Keeping Track using Squarespace Analytics
The Analytics tool gives Squarespace website users a wealth of information and insight into how your site performs daily. Website hits, conversions, revenues and more can be tracked easily on this built-in reporting platform. Squarespace provides a good amount of information on its own in a very simple format but it allows access to Google Analytics as well giving a well-rounded view.
Why Should You Use Squarespace Analytics?
It is always a good idea to track any businesses progress to ensure you are reaching targets. For example, say you are running a series of social media ads that link back to your website. It makes sense to track how many hits your website is getting and which ads are the most effective. You may discover approach works better than another (for example, one page ads vs. video ads or blogs vs email blasts). Squarespace analytics will also tell you which form and button conversions (calls to action) are working well and which ones needs to be reworded to entice more interaction.
Here is a summary of the features:
Traffic
Choose Analytics > Traffic to get an overview of your website traffic numbers. You have the ability to see any range of dates include a whole year’s worth down to a singe day. This is important when pinpointing exactly which marketing method is working best for you.
There are also a series of piecharts that show how your website is being accessed:
Visits by device (desktop, mobile, tablet)
Visits by source (Google, Facebook, direct traffic, etc.)
Visits by browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.)
Visits by operating system (Windows, OS X, etc.)
Traffic Sources
Choose Analytics > Traffic Sources to get even more detail
Traffic sources are divided into five groups:
Search - Breaks down which search engines are sending you the most traffic.
Social - When running Facebook, Instagram, Google or other ads, you can see exactly which one is performing the best.
Direct - When Squarespace can’t find a referring traffic source, it categorizes it as direct traffic. That usually means someone accessed your site through a browser bookmark or by typing in the URL of your site in the address bar.
Referral - Any referred traffic that Squarespace can’t categorize as search, social, or email gets dumped into this category. This also shows which backlinks are working well.
Email - Breaks down traffic coming from links in an email or email newsletter
Location Demographics
Choose Analytics > Geography to see where visitors are coming from. This is the least useful tab as it only the larger picture like which country a viewer is from.
Keywords & SEO
Choose Analytics > Google Search Keywords to see these important four metrics:
Clicks -The number of times people have clicked on a link to your website in Google.
Impressions - The number of times people have seen links to your website on Google.
Click Rate - The percentage of people who have seen links to your website on Google and actually clicked.
Avg. Position - Your average position across all keywords you rank for in Google’s search results.
Below the chart that illustrates these statistics is the real goldmine: the keywords you rank for. This list shows you each keyword you rank for, the number of clicks you’ve received from searches for that keyword, the number of people who saw links to your site as a result of searching for that keyword, the clickthrough rate, and your average ranking position for that particular keyword. This is incredibly valuable information that can help you brainstorm new content ideas and decide where to target your SEO efforts.
Although most search traffic comes from Google, it’s not the only search engine out there that matters. If you click on Other Search Keywords, you’ll see keyword insights from other search engines, like Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, etc.
Finally, it’s also helpful to understand what people are looking for once they arrive on your website. Click on Site Search Keywords to see what people are typing in the search bar on your website.
E-Commerce Analytics
Choose Analytics > Sales is for e-Commerce Squarespace users to see their shop’s sales data. This is a general overview of revenue, units sold, number of orders, conversion rate, average order value, and average revenue per visitor.
Choose Sales by Product to see the total revenue made over a set period of time for specific products. You can also see the number of units sold, the number of orders, views, and conversion rate for each product.
Choose Purchase Funnel to gain insight into where you’re losing customers along the path to purchase. What percentage of people who visited your site viewed your product? What percentage of people who viewed your product started checkout? And what percentage of people who started checkout actually purchased?
Choose Abandoned Cart to see the total value of products placed in a visitor’s shopping card, the revenue lost by abandoned carts, the amount of abandoned cart revenue that is recoverable, the percentage of people with abandoned carts who were sent an automated email about it, and the percentage of those people who actually returned to finish their purchase.
The Activity Log
Choose Analytics > Activity Log to see the IP address of each individual website visitor and what pages were viewed on your site. The data itself is pretty useless but enabling the activity log makes the rest of your website analytics more accurate. That said, there are privacy concerns about activity logs and they may violate GDPR guidelines* (more on this below). You can enable or disable the activity log on your Squarespace website by going to Settings > Cookies & Visitor Data.
Conversion Analytics
Choose Analytics > Form & Button Conversions to see how many times forms have been submitted and buttons have been clicked on your website. Scroll down, and you’ll be able to see details on each individual form and button.
Popular Content
Choose Analytics > Popular Content to see which pages and blog posts on your website are attracting the most traffic.
RSS Subscribers
Choose Analytics > RSS Subscribers and you’ll see an overview of how many people are accessing your RSS feed. I don’t find this information particularly useful.
Squarespace Analytics App
Squarespace has a dedicated Analytics mobile app, which gives you access to all of your key metrics on the go.
Squarespace Analytics and GDPR
*General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is the primary law regulating how companies protect EU citizens' personal data. Please determine if your business needs to disable cookies until a visitor consents to having them on their device. To do that, go to Settings > Cookies & Visitor Data. . Then check Disable Squarespace Analytics Cookies. This will ensure no cookies are placed until a visitor consents using your Cookie Banner.
You can also uncheck Enable Activity Log to stop collecting personal data from visitors. This will make it so that you cannot see which browser or operating system visitors are coming from and will also prevent you from seeing their IP address and location.
Disabling the Activity Log and cookies before consent is given will reduce the amount of metrics you can measure. It will also reduce the accuracy of your analytics data. But it will help you comply with GDPR guidelines and the new Internet privacy law that was enacted in California in January, 2020.
Squarespace Analytics vs. Google Analytics
There are a few key differences between Squarespace Analytics and Google Analytics that you should know about.
Unless you setup Google Analytics to ignore traffic from your own IP address, it will count your visits to your own website. Squarespace won’t count your own visits as long as you’re logged in but there’s no way to exclude yourself from the count if you’re logged out.
Squarespace’s analytics documentation states that Google may calculate some metrics based on sample size, whereas Squarespace always calculates metrics based on actual visitor data.
There are certain metrics that Squarespace doesn’t measure at all, like bounce rate, time spent on site, new vs. returning visitors, and demographics like age and gender which is why it’s helpful to use both Squarespace and Google Analytics.
Summary
As a Squarespace site owner, Squarespace Analytics is an invaluable tool in measuring your business’ performance and determining if benchmarks are being met. You can choose to view your results on a laptop or desktop or download the app on App Store or Google Play for on-the-go updates.
Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC is a Squarespace Circle Member and specializes in custom Squarespace design. See mymy portfolio of over 100 custom Squarespace clients here.
5-star Google-rated Charlotte’s Web Design, LLC is a sole proprietor web design and digital marketing firm specializing in custom, professional websites, SEO, branding, logo design, digital marketing, content writing, and graphic design with over 35 years of technology experience currently working with over a hundred small businesses. Please contact me for a free consultation.
