from an SEO perspective. Sorry Wix fans—it’s just not built for visibility. The takeaway? Whatever builder you use, WordPress will always give you a head start on SEO. For others, it’s not impossible to rank—but you’ll need to market the heck out of your site to get that organic traffic rolling in. |
Worried about your website’s SEO?
| Let’s take a look together. I’ll run your site through my SEO gauntlet, and give you a detailed report that shows where you’re at. REPLY TO THIS EMAIL with your website link for a free audit! |
| Here to help your business get seen, Amylee Silva a.k.a. Mama Bear |
| P.S. Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter—I’m offering free keyword research! 🫳🏻🎤 |