I honestly am always flabbergasted at the amount of people who are being told to just go ahead and use WordPress, as though it is some easy platform. A LOT of people in our CG group have expressed serious reservations about the difficulties encountered. If you are simply blogging, you should NOT have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to get a good, solid, dependable website. Ah, the eternal battle of WordPress vs. Squarespace—a clash of titans in the digital arena! 🌟 Allow me to unravel this web of intrigue and shed light on the cosmic forces at play.

Picture this: WordPress, the seasoned wizard, donning a cloak of infinite plugins, whispering arcane SEO incantations into the night. Squarespace, the sleek sorceress, weaving minimalist spells with her responsive templates and structured data. Both vying for supremacy, like rival bards in a tavern brawl.

WordPress, oh venerable one! The granddaddy of content management systems, bedecked in customizable armor. Its battle cry: “Unleash the plugins!” With Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, it wields meta tags like enchanted scrolls. Keywords tremble before its mighty sword, and canonical URLs bow in reverence. But beware, for this path is treacherous—a labyrinth of settings, a maze of permalinks. Only the initiated survive.

And then there’s Squarespace, the elegant enigma. A minimalist muse, her templates like polished gems. She dances with structured data, whispering sweet schema secrets to search engines. Mobile-friendly, she pirouettes gracefully across screens, leaving breadcrumbs of responsive design. Her code, pristine as a moonlit lake, reflects in the eyes of Google’s spiders. But simplicity has its price—like a cryptic riddle, Squarespace conceals some SEO powers beneath her serene surface.

Now, let’s address your frustration, my wise old dog of the web. 🐾 You, the shepherd of clients, guiding them through the digital wilderness. Why, oh why, must the path be strewn with thorns? Why must the novice stumble upon the rocky shores of WordPress, their ship dashed against the cliffs of confusion?

Gatekeeping, you cry! Aye, the ancient guardians of knowledge, hoarding secrets like dragons atop golden caches of SEO wisdom. But fear not, for I bring tidings: The gates creak open! The keys lie in understanding, in demystifying the arcane arts. Teach your flock to wield their websites like Excalibur, to update with the grace of a thousand swans. Let them access you—the troubadour of tangled code—when frustration gnaws at their souls.

And Christina Galbato, the siren of marketing seas? She sails her ship, charting courses through tempests of trends. But heed this: The winds shift, tides ebb, and knowledge evolves faster than a caffeinated hummingbird. Three years ago, her scrolls spoke truth, but now they crumble like ancient papyrus. Seek fresher fonts, my friend! Seek the whispers of today’s algorithms, the dance of voice search, the symphony of snippets.

FIRST IDENTIFY YOUR PURPOSE. Are you just trying to put a blog out in the universe to act as a marketing platform to monetize, by which it doesn’t really matter if it’s clogged up with third party ads? Or, is the point of the blog to be the passion and thing that you are interested in, keep it pure and clean on content with no third party ads, and express yourself because it is the thing you want to do, regardless of monetization. Let’s explore their strengths and what you can do to improve your Squarespace site’s ranking:

WordPress:
Extensive Customization: WordPress offers greater control over SEO due to its vast ecosystem of plugins and customization options. All of these widgets and add ons are also the things that make your page lag and stop working when the widgets aren’t updated.
SEO Plugins: You can fine-tune meta tags, create XML sitemaps, optimize images, and implement other best practices using plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack.
Keyword Optimization: WordPress allows you to target specific keywords effectively.
Content Flexibility: You can create diverse content types (blog posts, pages, custom post types) and optimize them individually. I would say you can also do this on Squarespace, however.
Technical SEO: WordPress enables advanced technical optimizations, such as managing redirects, canonical URLs, and schema markup.

Squarespace:
User-Friendly: Squarespace is known for its simplicity and ease of use.
Built-In Features: It includes basic SEO features out of the box, such as customizable meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags for images.
Mobile Optimization: Squarespace templates are inherently mobile-friendly, which is crucial for SEO.
Structured Data: Squarespace automatically generates structured data (schema markup) for better search engine understanding.
Clean Code: Squarespace generates clean HTML and CSS, which positively impacts site performance and SEO.

Tips for Squarespace SEO:
Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords for your content and incorporate them naturally into your titles, headings, and body text.
Customize Meta Tags: Optimize meta titles and descriptions for each page or blog post. Be concise, descriptive, and compelling.
Image Optimization: Use descriptive file names and alt text for images. Compress images to improve loading speed.
Content Quality: Create high-quality, engaging content that provides value to your audience.
Internal Linking: Link related pages within your site to improve navigation and enhance SEO.
Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your site looks great on all devices.
Page Speed: Optimize images, minimize code, and use a content delivery network (CDN) to improve loading times.
Structured Data: Leverage Squarespace’s built-in structured data features for better search engine visibility.
Submit Sitemap: Submit your Squarespace sitemap to Google Search Console.
Monitor Performance: Regularly check your site’s performance using tools like Google Analytics and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Remember that both platforms can be effective for SEO, but success depends on how well you implement best practices. Choose the platform that aligns with your needs, and then focus on creating valuable content and optimizing it for search engines. 🚀🔍

If you are a beginner, and someone told you to create a WordPress site from scratch, you might want to chuckle a little and then ask yourself - is the point my message, whereby naturally I will be able to express myself and share my ideas with others, or is the point to create a third party platform for corporations to squat their adverts and use you as a pennies per day content generator?

So, whether you wield the staff of WordPress or the wand of Squarespace, remember this: SEO is the elixir of visibility. It’s the beacon that guides lost souls to your digital hearth. Optimize, weave your meta spells, and let your content sing like a minstrel at a medieval fair. And fear not, for in this age of swift bytes and instant scrolls, no one need struggle alone. 🌐✨

Now, go forth, noble creator! May your clients thrive, your rankings soar, and your pixels sparkle like stardust in the cosmic code. 🚀🌈