How Do I Edit a Sitemap on Squarespace?

Editing a sitemap on Squarespace involves adjusting the website’s structure and page settings, as the platform automatically generates a sitemap.xml file based on your website's content and structure. Here are the steps to effectively manage and edit the sitemap for your Squarespace site:

1. Understanding the Sitemap Structure

Squarespace automatically generates a sitemap XML file (usually available at www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) that includes links to pages like your blog posts, product pages, category pages, and regular web pages. This is done to help search engines like Google index your site effectively.

2. Access Your Site’s Backend

• Log in to your Squarespace account.
• Navigate to the Home Menu, which is typically on the left-hand side.

3. Manage Your Pages

To influence what appears in your sitemap, you need to manage your pages accordingly:

a. Adding Pages and Content

• Click ‘Pages’ in the Home Menu.
• Add Pages: To add a new page to your site (and thus to your sitemap), click the ‘+’ button. Choose the type of page you want to create (Standard Page, Blog, Store, etc.), and configure it as needed.
• Edit Content: Add content to your new or existing pages, ensuring they are meaningful and well-structured for SEO purposes.

b. Reorganizing Pages

• Drag and Drop: Rearrange your page hierarchy by dragging and dropping pages in the ‘Pages’ section. Pages set as sub-pages of another page will be nested in the sitemap under the parent page.

c. Hiding Pages from the Sitemap

• Uncheck "Enabled": If there are pages you do not want included in your sitemap, simply uncheck the “Enabled” option within the page settings.
  • Click on the page you want to adjust.
  • Click the Cog (⚙️) icon for settings.
  • Switch Enabled to off. This will keep the page live, but not listed in the sitemap.

4. Page and SEO Settings

a. Modify SEO Settings for Each Page

• Access Page Settings: For each page you want to adjust, click the ⚙️ icon.
• SEO: In the settings menu, navigate to the SEO tab. Here you can:
  • Set Page Title and Description: Customize the title and meta description, which will not directly affect the sitemap but is crucial for how search engines understand your pages.
  • Hide from Search Engines: Toggle the “Hide this page from search results” to on if you do not want the page to be indexed.

5. Checking and Submitting the Sitemap

• View the Sitemap: Visit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to verify the changes. Ensure all the important pages are present and none that you don’t want are included.
• Submit to Search Engines:
  • Google Search Console: To notify Google of your sitemap, log in to Google Search Console, select your property, and navigate to Sitemaps under the Index section. Enter your sitemap URL and click ‘Submit’.
  • Bing Webmaster Tools: Similarly, log in to Bing Webmaster Tools, select your site, and go to the ‘Sitemaps’ section to submit your sitemap URL.

Limitations and Considerations

• Dynamic versus Static Changes: Remember that some changes in Squarespace can take a while to be picked by search engine crawlers. Also, direct editing of the generated sitemap itself is not possible within Squarespace.
• Third-party Tools: For advanced SEO and sitemap management, consider integrating third-party tools and platforms.
• Custom Code: If you require highly customized sitemap modifications, Squarespace might not be the ideal platform as it has limited flexibility in terms of backend code modification.

By following these steps, you’ll effectively manage your Squarespace sitemap, ensuring it accurately represents your site structure and helps optimize your site for search engine visibility.