Squarespace AI SEO: Write Page Titles, Descriptions and Alt Text

Make a list of your pages with their purpose and main search phrase, ask ChatGPT or Claude to draft a title, a meta description and alt text for each, edit the drafts to sound like you, then paste them into each page's SEO tab and each image block in Squarespace. Check the saved results afterwards, because AI invents details and repeats itself.

Squarespace has a built-in helper too. On version 7.1 sites built with Fluid Engine, once you have set up a Brand Identity, the SEO Score section of the SEO/AI Visibility panel flags pages missing an SEO description and images missing alt text, with Add metadata and Add alt text buttons that produce AI suggestions. It skips images inside collection items, and Squarespace itself says to review what it generates. Treat it as one more source of first drafts: the method here works whichever tool writes them.

Follow me on Instagram@sagnikteaches

The reason to work from a list rather than page by page is consistency. Written one at a time, titles drift: three pages start with the same phrase, descriptions repeat the home page, and half the images have no alt text. A single sitting with the whole site in view fixes that, and it takes a couple of hours for a site of fifteen to twenty pages. The running example is an interior design studio, since its pages are image-heavy and its services overlap.

Connect on LinkedInSagnik Bhattacharya

What each piece does

Three bits of text, three different jobs. Confusing them is the most common reason an AI draft misses.

Subscribe on YouTube@sagnikteaches

• SEO title. The headline in search results and the browser tab. Google uses it as a source for the clickable title link, alongside headings and other text on the page, and may switch to that other text if the title looks inaccurate. It is also what most people read before deciding to click.
• Meta description. The summary under the title. Google uses it for the snippet only when it describes the page better than text taken from the page itself, so its job is to earn the click, and a vague one is often replaced.
• Alt text. A short description of an image for screen-reader users and anyone whose images fail to load. Search engines also use it to understand pictures, particularly for image search.

Where they live in Squarespace: for a page, hover over it in the Pages panel and click the gear icon, then open the SEO tab, which holds the SEO Title, the SEO Description, a Hide Page from Search Results switch and a search results preview. The homepage is the exception: it has no page-level SEO title or description, so its title comes from the Home tab of SEO Settings (in the SEO/AI Visibility panel) and its description is the SEO site description on the same tab. Image alt text sits in the image block itself: click the block, then the pencil icon, and fill in the Image alt text field on the Content tab. Version 7.0 sites put these in different places, so use the names as a guide.

Step one: build a page inventory

The AI can only write about what you tell it, and a bare page list gives it nothing to work with. Build a table with one row per page. Include the page address, what the page is for, who it is aimed at, the one phrase you want it found for, and the facts that make it different.

The last column is the one most people skip, and it is what separates a title that sells from one that merely describes. If you cannot list two facts that are true of a page and not of the others, the page may need rethinking before any SEO text will help. Auditing your website's SEO with AI in one afternoon shows how to find those weaker pages.

Do not invent facts to fill the column. Use only what is genuinely on the page or in your records. Prices, timescales and counts that you state here will be repeated by the AI, and each one must be true.

Step two: set the rules in a standing prompt

Put the rules in a Project so that every draft uses them. Include your tone, the limits, and the things the AI must not do.

You write SEO text for a small interior design studio's Squarespace website.

RULES
- Title: 50 to 60 characters including spaces. Put the main phrase near the start. Add the studio name at the end only if there is room. No ALL CAPS, no exclamation marks.
- Meta description: 120 to 155 characters. State what the page offers and one concrete fact. End with a soft call to action where natural. Do not repeat the title word for word.
- Alt text: 8 to 20 words describing what is visible in the image, in plain words. Do not begin with "image of" or "picture of". Include a key phrase only if it is truly what the image shows.
- Use only facts I give you. Never add prices, awards, years, numbers or claims that are not in my notes.
- Every title and description on the site must be different from the others.
- British English. Tone: warm, plain, no hype words such as "stunning" or "world-class".
- After each item, give the character count and mark anything outside the limit.

The last rule helps but does not solve the problem, because language models count characters unreliably. Treat the counts as approximate and verify them yourself in the next step. If you want a primer on giving AI stable context, giving AI your business context covers it.

Step three: draft titles and descriptions in a batch

Paste the inventory table and ask for the whole set at once, so the AI can keep the titles distinct from one another.

Here is my page inventory. For each page write one SEO title and one meta description following the rules. Then add a column listing which facts from my table you used, so I can check them. If a page's facts are too thin to write a specific description, say so instead of padding.

[paste table]

An illustrative response for two rows:

Now apply judgement. Both titles fall short of the 50-character floor the rules set: the home title is 34 characters and the kitchens title 44, although the model was told the limits. That is the counting weakness in action. Neither is wrong, and both leave room for the studio's name after them. On Squarespace the home title also needs a different home: it goes into the Home tab of SEO Settings, and its description becomes the SEO site description. The descriptions are 128 and 132 characters, comfortably inside 155. "First sketch to final fitting" is a claim worth checking: if the studio does not manage fitting, delete it. That small phrase is the kind of detail AI adds to sound complete.

Check character counts in a spreadsheet with the LEN function rather than trusting the model. Paste the draft into a cell and use =LEN(B2). It takes a minute and catches overlong lines.

The repeat problem

If you ask for twenty titles in one conversation, you will often see the same sentence shape repeated: "[Service] | Interior Design Studio" twenty times. Ask for variety in structure, not just wording: some titles led by the service, some by the outcome, some by a question the page answers. Also check that no two pages target the same phrase. If two do, merge the pages or give each a different focus; AI cannot fix a site that competes with itself.

Step four: write alt text that describes, not stuffs

Alt text is the part most often done badly, by hand and by AI. The aim is a short, honest description that a person who cannot see the image would find useful.

Squarespace's own guidance is to keep alt text short, usually 150 to 200 characters, to skip words like "photo" or "picture", and to use keywords only where they fit naturally, which matches the rules in the standing prompt. For a portfolio, AI can describe photographs if the chatbot accepts images. Upload a handful at a time, ask for alt text in the style above, and check each against the picture. It may call a cabinet "white" when it is cream, name a material wrongly, or invent a detail from the room's style. Correct these yourself, and do not accept a description of something you cannot see in the photo.

I am uploading five photographs from a kitchen project. For each, write alt text of 8 to 20 words describing only what is visible. Do not guess materials or brands. If something is unclear, write [CHECK: what is unclear]. Number the answers in the order I uploaded them.

Skip decoration. A divider line, a background texture or a repeated logo does not need a description; leave those without alt text in your editor if it permits. And where an image holds text, such as a price list saved as a picture, the alt text must carry that text, or better still, put the text on the page as real words.

Step five: set it all in Squarespace

The writing is the quick part; entering it takes the time. For a twenty-page site allow an hour or two, and work through in a fixed order so you can see what is done.

1. Open the Pages panel and take each page in turn.
2. Open that page's settings (the gear icon) and go to the SEO tab. Paste the SEO title and SEO description, glance at the search results preview, and save. Skip the homepage here; it is handled in the fifth item of this list.
3. For each important image on the page, edit the page, click the image block, then the pencil icon, and paste the text into Image alt text on the Content tab. Do this for portfolio images first.
4. Tick the page off in your inventory table, with the date.
5. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel, go to SEO Settings and, on the Home tab, set the homepage title format and the SEO site description. The Pages and Items tabs hold the title formats for everything else; by default a page shows its SEO title followed by the site title.
6. Check the page's live address in a private browser window, and view the tab title.

Journal posts and product pages have their own SEO fields, so do not forget them. And note the Hide Page from Search Results switch in the SEO tab, which keeps a page public but out of search engines; it belongs on thank-you pages and anything you do not want found. A page that should not appear in search should not need a polished title.

Squarespace's own help pages describe the exact settings, and they change. If a field I describe is missing, search Squarespace's help pages for "SEO title" or "alt text" rather than guessing, and if your site uses version 7.0 rather than 7.1 the layout will differ.

A design studio redoes its search text in four hours

Take an imaginary design studio with 18 pages. All figures here are illustrative. Before the work, an audit shows that 11 pages still use the default title, which is the page title followed by the site title, and 6 have no description at all, so search engines pick text from the page. 31 of 46 portfolio images have no alt text.

First hour. The owner builds the inventory: page, purpose, phrase, facts. She spots that two journal posts target the same phrase, "choosing a kitchen worktop", and merges them into one stronger post, disabling the old one and pointing its address at the new post with a 301 redirect in the URL mappings panel (under Developer tools).

Second hour. She runs the batch prompt. The AI returns 17 pages of text. She finds three descriptions that make claims she cannot support (a "fully managed build" which the studio does not offer, an award, and a fixed price) and removes them. She rewrites four titles to be less alike and adds a 20-minute intro call, which is true, to the home description.

Third hour. Alt text for the 31 images, in batches of five. She corrects a "marble" worktop which is quartz, and rewrites six descriptions that were too vague to be useful.

Fourth hour. Entering the text, checking each in a private window and noting the date in the inventory. The site now has unique titles and descriptions on every page and alt text on every meaningful image.

She does not expect a leap in traffic the next day. She notes the date, saves a Google Search Console report of impressions and clicks for those pages, and compares after six to eight weeks. If you want to understand why results take that long and what else matters for local visibility, what AI can and cannot do for local SEO explains it.

Five ways this goes wrong, and the fix for each

Every title is the same shape

The site's search listing looks like a list of near-identical lines. Fix: ask for three structures (service first, outcome first, question) and use each on about a third of pages.

The description repeats the page's first paragraph

Search engines show both, so you waste the space. Write the description as the reason to click, not a copy of the opening line.

Keyword stuffing, AI-style

Ask a model to "optimise for SEO" and it will often cram the phrase in twice. Say instead what the phrase is, ask for it once near the start, and read the result aloud. If it sounds odd, it is.

Made-up details

The model adds a year in business, a service you do not offer or a fake number of projects. Keep the "facts used" column and check every item. Remove anything you cannot show on the page, since a claim in a search result that the page does not support will mislead visitors and can damage trust.

A rewrite that breaks a ranking page

You change the title of a page that already brings enquiries, and traffic drops. Before editing a page that performs, record its current title, description, clicks and impressions. Change it, wait a few weeks, and revert if results fall. Do not rewrite your best page and your worst page in the same week; you will not know which change mattered.

Where AI helps, and where it does not

AI is good at turning a table of facts into varied, tidy text quickly, and at checking a list for duplicates and length. It is weak at knowing what searchers in your market type, at judging whether a title is truthful, and at counting characters. It also has no view of your current rankings.

So use the human tools for the human questions. Google Search Console shows which queries already bring impressions to each page, and these are the phrases to build titles around. Typing your main phrase into a search box shows how competitors word theirs. A short list of three real questions from recent customer enquiries often beats any keyword tool for finding wording that matches how people speak.

The same routine also works on longer pages. For service pages and journal posts, drafting Squarespace service pages you can trust covers the body copy, and the AI credits and plan limits are covered in which plan gives you enough AI credits. If you are weighing the cost of the plans themselves, Squarespace's pricing page in November 2026 lists Basic at $19 a month billed annually ($25 monthly), Core at $29, Plus at $49 and Advanced at $99, with AI credits rising from 10 one-time credits on Basic to 20, 40 and 120 a month. Check the live page, since it can show local currency and changes.

A maintenance habit

Search text goes stale. Once a quarter, open the inventory and look for three things: pages added since the last pass that have default titles, pages whose facts have changed (a new price, a retired service), and images added without alt text. Paste any new pages into the same project and run the same prompt, rather than writing from scratch each time.

Keep the inventory table alongside the site. It records what you decided and why, saves you reinventing the wording when you change platform or hire help, and gives anyone who edits the site a standard to follow. A sheet with date, page, title, description, alt text done and last review is all you need.

One last caution on trust. Anything in a search result is a public statement about your business. Treat AI drafts as a first pass by someone who has never met you, and read every line before it goes live. If you would like help deciding where better search text will pay off most, my AI implementation consultation covers that; you can reach me through the contact page.

Squarespace AI and SEO questions

Does Squarespace write SEO text for me?

Partly. On version 7.1 sites using Fluid Engine, with a Brand Identity set up, the SEO Score section of the SEO/AI Visibility panel flags missing SEO descriptions and alt text and offers AI suggestions you can regenerate, edit or save. It skips images inside collection items, and Squarespace advises reviewing everything it generates.

Will AI-written titles hurt my rankings?

Not because AI wrote them. Titles and descriptions that are generic, duplicated or stuffed with keywords will do poorly whoever wrote them. What matters is that each is specific to its page, accurate and written for a person scanning results. Edit AI drafts so they sound like your business.

How long should a title and description be?

Search engines cut by pixel width, not a fixed count, so treat these as working targets: about 50 to 60 characters for titles and 120 to 155 for descriptions. Put the important words first, and use the search results preview in each page's SEO tab before you save.

Do I need alt text on every image?

On every image that carries meaning, yes. Alt text helps people using screen readers and tells search engines what the image shows. Purely decorative images can have empty alt text. Describe what is in the picture in plain words, and mention the product or service only when it is genuinely visible.

How soon will changes show in Google?

It varies. Google has to crawl the page again before a new title or description can appear, which can take days or weeks, and Google sometimes rewrites titles and descriptions anyway. Use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to request indexing of key pages; Google says indexing can take up to a week or two and caps requests per day. Judge results over a month or two.

Further reads

• How to Write Website Articles With AI That Still Rank on Google — Write the longer pages these titles point to.
• Squarespace AI Website Builder Review: Does It Suit an Electrician? — See how the Squarespace AI builder fares for a trade.
• Squarespace AI Website Builder Pricing for a Small Trade Business — Squarespace plan costs for a small trade business.
• How Wedding Businesses Get Found When Couples Ask AI for Suppliers — How suppliers get named when people ask AI for options.
• How to Use AI for Etsy Titles, Tags and Descriptions — The same drafting routine on a marketplace.
• How Can AI Help Photographers With Alt Text, Filenames and Captions? — Naming, alt text and captions for a 300-image wedding gallery with AI: a filename scheme, a prompt, a sample-check rule and the privacy checks for faces.
• Remodelling Company Website: Project Pages Written With AI From Photos — A before, scope, challenge and result template, a photo shot list, client permission wording and alt text, with one bathroom from 14 photos to a live page.
• AI Content Management Platform: How a Web Agency Picks One for Clients — Score WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace and Wix per client site on editor AI, hosting, cost and handover, then apply a simple decision rule.
• Shopify SEO With AI: Fix Titles and Meta Descriptions in Bulk — A CSV round trip for Shopify SEO text: export, rewrite with AI in batches, check length and duplicates, import, and judge it in Search Console.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: Squarespace pricing page and help centre articles on using Squarespace AI, page settings, title formats, alt text and URL mappings; Google Search Central guidance on title links, snippets and image alt text; Google Search Console help on URL Inspection; and the vendor documentation for ChatGPT and Claude.