Adding SEO descriptions

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Adding SEO descriptions

Last updated September 10, 2026 14:04

Tips for writing effective meta descriptions to help improve your site’s ranking.

Meta descriptions, also known as search descriptions, are short pieces of text that describe your site's content. Search engines show meta descriptions below the page title in search results if they can't find site content that's more relevant to a visitor's search terms.

For control over how your meta descriptions appear in search results, you can edit these fields:

SEO description appears below the site title and URL in search results.

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Before you begin

Best practices

Search engine users read meta descriptions to decide which search result to click. Make your site inviting by keeping your descriptions short, relevant, and readable.

To improve your SEO descriptions for search engines:

  • Keep the text between 50-300 characters. SEO descriptions have a 400-character limit. Exceeding this limit could affect your ability to edit parts of your site, like the availability status and adding a logo.
  • Optimize your descriptions with keywords, but avoid keyword stuffing.
  • Think about what your visitors are searching for, and how you can encourage them to click through to your site. For example, how does your site, page, or product solve a problem they have?

Tip: Updated description text won't appear in search results right away. Search engines take some time to re-index your site for new content. To request a re-index, use Google Search Console.

Add an SEO site description

The SEO site description represents your homepage. Search engines show this description in search results for your homepage if they don’t find content more relevant to a visitor's search terms.

To add an SEO site description:

  1. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel and click SEO Settings. If your site is on version 7.0, open your SEO appearance panel.
  2. In the Search appearance area, click the Home tab.
  3. Edit the SEO site description field, then click Save.

Search Appearance panel, home section, shows SEO site description, a preview of how your site appears in search engines, and SEO title format.

Use Squarespace AI to generate SEO site descriptions

To use Squarespace AI to generate an SEO site description:

  1. Ensure you've created a Brand Identity.
  2. Follow the steps above to open the SEO site description field.
  3. Click the lightning bolt icon to create an AI-generated SEO site description.

If you haven’t created a Brand Identity and you write your own SEO site description, we’ll automatically update your Brand Identity to match the SEO site description.

Add SEO descriptions to pages

You can use SEO descriptions to represent individual pages on your site. Search engines show this description in search results for that page if they don’t find content more relevant to a visitor's search terms. We recommend adding SEO descriptions to every page on your site.

To add an SEO description for a page:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Hover over the page title, then click the gear icon to open page settings.
  3. Click the SEO tab, then enter your description in the SEO Description field.
  4. Click Save.

Repeat this process for every page on your site, keeping in mind our best practices.

Use Squarespace AI to generate SEO page descriptions

Using Squarespace AI to generate SEO page descriptions is only available on version 7.1.

You can use our SEO report tool to scan your site, find areas where SEO page descriptions aren't present, and review or edit suggestions offered for those fields. These suggestions optimize your content for keywords related to your business or brand.

To use Squarespace AI to generate SEO page descriptions:

  1. Ensure you've created a Brand Identity.
  2. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel.
  3. In the SEO Report section, click Improve with AI. If your SEO Completion Score is 100%, the Improve with AI button won't appear because there are no areas to flag.
  4. The SEO Report tool scans your site and flags areas where SEO page descriptions are missing. Click Edit or Regenerate to edit the suggested text, or click Save and continue to save your changes.

Note: The SEO tool will not flag missing page titles or descriptions in areas where you’ve removed the title format variables or where you’ve added an SEO title, but not an SEO description.

Add SEO descriptions to collection items

You can use SEO descriptions to represent individual collection items on your site, like blog posts or products. Search engines show this description in search results for that item's page if they don’t find content more relevant to a visitor's search terms. SEO descriptions are available for blog posts, products, and events. In version 7.1, they're available for portfolio sub-pages.

To add an SEO description for a collection item:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Click a blog page, store page, calendar page, or portfolio page.
  3. For blog posts and events, hover over the item and click Edit. If your site is on version 7.1, click the gear icon in the top-right corner after clicking Edit.
  4. For products, double-click the product.
  5. For portfolio sub-pages, click ..., then click Settings.
  6. Click the SEO tab, then enter your description in the SEO Description field.
  7. Click Save.

Repeat this process for every item where you want to add an SEO description.

Keep in mind:

  • It's not possible to add SEO descriptions to gallery images, project items, or album tracks.
  • If you don't add SEO descriptions, search engines use excerpts for blog posts and events, and product descriptions for products.
  • Always follow our SEO description best practices.

Add page descriptions (version 7.0 only)

Page descriptions only appear on your site in some templates. Search engines may display page descriptions if you don't have SEO descriptions, or if the text in the page description is more relevant to the visitor's search terms.

To add a page description:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Hover over the page title, then click the gear icon to open page settings.
  3. In the Page description field of the General tab, enter your description, keeping in mind how the text works with your page's overall design and content.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Repeat this process for every page on your site.

Tip: To display different text in search results, add SEO descriptions too.

More help

Because search engine technology changes often, and everyone's marketing needs are unique, Squarespace Customer Support can't assist with SEO strategy. We can't guarantee specific results like ranking changes or how your site appears in search results. To get more help with SEO:

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Adding SEO descriptions