Sessions dropped in Google analytics

I have a site that was getting 20,000 sessions per month in Google analytics. Overnight this has halved - sessions per day are now less than one hundred.

I didn't change my site structure or settings. I have read that there has been a change in the google consent form but I haven't changed anything in my cookies opt in on Squarespace.

Has anyone else experienced sudden changes like this? My Squarespace stats, Adsense and search console settings are the same. However, sessions are important for joining an ad network, which I'd hoped to do as I continue to grow.

Any advice gratefully received. 

When did your drop happen? My site was around 2,000 sessions per month in GA and on March 6 it more than halved. I haven't figured out why either. Search console and Squarespace stats are the same as they had been for me as well. 

I'm trying to search around for anyone else or a reason for it, but haven't found it. 

This happened to a site I help manage on March 5th - GA4, same experience as you have described. All other stats seem the same - did Squarespace change something internally? I noticed that the way the blog posts are organized on the admin side is different now -- ?

Happened in a very similar way to a friend of mine, GA4, also ten days ago. If I'm not mistaken, from 10,000 sessions it dropped to around 4,000. He didn't mention anything about a change in stats, so I assume there aren't any. I've been monitoring all the numbers even more closely since he told me about this, haven't experienced any changes of this type yet. 

My Google Analytics sessions have dropped to 0 since March 1st, as have 3 of my client's websites. I have not seen the same drop in non-Squarespace sites. Something must have changed on Squarespace's side.

Chiming in to say ours has also dropped to 0 since March 2nd. GA4 tag manager has an error message saying it is not receiving data, but the test connection function in GA4 says the connection is working. Has anyone discovered a fix yet?

Fyi I found this page of settings. Our checkbox for 'disable analytics cookies always' was selected. Unfortunately, I don't know if it was already like this before the start of March, or if it's due to a recent change on the Squarespace end.

I'm afraid I'm not here with a fix, but just an up-vote. I've had exactly the same thing (my GSC data seems right , but in analytics it's showing about 1/2 of the organic traffic showing in GSC). I thought something terrible had happened, so glad (if that's the right word!) to see it's not just me. Anyone managed to get any insight from anywhere?

Hi All - I submitted a ticket to support, and I'm sharing their reply below. If you haven't yet, I'd suggest submitting a support request, and hopefully they'll escalate it as a problem to solve. Here was their reply: 

After further review, we're currently investigating an issue with Google Analytics Tracking unexpectedly stopped on March 1, 2024. We’ve noted your report with our Engineering and Design teams for review. They’ll use this feedback when creating fixes and improvements for future releases.
 
There are many variables that we need to test against before we can make changes, and we can’t guarantee changes for this issue in the immediate future. That said, our teams consider all feedback, and your input is always encouraged.

For anyone concerned, manually adding the code to your website, rather than via the native integration solves the problem and its back tracking normally now.

I also spoke to Squarespace's support team about this and they said the following:

You're welcome to let others know that the issue has been flagged with Engineering. That said, the other customers you're speaking with are also welcome to reach out about the issue. This way, the impacted sites can be measured accordingly.

So if you are having a problem, do reach out to them!

1 hour ago, FreyaPadmore said:

For anyone concerned, manually adding the code to your website, rather than via the native integration solves the problem and its back tracking normally now.

I also spoke to Squarespace's support team about this and they said the following:

You're welcome to let others know that the issue has been flagged with Engineering. That said, the other customers you're speaking with are also welcome to reach out about the issue. This way, the impacted sites can be measured accordingly.

 

So if you are having a problem, do reach out to them!

Thanks for this. Do you mean add the code to each individual page?

I'm going to raise a ticket,  see what happens.

On 3/12/2024 at 11:39 AM, RachelK87 said:

When did your drop happen? My site was around 2,000 sessions per month in GA and on March 6 it more than halved. I haven't figured out why either. Search console and Squarespace stats are the same as they had been for me as well. 

I'm trying to search around for anyone else or a reason for it, but haven't found it. 

End of February, beginning of March. Like a stone, and has never recovered. 

I did add some code to my header, so as to integrate google consent mode with my site. I only did this last week, but it hasn't had an impact on my traffic.

On 3/19/2024 at 12:13 PM, PatrickCapon said:

Fyi I found this page of settings. Our checkbox for 'disable analytics cookies always' was selected. Unfortunately, I don't know if it was already like this before the start of March, or if it's due to a recent change on the Squarespace end.

 

Do you think this is why sometime traffic's been down? 

On 3/25/2024 at 7:10 PM, FreyaPadmore said:

For anyone concerned, manually adding the code to your website, rather than via the native integration solves the problem and its back tracking normally now.

I also spoke to Squarespace's support team about this and they said the following:

You're welcome to let others know that the issue has been flagged with Engineering. That said, the other customers you're speaking with are also welcome to reach out about the issue. This way, the impacted sites can be measured accordingly.

 

So if you are having a problem, do reach out to them!

Hi, by "code" - how is this done? 

On 4/15/2024 at 1:11 AM, Auvz said:

Hi, by "code" - how is this done? 

Hi @Auvz, I recommend using a tool called Google Tag Manager to add Google Analytics to your website (and all of your other marketing code/tags).

I recommend adding Google Analytics this way vs. using Squarespace's GA integration for a few reasons:

• It makes the process simpler and cleaner since its all in one spot.
• GTM has built-in templates for Google Analytics, Google Ads, etc. so it's easy to set up correctly.
• You can fully customize your analytics tracking, especially ecommerce analytics in GA4.
• Squarespace's integration has a lot of limitations (you can read more about them in this blog: limitations of Squarespace's Google Analytics Integration)

Here's a quick guide about how to add Google Analytics through Google Tag Manager on a Squarespace website

or if you're a video person:

cc: @Admacg73

On 4/15/2024 at 3:37 PM, Auvz said:

Do you think this is why sometime traffic's been down? 

Yes I think so - changing it as I mentioned immediately saw our traffic return to expected levels

looking for someone who could solve this problem on a page - is there a step for step instruction? thanks a lot for your help.

On 3/19/2024 at 5:13 AM, PatrickCapon said:

Fyi I found this page of settings. Our checkbox for 'disable analytics cookies always' was selected. Unfortunately, I don't know if it was already like this before the start of March, or if it's due to a recent change on the Squarespace end.

 

we did this too, but still dont work... is it still working at your website?

@ZEJA yep ours is still working. Just to be clear I turned off the toggle switch, so that our analytics cookies can drop whenever.

Also there's comments from @TayloredData above about injecting your google tag manager code into your site, we already had that set up before the analytics drop occurred in March, but it would be worth looking into doing that if you haven't already.

I also have been experiencing this issue. Reports have fallen off a cliff since migration.

I followed the GA4 setup, installed the tag on my Squarespace site using the setup wizard, the 'Test' button says everything is correct, but GA4 says no data is flowing and no data is being collected. I have scoured the internet and cannot find a fix for this.

I have toggled Analytics cookies on and off, but nothing seems to work. Has anyone found a fix for this yet please?