Boost Your Online Presence: Exploring the Key Areas of a Squarespace Website Audit

Squarespace TipsSquarespace Website Audit

Jan 21

If you've built your own website using Squarespace but you're not sure if everything is set up correctly or if there are areas that could be improved, a Squarespace Website Audit might be just what you need.

Squarespace is a great platform that's easy to use and offers plenty of resources to help you build your website. However, if web design isn't your area of expertise, it can be helpful to have an expert take a look before you launch your site. Alternatively, if you already have a live website but it's not achieving the results you hoped for, a website audit can provide valuable advice on how to make improvements.

During a Squarespace Website Audit, I analyse key areas to ensure your website is optimised. In this blog post, I'll be covering the top things to watch out for when building your website.

Legal:

Missing legal elements regularly come up during website audits. These are three areas that you should cover:

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy is required on every website. It informs the user how their data is being used, and how they can contact you with any questions. There are many templates available online either free or to purchase, so I recommend having a search for one that fits your requirements. If you’re unsure where to start but want to put something in place quickly, have a look at this free policy generator.

Cookie Policy

Requirements for a cookie policy differ depending on the country you are based in. Generally, cookies are used to generate analytics (what pages have been visited, what buttons clicked, how did the user find you etc). If you are based in the UK you need to have a notification visible that cookies are in use. To activate your cookie banner, click Website on the left-hand menu panel, scroll down to Website Tools and select Cookies & Visitor Data. Within this panel, you can also customise the style of the cookie banner.

Copyright

Having a copyright mark isn’t a legal requirement, but I recommend all websites have one. It indicates that you are the owner of all of your content, and improves the credibility of your website. To include a copyright mark on your website, copy and paste the following in your website footer, updating accordingly Copyright ©”+ [Year your business started - Current year] + [Your Business Name]”.

User Journey:

Having call-to-action buttons on your website is crucial in guiding visitors and increasing conversions. For instance, if you want visitors to send enquiries, it's important to direct them to your contact page. It's advisable to have multiple buttons to provide users with various opportunities to reach their desired destination. Take a moment to review your home page and assess its navigability. Do you need additional call-to-action buttons? Also, make sure to check the functionality of any existing buttons to ensure that the links are correct and working properly.

Links:

Make sure to not only test if your buttons are functioning properly but also check all the links and forms on your website. Is your contact form linked to the right email address? Have you made any changes to your page URLs? If you have, remember to update the links on your website to ensure they are connected to the correct pages. This is especially important for footer page links, as they often need to be reconnected after URL updates.

Mobile view:

More than half of the website traffic, around 55%, originates from mobile devices. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that your website's design appears equally impressive on both mobile and desktop platforms. To check Squarespace mobile styling, click the mobile icon in the top right-hand corner of the edit mode of your website.

SEO:

SEO is a complex area of web design, but the main areas to check here are:

Does every page have a readable URL with words separated with hyphens?
Does every page have an SEO title?
Does every page have an SEO description?

Click the cog icon on your website page to open the page edit panel and update your SEO settings. To delve deeper into SEO settings on your Squarespace website I recommend following Kate Scott’s 5-Day Raise Your Rank Challenge.