April 7, 2025 • 15 mins
Check out the bonus lesson we created showing exactly how to make the most of Squarespace's new SEO tool for your website.
👉 Watch > How to use the SQSP AI SEO tool
https://seiq.meredithshusband.com/c/staging/using-the-squarespace-ai-seo-tool-db9485ab-bcbc-45a1-8d41-5aa9ba6c09fc
Episode Summary
The new Squarespace AI SEO tool offers limited but potentially useful features for beginners, focusing primarily on generating metadata and image alt text. While not a comprehensive solution for serious SEO efforts, it provides a decent starting point for those with no previous optimization.
Episode Key Points
- AI-generated metadata won't improve rankings as Google doesn't use meta descriptions as ranking factors
- The image alt text generator creates reasonably accurate descriptions but sometimes they're excessively long
- Tool might help beginners catch up but won't provide competitive advantage as all Squarespace users have access
- Squarespace works well as an affordable starting point but isn't ideal for long-term business growth
- Recommended approach: use the tool to fill gaps in your SEO foundation, then customize and improve upon the suggestions
- Consider Squarespace a stepping stone toward more robust platforms like WordPress or Wix
---
Meredith's Husband
https://www.meredithshusband.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Meredith's husband (00:00):
We already recorded this episode.
Meredith (00:02):
Yes.
Meredith's husband (00:02):
But at the end I decided to do a little
something extra because ofsomething we discovered while
making the episode.
I added a little tidbit at theend.
It's a little gift To, I hope,help you make the most of this
tool.
Excellent, so enjoy the episode.
You sent me something recently.
Meredith (00:20):
Yes, I did.
Meredith's husband (00:21):
That was interesting.
You know what I'm talking about.
Meredith (00:23):
Squarespace.
Meredith's husband (00:24):
Oh my gosh, yes there's a squares, there's a
new squarespace, seo tool thereis guess what?
It's a squarespace, ai seo yes,there is so I have not seen it.
I'm what I'm, I'm thinking.
I'm going to take a look at itright now and give you my
thoughts live yeah, live.
Meredith (00:41):
oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
I will say that you'reoptimistic, that they're doing
the right thing.
Meredith's husband (00:48):
No, I'm not optimistic.
I know I'm very pessimistic.
Meredith (00:51):
Well, we may be pleasantly surprised, yeah.
Meredith's husband (00:54):
Okay, so you know, as I've said before, in
these episodes there have beenI've seen many, many, many, many
many tools like this claimingto boost your SEO.
Yeah, easy, many many, many,many tools like this, claiming
to boost your SEO, and be easyone-click wonders.
Yep and I have been 100%,consistently disappointed.
Meredith (01:11):
Okay, but let's see.
Meredith's husband (01:13):
Let's see, because one thing I will say the
people who join SEIQ yeah, whenyou do that, there's a little
quiz in the beginning to helpget you started and get you off
on the right foot.
Yeah, one of the questions iswhat platform are you using?
Squarespace, wordpress, showit,et cetera.
The majority of people thereare using Squarespace.
Okay, so a lot of people areusing Squarespace.
Meredith (01:33):
Let's see.
Meredith's husband (01:34):
Okay.
Meredith (01:35):
Very exciting.
Meredith's husband (01:36):
I need to open up a new window, do I?
Meredith (01:37):
need to open anything.
Meredith's husband (01:39):
No.
Meredith (01:39):
Presents A package of cookies, a package of cookies.
Meredith's husband (01:42):
Okay, are you ready?
Meredith (01:43):
I am ready.
Are you going to share yourscreen?
Meredith's husband (01:47):
On a podcast , it won't be helpful.
Meredith (01:49):
Never mind.
Meredith's husband (01:50):
I'm opening the email that you received from
Squarespace about this new AISEO tool and I'm going to just
first read what I see.
Yes, and I'm going to followthe link.
Meredith (02:00):
Wonderful.
Meredith's husband (02:00):
I'm going to read what I see there and tell
you what.
Meredith (02:02):
I think this is so exciting folks.
Meredith's husband (02:03):
Okay, headline smarter SEO, effortless
site optimization.
So right away to me thatscreams like that's a problem,
like that sounds very familiarto me.
Meredith (02:12):
And to me, the consumer.
I think great.
Meredith's husband (02:15):
Yes, okay, and I'll get to that in a second
Subheading or byline orwhatever.
This is Next sentence OurAI-powered tool helps boost
search engine rankings andattract more visitors with just
a few clicks.
Oh my gosh, that is justperfectly garbage.
That sounds so awful To me.
How that reads is ourAI-powered tool will make sure
(02:38):
that you have shit SEO, but it'sonly going to take two clicks.
That's how I read that and thenthere's a button that says
boost your SEO.
Now I'm going to follow that ina second, but I'm going to
finish reading the email.
The email says getting noticedonline just got easier.
Our new AI SEO tool providessimple, effective ways to
improve search visibility.
Meredith (03:00):
Simple and effective, they say.
Meredith's husband (03:02):
Okay, ai powered metadata recommendations
for better search rankings andclick-through.
Okay, that's going to begarbage.
I pretty much know that.
Meredith (03:12):
I still want to see it .
Meredith's husband (03:13):
Metadata is going to be your meta
descriptions.
Meredith (03:15):
Yeah, which for those who are first listening mean.
Meredith's husband (03:18):
Those are meta tags and your meta
descriptions do not factor intoyour rankings at all.
Zero percent, effectively Zero.
They used Meta descriptions.
Do not factor into yourrankings at all.
Zero percent, effectively zero.
They used to Right Years ago.
They used to Back in the day, Iwill say if your meta
descriptions are blank, if youdon't have them, that's bad
Right.
So I'm thinking, well, okay,this.
I'm looking at this toolthinking, okay, well, it's
probably going to be better thanabsolutely nothing.
(03:40):
But if you have written metadescription tags, uh, this is
not going to make them any anybetter.
It doesn't matter for us.
Yet, like Google has literallysaid, it doesn't matter what you
put in your meta descriptiontags.
You can put your keywords inthere a trillion times.
It makes zero difference.
That's exactly what Google said.
Meredith (04:01):
And and and.
Squarespace just said we havesomething just for this one
thing that is not needed.
Meredith's husband (04:06):
Yes, that is what that is, and so it's going
to make recommendations aboutyour metadata for better search
rankings and click through.
Meredith (04:14):
It might help click through to be honest.
Might help Click through.
Meredith's husband (04:17):
Click through is if so, look.
So let's say, your website isdisplayed in search results.
Somebody does a search forsomething.
Your website is up there.
Yeah, website is displayed insearch results.
Somebody does a search forsomething, your website is up
there.
A click-through would be ifsomebody clicks on your website.
So if they don't click on it,you don't get a click.
So your click-through ratewould be the number of people
who see your website in searchresults and actually click on it
(04:39):
.
So you want a highclick-through.
So a meta description tag canaffect your click-through
information.
So this statement is 50% maybeand 50% garbage.
The next statement there's onlytwo points here automatically
generate alt text for images,improving accessibility and SEO.
I have a pretty strong feelingthat is going to be bad SEO
(05:02):
because you're going to give ityour keywords, it's going to and
it's going to stuff that intoyour alt text for images.
And that is going to be bad SEO, because you're going to give
it your keywords and it's goingto stuff that into your alt text
for images.
And that is very specificallywhat Google calls spam.
They literally say that almostword for word, like do not do
that.
Now, I don't know, maybe itdoes accurately.
Try to you know, look at animage and describe what it is.
I don't know, could be, couldbe okay.
Meredith (05:23):
I don't know.
Meredith's husband (05:24):
Okay, and then finally optimize just a few
clicks in your dashboard, noexpertise required.
More visibility could translateto more visitors, more
customers and more growth foryour business.
Meredith (05:34):
Okay.
Meredith's husband (05:35):
Now, well, it would.
Yeah, more visibility woulddefinitely translate to more
visitors and more customers andmore growth for your business.
Now the problem with statementslike this optimize with just a
few clicks in your dashboard, noSEO expertise required.
The problem that I see with astatement like that is remember
I said, lots of people are usingSquarespace.
(05:55):
Yes, and Squarespace is rollingout this tool to all of their
subscribers, all of their users,and so this tool is going to be
used by a lot of people, a lotof people using Squarespace.
A lot of people are going to bedoing it.
So how would it set you apartfrom other websites if
everybody's doing the same thing?
Conceptually, that's one of theproblems to me.
(06:18):
That's, you know how do yourise above if you do the same
thing.
That conceptually, that's one.
One of the problems to me,that's you know how do you rise
above if you do the same thingliterally right okay, so now
let's follow this.
Yes, because actually I'mactually curious, because your
website is on squarespace rightnow right now and I know I have
dealt with the seo and it's notawesome, uh.
So I'm curious to see what moreabout this, so let's, let's go.
So I'm curious to see what moreabout this, so let's.
(06:39):
It took me to the login page,so I need to log in.
Meredith (06:43):
As me.
Meredith's husband (06:44):
No, I'm a.
I'm a manager of your website.
Meredith (06:47):
So I have.
Meredith's husband (06:48):
I have my own account, okay, okay.
So this takes me to somethingthat called the search engine
optimization appearance, and ithas an SEO report and says all
pages have metadata and oneimage is missing alt text.
Okay, I can improve this withit.
I'm going to see what it does.
So, I've clicked this and itcomes up and it says an image.
(07:12):
It is a headshot image and thealt text reads smiling woman
with curly hair and earringsoutdoors.
That's actually a good alt text.
I hate to say it, that'sactually not bad.
Not bad, that's not bad.
Okay, I would think you couldmake it better, definitely, but
this is a pretty good startingpoint Okay.
Meredith (07:33):
So one point yeah, yeah, okay, not bad, that's not
bad.
Meredith's husband (07:36):
Okay, so that's all for the search engine
optimization appearance.
Next, here is SEO checklist,and this has been here for a
long time to be honest, this isnothing new.
Okay, so I'm going to take alook at another site that I
manage, also on Squarespace.
Do the same thing.
See if it comes back withdifferent, different results.
Okay, so I'm in the same place.
(07:58):
The search engine optimizationappearance.
So I'm in the same place.
The search engine optimizationappearance.
It says all the things havemetadata, great.
It says there are severalhundred images without alt text,
and so I'm going to pull upsome of these.
Now, there's a bunch of imageshere.
One of them.
I'm going to tell you what itpresents as image alt text.
It says modern hallway interiorwith two pendant lights, wooden
(08:19):
flooring and a framed photo ofa child jumping on a street.
A small round table with adecorative vase is also present.
Now I would say, okay, that'snot bad, but that's awfully long
.
Yeah, you want it to be like Iwould say there's no character
limit here, but I would say youwant this to be a handful of
words or so, because think aboutwhen image alt text would
(08:42):
display.
It's when the image doesn'tload Right, or when somebody
can't view an image clearly forsome reason, so it's vision
impaired or a slow connection.
So the text is going to displaywhere that image would be.
So often, images are not big,so you don't have a lot of room.
Meredith (08:59):
Right.
Meredith's husband (09:01):
So two complete sentences like those
are not complete sentences, buta long alt tag like that is not
going to be displayed, nor arepeople going to want to read it,
right.
So I would definitely try toshorten that, but it's kind of
along the right lines.
So the next one I'm going to doanother one framed black and
white family portrait on a wallin a modern living room with a
(09:22):
chair and decor.
Again, it's a long list, butthat's too long.
Like I would shorten that tosomething like framed family
portrait in modern living room.
That's going to get the ideaacross.
And as I just scan through therest of these, it's the same
thing.
Some of them are very long.
There's one that says woman ina red dress sitting on a bench
in a garden smiling.
(09:42):
It's not bad.
Meredith (09:43):
Now is a description that's too long.
Better than no description.
Meredith's husband (09:48):
Yes.
Meredith (09:48):
Just reinforcing.
Meredith's husband (09:50):
Yeah.
And so again I'm going to saythe same thing If you're
starting from scratch and youhave done no SEO, that's a good
place to start.
Okay, okay, great, better thannothing.
Yeah, even those alt tags thatare too long, yeah, definitely
better than having nothing.
So, if you come, if you usethis, I recommend you actually
do use it If you want to see ifyour images are missing alt text
(10:10):
yes.
Meredith (10:11):
Yeah.
Meredith's husband (10:11):
Begin with what they suggest and then try
to improve them, like this isnot going to.
It's not going to hurt unlessyou already have written alt
text and you go through and usethis to rewrite it, which I
don't see as an option here.
So I would say, yeah, feel freeto use this.
Don't expect that your websiteis going to appear on page one
(10:33):
because you're doing somethingdifferent than everybody else,
because you are literally goingto be doing the same thing as
everybody else.
But so the way I would thinkabout this, if this can help
bring you up into the pack, okay.
If you're behind the pack, likeyou're just starting SEO, you
haven't done anything.
This is going to get you kindof up to speed so that you're
not far behind, but it's notgoing to get you ahead.
(10:54):
You're not going to be theleader of the pack.
Meredith (10:55):
You are not going to get you ahead, right, you're not
going to be the leader of thepack.
Meredith's husband (10:58):
You are not going to be the leader of the
pack.
Meredith (11:00):
Wait, is that all that Squarespace is doing?
Just that?
That's supposed to make a bigdifference?
Supposedly, yeah, no, that isthat's it.
It's just that.
Meredith's husband (11:09):
It's just that I know I have the same
response Like that's prettyminor, I mean I don't know,
maybe, maybe there's somethingthat if your site needs
something else, it doessomething else.
Meredith (11:19):
Am I missing something ?
Meredith's husband (11:20):
Yeah, well, that has been my general
response to all of whatSquarespace offers is really.
Now I will say Squarespace hasits.
Your site is on Squarespace.
There are reasons to have it.
There is no easier way to get awebsite online than with
Squarespace.
It's super cheap, it's reallyeasy.
It's really easy, it's prettyquick.
The problem is the quality.
(11:41):
But if you're just beginningand you need to get a website up
tomorrow, squarespace is great.
There's nothing that I know ofwhere you can do that, so it has
its place.
But if you're going to useSquarespace as a business
solution, know that it's not along-term solution.
It is a stepping stone.
Yeah, okay.
So keep in your mind thatsomewhere on the horizon is
(12:04):
going to be moving to Wix.
Wordpress.
Show it something more robust,got it, but in the meantime,
yeah.
Yeah, this sort of gets my stampof approval.
Meredith (12:15):
Wow, surprising, see.
Meredith's husband (12:16):
Oh, by the way, I should mention where you
can find this tool.
If you don't get the emailbecause I followed your email
which had a link you'll need togo log into your admin, go to
your website settings and it'sunder the tab or the side
navigation called marketing.
So click on marketing and thefirst thing you will see will be
SEO appearance.
Meredith (12:35):
Okay, the SEO appearance Okay.
So I would say this is good forpeople just beginning and isn't
going to hurt your website, butis definitely not going to
throttle it forward and up andyou will see.
Meredith's husband (12:50):
I should note, if you go to this page,
you will see the SEO appearancething that I just described,
which is the new AI.
Beneath that, they have likewhat they call an SEO checklist
and a couple of other SEO tips.
You can follow that that'sgoing to give you a whole bunch
of recommended things to do.
They are mostly garbage.
They're not going to help.
It's just not good.
This thing has been here for along time and it's basically
(13:12):
useless.
Meredith (13:12):
Okay, but the one thing that's not entirely
useless.
Meredith's husband (13:15):
That new thing yeah, not entirely useless
.
That new thing yeah, run it.
If you have images that don'thave alt text, yeah, just begin
with those and then like yeah,if you can I don't know if you
can copy and paste those into aspreadsheet or something I
realized that it was an okaytool.
It was super, super limited inscope and what it did, but it
was actually not bad as a tool.
(13:36):
Actually, I kind of wish othertools did the same thing.
The function is good.
However, it's just one littletiny piece of SEO that it does,
but I decided, since your siteis on Squarespace, I'm just
going to go ahead, I'm going touse it for your site and I
created a little lesson from it.
Meredith (13:53):
Oh, okay, thank you.
Meredith's husband (13:54):
The link below will take you to that
lesson.
If you want to see how Irecommend you use the SEO tool
from Squarespace that we just
We already recorded this episode.
Meredith (00:02):
Yes.
Meredith's husband (00:02):
But at the end I decided to do a little
something extra because ofsomething we discovered while
making the episode.
I added a little tidbit at theend.
It's a little gift To, I hope,help you make the most of this
tool.
Excellent, so enjoy the episode.
You sent me something recently.
Meredith (00:20):
Yes, I did.
Meredith's husband (00:21):
That was interesting.
You know what I'm talking about.
Meredith (00:23):
Squarespace.
Meredith's husband (00:24):
Oh my gosh, yes there's a squares, there's a
new squarespace, seo tool thereis guess what?
It's a squarespace, ai seo yes,there is so I have not seen it.
I'm what I'm, I'm thinking.
I'm going to take a look at itright now and give you my
thoughts live yeah, live.
Meredith (00:41):
oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
I will say that you'reoptimistic, that they're doing
the right thing.
Meredith's husband (00:48):
No, I'm not optimistic.
I know I'm very pessimistic.
Meredith (00:51):
Well, we may be pleasantly surprised, yeah.
Meredith's husband (00:54):
Okay, so you know, as I've said before, in
these episodes there have beenI've seen many, many, many, many
many tools like this claimingto boost your SEO.
Yeah, easy, many many, many,many tools like this, claiming
to boost your SEO, and be easyone-click wonders.
Yep and I have been 100%,consistently disappointed.
Meredith (01:11):
Okay, but let's see.
Meredith's husband (01:13):
Let's see, because one thing I will say the
people who join SEIQ yeah, whenyou do that, there's a little
quiz in the beginning to helpget you started and get you off
on the right foot.
Yeah, one of the questions iswhat platform are you using?
Squarespace, wordpress, showit,et cetera.
The majority of people thereare using Squarespace.
Okay, so a lot of people areusing Squarespace.
Meredith (01:33):
Let's see.
Meredith's husband (01:34):
Okay.
Meredith (01:35):
Very exciting.
Meredith's husband (01:36):
I need to open up a new window, do I?
Meredith (01:37):
need to open anything.
Meredith's husband (01:39):
No.
Meredith (01:39):
Presents A package of cookies, a package of cookies.
Meredith's husband (01:42):
Okay, are you ready?
Meredith (01:43):
I am ready.
Are you going to share yourscreen?
Meredith's husband (01:47):
On a podcast , it won't be helpful.
Meredith (01:49):
Never mind.
Meredith's husband (01:50):
I'm opening the email that you received from
Squarespace about this new AISEO tool and I'm going to just
first read what I see.
Yes, and I'm going to followthe link.
Meredith (02:00):
Wonderful.
Meredith's husband (02:00):
I'm going to read what I see there and tell
you what.
Meredith (02:02):
I think this is so exciting folks.
Meredith's husband (02:03):
Okay, headline smarter SEO, effortless
site optimization.
So right away to me thatscreams like that's a problem,
like that sounds very familiarto me.
Meredith (02:12):
And to me, the consumer.
I think great.
Meredith's husband (02:15):
Yes, okay, and I'll get to that in a second
Subheading or byline orwhatever.
This is Next sentence OurAI-powered tool helps boost
search engine rankings andattract more visitors with just
a few clicks.
Oh my gosh, that is justperfectly garbage.
That sounds so awful To me.
How that reads is ourAI-powered tool will make sure
(02:38):
that you have shit SEO, but it'sonly going to take two clicks.
That's how I read that and thenthere's a button that says
boost your SEO.
Now I'm going to follow that ina second, but I'm going to
finish reading the email.
The email says getting noticedonline just got easier.
Our new AI SEO tool providessimple, effective ways to
improve search visibility.
Meredith (03:00):
Simple and effective, they say.
Meredith's husband (03:02):
Okay, ai powered metadata recommendations
for better search rankings andclick-through.
Okay, that's going to begarbage.
I pretty much know that.
Meredith (03:12):
I still want to see it .
Meredith's husband (03:13):
Metadata is going to be your meta
descriptions.
Meredith (03:15):
Yeah, which for those who are first listening mean.
Meredith's husband (03:18):
Those are meta tags and your meta
descriptions do not factor intoyour rankings at all.
Zero percent, effectively Zero.
They used Meta descriptions.
Do not factor into yourrankings at all.
Zero percent, effectively zero.
They used to Right Years ago.
They used to Back in the day, Iwill say if your meta
descriptions are blank, if youdon't have them, that's bad
Right.
So I'm thinking, well, okay,this.
I'm looking at this toolthinking, okay, well, it's
probably going to be better thanabsolutely nothing.
(03:40):
But if you have written metadescription tags, uh, this is
not going to make them any anybetter.
It doesn't matter for us.
Yet, like Google has literallysaid, it doesn't matter what you
put in your meta descriptiontags.
You can put your keywords inthere a trillion times.
It makes zero difference.
That's exactly what Google said.
Meredith (04:01):
And and and.
Squarespace just said we havesomething just for this one
thing that is not needed.
Meredith's husband (04:06):
Yes, that is what that is, and so it's going
to make recommendations aboutyour metadata for better search
rankings and click through.
Meredith (04:14):
It might help click through to be honest.
Might help Click through.
Meredith's husband (04:17):
Click through is if so, look.
So let's say, your website isdisplayed in search results.
Somebody does a search forsomething.
Your website is up there.
Yeah, website is displayed insearch results.
Somebody does a search forsomething, your website is up
there.
A click-through would be ifsomebody clicks on your website.
So if they don't click on it,you don't get a click.
So your click-through ratewould be the number of people
who see your website in searchresults and actually click on it
(04:39):
.
So you want a highclick-through.
So a meta description tag canaffect your click-through
information.
So this statement is 50% maybeand 50% garbage.
The next statement there's onlytwo points here automatically
generate alt text for images,improving accessibility and SEO.
I have a pretty strong feelingthat is going to be bad SEO
(05:02):
because you're going to give ityour keywords, it's going to and
it's going to stuff that intoyour alt text for images.
And that is going to be bad SEO, because you're going to give
it your keywords and it's goingto stuff that into your alt text
for images.
And that is very specificallywhat Google calls spam.
They literally say that almostword for word, like do not do
that.
Now, I don't know, maybe itdoes accurately.
Try to you know, look at animage and describe what it is.
I don't know, could be, couldbe okay.
Meredith (05:23):
I don't know.
Meredith's husband (05:24):
Okay, and then finally optimize just a few
clicks in your dashboard, noexpertise required.
More visibility could translateto more visitors, more
customers and more growth foryour business.
Meredith (05:34):
Okay.
Meredith's husband (05:35):
Now, well, it would.
Yeah, more visibility woulddefinitely translate to more
visitors and more customers andmore growth for your business.
Now the problem with statementslike this optimize with just a
few clicks in your dashboard, noSEO expertise required.
The problem that I see with astatement like that is remember
I said, lots of people are usingSquarespace.
(05:55):
Yes, and Squarespace is rollingout this tool to all of their
subscribers, all of their users,and so this tool is going to be
used by a lot of people, a lotof people using Squarespace.
A lot of people are going to bedoing it.
So how would it set you apartfrom other websites if
everybody's doing the same thing?
Conceptually, that's one of theproblems to me.
(06:18):
That's, you know how do yourise above if you do the same
thing.
That conceptually, that's one.
One of the problems to me,that's you know how do you rise
above if you do the same thingliterally right okay, so now
let's follow this.
Yes, because actually I'mactually curious, because your
website is on squarespace rightnow right now and I know I have
dealt with the seo and it's notawesome, uh.
So I'm curious to see what moreabout this, so let's, let's go.
So I'm curious to see what moreabout this, so let's.
(06:39):
It took me to the login page,so I need to log in.
Meredith (06:43):
As me.
Meredith's husband (06:44):
No, I'm a.
I'm a manager of your website.
Meredith (06:47):
So I have.
Meredith's husband (06:48):
I have my own account, okay, okay.
So this takes me to somethingthat called the search engine
optimization appearance, and ithas an SEO report and says all
pages have metadata and oneimage is missing alt text.
Okay, I can improve this withit.
I'm going to see what it does.
So, I've clicked this and itcomes up and it says an image.
(07:12):
It is a headshot image and thealt text reads smiling woman
with curly hair and earringsoutdoors.
That's actually a good alt text.
I hate to say it, that'sactually not bad.
Not bad, that's not bad.
Okay, I would think you couldmake it better, definitely, but
this is a pretty good startingpoint Okay.
Meredith (07:33):
So one point yeah, yeah, okay, not bad, that's not
bad.
Meredith's husband (07:36):
Okay, so that's all for the search engine
optimization appearance.
Next, here is SEO checklist,and this has been here for a
long time to be honest, this isnothing new.
Okay, so I'm going to take alook at another site that I
manage, also on Squarespace.
Do the same thing.
See if it comes back withdifferent, different results.
Okay, so I'm in the same place.
(07:58):
The search engine optimizationappearance.
So I'm in the same place.
The search engine optimizationappearance.
It says all the things havemetadata, great.
It says there are severalhundred images without alt text,
and so I'm going to pull upsome of these.
Now, there's a bunch of imageshere.
One of them.
I'm going to tell you what itpresents as image alt text.
It says modern hallway interiorwith two pendant lights, wooden
(08:19):
flooring and a framed photo ofa child jumping on a street.
A small round table with adecorative vase is also present.
Now I would say, okay, that'snot bad, but that's awfully long
.
Yeah, you want it to be like Iwould say there's no character
limit here, but I would say youwant this to be a handful of
words or so, because think aboutwhen image alt text would
(08:42):
display.
It's when the image doesn'tload Right, or when somebody
can't view an image clearly forsome reason, so it's vision
impaired or a slow connection.
So the text is going to displaywhere that image would be.
So often, images are not big,so you don't have a lot of room.
Meredith (08:59):
Right.
Meredith's husband (09:01):
So two complete sentences like those
are not complete sentences, buta long alt tag like that is not
going to be displayed, nor arepeople going to want to read it,
right.
So I would definitely try toshorten that, but it's kind of
along the right lines.
So the next one I'm going to doanother one framed black and
white family portrait on a wallin a modern living room with a
(09:22):
chair and decor.
Again, it's a long list, butthat's too long.
Like I would shorten that tosomething like framed family
portrait in modern living room.
That's going to get the ideaacross.
And as I just scan through therest of these, it's the same
thing.
Some of them are very long.
There's one that says woman ina red dress sitting on a bench
in a garden smiling.
(09:42):
It's not bad.
Meredith (09:43):
Now is a description that's too long.
Better than no description.
Meredith's husband (09:48):
Yes.
Meredith (09:48):
Just reinforcing.
Meredith's husband (09:50):
Yeah.
And so again I'm going to saythe same thing If you're
starting from scratch and youhave done no SEO, that's a good
place to start.
Okay, okay, great, better thannothing.
Yeah, even those alt tags thatare too long, yeah, definitely
better than having nothing.
So, if you come, if you usethis, I recommend you actually
do use it If you want to see ifyour images are missing alt text
(10:10):
yes.
Meredith (10:11):
Yeah.
Meredith's husband (10:11):
Begin with what they suggest and then try
to improve them, like this isnot going to.
It's not going to hurt unlessyou already have written alt
text and you go through and usethis to rewrite it, which I
don't see as an option here.
So I would say, yeah, feel freeto use this.
Don't expect that your websiteis going to appear on page one
(10:33):
because you're doing somethingdifferent than everybody else,
because you are literally goingto be doing the same thing as
everybody else.
But so the way I would thinkabout this, if this can help
bring you up into the pack, okay.
If you're behind the pack, likeyou're just starting SEO, you
haven't done anything.
This is going to get you kindof up to speed so that you're
not far behind, but it's notgoing to get you ahead.
(10:54):
You're not going to be theleader of the pack.
Meredith (10:55):
You are not going to get you ahead, right, you're not
going to be the leader of thepack.
Meredith's husband (10:58):
You are not going to be the leader of the
pack.
Meredith (11:00):
Wait, is that all that Squarespace is doing?
Just that?
That's supposed to make a bigdifference?
Supposedly, yeah, no, that isthat's it.
It's just that.
Meredith's husband (11:09):
It's just that I know I have the same
response Like that's prettyminor, I mean I don't know,
maybe, maybe there's somethingthat if your site needs
something else, it doessomething else.
Meredith (11:19):
Am I missing something ?
Meredith's husband (11:20):
Yeah, well, that has been my general
response to all of whatSquarespace offers is really.
Now I will say Squarespace hasits.
Your site is on Squarespace.
There are reasons to have it.
There is no easier way to get awebsite online than with
Squarespace.
It's super cheap, it's reallyeasy.
It's really easy, it's prettyquick.
The problem is the quality.
(11:41):
But if you're just beginningand you need to get a website up
tomorrow, squarespace is great.
There's nothing that I know ofwhere you can do that, so it has
its place.
But if you're going to useSquarespace as a business
solution, know that it's not along-term solution.
It is a stepping stone.
Yeah, okay.
So keep in your mind thatsomewhere on the horizon is
(12:04):
going to be moving to Wix.
Wordpress.
Show it something more robust,got it, but in the meantime,
yeah.
Yeah, this sort of gets my stampof approval.
Meredith (12:15):
Wow, surprising, see.
Meredith's husband (12:16):
Oh, by the way, I should mention where you
can find this tool.
If you don't get the emailbecause I followed your email
which had a link you'll need togo log into your admin, go to
your website settings and it'sunder the tab or the side
navigation called marketing.
So click on marketing and thefirst thing you will see will be
SEO appearance.
Meredith (12:35):
Okay, the SEO appearance Okay.
So I would say this is good forpeople just beginning and isn't
going to hurt your website, butis definitely not going to
throttle it forward and up andyou will see.
Meredith's husband (12:50):
I should note, if you go to this page,
you will see the SEO appearancething that I just described,
which is the new AI.
Beneath that, they have likewhat they call an SEO checklist
and a couple of other SEO tips.
You can follow that that'sgoing to give you a whole bunch
of recommended things to do.
They are mostly garbage.
They're not going to help.
It's just not good.
This thing has been here for along time and it's basically
(13:12):
useless.
Meredith (13:12):
Okay, but the one thing that's not entirely
useless.
Meredith's husband (13:15):
That new thing yeah, not entirely useless
.
That new thing yeah, run it.
If you have images that don'thave alt text, yeah, just begin
with those and then like yeah,if you can I don't know if you
can copy and paste those into aspreadsheet or something I
realized that it was an okaytool.
It was super, super limited inscope and what it did, but it
was actually not bad as a tool.
(13:36):
Actually, I kind of wish othertools did the same thing.
The function is good.
However, it's just one littletiny piece of SEO that it does,
but I decided, since your siteis on Squarespace, I'm just
going to go ahead, I'm going touse it for your site and I
created a little lesson from it.
Meredith (13:53):
Oh, okay, thank you.
Meredith's husband (13:54):
The link below will take you to that
lesson.
If you want to see how Irecommend you use the SEO tool
from Squarespace that we just
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