Getting your website to rank high on Google isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore—it’s the lifeblood of any modern business, creative project, or side hustle. If you’ve ever tried to wrestle your site onto page one, you know there’s no magic wand. The tools you pick to build your website can either help you cruise ahead of competitors or make you feel like you’re running in sand. Webflow and Squarespace are everywhere these days, but don’t let sleek landing pages fool you. When it comes to Webflow SEO compared to what Squarespace can muster, the differences run much deeper than what they show in the features list.
Open the backend of Webflow and Squarespace, and you’ll see two totally different philosophies about how websites should be built. Webflow was made for folks who want crawlability, speed, and fine-tuned control over absolutely everything. Squarespace is all about templates, drag-and-drop, and making a site fast without fiddly details.
First, let’s talk about on-page SEO controls. In Webflow, you can set page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, open graph data, and canonical tags with zero fuss. Want a custom robots.txt or sitemap? You get it all—right out of the box. Squarespace lets you set titles and meta descriptions, sure, but you have to dig into page settings, and for things like canonical tags, forget about true customisation unless you’re a developer itching to use code injections. Even then, it’s not as straightforward.
Image optimisation is another battleground. Webflow lets you lazy-load images, assign alt text, and tweak file sizes, even offering WebP image support (which Google loves). Squarespace lags here. Their automatic compression can occasionally nuke quality, and you get less say over how and when images load. For folks running photography sites or portfolios, that’s a sore spot—your images might look blurry, and the site can slow down.
The big one for most site owners is URL structure. Webflow gives you full power to create custom URLs for every page—blog posts, landing pages, whatever you want. This helps you craft keyword-rich slugs and keep things lean. Squarespace? Automatic URLs tie closely to your page names. Try building a neat hierarchy, and you might find yourself wrestling weird dashes and unnecessary words into your slugs. Not a total dealbreaker, but it adds up.
Schema markup is a game-changer. Google relies on schema (those little code snippets) to better understand your pages and display rich snippets. In Webflow, you can add custom code everywhere—a blog post, a service page, anything. Squarespace supports basic product schema for shops, but if you need FAQ or review schema, you’re left hacking things in with code blocks or third-party tools. That’s a pain for anyone who isn’t a developer.
Let’s put some of this into quick visual context:
| SEO Feature | Webflow | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Meta Titles/Descriptions | Yes (easy) | Yes (basic) |
| Image Alt Text | Yes (full control) | Yes (limited) |
| WebP Image Support | Yes | No |
| Custom URL Structures | Yes | Limited |
| Schema Markup | Custom anywhere | Limited (product only) |
| XML Sitemap Control | Yes (full) | Auto-generated (no edit) |
For nerds who crave complete control, Webflow knocks it out of the park. But if you just want to get a solid enough result with the least effort, Squarespace works as advertised—with limits.
If you’ve ever dropped your site link into Google’s PageSpeed Insights and watched that score nosedive, you know the panic. Core Web Vitals—like page load times, interactivity, and layout shifts—shape how your website ranks, and Google’s not playing around. They’re giving out real penalties for bad scores. Now, the funny thing is, the website builder you choose pretty much locks you into a certain base level of performance.
Webflow puts speed and clean code at the forefront. Every website you publish uses lean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with zero junk. There’s no extra plugin bloat. Webflow sites are hosted on AWS and use Fastly as their CDN, so no matter where someone clicks from—London, LA, or Lagos—pages load fast. Want to tweak critical CSS, move scripts to the footer, or pre-connect to your favourite fonts? You have the option. For anyone chasing that elusive green "Good" score on their Core Web Vitals dashboard, these things add up fast.
Squarespace, on the other hand, prioritises ease-of-use, sometimes at the expense of granular performance tweaks. All users share the same server architecture. The codebase is heavier because of built-in features most users may never need, and you can't easily strip out what's unnecessary. If your site is image-heavy, you might see load times drop, especially if you’re on a lower Squarespace plan with less CDN support. That being said, for most small sites, Squarespace is fast enough out of the box—it's just if you want to push the limits for ranking in competitive niches, you might hit a wall.
Here’s where it gets interesting. In late 2024, an independent agency called SiteSpeedLab ran a study on 500 randomly sampled business websites—250 on Webflow and 250 on Squarespace. They measured First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), two Google Core Web Vitals. On average, Webflow sites loaded visible content in 1.1 seconds and largest content in 2.3 seconds. Squarespace clocked in at 1.5 seconds and 2.8 seconds respectively. Not rocket speed, but in search rankings, even half a second can bump you from spot three to five.
Mobile responsiveness is also tied in here. Both platforms offer mobile-friendly design, and Google grades mobile performance heavily. But here’s the kicker—Webflow lets you fine-tune your site for different devices, hiding or changing blocks for mobile or desktop. Squarespace designs are "responsive" but there’s less customisation—it's one-size-fits-all.
Webflow users also get more control with 301 redirects, broken link fixes, and site-wide maintenance. You can set up sophisticated redirects right in the dashboard, so if you move a page or change a slug, you don’t bleed SEO juice. Squarespace manages some redirects, but it’s clunky and buried in advanced settings—not ideal if your site’s growing or you’re handling lots of content.
If you want tidy, error-free code, Webflow is the pick. Squarespace layouts might sometimes include extraneous markup from the drag-and-drop builder. It's not the end of the world, but Google likes a lean, mean codebase.
SSL? Both platforms chuck a certificate on your site with no hassle. But unlike WordPress, there aren't loads of plugin conflicts for either system, so you’re protected from most freak technical SEO issues.
Here’s a hot tip: Don't forget to audit your site semi-regularly with tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. Even the best builder can hide little bugs that zap your rankings. On Webflow, it's easier to spot and solve them. Squarespace, you might end up needing to message support.
There’s no point picking a platform unless you know it’ll grow with you. Maybe you’re just starting a personal blog, or maybe you’re planning to build a multi-region store with 500+ products. Webflow and Squarespace scale differently, and how they handle SEO as you expand is something that gets overlooked.
If you’re running a blog-heavy website, Webflow’s CMS is a bit like a blank slate. You structure content exactly as you want, add reference fields, date-based SEO, or topic tagging. Want to run content silos for advanced SEO structure? You can. Squarespace’s blog engine is more rigid: title, body, categories, and tags. Most of your content looks and feels the same, so you can’t build deep topic clusters or play around with searchable archives as creatively as you might on Webflow or WordPress.
Speaking of e-commerce, both Webflow and Squarespace support online shops. Squarespace is purpose-built for creators with simple product portfolios—think handmade jewellery or art prints. Their SEO settings for products are basic but reliable—title, alt text, product schema. Webflow lets you custom tune category and product pages. Fancy tweaking product snippets, breadcrumb navigation, or structured data for reviews? Webflow is up for it, but it takes more time.
Now, integrations matter a ton for modern SEO. You want to connect Google Analytics 4, Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, or run experiments with A/B testing. Both platforms offer analytics integration, but Webflow’s custom code blocks give you control over exactly what gets loaded and when, plus you’re in charge of cookie consent and privacy banners. Squarespace is simpler; they offer built-in integrations for standard tools, but you’re stuck within their options. If you want weird or bleeding-edge SEO tools, that’s a rough patch for Squarespace users.
Ready for a killer fact? In 2025, over 40% of Leeds-based startups said their go-to stack for content websites was Webflow paired with Ahrefs or SEMRush for keyword tuning. Squarespace had more traction with local creative studios who just wanted a beautiful portfolio, fast. The technical marketing crowd loves fiddling with Webflow’s nuts and bolts. The design-first crowd wants simplicity, and Squarespace is often their weapon of choice.
There’s also the question of ownership. Webflow lets you export clean HTML and CSS any time (except full CMS sites, which are hosted only on Webflow). Squarespace keeps everything locked inside their hosting. If you ever want to take your SEO work and migrate somewhere new, Webflow is far easier—there’s no messy data loss or broken links. It’s not just a technical difference; it’s freedom over your hard-won rankings.
Support-wise, Squarespace has a big helpdesk and live chat, great for new users who want hand-holding. Webflow’s community runs deep in forums and YouTube, but there’s more of a DIY vibe. Learning curve is steeper on Webflow, but once you fly solo, you can run circles around “my site builder won’t let me” complaints. If you plan to hand off SEO work to someone else, Webflow’s documentation blows Squarespace out of the water—it’s friendly to collaboration between designers, marketers, and developers.
Couple of pro tips to end: Whether you choose Webflow or Squarespace, check up on your structured data using Google's Rich Results Test, set up automatic uptime tracking, and use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Tester. If you’re on Webflow, squeeze out every millisecond with critical CSS settings and preconnecting to essential resources like Google Fonts. On Squarespace, minimise unnecessary blocks on your homepage and keep your images compressed before upload. Both platforms benefit from regular SEO audits, not just after launch.
So, is Webflow better than Squarespace for SEO in 2025? For anyone serious about climbing Google’s ladder—and who wants control, scalability, and tech flexibility—Webflow is the clear winner. But if you want something beautiful, quick, and “good enough” SEO, Squarespace has its place. The real trick is picking the one that suits your ambitions—because once the bots start crawling, you’re playing for keeps.
Written by Caden Whitmore
View all posts by: Caden Whitmore