Analytics & Tracking Setup Guide

Contents

GA4 + Google Tag Manager + Google Search Console

Prepared: August 27, 2026
Client: Trout Psychology (Streamside Coven Co.) — Kristen Bufe
Site: https://www.troutpsychology.com
Platform: Squarespace (7.1, Commerce plan — cart, customer accounts, gift certificates active)
Phone: 206-659-5501
Primary goal: Brand authority — make the Trout Psychology Method the recognized standard in fly fishing education
Supporting goals: Fill guide trips; scale the $250/mo virtual casting lesson subscription

0. Read This First — Scope, Honesty, and What Squarespace Will Not Let Us Do

This guide is written to be executed by a non-developer with GTM open in one tab and Squarespace open in another. Where Squarespace genuinely constrains what is trackable, that is stated plainly rather than papered over. Do not promise the client e-commerce reporting that the platform cannot deliver.

The five honest constraints

1. Squarespace has no developer-accessible dataLayer for e-commerce.
Squarespace Commerce does not push view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, or purchase events into a dataLayer object you can read from GTM. Squarespace's own native GA4 integration (Settings → Analytics → External Services) sends some e-commerce data directly to GA4 server-side, but it bypasses GTM entirely and you cannot modify, enrich, or add parameters to it. Consequence: you cannot build custom GA4 e-commerce tags in GTM that reliably capture item names, SKUs, or values on Squarespace without paid third-party middleware.

2. Checkout runs on a Squarespace-controlled domain.
The Squarespace checkout flow is served from *.squarespace.com (or a Squarespace-controlled checkout subdomain), not from troutpsychology.com. GTM code injected into your site's header does not load on the checkout pages. This is the single biggest tracking limitation.
Consequence: GTM-based purchase tracking on the checkout step is not possible. Purchase data must come from either (a) Squarespace's native GA4 connection, or (b) the order confirmation page injection point, which Squarespace exposes separately (see §3.3).

3. Code Injection availability is plan-dependent.
Header/footer Code Injection requires a Business plan or higher (Commerce plans include it). Since the site already runs Commerce, this is available. If a plan downgrade ever happens, all of this breaks. Note it in the client handoff.

4. Form submission detection is unreliable by default.
Squarespace native form blocks submit via AJAX and do not always fire a clean GTM "Form Submission" trigger. The reliable method is an Element Visibility trigger on the post-submit confirmation message, documented in §3.4. Do not use the built-in Form Submission trigger and assume it works — verify it.

5. Subscriptions report as one-off purchases by default.
The $250/mo virtual casting lesson is a Squarespace subscription product. GA4's native integration will record the first payment as a purchase event and will not record recurring monthly renewals as any web event — renewals happen server-side with no browser session. Consequence: GA4 will systematically understate subscription revenue. §2.5 and §6.4 describe how we handle this: track the signup as a distinct conversion with a modeled LTV, and reconcile actual MRR monthly from Squarespace's own Subscriptions panel. This is a manual reconciliation step and should be scoped as such.

What this means for the engagement

We will get excellent data on: traffic, channels, content engagement, phone clicks, form submissions, booking-intent clicks, email signups, branded vs non-brand search, referral traffic from Instagram and YouTube, and returning-visitor share — i.e. all of the authority metrics that this engagement is actually measured on.

We will get partial data on: e-commerce item-level revenue, cart abandonment, and subscription renewals. These are reconciled monthly from Squarespace's own commerce reporting.

That trade is acceptable because the primary goal is brand authority, not conversion-rate optimization of a checkout funnel. Say this to the client up front so nobody is surprised in month three.

1. Pre-Flight Checklist

Complete before any tag work. Every item here is a blocker.

⚠️ Item 7 is the largest open question in this document. Everything below assumes a Squarespace-native or embedded booking flow. If booking is handled off-site (e.g. a third-party outfitter platform), booking conversions become outbound-click conversions and true booking completion is not trackable without vendor cooperation. Flag this to Kristen in the kickoff call.

2. GA4 Configuration

2.1 Property setup

1. Go to analytics.google.com → Admin → Create → Property.
2. Property name: Trout Psychology — Web
3. Reporting time zone: (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time — Los Angeles
4. Currency: US Dollar (USD)
5. Industry category: Travel (closest fit; "Sports & Fitness" is the alternative — pick one and never change it, as it affects benchmark comparisons).
6. Business size: Small (1–10 employees)
7. Business objectives: select Generate leads and Examine user behavior. Do not select "Drive online sales" as the sole objective — it hides the engagement reports we need for the authority track.
8. Create a Web data stream:
   - URL: https://www.troutpsychology.com
   - Stream name: Trout Psychology Website
   - Enhanced Measurement: ON (configure per §2.2)
9. Copy the Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX) — you will need it in GTM. Record it in the credentials sheet.

2.2 Data-retention and identity settings (do this immediately — it is not retroactive)

2.3 Enhanced Measurement configuration

Admin → Data Streams → Trout Psychology Website → Enhanced Measurement → gear icon.

2.4 Custom events — the full list for Trout Psychology

These are the events we build in GTM. Naming follows GA4 snake_case convention. Do not use reserved GA4 event names.

Tier 1 — Primary conversions (money or direct lead)

Tier 2 — Authority & engagement signals (the goal-critical layer)

These are what actually prove the brand-authority thesis. Do not treat them as secondary just because they aren't revenue.

Tier 3 — Commerce (partial — see constraints)

Instruct the client: enable Squarespace's native GA4 connection (Settings → Analytics → External Services → Google Analytics → paste the G- Measurement ID) in addition to the GTM container. This is the one place where running two tag paths is correct: GTM handles everything custom, Squarespace-native handles the e-commerce events GTM cannot see. Ensure the Squarespace-native integration is set to e-commerce only if that toggle is present in your version; if it is not, verify in DebugView that page_view is not being sent twice. If duplicate page views appear, remove the GA4 Configuration tag from GTM and let Squarespace-native handle base pageviews, keeping GTM for custom events only.

2.5 Handling the $250/mo subscription correctly

The problem: GA4 sees one purchase at $250 and never sees months 2–12. Reported ROI on the highest-strategic-value product will look 90% too low.

The approach — three parts:

1. Track the signup as its own key event (subscription_signup), separate from purchase. Never let the subscription be counted only as a $250 transaction.

2. Assign a modeled LTV, not the first payment. Until real retention data exists, use a placeholder assumption and label it clearly as an assumption in every report:
   - Assumed average subscription life: [PLACEHOLDER — 6 months, to be replaced with actual cohort data after month 6]
   - Modeled LTV = $250 × 6 = $1,500
   - Set this as the event value on subscription_signup.
   - Re-derive this number from real Squarespace subscription data at month 6 and month 12. Do not let a placeholder harden into a fact.

3. Reconcile MRR monthly, by hand. Squarespace → Commerce → Subscriptions gives active subscriber count, new subs, and cancellations. Pull these into the monthly report (§6.4). GA4 tells you where subscribers came from; Squarespace tells you how many you have. Neither alone is sufficient.

Churn is the metric nobody will ask for and everybody will need. Add Subscriptions cancelled to the monthly template from month one, even when the number is zero.

2.6 Key events (conversions) to configure

Admin → Events → mark as key event:

• ☑ guide_trip_inquiry
• ☑ subscription_signup
• ☑ retreat_registration
• ☑ gift_certificate_purchase
• ☑ phone_click
• ☑ contact_form_submit
• ☑ email_signup
• ☑ purchase (native — leave on)

Do not mark more than these. Every extra key event dilutes the conversion rate metric and makes the report meaningless. cta_click and scroll are not conversions no matter how tempting.

2.7 Custom dimensions to register

Admin → Custom definitions → Create custom dimension. Event-scoped unless noted. Register these or the parameters will not appear in reports.

GA4 free tier allows 50 event-scoped custom dimensions. We are using 12. Register them before launch — dimensions are not retroactive, and data collected before registration is unrecoverable.

2.8 Audiences to build

Admin → Audiences → New audience. Build all of these on day one; audiences only populate forward from creation.

The National / Non-Local audience deserves special attention. If the authority strategy is working, non-local traffic should grow faster than local traffic, because the Method is geography-independent. Watch the ratio.

2.9 GA4 comparisons to save

Save these in the GA4 UI (Reports → Insights → Comparisons) so Kristen can self-serve:
- Local (WA/OR) vs. National — the authority-reach test
- New vs. Returning — the authority-loyalty test
- Social referral vs. Organic search — the channel-independence test

3. Google Tag Manager Setup

3.1 Container creation

1. tagmanager.google.com → Create Account
   - Account name: Trout Psychology
   - Country: United States
   - Container name: troutpsychology.com
   - Target platform: Web
2. Copy both code snippets (<head> and <body>).

3.2 Installing GTM on Squarespace — exact placement

Squarespace → Settings → Developer Tools → Code Injection

HEADER field — paste the full <head> snippet:

<!-- Google Tag Manager -->
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-XXXXXXX');</script>
<!-- End Google Tag Manager -->

Replace GTM-XXXXXXX with the real container ID.

FOOTER field — paste the <noscript> snippet:

<!-- Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->
<noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-XXXXXXX"
height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>
<!-- End Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->

Honest note: Squarespace has no true <body>-open injection point. Placing the <noscript> iframe in the Footer field is the standard accepted workaround. It only affects users with JavaScript disabled (a rounding error of traffic) and does not affect normal measurement. Do not spend time trying to "fix" this.

Then click SAVE. Code Injection changes are live immediately — there is no separate publish step in Squarespace for this field.

3.3 Order confirmation page injection — the one commerce hook you get

Squarespace → Settings → Developer Tools → Code Injection → ORDER CONFIRMATION PAGE

This field injects only on the post-purchase confirmation page and does have access to the order object. This is how we capture the subscription, retreat, and gift certificate conversions that GTM otherwise cannot see.

<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  // Squarespace exposes order data on the confirmation page.
  // VERIFY the shape of window.Static.SQUARESPACE_CONTEXT in a live test order
  // before relying on the field names below — Squarespace changes this object
  // without notice and it is NOT a documented public API.
  (function () {
    try {
      var ctx = window.Static && window.Static.SQUARESPACE_CONTEXT;
      var order = ctx && ctx.order ? ctx.order : null;
      if (!order) { return; }

      var items = (order.items || []).map(function (i) {
        return {
          item_id: i.sku || i.productId || '',
          item_name: i.productName || '',
          price: i.unitPricePaid ? (i.unitPricePaid.value || 0) : 0,
          quantity: i.quantity || 1
        };
      });

      var names = items.map(function (i) { return (i.item_name || '').toLowerCase(); }).join(' | ');

      window.dataLayer.push({
        event: 'sqs_order_complete',
        order_id: order.id || '',
        order_value: order.grandTotal ? (order.grandTotal.value || 0) : 0,
        order_currency: order.grandTotal ? (order.grandTotal.currency || 'USD') : 'USD',
        order_items: items,
        order_item_names: names
      });
    } catch (e) {
      // Fail silently — never let analytics break a customer's confirmation page.
    }
  })();
</script>

⚠️ PLACEHOLDER — MUST VERIFY. window.Static.SQUARESPACE_CONTEXT.order is an undocumented internal object. Before this goes live, place a real $1 test product order and inspect the object in the browser console. Adjust field names to match what you actually see. Do not ship this untested — but equally, do not skip it, because it is the only route to product-level conversion attribution on this platform.

Product-name matching: the order_item_names string is what GTM triggers key off. This requires that Squarespace product names are stable and distinctive. Before launch, confirm with Kristen the exact product names and lock them:

If a product is ever renamed, these triggers break silently. Add "check conversion tracking" to the checklist for any product rename.

3.4 Form submission tracking — the reliable Squarespace method

Do not rely on GTM's built-in Form Submission trigger. Squarespace forms submit via AJAX; the native trigger fires inconsistently and sometimes fires on validation failure.

Correct method — Element Visibility on the confirmation message:

1. Submit a test entry on the real contact form.
2. Inspect the success message element. On Squarespace 7.1 it is typically .form-submission-text or a div inside .sqs-block-form containing the confirmation copy.
3. In GTM: Triggers → New → Element Visibility
   - Selection Method: CSS Selector
   - Element Selector: .sqs-block-form .form-submission-text
   - When to fire: Once per page
   - Minimum Percent Visible: 50
   - ☑ Observe DOM changes ← required, the element is injected after load
4. Name it: EV — Form Confirmation Visible

⚠️ PLACEHOLDER: the exact CSS selector depends on the template version. Verify with DevTools on the live site and record the confirmed selector here: [CONFIRMED SELECTOR: ______________]

Distinguishing which form was submitted: add a Page Path condition to separate the contact form from the newsletter block, or read the form's data-form-id. If multiple forms exist on one page, capture the parent form's ID via a DOM Element variable.

3.5 Booking tracking

Scenario A — Squarespace Scheduling / Acuity embed (most likely):
The booking widget loads in an iframe on a different origin. GTM in the parent page cannot see clicks or submissions inside it.
- What you can track: the click that opens the scheduler (guide_trip_inquiry as an intent event).
- What you cannot track from GTM: completed bookings inside the iframe.
- Fix: In Acuity/Scheduling → Integrations, enable the Google Analytics conversion tracking setting and provide the GA4 Measurement ID. Acuity fires its own conversion. Alternatively set the post-booking redirect to a thank-you page on troutpsychology.com and fire a page-view-based trigger there. The redirect method is preferred — it is more reliable and gives you a clean URL to key off.

Scenario B — Booking is a Squarespace product purchase:
Then it flows through §3.3 and is fully tracked.

Scenario C — Booking is by phone/email request:
Then phone_click and contact_form_submit are the booking conversions. Report them as such and say so plainly.

Resolve which scenario applies (Pre-Flight item 7) before building these tags. Building for the wrong scenario wastes a full setup cycle.

3.6 Complete tag list

3.7 Triggers

3.8 Variables

Enable these built-ins (Variables → Configure):
Click Element, Click Classes, Click ID, Click Text, Click URL, Form ID, Form Classes, Page Path, Page URL, Page Hostname, Referrer, Event.

Create these user-defined variables:

JS — Phone Number:

function () {
  var u = {{Click URL}} || '';
  return u.replace(/^tel:/i, '').replace(/[^0-9+]/g, '');
}

JS — Link Position:

function () {
  try {
    var el = {{Click Element}};
    while (el && el !== document.body) {
      var t = (el.tagName || '').toLowerCase();
      var c = (el.className && el.className.baseVal !== undefined)
        ? el.className.baseVal
        : (el.className || '');
      c = String(c).toLowerCase();
      if (t === 'header' || c.indexOf('header') > -1) { return 'header'; }
      if (t === 'footer' || c.indexOf('footer') > -1) { return 'footer'; }
      el = el.parentElement;
    }
    return 'body';
  } catch (e) {
    return 'unknown';
  }
}

3.9 Testing checklist — do not publish until every line is checked

Open GTM → Preview and connect to https://www.troutpsychology.com. In parallel open GA4 → Admin → DebugView.

Then: delete the test product, refund the test order, and Publish the container with version name v1.0 — Initial Setup and a description listing what shipped.

4. Google Search Console Setup

4.1 Verification

1. Use Domain property, not URL-prefix. Add troutpsychology.com as a Domain property via DNS TXT record. This captures http, https, www, and non-www in one property. Squarespace-hosted DNS: Settings → Domains → DNS Settings → Add TXT record.
2. Also add streamsidecovenco.com as a separate Domain property. It already 301-redirects to the primary domain (verified by direct header inspection at root and deep paths, Aug 27, 2026 — SEO Site Audit.md §3, Citation Audit Report.md §1). There is no 302 to fix. Add the property so we can see what the legacy domain is still receiving and decide whether it is worth building out, but the redirect itself needs no remediation.
3. Link GSC to GA4: GA4 Admin → Product Links → Search Console Links. Do this — it is what unlocks the GSC reports inside GA4 and half the authority reporting below depends on it.

4.2 Sitemap submission

Squarespace auto-generates https://www.troutpsychology.com/sitemap.xml. Submit it under Indexing → Sitemaps.

✅ Not a blocker — resolved. The engagement brief flagged repeated HTTP 429 responses to crawlers. Verified not to affect Googlebot (Aug 27, 2026). Confirm once via Search Console → Settings → Crawl stats; no longer a gating issue. Eight unspaced Googlebot-UA requests all returned 200 and ~30 audit requests produced zero 429s; the earlier 429s were datacenter-IP throttling of our own fetcher (SEO Site Audit.md §3; 00 - Client Profile.md ADDENDUM). Submit the sitemap normally. Glance at the Crawl stats "By response" panel once after submission; if a 429 bucket appears against Googlebot, escalate to Squarespace support with timestamps. Otherwise close it out.

4.3 Initial actions

• Request indexing for: homepage, Method page, each service page, About/instructor pages.
• Settings → check for manual actions and security issues.
• Confirm no international targeting is needed (US-only audience for guiding; the Method content is global but hreflang is not warranted for an English-only site).

4.4 The entity-disambiguation problem — what GSC will show you

The profile flags that "Trout Psychology" reads as a mental-health practice to search engines, and that title tags carry legacy "SCco." branding. GSC is your measurement instrument for whether this gets fixed.

Set up these saved filters in the Performance report and check them monthly:

That last filter is a genuinely useful diagnostic. If people searching for a therapist are landing on a fly fishing site, both the bounce rate and the wasted impressions are measurable — and that gives you the evidence to justify the entity-disambiguation work in the SEO track.

4.5 Monthly GSC monitoring

• Performance: clicks, impressions, CTR, average position — filtered by each saved segment above
• Pages: gaining vs. losing
• Indexing: coverage errors, Discovered — currently not indexed (can be a 429 symptom — but 429s were verified not to affect Googlebot on Aug 27, 2026, so look at crawl budget and internal linking first)
• Core Web Vitals: mobile especially — Squarespace image-heavy templates often fail LCP
• Links: top linking sites — this is your earned-authority tracker; podcast features, Fly Fish Journal, and any new editorial links show up here

5. UTM Parameter Strategy

5.1 Naming rules — non-negotiable

• Always lowercase. GA4 is case-sensitive; Instagram and instagram become two separate sources.
• Hyphens, not underscores or spaces, in campaign names.
• Never UTM-tag internal links on your own site — it wipes out the original acquisition source.

5.2 The framework

5.3 Campaign-name conventions for this business

Because the business is seasonal, encode the season:
- spring-2027-guide-trips
- winter-2026-virtual-casting
- holiday-2026-gift-certificates
- streamer-stomp-2027

5.4 UTM tracking sheet

Maintain a shared Google Sheet with columns: Date created | Destination URL | Source | Medium | Campaign | Content | Full tagged URL | Where used | Notes.
Build URLs with ga-dev-tools.google/campaign-url-builder/.

Practical warning: Instagram strips and re-writes referrers unpredictably, and in-app browsers frequently break attribution. UTM tagging the bio link is the only reliable way to attribute Instagram traffic. Given that Instagram is described as the strongest brand asset, tagging that one link is disproportionately valuable. Do it in week one.

6. Monthly Reporting Template

Two documents are produced each month:
- §6.1–6.8 — the full internal report (agency working document)
- §7 — a one-page client-facing summary (what Kristen actually reads)

Reporting period: calendar month. Delivered by the 10th of the following month.

6.1 Executive summary

• Headline: one sentence on the month
• Traffic: sessions vs. prior month and vs. same month last year
• Conversions: total key events, split by type
• Authority Index (see §6.3) with trend arrow
• Top 3 wins
• Top 3 problems
• Top 3 actions for next month

6.2 Traffic overview

Traffic by channel: Organic Search, Direct, Organic Social, Referral, Email, Paid (when live) — sessions, engagement rate, and conversions for each.

Geographic split:
| Segment | Sessions | % of total | Conversions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | | | |
| Pacific Northwest (OR, ID) | | | |
| Rest of US | | | |
| International | | | |

Watch the "Rest of US" line. For a business whose scalable product is geography-independent, non-local growth is the authority signal.

Top 10 landing pages by sessions with engagement rate and conversions.

6.3 Authority signals — the goal-critical section

This section is the reason this engagement exists. It goes before the conversion section, not after.

Authority Index — a single composite number so trend is visible at a glance. Index each of A1, A3, A7, A9+A10, A12 to its own month-1 baseline = 100, then take the unweighted mean.

Be honest about what this index is: a directional trend line built from a small-traffic site, not a statistically rigorous measure. It is useful for showing whether the curve bends up over 6–12 months. It is not useful month-to-month on low volume, and it should not be presented as precise. Say this in the footnote every time it appears.

Interpretation guide for the client:
- A1/A2 rising = more people are looking for you by name. This is the purest brand-authority signal.
- A3/A4 rising while A1 is flat = your content is being discovered by strangers. This is the top of the authority funnel and it should move first.
- A3 rising and then A1 rising 3–6 months later = the strategy is working as designed. This lag is expected. Set that expectation in month one so nobody panics in month three.
- A7/A8 rising = people come back. Authority is retention, not just reach.
- A18 falling = the entity-disambiguation work is landing.

6.4 Conversion performance

Subscription health — reconciled from Squarespace, not GA4:

Footnote this every month: "GA4 records the first subscription payment only. Recurring revenue is reconciled manually from Squarespace Commerce → Subscriptions. GA4 subscription revenue figures will always understate actual MRR."

Conversion by channel and top converting pages tables follow.

6.5 Search Console performance

• Total clicks, impressions, CTR, average position (vs. prev)
• Performance broken out by each saved segment from §4.4
• Top 15 queries by clicks, flagged brand / non-brand
• New queries appearing this month — early evidence of expanding topical reach
• Pages gaining / losing
• Indexing errors and Core Web Vitals status
• New referring domains

6.6 Content performance

Once the blog ships (currently a flagged gap):

6.7 Google Business Profile

Currently not applicable — GBP is unconfirmed/unclaimed and there is no published street address.

Once GBP is claimed as a service-area business (which is the correct model here — see the Schema deliverable), add: profile views, search vs. maps discovery, calls, website clicks, direction requests, review count and rating, photo views, post views.

Honest constraint: a service-area business with no published address has reduced local-pack eligibility compared to a business with a verified storefront. GBP is still worth claiming and will still rank in some local queries, but do not promise map-pack dominance for "fly fishing guide near me" without an address. Set this expectation now.

6.8 Action items for next month

Three columns: Do more of this / Fix this / Stop this. Every item names an owner and a due date. Maximum 5 items — a list of 15 gets ignored.

7. One-Page Client-Facing Summary Format

Kristen runs a two-person business and guides on the water most days in season. This page is what she actually reads. One page. Plain language. No acronyms without a plain-English gloss.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  TROUT PSYCHOLOGY — [MONTH YEAR]                                 │
│  Marketing Snapshot                                              │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                  │
│  THE HEADLINE                                                    │
│  [One sentence. What actually happened this month.]              │
│                                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ARE MORE PEOPLE FINDING YOU?                                    │
│                                                                  │
│   Website visitors ............ ____  ( ▲ / ▼ __% vs last month) │
│   People searching your name .. ____  ( ▲ / ▼ __% )              │
│   People who came back ........ ___%  ( ▲ / ▼ __ pts )           │
│   Times you appeared in Google                                   │
│     for fly-fishing questions .. ____  ( ▲ / ▼ __% )             │
│                                                                  │
│   ► What this means: [2 sentences, plain English]                │
│                                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  WHAT DID PEOPLE DO?                                             │
│                                                                  │
│   Guide trip inquiries ................ ____                     │
│   New virtual lesson subscribers ...... ____                     │
│   Total active subscribers ............ ____  ($____ /mo)        │
│   Retreat / school signups ............ ____                     │
│   Gift certificates ................... ____                     │
│   Phone calls from the site ........... ____                     │
│   Contact forms ....................... ____                     │
│   Email list signups .................. ____                     │
│                                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  WHERE THEY CAME FROM                                            │
│                                                                  │
│   Google search .......... ___%   Instagram ......... ___%       │
│   Typed you in directly .. ___%   YouTube ........... ___%       │
│   Other sites ............ ___%   Email ............. ___%       │
│                                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  THE ONE NUMBER TO WATCH                                         │
│                                                                  │
│   Authority Index:  ____   ( baseline 100 in [month] )           │
│   ▁▂▃▄▅▆  [6-month sparkline]                                    │
│                                                                  │
│   This blends: brand searches, non-brand discovery, repeat       │
│   visitors, social referrals, and new sites linking to you.      │
│   It is a trend line, not a precise score — read the direction,  │
│   not the decimal.                                               │
│                                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  THREE THINGS THAT WORKED                                        │
│   1. ____________________________________________                │
│   2. ____________________________________________                │
│   3. ____________________________________________                │
│                                                                  │
│  THREE THINGS WE'RE FIXING                                       │
│   1. ____________________________________________                │
│   2. ____________________________________________                │
│   3. ____________________________________________                │
│                                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU                                           │
│   ▢ ______________________________  by ______                    │
│   ▢ ______________________________  by ______                    │
│                                                                  │
│  Questions? [agency contact]                                     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Rules for filling this in:
- Never use "impressions," "sessions," "CTR," or "engagement rate" on this page without a plain-English translation.
- "What we need from you" never has more than two items. Kristen is on the water.
- If a number went down, say so on the page. Do not bury it in the appendix.
- The Authority Index caveat sentence stays every single month. Do not drop it once the number looks good.

8. Benchmarks and Realistic Expectations

Read this section aloud in the kickoff call. Setting expectations correctly is worth more than any tag in this document.

8.1 What "normal" looks like

Outdoor recreation / guided-experience / niche-education businesses:

8.2 Seasonality — plan the reporting calendar around it

Yakima River fishing peaks spring through fall. Expect:
- Mar–Jun: rising traffic, guide-trip bookings peak
- Jul–Aug: high traffic, possible mid-summer heat-closure dip
- Sep–Oct: second peak (fall streamer season — Kristen's specialty)
- Nov–Dec: traffic drops, gift certificate purchases spike
- Jan–Feb: trough for trips, best window for virtual subscription growth and content publishing

Consequence for reporting: month-over-month comparison is close to meaningless in this business. Year-over-year is the only honest comparison, which is why 14-month data retention (§2.2) is set on day one. Until 12 months of data exists, compare against a rolling 3-month average and say that the YoY comparison is not yet available. Do not present a January-vs-December decline as a performance problem.

8.3 The authority timeline — say this out loud in month one

Brand authority is a lagging indicator by definition. If the client expects branded search growth in month three, the engagement will be judged a failure while it is actually on track. Set this expectation in writing, in month one.

9. Implementation Sequence

10. Open Items Requiring Kristen's Confirmation

Appendix A — Credentials Record

Fill and store in the client's password manager. Do not store in this document.

Appendix B — Things That Will Break This Setup

Give this list to whoever maintains the site.

1. Renaming a Squarespace product — breaks the order-based conversion triggers (§3.3). Check tracking after any rename.
2. Downgrading the Squarespace plan below Business — removes Code Injection and kills the entire GTM install.
3. A Squarespace template change or 7.1 platform update — can change the CSS selectors in §3.4 and §3.7, silently breaking form and CTA tracking.
4. Squarespace changing the internal SQUARESPACE_CONTEXT object — it is undocumented and unversioned; it can change without notice.
5. Adding a second GA4 tag via a plugin or a well-meaning helper — causes double-counting.
6. Turning on Squarespace-native GA4 page tracking while GTM also sends page views — duplicate pageviews. See §2.4.
7. UTM-tagging internal links — destroys acquisition attribution.

Therefore: run the §3.9 testing checklist as a quarterly health check, not just at launch. Silent tag failure is the most common and most expensive analytics problem, and nothing in the interface will tell you it happened.

Prepared for Trout Psychology — Phase 1 Foundation. Every value marked [PLACEHOLDER] or [CONFIRM] must be resolved before this guide is executed.