How to change Squarespace sitemap
Sitemaps are an essential part of your website's SEO strategy. They help search engines like Google understand the structure of your site, making it easier for them to discover and index your content. Let's dive into what you need to know and explore the options available for editing your Squarespace sitemap.
What is a Sitemap?
In simple terms, a sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website. It acts as a roadmap for search engines, guiding them through your site so they can find and index your content. Think of it as a directory that ensures all your important pages are accessible to search engines, which can significantly impact your SEO.
Understanding the Squarespace sitemap
If you're using Squarespace, you're in luck because it automatically generates a sitemap for your site. This means you don't have to worry about manually creating one—Squarespace does it for you. The sitemap includes all your published pages, blog posts, product pages, and even pages in "Not Linked" navigation.
But here’s the catch: while Squarespace creates the sitemap for you, it doesn't give you direct access to edit it within the platform. However, you do have some control over what gets included in the sitemap.
What can you do with your Squarespace sitemap?
Even though you can’t directly tweak your sitemap in the Squarespace dashboard, there are still ways to manage it. For instance, the sitemap is automatically updated whenever you edit page content, add or update images, or insert a new tag or category in your collections.
Most of your site's pages, including those in the "Not Linked" section, will be included in the sitemap as soon as you create them. But what if you want to remove a page from the sitemap? Let’s look at the options.
How to Edit Your Squarespace Sitemap
While you can't directly edit the Squarespace sitemap, you can exclude certain pages. Here’s how:
Disabled and Password Protected pages
If you set a page to be password-protected, Squarespace will automatically exclude it from the sitemap. This is useful for pages that you don’t want search engines or the public to access.
From Squarespace dashboard, go to Pages
Hover over the page you want to edit and clicking the Gear icon
In General tab, ensure the Enable Page option is unchecked or set a password Password field
Hiding Pages from Search Engines
Another way to exclude a page is by explicitly hiding it from search engines. This option is available in the page settings, and once enabled, the page won’t appear in your sitemap.
From Squarespace dashboard, go to Pages
Hover over the page you want to edit and clicking the Gear icon
In SEO tab, ensure the Hide Page from Search Results option is checked
Excluding Collection Pages from the Sitemap
Squarespace also allows you to exclude specific collection pages, particularly for blog collections. For example, you can remove tags and categories pages from appearing in the sitemap. This is especially handy if you want to avoid cluttering your sitemap with pages that might not add much SEO value.
From Squarespace dashboard, go to Pages
Hover over the Blog collection you want to edit and clicking the Gear icon
In SEO tab, ensure the All category pages in this collection and All tag pages in this collection option are checked
Generating an alternate sitemap
If you’re looking for more control over your sitemap, creating a custom sitemap.xml file and uploading it to your Squarespace root directory is a viable option. Here's a simplified process:
Create an Alternate Sitemap: For example, name it
alternate-sitemap.xml.Upload the File: Use the Link Manager to upload the file, making it accessible at
/s/alternate-sitemap.xml.Set Up a Redirect: Trace the file to its source and configure a redirect so that it’s available at
yoursite.com/alternate-sitemap.xml.
You can view a sample alternate sitemap that I created, which includes only the /case-studies pages of my website. Note: the file is uploaded as attachment in Link manger, so when click on those links the file will be downloaded instead of opening in new tab
Uploaded alternate sitemap:
alternate-sitemap.xmlRedirected path: Available at
beyondspace.studio/alternate-sitemap.xml
This custom sitemap has been tested with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and was accepted without issue.
Google alternate sitemap
Bing alternate sitemap.png
While this method provides the flexibility to include only the pages you want, it does have some drawbacks. You’ll need to manually update the sitemap and retrieve the file’s URL whenever you make changes. Although effective, this approach may be less practical for larger sites with frequent updates.
Advanced method: using Cloudflare Workers to modify your sitemap
If you're looking for a more dynamic way to manage your sitemap, Cloudflare Workers offer an advanced solution. By connecting your site to Cloudflare, you can modify your Squarespace sitemap on the fly, giving you much more flexibility.
Why Use Cloudflare Workers?
Cloudflare Workers allow you to modify your /sitemap.xml file dynamically without the need to manually re-upload files. By using HTMLRewriter with Cloudflare Worker routes, you can fetch and update the sitemap on the fly, making it incredibly convenient to implement changes that Squarespace doesn’t natively support.
For instance, I wanted to remove all pages from the sitemap except for /case-studies, Cloudflare Workers enable me to do this while ensuring the modified sitemap remains fully crawlable by search engines like Google and Bing.
You can preview an alternate sitemap generated by Cloudflare Workers at https://beyondspace.studio/case-study-sitemap.xml. This file is automatically updated every time I add a new page to the /case-studies blog, ensuring that the alternate sitemap always reflects the most current content.
Other Use Cases for Cloudflare Workers
Cloudflare Workers can also help you manage other sitemap-related tasks, such as:
Removing Tags and Categories from non-Blog collections: If you have collections like Products or Events, you might not want their tags and categories to appear in your sitemap. Cloudflare Workers can help you exclude these pages, similar to what available with Blog collection. This can effective resolve the canonical issues, ensuring that only the most relevant content is indexed by search engines
Resolving Image Block Issues: Squarespace often includes image blocks with default captions in the sitemap. If you’re tired of manually removing these, modifying the sitemap via Cloudflare Workers can save you a lot of hassle.
Conclusion
Squarespace’s default sitemap offers limited control, but with the right techniques, you can effectively manage and customize your sitemap to suit your SEO needs. While you can't directly edit the sitemap within Squarespace, methods like excluding specific pages, creating custom sitemaps, and using Cloudflare Workers provide robust alternatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Can we edit the Squarespace sitemap?
Not directly within the Squarespace dashboard. However, you can exclude pages from the sitemap and use alternate methods like custom sitemaps or Cloudflare Workers to modify it.
Question: Why do we need an alternate sitemap?
An alternate sitemap offers more control, allowing you to customize which pages are indexed by search engines, especially when Squarespace’s default options are insufficient for your needs.
