blogging tips that Pinterest and Google love

I’ve been getting lots of great blog post ideas from my readers. One topic has come up many times. That one topic is: How to use Pinterest with Squarespace blog and how to optimize the Squarespace website and blog for Pinterest and Google searches.

As you may have noticed this website (www.nellaino.com) is made on Squarespace so I’m using it for my own Pinterest marketing.

I do have a website (for my wedding photography business www.petraveikkola.com) which is on WordPress so I do have experience on both of these platforms. 

I like them both but Squarespace is definitely an easier website platform for those of us (like me!) who are not so much tech-savvy or don’t like to code or do other “fun” technical things. Blogging on Squarespace is easy!

Here’s how you can improve your Squarespace blog post search rankings and succeed in your Pinterest marketing

Connect your Squarespace site to your Pinterest account. 

Do this FIRST before you do anything else!

Go to your Squarespace “Settings” and click “Connected Accounts” and “Connect Account”.

Select Pinterest from the menu and log in to your Pinterest account.

Click “Allow to authorize the connection between Pinterest and your site”. 

VALIDATE YOUR SQUARESPACE WEBSITE WITH PINTEREST

Okay, that’s the easiest thing to do with Squarespace site. I mean literally… because your domain is automatically validated when you have connected your Pinterest account to Squarespace.

You’ll see a globe symbol next to your website address when it has been verified.

If you cannot see the globe symbol next to your website address, check these tips how to re-validate your website: Squarespace’s instructions on how to fix an unvalidated domain

RICH PINS ON SQUARESPACE TEMPLATES

Rich pins are pins which have more info on them than “normal pins”. Rich pins can contain product price (for products only), and they always contains your blog post title or product name, your Pinterest username and your blog post (or product) description. In addition, a rich pin contains URL of your blog post or product.

You don’t need to add meta data to your Squarespace site if you have connected your Pinterest account to your Squarespace site first. Make sure you’d done it first!

After connecting your Pinterest account to Squarespace, your pins will automatically be Rich Pins.

HOW TO ADD PINTEREST SAVE BUTTON TO YOUR SQUARESPACE WEBSITE

This is also a really simple thing to do on your Squarespace site.

Go to “Marketing” section and find “Pinterest Save Buttons”. Click “Enable for blogs, pages, and products” and you’re done!

You can also style your Save button. It can be small or large, rectangle or circle and grey, red or white in color.

Important tip: If you have selected a certain photo as your thumbnail, and someone uses your save it button it will show only that thumbnail image to be pinned. Not all other images that you may have on your blog post! Personally, I dont’t want this to be happen and that’s why I don’t use thumbnails.

Notice also that if people are using a Chrome Pinterest Save Button when they are pinning your content from your Squarespace website, it will pull either your blog post title OR your page name as a pin description.

PRO TIP: I recommend that you’ll add a free Sumo social plugin to your site. Sumo’s pin button will show every image within a blog post as an option to pin to Pinterest and pull your pin’s caption (if you have included it into your pin/photo) or your SEO description or your file name depending on which ones you have added to your blog post and images.

The order will be this:

1. Blog post caption

2. File name (if you have not written caption)

3. SEO description (if you don’t have caption or file name)

How people can share your Squarespace blog posts?

Squarespace blog posts have social share buttons under each blog post.

You can enable the social share buttons:

Go to “Marketing” and find “Share Buttons”. You can choose which social platforms you’d like to add under your blog posts (e.g. Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram etc).

How to optimize your Squarespace blog photos for Pinterest and Google searches?

Pinterest SEO is important part of your Pinterest success. But you want to rank high also in Google searches, right? When you create photos to your blog posts consider which keywords you’re using on your photo title, alt text (i.e. photo caption) and metadata.

When people you Save buttons from your site Pinterest will pull the caption of your photo as pin description. If you don’t have a written caption the description area will be empty. Sometimes it can also pull a title of your blog post and the beginning of your blog post text into the pin description when you have not written any photo caption to your photo.

I recommend that you will use photo captions, and also write your SEO descriptions and excerpts for better search optimization.  

You can write your excerpt under your Options tab when you edit your blog posts, see below.

Please note that there might be some variations on what Pinterest will pull up from your blog or Squarespace website based on your Squarespace theme.

Pinterest categorizes the content of your pin based on your pin description. So, it’s important that your descriptions are on point and tell what your content is all about. Your pin will be seen on relevant Pinterest searches.

TIPS TO WRITING YOUR PIN DESCRIPTIONS ON SQUARESPACE

Your pin descriptions van be at the maximum of 500 characters long.

BUT only 75-100 characters will be shown in Pinterest grid view. Those first characters are the most important. People can see the whole description after they click the pin open.

I recommend that you try to fill your pin description area with relevant keywords, and write whole sentences to attract your audience on Pinterest. The more helpful your descriptions are, the more your pins will appear on Pinterest search results.

Squarespace and Pinterest SEO for bloggers and businesses

GENERAL TIPS ON GREAT SQUARESPACE SEO FOR BLOGGING

Writing your blog post on Squarespace blog use Heading 1 (h1), Heading 2 (h2) and Heading 3 (h3). Use your most relevant keywords on those titles.

Your most important keywords should go to the Heading 1.

Use your meta descriptions (SEO site Descriptions) to put your keywords and call to actions. Google will show only 120 - 160 characters from the start so keep your text short and keyworded. The meta description on Squarespace blog post can be found under SEO of each post’s settings.

On Squarespace you can write your SEO Title and Description separately under SEO tab. See below. 

If someone saves a blog image from your blog post to their Pinterest boards, Pinterest will usually take the text from the excerpt if you have include it to your blog post or your blog title.

NOTE: As some Squarespace templates may not act like most of the templates there are possibility that you don’t want to include an excerpt or thumbnail to your blog post. In that case, you need to adjust your pins manually when you’re pinning/scheduling them to your boards or use SEO description instead.

Images for Pinterest to reach your audience

You need to create at least one Pinterest optimized image to each of your blog post on Squarespace. However, I recommend that you create 3 - 5 different Pinterest optimized images in order to really start driving traffic from Pinterest to your Squarespace site.

When creating your images to your blog post name them with SEO in mind. Do not use a file name like this: IMG_4537826.jpg. Try instead putting a keyword or two also into your image name.

When you upload your photo to your Squarespace you can change the name of the image in image blocks. You’ll find a filename field in the Content tab. Otherwise, re-load your image with a new name when uploading it to your Squarespace site.

Use descriptive words and include keywords if you can naturally add them. Write what your image is all about. You need to explain to search engines what is in the image. Do not exceed 125 characters as many screen readers cut off at 125 characters.

When naming your image use dashes (-) instead of spaces. For example: blog-post-example.jpg.

You’ll find your image’s alt text (photo caption on Squarespace) when you edit your image and click on “design”. Choose the first photo which says “Inline” and you’ll find the alt text space under your photo. If you don’t see if, check that the option “Caption Below” is selected.

If your images are on image gallery on Squarespace just mouse over an image, and click the wheel shape (the first option). An Edit Image box will appear and you just fill in “Enter an image title” box.

If you want to hide your alt text (like I do most of the times) just choose “Do Not Display Caption” in the Design menu after you’ve wrote your alt text.

Avoid keyword stuffing your alt text /image caption or meta descriptions. 

Keep your photos on your Squarespace site under 500 KB. For Pinterest use 1000 x 1500 pixels images.

If you notice anything which might not be applicable anymore (as Pinterest and Squarespace can change their ways), please let me know: hello(at)nellaino.com.

You should also check out this in-depth Squarespace SEO article from Style Factory: Squarespace SEO (2020) — Checklist and Tips

In case you need a detailed Pinterest help, I offer Pinterest Audit which is customized to your needs. 

RESERVE YOUR PINTEREST AUDIT