Enhance your Site search with Monocle for Squarespace

If you're looking for a better search option for your Squarespace site, you'll want to check out Monocle for Squarespace, a powerful full-text search plugin designed specifically for Squarespace users. As someone who's been using it since the early days, I can honestly say Monocle has completely changed how visitors find content on my site. It’s fast, accurate, and offers features that Squarespace's native search just can't match.

Why Monocle stands out

Monocle is a powerful tool for anyone serious about improving their site's user experience. It has recently rolled out some significant updates, making it even more robust. Here are some of my favorite features:

1. Quick and Accurate Search

Monocle provides a lightning-fast search experience. Visitors get instant results across all your pages as they type. For users on a paid plan, Monocle crawls your content at least once a day to ensure all the latest information is immediately searchable. A key advantage is having full control over what appears in your search results, allowing you to hide landing pages, SEO-focused content, or any other pages you want to exclude.

2. Comprehensive Content Coverage

Unlike Squarespace's native search, Monocle indexes every page on your site, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. It also has the powerful capability to search through the content of PDF files and member-only sections.

A perfect example is learcenter.org, where their extensive collection of PDF documents is fully indexed and searchable using the plugin.

learcenter.org

3. Powerful Product Search

For any online shop, this feature is a must-have. Monocle can index your product catalogs and display search results with images, as well as add advanced features for filtering and faceting.

For Squarespace store owners, this provides a powerful alternative to other advanced search solutions like Universal Filter combines with Lazy Summaries.

The somuchstuff store is a perfect example of this in action, allowing customers to easily sort through a large catalog to find exactly what they're looking for.

somuchstuff

4. Customizable Design and Flexible Display

Monocle gives you the freedom to easily customize the look of your search results to perfectly match your site’s design. You have full control over elements like colors, layout, text and button styles, and even the display of images in search results.

By completely replacing the default Squarespace search page with Monocle, you can ensure a consistent, uninterrupted experience that keeps visitors on your site and engaged.

While you don't need any technical expertise to get the standard setup running, Monocle is also flexible enough for advanced customization. For instance, qualitycareforchildren leveraged a standard Monocle-powered Search block and a bit of custom code to create a unique popup search UI, demonstrating how the tool can be adapted to fit any creative vision.

qualitycareforchildren

While Monocle is a perfect solution for what it offers, a major enhancement I'm still eager to see is a built-in search analytics feature. I know the product has already made a huge leap forward by using Shadow DOM instead of iframes, making the search widget a true part of the site. That was a great step, but the next step is to provide crucial user data. I expect to be able to track what users are searching for, either in a dedicated Monocle dashboard or by having the search terms pushed as a GA4 event.

How it works

Monocle automatically scans your sitemap.xml and performs daily scans to keep up with your latest content. If you need to make changes to your sitemap, it's a breeze to update.

Setting up Monocle on your Squarespace site is simple:

1. Sign up and add your site.

2. Copy and paste a simple code snippet into your Squarespace site header.

3. Link it to any button or text link to activate the search function.

For a full walkthrough, you can find a step-by-step installation guide in the Monocle guide. You can also explore real-world examples of websites using Monocle to see what's possible.

Monocle Search Pricing

The Monocle team recently updated its pricing to offer more flexibility, including a new free tier. The plans are designed to grow with you and your site's needs.

For clients with unique requirements, Monocle offers a flexible, customized pricing model. Contact them to discuss options that align with your specific business needs.

Feature	Free	Starter	Core	Professional
Price (Monthly)	€0	€9/mo + taxes	€19/mo + taxes	€49/mo + taxes
Price (Yearly)	N/A	€90/yr + taxes	€190/yr + taxes	€490/yr + taxes
Free 15-day trial		✓	✓	✓
Real-time search	✓	✓	✓	✓
Automatic re-indexing	once/week	daily	on demand	on demand
Indexing limit	up to 30 pages	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Search results with images			✓	✓
Design editor			✓	✓
Exclude pages			✓	✓
Search through PDFs			✓	✓
Search content on Member Sites				✓
Advanced Product Search				✓

The creators behind Monocle are incredible. They're genuinely interested in hearing feedback from their users, and I've found them to be very responsive and eager to help. I saw this commitment firsthand on September 27, 2024, when a script issue caused some websites to become unresponsive. Pages were taking over a minute to load, which was a huge problem. But I reported the issue, and the creators fixed it within hours. That kind of dedication is rare, and it shows you how much they truly care about their users' success.

Final Thoughts

Monocle is more than just a search plugin—it's a significant upgrade for any Squarespace site. It solves a real problem by offering a search experience that is both powerful and user-friendly, going far beyond what the native platform provides. From its ability to search through PDFs and member content to its advanced e-commerce features, Monocle gives your visitors a smoother, more effective way to find what they're looking for.

With flexible pricing, including a new free tier, it's easier than ever to give it a try. The team behind it is actively engaged with their users, ensuring the product will continue to evolve and improve. If you’ve ever found Squarespace's built-in search to be lacking, Monocle is the solution you’ve been waiting for. It's a tool that can genuinely enhance the value of your site and improve the experience for every single visitor.