This article has been assembled to help you troubleshoot common SEOSpace issues and provide easy-to-follow guidance on how to solve them.
Most times, the problem you're facing is easy to solve, and often, there is a misunderstanding about how Squarespace works or an SEOSpace feature you might have missed/we misexplained.
Please take the time to read this article, as it likely contains the answer you're looking for! If there's something we have missed, feel free to reach out - we're always looking to improve and are happy to help.
You can also watch our tutorial videos on our YouTube channel for a visual explanation.
#1 SEOSpace Showing on Website Screenshots
Website designers often need to take website screenshots to send to clients, and SEOSpace might be getting in the way.
It's super easy to hide SEOSpace visually from showing up on Squarespace websites simply:
Click SEOSpace from your Chrome toolbar
Turn off "Visually show the plugin on Squarespace websites"
You can easily turn SEOSpace back on visually by selecting the same switch in step 2.
#2 SEOSpace Not Picking Up Changes When Rescanning
If SEOSpace isn't picking up the changes you've made to improve your SEO, then please follow the below steps:
Save changes on the Squarespace editor
Refresh your web page
This is particularly important if you scanned via the live web page, as you will need to reload the page for it to pick up the changes you've made on the editor
Rescan your web page using SEOSpace
If you complete the above 3 steps and the changes still aren't shown, it might be down to:
A caching issue - please clear your cache
Outdated SEOSpace version - SEOSpace should automatically update without intervention, but if you continue facing issues, please uninstall and reinstall SEOSpace
Image sizing issues or SEO title format settings in Squarespace - both covered below
#3 SEOSpace Showing Incorrect Image Size
A common problem faced when using SEOSpace is you might compress and reupload an image to Squarespace, and SEOSpace shows an incorrect file size.
This is actually a "problem" with Squarespace, not SEOSpace.
If you download the image you just uploaded and manually check it on your computer, you'll see SEOSpace is 90%+ accurate when it comes to image sizing.
We receive multiple enquiries asking about this per week - we promise it's not us!
The error occurs because Squarespace automatically creates several versions of your image to display them efficiently on different screen sizes. It also has its own image compression process, which can actually increase the size of a previously compressed image after you upload it.
This is potentially frustrating, which is why we allow you to "manually resolve" images that you can't compress below 250kb.
Here's a video explaining it in more detail:
#4 SEOSpace Showing Incorrect SEO Title Length
If SEOSpace is showing the incorrect SEO title length on a page to what you entered in the SEO title box (below), then it's likely due to your SEO title format within your Squarespace SEO settings.
Your SEO title format in Squarespace's SEO settings often automatically adds your site title at the end of each SEO title for every page.
To find this, follow the below:
Click on settings
Click "Marketing"
Click "SEO Appearance"
Click "Pages" and "Items" to see the SEO title format of pages and items (items are blog posts, products, portfolio items etc.)
As you can see above, on SEOSpace's site, we have %s at the end of every page's SEO title - this adds our site title at the end and is likely what your site has, too, leading to the length issue discussed above.
So, for example, if your site title and SEO title for a particular page are the below, your SEO that Google sees will be: Squarespace SEO Plugin - SEOSpace
SEO title: Squarespace SEO Plugin
Site Title: - SEOSpace
To resolve this, you can either remove the %s or shorten the SEO title you add to every page to be under the 60-character recommended limit. You can also read this article to learn more.
#5 Site-Wide SEO Audit Frozen
On larger sites or during times of high usage, SEOSpace might freeze during your site-wide SEO audit.
To solve you should refresh your web page - if that doesn't work, please click "Stop Audit" and then retry.
If that still doesn't work, please reach out to support through our chat in the bottom right hand corner of the SEOSpace dashboard.
#6 Links Flagged as Broken (But They're Not)
Due to the millions of links and variations of pages SEOSpace scans, sometimes we might flag links that are broken, which, upon inspection, aren't.
This is often due to a server error on our end - don't worry, it won't be hurting your SEO, but we always recommend "inspecting" the code of your web page just to be sure there isn't a hidden broken link.
We're always rolling out improvements to improve SEOSpace and address bugs like this, so please contact support to let us know, and we'll make a fix.
#7 Unable to Cancel Your Subscription
You can cancel your plan anytime by visiting Billing - https://app.seospace.co/billing - this is available when you click your profile icon on the top right-hand cover of the SEOSpace dashboard.
Upon cancellation, we do ask for a short snippet of feedback in order to help us improve - we can't improve without feedback, so we appreciate you sharing this with us as you cancel.
#8 Your SEO Score Has Gone Down After Improving Your SEO
One of the most common reasons your SEO score goes down after improving your SEO and then completing a rescan is because you either:
Added a keyword to SEOSpace's rescan
Faced issues 2, 3 or 4 on this list
When you add a keyword to your scan, SEOSpace will complete additional checks to provide guidance on how to rank higher for that keyword. As you didn't enter this keyword into SEOSpace before, your score will likely drop because there will be additional things to do in order to increase your score.
If you continue to have issues, please feel free to contact our support team—we're happy to help!
#9 Site-Wide Audit Showing Pages You've Deleted
You might have recently deleted pages from your Squarespace website, which, when you re-audit your website, SEOSpace still picks up.
SEOSpace detects the pages you have on your site based on your sitemap - you can find this by searching into Google YourURL.com/sitemap.xml
Squarespace takes 24-48 hours to automatically update your sitemap, so please re-audit your site after that time, so Squarespace has time to your old pages.
#10 Website Traffic Not Increasing After Using SEOSpace
If you've improved your SEOSpace score and worked on your SEO, and your website traffic hasn't improved, it could be down to many reasons.
First of all, it's important to remember that SEO takes time - if you made changes less than 48 hours ago, it's likely Google hasn't even noticed them yet! When SEO works, it can be extremely lucrative - you'll be attracting target customers to your site who are actively looking for your product or service.
As a result, websites ranking at the top of Google will be making money from being there, and likely put a lot of time, money and effort into being there - you can't expect to get there overnight - the same is true if your Squarespace site isn't showing on Google at all.
That being said, SEO is straightforward, and at SEOSpace, we've broken it down into simple steps which when applied over time, will get you results, and have already gotten results for countless Squarespace users.
Below, we've added some common reasons why your site isn't getting more traffic yet, but if you prefer a visual guide, we've also added our ultimate Squarespace SEO mini-course for you.
New Website
New websites, and in particular, new domains can take a few months to rank on Google.
This is due to something called "Google Sandbox" where Google holds back new websites/domains from rankings until it's able to trust it more.
In order to get out of the Sandbox sooner, and get your Squarespace website ranking on Google, you can follow the guidance outlined below.
Not Connected to Google Search Console
If your Squarespace website is not connected to Google Search Console, it may not be indexed properly by Google, leading to poor visibility in search results. Connecting to Google Search Console allows you to submit your sitemap directly to Google, helping it understand your site structure and index your pages faster.
How to Fix:
Go to your Squarespace settings.
Navigate to "Connected Accounts" and select "Google Search Console."
Follow the prompts to verify your site and submit your sitemap.
Low Domain Authority
Low domain authority can be a significant barrier to ranking higher in search results. Domain authority is a score that reflects the likelihood of your website ranking well on search engines based on the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your site. A low score means that Google does not view your site as a highly trusted source of information.
How to Improve:
Build High-Quality Backlinks: Collaborate with reputable sites, guest blog, and engage in content marketing to gain backlinks.
Create Valuable Content: Focus on generating high-quality content that others want to link to.
Engage in Social Media: Share your content on social media platforms to increase its visibility and attract links.
Keyword Strategy
An effective keyword strategy is essential for optimizing your Squarespace website for search engines. If you are not targeting the right keywords or using them effectively, your site may not attract the right traffic. Poor keyword strategy often results in low search engine rankings and missed opportunities for attracting potential customers.
To help here, we've made a keyword research tutorial:
How to Optimize:
Research Keywords: Use SEO tools to find keywords that are relevant to your business and have a reasonable search volume with lower competition.
Use Keywords Strategically: Integrate these keywords naturally into your website's content, including headings, meta descriptions, and URLs.
Avoid Keyword Cannibalization: Ensure each page targets a unique set of keywords to avoid competing with yourself.
By addressing these areas, you can significantly improve your Squarespace website's visibility and performance on Google.