The best Squarespace blog plugins
Plugins to boost your Squarespace blog with these add ons.
When you hear people talk about Squarespace plugins, they are different to WordPress plugins. On
Squarespace, ‘plugins’ are typically snippets of code you can copy and paste into your site. These code snippets can help you change the way elements are displayed in a blog post, letting you do more than the base template allows.
But, Squarespace plugins can also be Chrome extensions that let you manage other aspects of your site, like the SEO performance.
Plugins for your blog design
Squarespace blog pages are quite constrained in what they can do. That’s okay if you like working within those constraints (it can help you focus on your creativity) but if you have a specific design in mind it’s a little trickier.
Sidebar plugin
One of the biggest complaints I hear about using Squarespace for a blog is that it isn’t easy to add a sidebar.
I personally don’t use sidebars on my websites, as most people visit on mobile, so the sidebar is displayed at the bottom anyway.
However, if you love the look of a sidebar, there’s no reason not to have one. You can easily install this plugin from SQSP Themes.
Blog post banner image plugin
If you’ve spent any amount of time Googling Squarespace plugins, you will have come across Will Myers. His plugin store is one of the most creative available — I really appreciate his approach that anything is possible on Squarespace.
Affiliate plugin
If you’re planning on making money from affiliate marketing, you’ll need a plugin that allows you to mark links as no follow. You can flag them as no follow using a markdown block, but it’s a lot more fuss than just adding the plugin.
Squarespace SEO plugins
Right off the bat, I want to say that you don’t need plugins to succeed with SEO on Squarespace.
I think the desire for Squarespace SEO plugins comes from people who are familiar with Yoast on Wordpress, and are looking for an equivalent.
Squarespace doesn’t really do plugins in the same way as WordPress, and you can manage your content and site audits through other tools (like those listed below).
In terms of optimising your on-page content, following SEO best practices will generally get you to where you want to be. Stale, duplicate, incorrect, or low quality content is what is going to damage your search performance — not failing to hit all the recommendations provided by a plugin.
I actually think too much interference from plugins hinders your ability to write for people. If you’re thinking too much about how often you’ve used a certain keyword, your writing might end up sounding forced. If you’re writing around a topic, you’ll probably end up using all the right variations anyway.
SEOSpace — All in one Squarespace SEO plugin
This plugin was developed by Henry Purchase, who had a travel blog on Squarespace before moving into SAAS.
The plugin works as a Chrome Extension, which you can activate to scan specific pages on your site. It’s a great way to keep on top of things like alt text, the number of characters in headings, and other detailed aspects of SEO.
Even if you don’t sign up for the plugin, SEOSpace has a blog full of information on SEO specific to Squarespace.
If you found this helpful, you might also like to take a peek at my other tips on blogging on Squarespace:
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