Spring clean your Squarespace website: A simple backend checklist
Tending Your Online Home is a series of website notes inspired by real client projects. Small fixes and simple ways to create an online home that feels supportive and aligned.
My German husband introduced me to the concept of Stosslüften.
It’s the practice of opening every window for ten minutes to let the stale air out and the fresh air in. It's not a deep clean. It's just a refresh. And sometimes that's exactly what's needed.
Your website backend could use the same.
Most of us tend to the front of our websites: refreshing copy, updating images, tweaking the homepage. But the backend deserves a little love too. A tidy, well-maintained website runs better, shows up better in search, and simply feels better to work with.
You don't need to do it all at once. Pick one or two tasks and come back to the rest another day.
Check and Test
Run a broken link checker to find and fix any dead links on your site. A simple free tool like Broken Link Check works well.
Test all your forms. Fill them out and make sure they are delivering to the right email address. You might be surprised.
Hide any draft pages, thank you pages, and hidden pages from search engines so they don't get indexed. In Squarespace, go to Pages, click the gear icon on the page, and uncheck "Enable Page in Search Results."
Review your SEO page titles and descriptions. Are they still accurate and relevant?
Check your mobile view. Open your website on your phone and scroll through every page. Things shift more than you think.
Tidy and Organize
Look for any broken or missing images that may have disappeared over time.
Go through your draft and unused pages. Delete the ones you no longer need. If you want to keep a page for future use, make sure it is disabled and hidden from search engines so it doesn't get indexed. In Squarespace, go to Pages, click the gear icon on the page, and uncheck "Enable Page in Search Results."
Organize your image assets into folders based on your website pages. It takes a little time upfront and saves so much time later.
Update your footer copyright year.
Website Tending Sessions
If your online home feels a little tangled, technically or otherwise, I'd love to help you sort it out with a Website Tending Session.
