Shopify VS Squarespace SEO

Most Important Things for SEO

Load Times & Core Web Vitals

In terms of load times, Shopify features a powerful technology stack that helps to make pages load quickly. This includes its own content delivery network (CDN) and the popular Liquid templating language. This language helps to speed up page loading times by pre-fetching information and caching assets.

Shopify also has a number of built-in tools for optimizing core web vitals. These include the ability to control page speed and reduce render-blocking scripts. Additionally, Shopify’s built-in AMP features can help improve user experience on mobile devices, which is essential for SEO success.

Squarespace also has powerful tools for optimizing core web vitals. This includes its integrated optimization engine, which is designed to improve page loading times and reduce render-blocking scripts. Squarespace also offers a feature called “Lazy Load”, which only loads images when they are visible on the screen. This helps to speed up page loading times and reduce overall file size.

As far as load times and core web vitals go, both Shopify and Squarespace offer powerful tools for optimizing your website’s performance. However, Shopify has more advanced and integrated tools and apps within its app store that gives you more control over your website’s performance.

SEO-Friendly URLs

Squarespace also offers SEO-friendly URLs out of the box. It also has advanced tools for customizing your URLs, such as an editor that allows you to add keywords and structure your URLs in a way that is friendly to both search engines and people.

However, Squarespace does not offer custom redirects as Shopify does. This means that if you want to redirect old URLs, you’ll need to use an external tool or plugin. It also does not offer any built-in tools for managing URLs, so you may want to consider Shopify if you need more control over your URLs.

Ease of Use

Squarespace is generally easier to use than Shopify, thanks to its integrated optimization engine and easy-to-use editor. Additionally, Squarespace offers more design customization options, and its support team is generally helpful in assisting users with any issues they may encounter.

Squarespace also offers an extensive library of video tutorials and knowledge-base articles that can help you set up your website quickly and easily. Even if you are the most novice of users, you will be able to get up and running quickly with Squarespace.

Its interface is well-organized and intuitive. All essential features are easily accessible, and there is a search bar at the top to help you quickly find what you are looking for.

Overall, Squarespace carries the day when it comes to ease of use. It's more intuitive and offers more customization options, making it a great choice for those who are new to web design.

Technical SEO

Shopify offers a range of features that can help you optimize your website. It has a built-in sitemap generator, which can help search engines quickly index your website's pages. This can be a great way to get your website noticed by search engines. It also has options for customizing URLs and redirects, which can help make sure that pages are properly indexed and ranked.

Shopify also allows you to add schema markup and meta tags, which can help improve the visibility of your website in search engine results. Schema markup is code that can help search engines better understand the content on your website, and meta tags are text snippets that can enhance the visibility of title tags and descriptions.

Other technical SEO features you will find on Shopify include:

Robots.txt file

Hreflang tags

Redirects

Product structured data

Breadcrumb List structured data

Squarespace has a Google-rich image search feature, which can help your product images show up in image search results. This can be a great way to drive more organic traffic to your website. It allows you to customize image titles, descriptions, and more.

Both Shopify and Squarespace offer a range of features that can help you optimize your website for SEO. However, Shopify has more features tailored to technical SEO, which are complemented by a plethora of Shopify apps specifically designed to help improve SEO. Ultimately, Shopify is the better option for those serious about optimizing their website for search engine visibility.

Indexation & Crawl Budget Optimization

Squarespace offers several SEO-oriented features that help with indexation and crawl budget optimization. It has a built-in XML sitemap generator that helps make sure all your important content is discoverable by search engine spiders. This is especially helpful if you have a large website with lots of pages.

This platform sets automatic redirects. This simple yet powerful feature helps you improve your SEO rankings. It also offers the ability to set up canonical URLs, which signals search engines on how to index and rank content.

Its automatic tagging feature helps you optimize your indexing for image and video content, which are often overlooked when optimizing a website. It also has an AMP feature that helps speed up page loading times for mobile users.

Thanks to its robust indexation and crawl budget optimization features, Squarespace beats Shopify in this category. However, as Shopify SEO experts we recommend the use of Shopify apps to supplement its core indexation features and help you get better results.

Customization

Apps & Plugins

Apps and plugins are an important part of SEO. They allow you to add extra features and functionality to your websites, such as analytics tools and plug-ins for monitoring your website’s performance.

Shopify offers an extensive App Store where you can find hundreds of apps and plugins that help with SEO. These include tools for keyword optimization, content analysis, social media optimization, and more. In addition, Shopify’s app store also includes plugins for popular CMSs like WordPress and Drupal. For instance, TinyPNG integrates seamlessly with Shopify and allows you to optimize your website’s images for faster loading times.

Squarespace has an extensions marketplace that contains a very limited number of third-party extensions. This means you are unlikely to find the same variety of SEO tools and plugins as you would on Shopify. Also, some essential extensions are only available in select countries, which further limits your options.

Overall, when it comes to apps and plugins, Shopify has a clear advantage over Squarespace. The sheer number and variety of options available in the Shopify App Store make it an ideal platform for eCommerce businesses looking to maximize their SEO potential. 

While Squarespace offers some decent extensions, it lags behind Shopify in terms of usability, selection, and availability.

Security

There is no denying that website security is a major factor in SEO. Not only do search engines take into account the security measures you have taken to protect your website, but they also look at how quickly you respond to malicious attacks and resolve any vulnerabilities in your site’s coding.

Shopify is well known for its secure hosting platform, which includes a range of features such as malware scanning, automated backups, and SSL certificates. Shopify also has dedicated teams monitoring its systems 24/7 to ensure your website is always secure and compliant with the latest security protocols.

Additionally, Shopify has a technical support team on hand to help you out with any security issues that may arise.

Squarespace does not offer the same level of protection as Shopify, but it is still more than capable of keeping your website secure. The platform offers automated backups, SSL certificates, and two-factor authentication for added protection. It also provides daily malware scans and has a dedicated team of security experts monitoring its systems to prevent any malicious attacks.

Both Shopify and Squarespace offer robust security protocols, which means you can rest assured that your website is protected from any potential threats.

Pros and Cons Of Shopify and Squarespace for SEO

Using Shopify and Squarespace for SEO has a fair share of pros and cons. You need to weigh the options carefully before deciding which is best for your needs.

Shopify Pros

Built-in Mobile Optimization

The Shopify platform offers built-in mobile optimization, which makes it easy to ensure your site looks great on any device. This helps boost your SEO efforts because Google has started to consider mobile-friendliness as an important ranking factor.

Robust Analytics & Reporting Tools

Shopify includes powerful analytics and reporting tools. This allows you to track things like website visits, sales, and other data points, which can be invaluable for SEO.

SEO Apps Available

Shopify has a selection of SEO-focused apps that can help you with things like meta tags and keyword research. These are great for people who don’t have the time or expertise to do all the work themselves.

Optimized CSS & HTML5 coding

Shopify is designed with SEO in mind, and they use optimized CSS and HTML5 coding to ensure your pages load quickly and efficiently. This helps improve your search engine rankings.

Shopify Cons

Customization Limitations

Shopify also has some limits when it comes to customization. For instance, its complicated to make changes to the code in order to create unique designs or functionality. This can limit your SEO efforts as you won’t be able to customize certain elements of the website for search engine optimization. However, we have a team of experts that can work around this limitation and deliver the best results.

Limited Structured Data Support

Shopify’s structured data support is also limited. This can make it difficult to properly optimize your content for search engine results pages (SERPs).

Squarespace Pros

Intuitive Editor & Easy-to-Use Interface

Squarespace has a very intuitive editor and easy-to-use interface, which makes it easy to build and update your website quickly. This is great for SEO since you won’t have to spend a lot of time learning how to use the platform, which in turn allows you to publish content fast.

Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth

Squarespace also offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, which is great for SEO. You won’t have to worry about your website slowing down or crashing due to a lack of resources.

Integration with Social Media

Squarespace has great integration with social media, which makes it easy to share your content and engage with customers. This can help boost your SEO efforts by improving your visibility on the web.

Squarespace Cons

Limited Apps

Its extension library is also limited compared to Shopify. This means you won’t have access to some of the more advanced SEO-focused apps available on the Shopify platform.

Website Speed

The average website speed on Squarespace is 3-5 seconds. Even though we can't dismiss this as slow, it is not competitive when compared to Shopify's average website speed of 1-2 seconds. Website speed is an important ranking factor, so this can negatively impact your SEO efforts.

Shopify vs. Squarespace SEO - Conclusion

Choosing between Shopify and Squarespace for SEO depends on your needs and preferences. 

If you need a powerful, customizable platform with access to advanced apps, then Shopify is the better option. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform with social media integration and unlimited storage, then Squarespace is a good choice. Ultimately, you should weigh the pros and cons of both platforms carefully before making your decision.

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