Squarespace's Secrets with Analytical Mastery:
Are you curious about your visitors' digital footprints on your SquareSpace site? Or waiting for a crystal ball that will reveal the steps to transform data into actionable insights?
There is one crystal ball that can make analytics reports as your digital fortune teller. This crystal ball is called square space GA4.
Adding GA4 to your Squarespace enhances your ability to understand and analyze user behavior.
Wanna know more about GA4, Click Here:
https://www.analytico.ca/blog/understanding-direct-traffic-ga-4
What is Square Space?
Square space is a widely used platform for website creation and hosting. It empowers users to design and personalize their websites without any technical and coding skills.
Squarespace offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface with responsive design templates, providing an all-in-one solution for easy website creation, domain management, and hosting.
Its built-in features, including e-commerce tools and SEO optimization, make it suitable for a range of users, while ongoing customer support ensures a smooth website-building experience.
With scalability and security features, Squarespace is an excellent choice for individuals and businesses seeking a user-friendly and comprehensive web-building platform.
How to Implement GA4 in Squarespace?
There are two ways of implementing GA4 in Squarespace.
- Through GA4 Measurement ID.
- Through Google Tag Manager.
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Pre Requirements! Log in to your GA4 account and create a GA4 property for both of the methods. |
Through GA4 Measurement:
The first way to implement GA4 to Squarespace is through GA4 Measurement ID. Here are the steps for your guidance.
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Go to Admin Panel:
Go to the "Admin" section in Google Analytics, select the account, and create a new property.
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Get Your GA4 Measurement ID:
After creating the property, you will be assigned a “Measurement ID”.
Under the property column, click on "Data Streams."
Click on the data stream for your website, and you'll get the measurement ID.
Copy the Measurement ID as you will need it for integrating GA4 with Squarespace.
- Access Your Squarespace Dashboard:
Log in to your Squarespace account and navigate to the website you want to track with GA4.
- Open the Settings Menu:
In the main menu, click on "Settings" then select "Developer tools" and open the “External API”
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Add Your GA4 Measurement ID:
You should see a field labeled "Google Analytics" in the External API section. Paste your GA4 Measurement ID into this field.
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Save Changes:
Save the changes to apply the GA4 implementation.
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Remember! It may take up to 24 hours for site statistics to populate in Google Analytics. |
Through Google Tag Manager:
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Prerequisites: Have a free Google Analytics account. Create a free Google Tag Manager account with a workspace for your website. Use a paid Business or Commerce Squarespace plan. |
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Note: Squarespace currently blocks script loading on certain pages for security reasons, including the checkout page. This means GA4 won't capture data on these restricted pages. |
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Install Google Tag Manager:
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Explore The Settings:
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Copy/ Paste the script From GTM:
Copy the first script from GTM and paste it into the Header block in Squarespace Code Injection settings. Return to GTM, and copy the second code meant for the <body> tag.
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Save the Changes:
Paste this code into the Footer block of Squarespace Code Injection settings and save.
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TitBid! Both GA4 and GTM provide a debug view for testing your code's functionality. Check if everything is working as expected. This streamlined process helps integrate GA4 and GTM seamlessly with your Squarespace website. |
Similar to GA4, Google Tag Manager (GTM) provides a debug view to verify the functionality of your code.
Want to increase your knowledge on Debug view in GA4, Click:
https://www.analytico.ca/blog/debug-view-in-ga4-how-to-use-it
Why use GA4 to square space?
Implementing Google Analytics 4 (GA4) into your Squarespace website is crucial for its wealth of insightful data and optimizing your online presence.
While Squarespace offers its analytics tool, GA4, as an industry-standard web analytics platform, provides a more extensive set of features, customization options, and continuous innovation.
The cost-free nature of GA4, coupled with its flexibility in presenting diverse metrics, empowers businesses to delve deeper into user behavior, track conversions, and gain actionable insights.
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Cost Efficiency:
While certain Squarespace Analytics reports require an upgraded plan, GA4 is entirely free. The initial effort to set up GA4 is outweighed by the cost savings compared to Squarespace's premium analytics features.
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Feature-Rich Analytics:
GA4's Extensive Features: GA4 offers a more comprehensive set of features compared to Squarespace Analytics. While Squarespace provides pre-configured reports, GA4 allows for customization, providing flexibility tailored to your specific business needs.
Flexible Data Presentation: GA4's reports may seem overwhelming initially, but the flexibility allows for in-depth analysis, such as custom e-commerce reports, traffic acquisition reports, demographic insights, purchase funnel analysis, and more.
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Continuous Innovation:
GA4 is a relatively new player in web analytics, and its development team consistently introduces new features. The roadmap for GA4 includes artificial intelligence-driven automated insights and predictive metrics, providing valuable data for informed decision-making.
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Integration Opportunities:
GA4, as an industry leader, seamlessly integrates with various platforms. This includes popular Google marketing products like Google Ads, Google Data Studio, Google Search Console, and Google Tag Manager. These integrations offer enhanced data visualization, ad optimization, and customization capabilities.
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Future-Proof Data Management:
Unlike Squarespace Analytics, GA4 ensures you retain your data even if you decide to migrate away from Squarespace in the future. This platform independence safeguards your valuable historical data, allowing for a seamless transition to a new website software without starting data collection from scratch.
Get in touch with us if you are looking for an audit of your current analytics.
Square Space Vs Google Analytics
Differences between Squarespace and Google Analytics:
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Internal Traffic Counting:
Squarespace excludes internal traffic during logged-in, while Google Analytics counts it by default.
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Tip! Google Analytics allows setting up filters to exclude specific IP addresses for accurate data. |
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Filtering Bots and Non-Human Activity:
Squarespace and Google Analytics use different measures to filter out non-human traffic like crawlers and bots.
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Recommendation! Regularly review and adjust settings to ensure accurate data representation. |
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Rounding Numbers and Sample Data:
Squarespace calculates numbers from full visitor activity, while Google Analytics may use estimates based on a sample of visitors.
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Insight! Refer to Google's documentation for details on how sample data might impact specific metrics. |
- Commerce Conversion Tracking:
Some users report occasional discrepancies in tracking sales between Squarespace and Google Analytics.
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Action! Cross-check data and consider adjustments based on observed variations. |
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Traffic Source Attribution:
Squarespace identifies referrers based on a visitor's last click, while Google Analytics uses a similar method with exceptions.
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Note! Direct traffic numbers in Squarespace Analytics may differ from those in Google Analytics. |
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Recording Location Data:
Squarespace and Google Analytics identify visitor locations differently due to variations in IP address recording methods.
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Tip! Be aware of location discrepancies and consider them when analyzing geographic data. |
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Ajax Loading and Google Analytics:
In Squarespace version 7.0 with Ajax loading, Google Analytics may not register all site traffic, logging only the first page a visitor lands on.
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Solution! Disable Ajax loading to ensure accurate tracking of visitor interactions across your site. |
Conclusion:
Incorporating Google Analytics 4 (GA4) into your Squarespace website opens up a treasure trove of analytical insights, offering a deeper understanding of user behavior.
While Squarespace provides its analytics tool, GA4 stands out with its cost efficiency, feature-rich analytics, continuous innovation, integration opportunities, and future-proof data management.
The seamless implementation of GA4 ensures businesses can harness the power of data without the premium cost, allowing for informed decision-making and a competitive edge in the dynamic online landscape.
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