x mins

Get our best ideas
in your inbox

Webflow vs. Squarespace: What's the Best Site Builder for SEO?

Team

Last edited on Oct 01, 2024

Thinking of switching between Webflow and Squarespace? Or perhaps you're just getting started with building your website and you're curious about the SEO capabilities of these two popular platforms. In this article, we'll compare the SEO features of Webflow and Squarespace to help you make an informed decision.

But first, an introduction.

What Is Webflow?

Webflow is a website builder with a robust set of features, including a responsive design editor, a CMS for blogs and other dynamic content, and comprehensive e-commerce functionality. It focuses on providing its users with an intuitive and coding-free website creation experience without compromising on customization and control over the design.

Webflow also pays attention to SEO, enabling its users to generate clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, which can enhance site performance and improve SEO rankings. For pricing, Webflow offers various plans ranging from basic to enterprise-level options, with rates starting at $14/month.

What Is Squarespace?

Squarespace is another popular website builder known for its beautiful, professional templates. Its focus on design makes it an attractive choice for creatives, small businesses, and entrepreneurs who want to set up an online presence quickly and easily.

Squarespace also includes SEO features, blogging capabilities, social media integrations, and e-commerce support in all their plans. In terms of pricing, Squarespace offers four main plans: Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, and Commerce Advanced, with prices starting from $12/month.

Webflow vs. Squarespace for SEO

Both Webflow and Squarespace come with SEO-friendly features and characteristics out-of-the-box.

In this section, we'll compare their:

Built-in SEO features
Integrations (with a focus on SEO optimizations & contentOps)
Performance & speed
Content optimization
Localization

Built-in SEO Features

🏆 Winner: Webflow

Both platforms offer basic SEO features, such as:

Customizable meta tags
Alt text for images
Automatic sitemaps
Clean URL structure

However, Webflow stands out for its more advanced SEO capabilities like:

301 redirects
Custom canonical tags
More granular control over code & on-page SEO

SEO-focused Integrations

🏆 Winner: Webflow

Webflow supports custom code embeds, allowing seamless integration with advanced SEO tools and platforms. This offers users enhanced SEO capabilities and streamlined workflow automation.

When it comes to enhancing your SEO through integrations, both Webflow and {{competitor}} offer valuable tools that complement their built-in features. Thanks to custom code embeds, Webflow seamlessly integrates with analytics and optimization platforms.

Additionally, Webflow has an App Marketplace that offers dozens of third-party plugins for everything from keyword optimization to technical SEO monitoring.

Squarespace, on the other hand, has basic SEO integrations like Google Search Console and Google Analytics, but it doesn't quite match Webflow's offering. To make matters worse, there aren't many SEO-focused Squarespace extensions.

Performance and Speed

🏆 Winner: Webflow

When it comes to performance and speed, Webflow is generally considered superior to Squarespace. Webflow sites benefit from cleaner, more efficient code generation, which translates into faster loading times. This platform excels at optimizing assets, utilizing advanced content delivery networks (CDNs), and creating a streamlined, clutter-free experience, all of which contribute to faster page speeds—a crucial factor for SEO success.

In contrast, Squarespace, while reliable, often struggles with the same level of agility due to more generic, template-heavy code. Although it offers caching and basic speed optimization features, its performance doesn't quite match the customized efficiencies that Webflow affords its users. Therefore, those seeking speed optimization as a critical component of their SEO strategy may find Webflow to be the more advantageous choice.

Content Optimization

🏆 Winner: Webflow

Both platforms support content optimization strategies, including the use of keywords and meta tags. However, Webflow’s flexibility and more precise control over on-page SEO give it an edge over Squarespace.

On Webflow, you can create fully personalized content collections and easily integrate dynamic and "hard-coded" content. Additionally, you can easily visualize and connect your content collections, through an intuitive editor interface.

In order to appeal to non-devs, Squarespace has a far simpler content management workflow. But both devs and marketers will find it constraining.

Localization

🏆 Winner: Webflow

For businesses with a global audience, localization is vital. Both Webflow and Squarespace offer basic localization features, such as multilingual support. Here, too, Webflow offers more advanced features, such as automatic site routing, making it a better choice for enterprises catering to a global audience.

Squarespace doesn't have localization features out-of-the-box, but it can be integrated with localization tools such as WeGlot.

So, Which Is Better?

Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses. Which site builder is the best for you will depend on your particular use case. Webflow tends to offer more advanced SEO features and integration capabilities, while Squarespace offers a simpler, more user-friendly design-oriented platform.

If increasing your organic traffic is your top priority and you want full control over your on-page SEO, Webflow might just be the better choice. However, Squarespace could be the right option if you're looking for a platform that's easy to use, visually appealing, and comes with basic SEO support.

Regardless of the platform you choose, it’s vital to have a solid SEO strategy in place to attract traffic to your website and convert visitors into customers.