How To Manually Add Breadcrumb Schema To Squarespace Sites

When it comes to SEO, it is the little things that make all the difference, in what seems like a never-ending checklist of site optimisation. The key takeaway is not to be the most optimised, but be more optimised than your competitors. Due to the improvement in website CMS such as WordPress, Webflow, Shopify and Squarespace, to name a few, a lot of the work we would have typically done, is now done for you. Still, it also means a lot of what you want to do is either locked away behind paywalls or clunky implementation.

I see this all the time when it comes to Squarespace built websites; it's a simple drag and drop system that allows anyone to create a website code free. It's closed source CMS does make it problematic to add specific changes once you've created your site. You may have to rely more on a content strategy than technical changes to improve organic traffic, but this is the trade-off you make when opting for a hands-off system like Squarespace.

A flat structure can hold you back

Since Squarespace is such an easy to use the system and anyone can get in and start building a site, one of the critical user errors in terms of SEO is the flat URL structure. Squarespace users often do not think of creating an information architecture or a hierarchy of pages and use the default method to hose every page in their root directory.

This flat structure can cause orphaned pages; it can cause additional use of crawling bandwidth and give crawlers far more work than they are willing to do and you'll miss out on pages being indexed and lose out on potential traffic.

I always recommend working with an SEO before starting your website so you can have an information architecture put in place that can accommodate the growth of your site and support your content strategy. While URL structure is part of that, it doesn't mean you can't salvage it.

One way would be to create the various directories you require and migrate the pages and run 301 redirects, which may see you lose valuable link equity as you pass on from one URL to another.

Taking corrective action

The other option is to roll out breadcrumbs across the site, which is often the path of the least resistance.

By cleverly using breadcrumbs, you can associate seemly unrelated pages into various categories so that Google Bot will be able to understand the context of each page and where it belongs in your site structure.

As I mentioned earlier, Squarespace is a closed system and doesn't allow for much customisation so the microdata method of breadcrumbs if you have physical breadcrumbs on your page and marking those up, is out.

You will have to opt for the JSON-LD method of injecting this schema ontop the page.

Injecting breadcrumbs into your Squarespace site

First, you will need to compile your breadcrumb JSON-LD code which should look like this example below.

< script type="application/ld+json">

{ "@context": "https://schema.org",

"@type": "BreadcrumbList",

"itemListElement": [{ "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1,

"name": "Books", "item": "https://example.com/books" },{ "

@type": "ListItem",

"position": 2,

"name": "Science Fiction",

"item": "https://example.com/books/sciencefiction"

},{

"@type": "ListItem",

"position": 3,

"name": "Award Winners"

}]

}

< /script>

• Then, you will need to login to your Squarespace account
• Then select the page you would like to edit
• Once the page can be edited, click on the settings tab
• You will then be taken to a new menu called page settings
• Navigate to advanced
• In the code section, drop your breadcrumb JSON LD script
• Click save
• Then repeat the process with all pages

How to inject custom code into a page on Squarespace 

Note: This will work with all pages, blog articles will have a slight issue, so simply go with editing your main blog landing pages breadcrumbs

Yes, I realise this does seem like a labour-intensive method, especially as your site becomes larger, but this is now what you will have to live with if you chose not to build your site correctly from the beginning. Do not feel bad, every site has legacy issues they have to deal with, but it doesn't mean you should allow it to hold back the performance of your site.

Guiding crawlers in the right direction

As SEO's and webmasters, it's our jobs to organise our little part of the internet so that Google has an easier time figuring out what we have to say and relaying it to their user base. What may seem like a trivial update to many, could set your site apart from competitors and keep you in the good graces of Google a lot longer. 

So have you been using breadcrumbs? Has it improved your rankings and click-through rates? Let us know in the comments section down below. 

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Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have a little extra time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, why not check out the following posts on content marketing & SEO.

• What Is FAQ schema And How Do You Use it?
• Google introduces schema markups for live streams
• How To Use Googles New Video Schema
• Bing Now Supports JSON-LD Schema Markups
• Google Launches Voice Schema Support

Tags: SEO , Squarespace