Identify which terms direct visitors to your site.

The Search keywords panel in Squarespace analytics shows which search terms drive traffic to your site from search engines. This data helps you understand what people look for when they find your site, so you can focus your content on the search terms people use.

The Search keywords panel is available in all plans.

Review the Search keywords panel

1. Open the Analytics panel, click Traffic, then click Search keywords.
2. Click Google or Other search engines, depending on the traffic you want to review. Learn more about each tab below.
3. Click the date range drop-down menu at the top of the panel to filter results by time frame. Data is available starting from January 2014.

Note: In the Squarespace app, search keyword data is only available in the Android app and only for Google search. Tap Analytics, then tap Google search keywords.

Google

Click the Google tab to learn which Google search keywords result in the most clicks to your site and your average position for different searches. The data will show from when you first verified your site with Google Search Console, or up to 16 months ago.

Verify your site with Google Search Console

To review data from Google searches, verify your site with Google Search Console by completing the prompts in the Google tab. Wait 72 hours after verifying for the data to populate.

If you already verified your site with Google Search Console, you don't need to verify it again to populate keyword data. If it's been more than 72 hours and there's data to display, it will appear the first time you visit the Search keywords panel.

Tip: If you have a Google Workspace account, ensure Google Search Console is turned on for all users.

Search keywords KPIs

Google Search Keywords focuses on four key performance indicators, or KPIs. Click any KPI to see the data related to that metric:

• Total clicks - The number of clicks your site got from searches for a certain keyword.
• Total impressions - The number of people who had your site appear in search results for a certain keyword, even if they didn’t click the link.
• Avg. click through rate - The percentage of impressions for a keyword that led to a click to your site, or (clicks ÷ impressions) x 100.
• Avg. position - Your site’s average position in search results for a certain keyword in the chosen date range. For example, if two people search for Toronto book editing, and your site appears in the first and third positions, your average position would be 2, or (1 + 3) ÷ 2. If your site appears more than once in a single search, we use the highest position.

Domain keywords over time graph

The graph near the top of the tab shows trends over time for the top four keywords in the chosen date range.

Click a KPI at the top of the graph to filter and compare results. Depending on the date range selected, a percent change comparison may show under each KPI.

Click the Daily / Weekly drop-down menu to change the time scale. Time scale options depend on the number of available data points.

Keywords table

The table at the bottom of the tab displays results for up to 200 keywords. The most successful search keywords display at the top of the table. The table displays:

• Search keyword
• Clicks (including the percentage of overall clicks a certain keyword is responsible for)
• Impressions
• Click through percentage
• Avg. position

In the top-right corner of the table, click Pages to view which pages are ranking by keyword, or click Domain to view keyword results for the whole site.

Keep these tips in mind:

• For security reasons, Google doesn’t provide specific search keywords only used by a small number of people, but Squarespace still tracks clicks from those search results. Because of this, the total that displays under Clicks at the top of the page might not equal the total number of clicks displayed in the table.
• If Google can't display any specific keywords, the graph says No data available.

Other search engines

The Other Search Engines tab shows search terms that drive traffic to your site from search engines other than Google, like Bing and DuckDuckGo.

Table and graph

The graph shows some search engine keywords that led visitors to your site, and the table is a breakdown of those keywords.

• Count is the number of times the search term (or undetectable search term) was used.
• An arrow displays next to keywords related to multiple search engines. Click the arrow to expand the view to all URLs.
• Not provided represents search activity that search engines hide from third-party platforms, like Squarespace, to keep search more secure.
• Searches that are 80 characters or longer aren't included.

Troubleshooting

The data in the Google Search Keywords panel is from Google Search Console. If any data seems missing or incorrect, log into Google Search Console and compare it with Google’s Queries report.

It can take some time for data to sync between our platforms. If you notice any discrepancies or delays between Squarespace and Google, check again in a few hours. If the issue persists for more than 72 hours, contact us.

If a Connected Account Deactivated message displays in the panel, visit Verifying your site with Google Search Console to troubleshoot.

Next steps

After you know what keywords people use to find your site, you can focus your content on the language people naturally use. Speaking the same language as potential visitors helps you connect with people interested in your content. To continue learning about the keywords that drive traffic to your site:

• Find areas for improvement. If you have a lot of impressions but a low click rate for a certain keyword, it could be because your average position is low. Try adding that keyword to relevant areas on your site, keeping in mind our keyword best practices.
• Channel people to popular content. If one of your most popular products is a pen, and one of your most successful search keywords is school supplies, adding school supplies to its description can help your product appear in search. You can use keywords like this to connect what people are looking for with what people buy when they reach your site.
• Consider verifying your site with more search engines to learn what visitors are searching for to find your site. To get started, visit the Bing Webmaster tools guide.