Before You Launch Your Squarespace Site: The Image Optimization Checklist

19 Jul

Launch day is the worst time to discover your images are too large

You've spent weeks building your Squarespace site. The design looks great. The copy is done. You hit publish and share the link. Someone opens it on their phone and waits 6 seconds for the page to load.

Images are almost always the thing people forget to check before launch. They look fine in the Squarespace editor. They look fine on your laptop. But on a mobile device on a standard connection they are slow, and that slowness affects your Google rankings from day one.

Here is the full pre-launch image checklist so you do not make this mistake.

1. Check your page weight in Google PageSpeed Insights

Before you launch, run your staging URL through Google PageSpeed Insights. Look at the "Largest Contentful Paint" score and any image-related warnings. If images are flagged, fix them before you go live. Starting with a clean score is much easier than fixing it after launch.

2. Set a target of 250 KB per image

This is the number Squarespace SEO experts consistently recommend. It balances visual quality with load speed. Hero images and full-width banners can go up to 500 KB if needed, but 250 KB is the target for most content images.

3. Check every image on every page type

It is easy to optimize the homepage and forget about:

Blog post cover images
Product photos and thumbnails
Portfolio project images
Gallery block images
About page team photos
Background images on section blocks

All of these contribute to page weight and all of them need to be under 250 KB.

4. Name your image files correctly

Google indexes image filenames. A file named IMG_4821.jpg tells Google nothing. A file named squarespace-portfolio-branding-project.jpg helps Google understand your content. Rename images before uploading using descriptive, hyphen-separated names that include your target keyword where natural.

5. Add alt text to every image

Alt text improves accessibility for screen readers and helps Google understand your images. Keep it under 125 characters. Describe what is in the image clearly and include your keyword naturally where it fits.

6. Compress every image before or after upload

If your site is already built with images uploaded, compressing and re-uploading each one manually is a significant time investment. SquareOptimizer is a browser extension that scans your entire Squarespace site and compresses every image in one session, directly in your editor. No re-uploading, no repositioning.

Run it as your final step before launch. Scan the whole site, select all images, optimize in one click. Compress your Squarespace images before launch and go live with a fast site from day one.

7. Re-run PageSpeed Insights after optimization

Once images are compressed, run PageSpeed Insights again. Your LCP score should improve noticeably. If you are targeting a score of 70 or above, image optimization is almost always the change that gets you there.