Traffic sources provide valuable insights into which channels generate visits, orders, and revenue for your website. Here's a comprehensive overview of how to understand and analyze this data in Squarespace Analytics:

Traffic Source Availability by Plan

• Personal/Business/Basic Plans: Show traffic sources by visits
• Commerce/Core/Plus/Advanced Plans: Include revenue, orders, and conversion metrics
• Business and higher plans: Monitor specific URL builder campaigns

Channel Categories

Basic Channels (All Plans):

• Direct: Direct URL entry or new window links
• Email: Traffic from email marketing campaigns
• Referral: External website links
• Social Media: Traffic from social platforms
• Search: Organic search engine traffic

Advanced Channels (Commerce/Business Plans):

• Display Advertising
• Paid Search
• Paid Social Media

Understanding Traffic Sources

Traffic attribution works on a "last click" basis:

• Orders are attributed to the most recent traffic source
• Subscription renewals are excluded from traffic source data
• Initial subscription purchases are included

Analyzing Traffic Data

To access and filter data:

1. Open Analytics > Traffic > Traffic Sources
2. Select date range (data available from January 2014)
3. Filter by KPIs:
   • Visits
   • Revenue
   • Orders
   • Conversion rate
   • Average revenue per order (ARPO)
   • Revenue per visit (RPV)

Data Visualization

• Line chart shows trends over time
• Bar chart displays traffic source comparison
• Detailed breakdown table shows:
  • Channel performance metrics
  • Expandable source details
  • Sortable columns

Important Considerations

SSL Impact:

• Mismatched SSL settings between referring sites can affect attribution
• Unsecure sites may show secure referrals as direct traffic

Campaign Traffic Attribution:

• Google Ads appear in Paid Search
• Social media ads with trackable links show in Paid Social
• Email campaigns automatically track in Email channel
• Instagram Shopping appears in Social Media

Data Discrepancies:

• Traffic source metrics may differ from sales data
• Attribution is based on visit date vs. order date
• Longer date ranges may show larger discrepancies

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