MODULE EIGHT: LESSON THREE
Setting Up SEO, Social Links & Forms
With your site’s backend settings in place, it’s time to focus on three important areas that make your site more discoverable and more connected:
SEO basics
Social media links
Contact and newsletter forms
These are the finishing touches that ensure people can find your site, connect with you elsewhere, and reach out when needed.
Step 1: Add SEO Titles & Descriptions to Each Page
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps search engines like Google understand what your site, and each individual page, is about. While Squarespace handles some SEO automatically, you should still customize your SEO titles and descriptions for every main page.
Here’s how to do it:
In Pages, click the gear icon next to each page.
Select SEO.
Fill in:
SEO Title: A clear, descriptive title including your name or genre.
Example: “About billie grace | Small-Town Romance Author”SEO Description: A 1-2 sentence summary of what’s on that page.
Example: “Learn more about author billie grace, writer of heartfelt small-town love stories and cozy romances.”
Tip: Keep the title under 60 characters and the description under 160 characters for best visibility in search results.
Repeat this for:
Your Home Page
About Page
Books Page
Any Extras or Bonus Content Pages
Step 2: Link Your Social Media Accounts
Squarespace makes it easy to connect your social media accounts so your readers can follow you elsewhere online.
To connect them:
Go to Settings > Social Links.
Add the full URLs to your profiles on platforms like:
Instagram
Facebook
TikTok
Pinterest
Goodreads
These will automatically populate in your site’s footer or wherever your template displays social icons.
Bonus Tip: Only link to accounts you actively use — it’s better to have 1-2 active links than five inactive profiles.
Step 3: Test Your Contact & Newsletter Forms
You don’t want to wait until your site is live to realize your forms aren’t working! Take a few minutes to test both:
Contact Form:
Submit a test message through your contact form.
Confirm that it arrives in your email inbox.
Optional: Customize the confirmation message or email response readers get after submitting.
Newsletter Signup:
If you offer a newsletter, make sure your signup form is connected to your email marketing provider (like Flodesk, ConvertKit, or Mailchimp).
Submit a test email to ensure it adds the subscriber to the correct list or sequence.
Tip: If you don’t have an email platform connected yet, that’s okay — but make sure to set that up before actively promoting your site.
Important: Double-check the email address associated with your forms. Squarespace often defaults to the email used when creating your account, which may not be the one you want to use for receiving inquiries or newsletter signups. Updating this ensures:
Messages go to the correct inbox (and not one you rarely check).
No important reader or client communication gets missed.
Future email integrations work seamlessly with your chosen platform.
Tip: If you don’t have an email platform connected yet, that’s okay — but make sure to set that up before actively promoting your site.
Action Steps
✓ Add an SEO title and description for every main page
✓ Connect your social media links under Settings > Social Links
✓ Submit a test message through your Contact form to confirm it works
✓ Test your Newsletter signup form to ensure it’s connected to your email platform (if applicable)
✓ Upload or double-check your Social Sharing Logo under Design > Social Sharing Logo
What’s Next
Once your SEO is set, your social links are connected, and your forms are tested — you’re officially ready to hit Publish.
In the final lesson of this module, I’ll show you how to make your site public, plus what to do immediately after launching.
