Guest post courtesy of Clem of ClemSEO

Whether you have a brand spanking new Squarespace website, or you’ve had yours for a number of years, it is necessary to think of the tools you need to rank well organically in Google results.

You may be bringing traffic from your social media platforms, word of mouth or encourage your clients to check you your website when meeting with them in person; but organic traffic should still remain your primary source of traffic.

SEO may be a science that’s overwhelming you: you’ve heard about meta data, outbound and inbound links, no follow links… but you don’t know where to even start. Fear not! We’re sharing the 3 Google tools you need to have on your website for Google to even start noticing your website.

The 3 Google Tools that Help you Rank in Search Results

1/ Google Analytics

This is the number one tool you add to your website even before your site goes live.
Google Analytics not only helps Google notice your website but it also helps you understand:

• Your pageviews (how many pageviews do you get each month/week?, is your traffic seasonal?)

• Your traffic sources (is organic your primary source of traffic? If not, you should be focusing on optimizing your website)

• Your most popular content (which blog posts or pages are doing well?)

Follow these 4 simple steps to install Google Analytics on your Squarespace website and check that tracking is working in the Real Time feature on Google Analytics.

Note that to create your Google Analytics account, you will need a GMail email address, which can be your personal or business email.

2/ Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a tool which can be linked to your Google Analytics account and which tracks all the main organic features for your website; including the keywords for which you rank on Google search results as well as the search terms with which people reach your website.

The other important feature to Google Search Console is that you are able to submit your XML sitemap to Google to ensure that it crawls all your URLs and images. If you do not submit your sitemap, Google may only be crawling 25 pages out of the 300 pages on your website.

You will also be able to monitor any crawling issues the search engines encounters whilst crawling your website; these issues need to be looked into and fix as soon as possible to keep improving your organic online presence.

3/ Google My Business

The last tool is an actual listing for your business that appears on map results as well as a separate entity when people will look for your business online.

This listing is necessary for any brand targeting a specific geolocation be it a city, a region, a state, country or continent. If you have an optimized GMB (Google My Business) listing, your chances to rank higher in organic results improves because you’ll also appear in search results.

You do not need to display your physical address on the listing to have an optimized GMB listing, however an address will be required to verify your listing: Google will send you a postcard within 5-10 business days with a PIN code to enter to verify the listing and make it live.

To optimize your listing, include as much information as possible about your business and make sure that the contact information is consistent with the contact information on your website as well as other online directories.

A GMB listing is one of the first steps to your SEO’s off-page optimization .

In all, the more Google tools you use for your business, the higher you’ll rank on Google’s search results. As you keep your optimized GMB listing updated, analyze your traffic your Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you will be able to develop a thorough online strategy and improve your organic presence for your Squarespace website.

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