This guide covers how to verify a website site with Google Search Console — why to do it, how to do it correctly, and issues you may encounter with Squarespace sites.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console (previously called Webmaster Tools) is a free tool showing you how people find your website organically in Google search. It also provides feedback on the health of your site with suggestions for improvements.
Many new website owners add Google Analytics to their sites, but overlook GSC setup. Google Analytics shows you how visitors use your site and Google Search Console shows you how visitors find your site. If you are a new small business trying to get off the ground, the latter is important information.
To take full advantage of Google Search Console, you first must verify ownership of a site.
What is Squarespace Search Keywords?
Squarespace Search Keywords is an integration with Google Search Console for site verification. You’ll find the Search Keywords panel in your website’s Analytics section. If connected, this panel pulls in a high-level view of Google Search Console data.
But connecting to GSC via Squarespace is not needed and we generally recommend skipping the Search Keywords process—you can simply view your data directly in GSC. We do not recommend the integration for a variety of reasons:
To begin with, you might encounter privacy issues down the road. Extra work can be involved to remove unwanted users, learn more below.
Squarespace doesn’t submit your sitemap to Google which means you’ll likely visit Google Search Console to do this step anyway.
The Squarespace Search Keywords panel only displays your top 200 Google queries, based primarily on the number of clicks and secondarily on impressions. All other queries are aggregated into a single result labeled “other,” but many sites need more granular data for strategic SEO work.
There is no meaningful way to sort and analyze GSC data within Squarespace.
Best practice: If an agency or consultant is helping your business with SEO, there is no reason they should use their Google account to connect via Squarespace Search Keywords. If you want to use the Squarespace integration, establish the connection with your Google account. If needed, learn how to remove a connection below.
Follow the steps below to verify your site on Google Search Console.
Verify Your Site on Google Search Console
Verifying your site shows Google that you own the site. This step is important because verified owners have access to private Google Search Console data and can affect how a site is crawled. Follow the easy steps below:
Sign up for Google Search Console. Again, this is a free service offered by Google. Make sure to sign in with the Google account you wish to use for managing your website.
If this is your first time using GSC, you’ll see a welcome screen asking you to select your property type. If you’ve previously submitted a property for verification, open the property selector dropdown at the top left > click + add property on the dropdown > then select a property type. Note, if you choose Domain property, you’ll need to verify domain ownership via a DNS record. If that option is not available to you, then you’ll choose URL prefix — make sure to enter the primary version of your domain as it appears in your browser, using the subdomain if applicable (ex: www) and the correct protocol (https or http), then add other versions if needed.
Based on the property type you chose above, you’ll see the available verification methods. Follow the steps provided by Google to verify your property.
How to know if your site is verified by Google? Simple, sign in to GSC, under the property selector dropdown, you’ll see verified properties listed first, then if applicable a “not verified” section will follow showing previously verified properties that are no longer verified.
Need Help?
Sign up for a quick Zoom and we will walk you through the process.
Next Step: Your Sitemap
After you’ve verified your site and have access to GSC, the next step is to submit your Squarespace sitemap to Google—this helps the search engine better understand your site and its content.
Issue: Squarespace & GSC Privacy Concerns
2023 Update: This section outlines on-going issues found during testing. Fully removing a user is still an unpredictable process. Skip to how to remove a user.
The Issue
In 2019, we worked on a Squarespace site that experienced a complete change of ownership. The issue? The previous site owner—who was no longer associated with the website or business—could not be unverified in Google Search Console.
Why? Squarespace’s built-in integration with Search Console uses Google’s HTML file upload method to verify users, but Squarespace doesn’t provide access to the HTML file that is uploaded. At the time, there was no way to remove the old owner’s access. This presented a privacy concern for the new business owner.
The Test
When we reached out to Squarespace to learn more, they couldn’t answer our questions, so we pulled up one of our own sites to perform a simple test.
A website owner invited a new contributor as an Administrator.
The new contributor (admin) established a connection to Google Search Console. This can be done via Settings > Connected Accounts OR Analyics > Traffic > Search Keywords. This demonstrated that Squarespace adds users to GSC as verified owners via the HTML file upload method.
Next the site owner completely removed the new contributor’s permissions and profile from the website. At this point, Squarespace should (1) remove the associated HTML file AND (2) disconnect the contributor’s GSC connection—or at the very least, remind the business owner about the GSC integration. None of these things happen at this step, and the contributor still has access to GSC, but many business owners stop here believing all permissions have been removed.
Then over in the Squarespace Connected Accounts panel, the site owner disconnected the GSC integration (created by the contributor). When this happens, Squarespace should automatically remove the HTML file (update: this process has been fixed) OR provide access to the file to let site owners remove it themselves if desired. Why? The only way to unverify an owner in GSC is to permanently remove their verification token.
Do you need to unverify someone in GSC? When we first reported this issue as a privacy concern in 2019, Squarespace Support offered a temporary solution: submit the site URL and the HTML file info (displayed in the GSC verification details) and they would ask the engineering team to manually remove the file. At that time, there was a 5-day turnaround to manually remove HTML files, but now support personnel can remove the file if needed.
In 2020, Squarespace partially corrected the issue—when you disconnected a GSC profile under Squarespace Settings > Connected Accounts, the associated ownership token was removed automatically—meaning you could remove the owner in Google Search Console. But in a Q1 2023 test, the automated process no longer worked, so we were back to asking SS Support to manually remove the HTML file. We reported the issue again and by Q2 2023 the process appeared to be working again. But if you remove someone from your Squarespace site, you’ll want to verify things are working as expected—look for leftover tokens and reach out to support if you see an HTML file.
Note, in early 2023 Google added information to GSC making it easier to identify leftover ownership tokens, see their support page for more information.
So what’s the current issue? Most business owners (rightly) assume that removing a website contributor’s permissions impacts all settings within the website. They do not realize the GSC integration still exists and that there are more steps required to fully remove a contributor—the profile still has access to their Google data.
What should happen? When a Squarespace website owner (1) revokes website permissions OR (2) when the GSC integration is disconnected, then that profile’s GSC verification details should be removed automatically.
Why should you care?
This is a privacy concern. Verified owners in Search Console have access to sensitive data and the full scope of Google webmaster permissions. What if the person in question is now a competitor? Or a disgruntled former employee?
Does your agency help manage Squarespace sites for small business teams? Do any of those businesses use Squarespace’s built-in integration with Google Search Console? If so, your clients have a potential privacy problem. Learn how to fully remove a Squarespace contributor.
Or are you a business owner who no longer wants to share your Google data? See how to remove 3rd-party access to your Google account.
What can you do?
For agencies: Review your GSC properties to identify any clients that might want to know about potential issues.
For business owners: Visit both Google Search Console and Squarespace Connected Accounts to see if any users need to be removed.
What else do you need to do? Follow the steps below to ensure privacy.
How to Completely Remove a User From Squarespace and Google Search Console
To ensure you COMPLETELY remove someone’s access to your Squarespace website and your Google data, follow these steps:
Visit Squarespace Settings > Permissions > under Contributors With Permissions select the profile you wish to remove > click Remove Access
Select the same profile now listed under Contributors Without Permissions > click Remove Contributor (note, at this point they still have GSC owner permissions)
Visit Squarespace Settings > Connected Accounts and Disconnect the user’s Google integration.
Visit Google Search Console > Settings > Users & Permissions > click the 3 dots next to a User and select Remove Access — check all associated properties
On this same page, look for Leftover Verification Tokens. If you see an HTML File, submit it to Squarespace Support for manual removal.
How to Disconnect Your Own Google Account from Squarespace
What if you no longer want Squarespace to have access to your Google account? As the website owner, it is important to understand that you do not have to use Squarespace’s Google Search Console integration. Opening and managing your own GSC account and submitting a sitemap is just as easy.
Visit Squarespace Settings > Connected Accounts and Disconnect the Google integration. Note, “disconnecting” the integration does not revoke Squarespace’s 3rd-party app access from your Google account, so follow the next step.
Visit your Google account > Security > Manage 3rd-Party Access > select “Squarespace Analytics Search Console” > Remove Access
Note, occasionally reviewing 3rd-party applications with access to your accounts is good practice.
Squarespace attempted to streamline the Google Search Console verification process for one-owner websites, but they didn’t think it through for sites that get transferred to new owners or larger businesses with staff turnover.
What’s the next step?
