Squarespace SEO: settings, sitemap and what the AI crawler checkbox really blocks

Squarespace SEO is set in the SEO/AI Visibility panel and in each page's SEO tab. The platform generates the sitemap and much of the structured data. You cannot edit robots.txt: there is just a checkbox that blocks 26 AI bots, mostly training crawlers, and it leaves OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot untouched.

To check it on your own site: SEO audit

Squarespace is a hosted website builder: the platform supplies the server, the code and most technical decisions, and you work through panels. This guide quotes the interface labels exactly as Squarespace's help centre does, so you can check them yourself. Everything here applies to version 7.1 unless stated otherwise.

Where do you set up SEO on Squarespace?

In two places: one for the whole site and one per page.

1. Title formats. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel and go to "SEO Settings". Under "Search Appearance" there are three tabs: Home, Pages and Items1. Each accepts variables: %s is the site title, %p the page's SEO title and %i the SEO title of a collection item such as a blog post or a product1. By default pages appear as "Page Title — Site Name"1.
2. Each page. In the Pages panel, the page's gear icon and the SEO tab: SEO title, description and URL. That is also where the "Hide page from search results" toggle lives; it adds a noindex and removes the page from the sitemap2.

One warning from the help centre worth remembering: if you remove %p from the page title format, neither the SEO title nor the page title shows in browser tabs, even if you wrote one1. Keep the variable.

Sitemap and Google Search Console

Squarespace creates and updates the sitemap on its own, with your URLs and image metadata; you do not need to submit it and you cannot edit it3. It lives at https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, usually updates within an hour and at most within 24, and leaves out pages hidden from search, password-protected pages and disabled pages4.

For Google Search Console, Squarespace connects your account from the Analytics panel, "Search keywords"5. If you would rather verify the domain yourself, the .txt file method is not supported; the help centre recommends a TXT record in your DNS5. A trial site cannot be verified because it is hidden from search engines5.

The AI crawler checkbox: what it really blocks

On Squarespace you cannot write your own robots.txt: every site uses the same file and users cannot access or edit it6. All you control are two checkboxes under the Settings panel, "Crawlers":

• "Block Search engine crawlers" adds Disallow: / and removes the whole site from search engines2.
• "Block known artificial intelligence crawlers" asks a list of AI bots not to crawl the site. It is unticked by default7.

Squarespace's help publishes the exact list the second checkbox blocks: 26 names7. This table groups them by what their owners document:

What the list leaves out

The list does not include OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User or PerplexityBot, the crawlers that decide whether ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity can cite you8915. Nor does it include ChatGPT-User or Perplexity-User, which fetch pages on a user's behalf and, according to their owners, may not follow robots.txt815.

Some guides say this checkbox blocks PerplexityBot or ChatGPT-User. The list Squarespace publishes today does not contain them. If you tick the box, you can still appear in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity search; what you lose is DuckAssist, grounding in the Gemini app and the training data of around twenty models.

How to decide

Because robots.txt cannot be edited, the choice is all or nothing:

1. If you want out of training and do not care about DuckDuckGo, tick the box. It is a legitimate editorial decision.
2. If DuckDuckGo or the Gemini app bring you customers, leave it unticked. There is no way to block GPTBot and still let DuckAssistBot through.
3. Either way, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity keep their robots.txt access. Squarespace itself leaves the box unticked by default so as not to hurt traffic arriving from assistants7.

Remember that robots.txt is a request: a bot that ignores it or fakes its user-agent is not blocked. Squarespace's help says the same: the only way to keep content from every crawler is to make it private7.

Structured data and code injection

Squarespace generates automatic structured data for six types: blog post, event, local business, organisation, product and website. You cannot edit or remove it3. For products it covers name, image, description, price range and availability3.

To add any other type, such as a service, you need code injection, which depends on your plan; the help centre lists the plans that include it16. In page settings, "Advanced" tab, the "Page Header Code Injection" field places code in that page's <head>16. For example:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Service",
  "name": "Full kitchen refurbishment",
  "areaServed": "Manchester",
  "provider": { "@type": "LocalBusiness", "name": "Example Builders" }
}
</script>

Before pasting it, run the page through the Rich Results Test to see what Squarespace already outputs, so you do not declare the same business twice. And make sure what you mark up is visible on the page, as Google requires17.

301 redirects with URL mappings

Redirects go in the Developer tools panel, "URL mappings", one per line and in this format18.

/old-services -> /services 301
/blog/[name] -> /articles/[name] 301

The second line redirects every post of a blog whose URL changed from /blog to /articles. The source page must be deleted or disabled for the redirect to work, and rules apply from top to bottom18.

llms.txt and the AI Visibility tool

On version 7.1 you can create an llms.txt from the SEO/AI Visibility panel, "SEO Settings", "LLMS.txt" tab. It is off by default, and Squarespace gives no content advice because the format is still being developed19. Google says no AI text files are needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode20. It is optional and cheap, with no proven effect.

Squarespace also has an AI Visibility tool that runs prompts through ChatGPT or Gemini and records whether you are mentioned; the credits depend on your plan21. It measures the outcome. Whether an assistant can read you still comes down to its crawlers' access.

How to check it

• robots.txt: open https://www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If you see groups for GPTBot or DuckAssistBot with Disallow: /, the AI checkbox is ticked.
• Response per bot: curl -I -A "OAI-SearchBot/1.3" https://www.yourdomain.com/ should return a 200.
• Indexing: URL Inspection in Search Console. Warnings about URLs blocked by robots.txt under /config/ or /api/ are normal: Squarespace blocks them on purpose6.
• Structured data: Google's Rich Results Test.
• Speed: PageSpeed Insights, against Google's thresholds: LCP of 2.5 s or less, INP of 200 ms or less and CLS of 0.1 or less, at the 75th percentile22.

What SmoothSeen does with this

SmoothSeen analyses a page on your Squarespace site and, under AI visibility, reads your robots.txt with search crawlers kept apart from training crawlers: blocking the training ones does not count as a failure. It also requests the page with each crawler's user-agent to catch any that get a 403. Under Web visibility it checks titles, sitemap, structured data and speed with PageSpeed Insights data.

What to do this week

Open Settings, "Crawlers", and use the table above to decide whether the AI checkbox suits you. Then check that your title formats still contain %p and %i. If you want to see which AI crawlers can read your page, analyse it with SmoothSeen.

If you are comparing website builders, the Wix and Webflow guides cover the same ground.

Frequently asked questions

Can I edit robots.txt on Squarespace?

No. Squarespace uses the same robots.txt on every site and does not let you access or change it. You only get two checkboxes: one removes the site from search engines and the other blocks a list of 26 AI crawlers. For a single page, the alternative is the toggle that hides it from search results, which adds a noindex.

Will blocking AI crawlers on Squarespace remove me from ChatGPT?

Not from ChatGPT search. The list Squarespace blocks includes GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler, but not OAI-SearchBot, which decides whether you appear in ChatGPT search answers. The same applies to Claude and Perplexity. It does remove you from DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers.

Does Squarespace add structured data automatically?

Yes. It generates blog post, event, local business, organisation, product and website markup, and you cannot edit or remove it. To add other types you need code injection, which depends on your plan. Before adding your own markup, check that it does not duplicate what the platform already outputs.

Does Squarespace support llms.txt?

Yes, on version 7.1, from the LLMS.txt tab in the SEO settings. It is off by default and you write the content. No AI search engine has documented reading it and Google says no AI text files are needed, so you can create one without expecting any particular effect.