Every website has a purpose, which it cannot fulfill if no one sees it. SEO is indispensable if you want to make your website easy to find.
SEO means creating your site with Google, Bing, and other search engines in mind. Applying the best SEO tactics and practices will guarantee your site a high ranking, but it takes a lot of effort to become an SEO expert and a lot of money to hire a real one.
Consequently, some people rely on website builders for their SEO. Two popular options are WordPress and Squarespace, but what is the difference between them?
WordPress and Squarespace: What’s the Difference?
You can set up your site for free on WordPress, but you have to pay for a domain, hosting, and security beyond the basics. Generally, WordPress is a bit more complicated than Squarespace, which is a website builder that comes with a selection of templates to choose from. Squarespace uses a drag-and-drop, section-based editor that allows you to create a website.
Let’s discover the critical differences between Squarespace vs WordPress SEO.
Squarespace and WordPress Out of the Box
Squarespace has a lot of SEO features that can help website owners from the start. Core functionality includes automatic XML sitemaps, custom URLs, redirects, and automatically responsive content. However, you can’t edit XML sitemaps directly. If your website is large, this will be an issue.
Another issue with Squarespace is that you have little control over how fast your pages are. Even an expert can’t do much to improve Squarespace’s performance in this regard.
WordPress holds its own in terms of SEO out of the box, but the truth is in the extra plugins you can install. Default tools let users access custom URLs, headers from one to six, meta titles, meta descriptions, and many other things. If you want to go beyond this, you can code many more features into the platform (given you know how to do that.) This means you don’t necessarily need a third-party tool or plugin to add features. You have far more options than you can imagine.
Your WordPress site should be responsive by default because of the theme. That said, some themes are more responsive than others. You might end up choosing one that requires extra steps to become responsive.
Squarespace and WordPress Performance
When you’re working on your SEO, how do you know you’re doing the right thing? If you choose Squarespace, you can connect to Google Analytics or use the inbuilt suite, Squarespace Analytics. The suite allows users to track how much traffic is coming to their site and where it is coming from. This lets them know if their SEO is having the right impact.
Connecting WordPress to Google Analytics is very simple, which is good considering the CMS doesn’t have its own performance suite. What’s more, Google provides very advanced insights, even updates on user activity in real time.
You can also compare how different pages perform and take notes when and where you make changes.
You can also install Yoast, a free WordPress SEO tool that can improve your control over your site’s SEO performance.
Squarespace and WordPress Customization Options
Squarespace features an easy way to create visually appealing sites without knowing how to code. This simplicity is ideal for designing websites but could be better in terms of SEO optimization and advanced customization options.
WordPress’s myriad plugins and themes would allow any website creator to fine-tune their site’s structure, design, and SEO elements to align with their specific goals and needs. Customization is practically unlimited with WordPress.
Squarespace and WordPress Support and Community
Both Squarespace and WordPress provide helpful resources to help users with their SEO efforts. WordPress has a vast community of SEO experts who contribute to the system actively. You can find answers to SEO questions on forums and in extensive documentation. The Squarespace community includes user groups and forums where you can ask for SEO tips and advice.
