These are three GA4 SEO reports that you can easily create in 30 minutes

Are you tired of searching for your GA3 favorite reports in the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4), only to be unsuccessful?

This can be daunting for any team, including SEO teams trying to track the effects of search engine optimization on website performance. Many GA3 reports (also known by Universal Analytics) are difficult to find or require custom-built within the new GA4.

These three reports are the result!

These are the three GA4 SEO P reports that we will create together in GA4

1. Report on SEO Pages

What web pages rank highest in search engines? Which ones generate the most sales, traffic and conversions for our business? This report will instantly identify the pages that require more SEO optimization to increase traffic, conversions, sales, and profits.

2. SEO Profiles report

What are the characteristics of our SEO audience? This report will help you to define and redefine your ideal customer so you can attract more.

3. SEO Paths Report

How does our organic search traffic navigate to our website? What is the most popular path for conversion? This report will quickly reveal and eliminate any roadblocks that prevent your visitors from becoming customers or leads.

Step 1 – Create your SEO Pages Report

Google Analytics 4’s Explore feature is a time-saver. It allows us to create completely custom reports right from scratch. This feature will be used to create our SEO Pages report. Quick note: Google announced a new GA4 landing page report that you can also use to create this report. Let’s move on to the easy steps in this article.

1. Click Explore. Explore in the left-menu
2. Click Blank. Next screen, click Blank
   
   

1. Name exploration. Change the Untitled exploration to HTML3_ SEO Pages. Now you have named your report.
2. Create an Organic Search segment. At the top click the + sign next “SEGMENTS”. Change the name of the segment to “Organic Search traffic” > Add new condition. First user medium. Click on Add Filter. Select contains> type, and then select Organic. This segment (or filter), will display only information about organic search traffic for the report you are about to create.
   
   
3. Now that you’ve created your organic traffic segment, it is time to create a custom report and then apply your segment. We will bulk-add all metrics and dimensions that we need to create the three SEO “P” reports in the next steps.
4. Add Landing page dimension. Click on the + sign next TO DIMENSIONS > and type landing Page. When it appears, click the Landing Pages + query string.
   
   
5. 
   Add additional dimensions.
   
   You can repeat the steps above by looking for and checking the boxes of the following dimensions.
   1. Device type
   2. Use the browser
   3. Country
   4. City
   5. Enter “demographic” to check the demographic dimensions that you wish to report, such as Age and Gender. You will need to activate the Google Signals functionality within GA4 to allow these data selections to be reported. To do this, open another tab and go to Admin >Data Settings > Data Collection > Get started > Continue > Activate. To ensure your organization’s privacy requirements are met, make sure you read Google’s policy.
6. Import all dimensions at one time
7. Add Entrances. Click on the + sign next TO METRICS > and type entrances. When it appears, click the Entrances button.
   
   
8. 
   You can add additional metrics.
   
   You can repeat the steps above by checking the boxes for the following metrics.
   1. Entry
   2. Views
   3. Views per user
   4. Engagement rate
   5. Rate of bounce
   6. Conversions
   7. Conversion rate for sessions
   8. Conversion rate for users
   9. For the first time, there are new users
   10. Returning users
   11. Total users
   12. eCommerce revenue (if your eCommerce website is available)
   13. Optional Step:Add additional metrics-If you would like to use other metrics than those listed above, GA4 makes this very simple. To expand on other metrics, leave the search field blank. Instead, use the “All” column. A definition of the metric is displayed when you hover over it. This can be done now or later. Let’s just keep going for now.
       
       
9. Import all metrics at one time. Click the Import button to import all metrics in bulk into your exploration report.
10. Name the report. Change the free formreport’s name to Landing pages by clicking and typing.
    
    
11. Add dimension the report row. Double click the “Landing Page + query string” item in DIMENSIONS > to add it to “ROWS” under the tab Setting.
12. Add metrics in the report column. Double-click each of the following items under METRICS. They will be added to the reports we are creating: Views, Entrances and Views per user. Conversions, Session convert rate, User convert rate.
13. Change the cell type. Scroll down to the “Tab Setting”, and change the cell type to Heat map.

Congratulations! Congratulations!

How can I read my SEO Pages report

What the SEO Pages Report tells you

SEO Pages reports use the Organic Search Traffic segment we created. Here’s what it tells you: Which pages on your website are responsible for generating organic search traffic, conversions and sales to your company. You can adjust the time period on the left to adapt to different periods.

What now?

These pages are they what you expected? Are there pages that are missing? This report will quickly identify pages that require more SEO optimization.

How? How?

It’s now time to optimize the pages and increase traffic, conversions, sales, and revenue for your business. SprintMarketer.com offers SEO Sprints to help you optimize your web pages.

Bonus Tip – Sorting

You can sort the report using another metric than Entrances, such as conversions. Simply drag the metric to the top under “Tab Setting.” This will allow you to quickly see which pages are responsible for generating most conversions from search engine traffic.

Step 2: Create your SEO Profiles report

We’ve created the SEO Pages report so we can use the shortcut to create the SEO Profiles reports. Let’s get started.

1. Click to Explore. To Explore, use the left menu.
   
   
2. Copy the SEO Pages Report. Next, locate your SEO Pages Report > click the three dots to the right > choose Duplicate.
   
   

1. Rename duplicate reports. Click the three dots to the right to open a new report. Select Rename to change name to “SEO Profiles”.
   
   
2. 
   Make your Device Category report
   
   To profile the devices that your SEO traffic uses for accessing your website
   
   .
   
   1. Open the report. To open the report, click on the name. Now it’s time for you to change our dimensions. This will allow you to only see those dimensions that provide insight into the “profiles” of your SEO visitors.
   2. Remove old dimension. Click on the X in the “Tab settings” column to remove the Landing page + query-string dimension. Your report will “disappear” if there isn’t a dimension selected. We will however bring it back as soon as possible.
      
      
   3. Add new dimension. Double-click on the dimension of Device category. This will change the D device category dimension in the “Tab Setting” column. Voila! Your report is now back.
      
      
   4. Change the name of your table. After your Device category report is created, you can change the name of your table by clicking on Landing pages. Type “Device” into your keyboard and click on Enter.
      
      
   5. Sorting. Sorting. Drag the Total user metric up to the top in the “VALUES” list under “Tab Setting.”
      
      
   6. You’ve created valuable data. The new Device category report will give you an insight into your SEO traffic. It will tell you which devices they prefer (mobile, desktop and tablet). This report is useful in the event that your website experience is not working properly on certain devices. If this happens, you should prioritize fixing those issues.
3. 
   Make your browser report
   
   To profile the browsers that your SEO traffic uses for accessing your website
   
   .
   
   1. Duplicate. This report is easy to create because it only requires you to copy the previous one and make some minor changes. Click the arrow next “Device” to select Duplicate
      
      
   2. Change the name of the table. You will see a new table. Let’s rename it. Click on the Device in the new table. Type “Browser”, then click Enter on your keyboard.
   3. Remove old dimension. Click on the X button to remove the device category dimension from the list. Your report will “disappear” as there is no dimension selected. We will however bring it back immediately.
   4. Add new dimension. Double-click on the Browser dimension. This will change the Browser dimension in the Tab Settings column under “ROWS”. Voila! Your report is now back.
   5. Sorting. Sorting. Here’s how to sort your report by Total users: Drag the Total user metric up the list under “Tab Setting” to sort it.
   6. You’ve created valuable data. The new Browser report will give you an insight into your SEO traffic and tell you which browsers they prefer. This report is useful in the event that your website experience is not working properly or is glitchy using certain browsers. In such cases, if a browser appears near the top of your report it should be prioritized to resolve those issues.
      
      
4. Make your additional profiles reports. To create tables for any additional dimensions, such as Age, Gender and City, follow the steps in bullet 5.

Congratulations! Congratulations!

How can I read my SEO Profiles report

What the SEO Profiles Report tells you

Each tab in your new SEO Profiles report gives you insight into your SEO audience. You can see their preferences for their devices, browser preferences, ages, interests, top locations and other information. You can adjust the time period on the left to change to other periods.

What now?

This information will allow you to confidently identify or redefine your ideal customer and can be used to:

• Change the language on your website to make it more relevant for this group.
• If you are running ads, redefine your audience.
• To make your offline messages more relevant to your audience, you should update the language used.

Knowing your audience and speaking their language are marketing superpowers that can help you build emotional connections with your customers and increase conversions.

Step 3 – Create your SEO Paths Report

We will create two powerful reports in this step. Your Traffic Flowreport shows you how all visitors to your site navigate. The second report is your conversion Flowreport, which shows you how visitors to your site who have converted into leads or sales.

Ready? Let’s go.

1. Click to Explore. To Explore, use the left menu.
   
   
2. Copy the SEO Pages Report. Next, locate your SEO Pages Report > click the three dots to the right > choose Duplicate.
   
   

1. Rename duplicate reports. Click the three dots to the right to open a new report. Select Rename to change name to “SEO Paths” and submit.
   
   
2. The report can be opened. To open your SEO Paths report, click on the name. Now it’s time for you to modify it. Let’s get started.
3. Start a new report. Click the + sign beside the Landing Pages report > Select Path exploration.
   
   
   
4. Click to start over. To clear all items in an existing report, click on Start over.
   
   
5. You can delete an old report. Click on the Landing Pages report you are interested in deleting.
   
   
6. Rename the report. Let’s give our report a more intuitive title. Click on the Path exploration in the report > Type Traffic flow> and then click Enter.
   
   
7. Add new dimension. Double-click on the dimension of Device category. This will change the Device categorie dimension in the “Tab Setting” column.
   
   
8. Apply segment. Double click the Organic Trafficsegment in order to apply it to your new report (since you started over).
   
   
9. Removing old metrics. Click on the X button to remove an old metric.
   
   
10. Add a new metric. Double-click on the Total users metric. This will change the Total user metric in the “Tab Setting” column to apply it to your report.
    
    
11. 
    Your Traffic Flow report.
    
    This report will show you how visitors to your website navigate once they land on it. This report is great for verifying whether people have followed the route you suggest.
    
    Should
    
    Take is the only way they will get there
    
    These are
    
    taking.
    1. Set Start Point. Let us begin by telling the report what starting point is for traffic to our website. Click Drop or select node within the Report’s Starting Point text > select Event name > select session_start
       
       
       
    2. Rename steps. Select STEP+1> to select Page title or screen name. This will display the names of pages your visitors visited during their session. The most visited pages are in the larger groups.
       
       
    3. This report is worth reading. In the screenshot below, you can see that most SEO visitors went to the Google Online Store after they left. The Men’s and Unisex Apparel pages were followed by the Home page. Now I know that people return to the homepage even when they don’t want to. This could be a sign that the calls to action on the Google Online Storepage might not be obvious.
       
       
    4. Add additional paths. (1) Double click any blue bar to reveal additional visitor paths. This will allow you to see how visitors navigated between pages. (2) To see the page’s breakdown by device category, hover your mouse over any blue bars. The screenshot is below.
       
       

Congratulations! Congratulations!

1. 
   Your Conversion Flow report.
   
   This report is an excellent companion to the
   
   Traffic Flow
   
   Report because it shows how
   
   Users who converted
   
   They navigated to your website before they converted. This report is great for confirming if your funnel is working.
   
   Should
   
   Take is the funnel they use
   
   These are
   
   taking.
   1. Duplicate. Click the arrow beside the Traffic Flow report > duplicate > rename the new report Conversion flow > click Start over, to clear the previous report. Now it’s time to quickly create your Conversion Flowreport.
   2. Set Ending point. Let us begin by telling the report what endpoint (conversion event) we consider. Click Drop or select node within the Ending Point text of the report > select Event Name > search for the event that represents the conversion for your website (e.g. purchase, generate_lead or etc.).
      
      
      
   3. Rename steps. Select STEP+1> to select Page title or screen name. This will display the names of pages your visitors visited during their session. The most visited pages are in the larger groups.
      
      
   4. This report is available for viewing. In the screenshot below, you can see that the Shopping Cart to Checkout is the weakest link in checkout. It is clear that people need to be encouraged to checkout after they have added items to their cart.
      
      
   5. You can add more paths as you need. (1) Double click any blue bar to reveal additional visitor paths. This will allow you to see how visitors navigated between pages. (2) To see the page’s breakdown by device category, hover your mouse over any blue bars. The screenshot is below.
      
      

Congratulations! Congratulations!

How can I read my SEO Paths report

What the SEO Paths Report tells you

Your Traffic Flow report will allow you to see exactly how visitors to your site experience it and identify any unusual behavior.

Your Conversion Flow report will allow you to see the most common actions that SEO visitors take when converting into customers or leads. You can also use this information to identify areas where unanticipated behavior may be occurring.

What now?

How does our organic search traffic navigate to our website? Which is the most popular route to conversion?

Perhaps you should add a call to action on one of the drop-off pages so that visitors know what next step is.

Perhaps you should add an upsell option to your checkout process to increase transaction value.

You might need to delete or completely rework one page if it is proving to be the most drop-off in your funnel.

It is possible to remove roadblocks that are affecting your users’ experience and convert more sales from existing traffic.

Let’s sum up

Google Analytics 4 can be daunting for marketers. SEOs are no different. These powerful GA4 SEO “P”, quick reports make it easy for those who manage search engine optimization campaigns to monitor and communicate the effects of organic search traffic.

Bonus: Share your GA4 SEO reports

Only you can see an exploration when you create it. Do you think it would be beneficial to share your three reports with your team members? This bonus is for you if so.

Share your Explore reports

1. Click the report that you wish to share
2. Click on the upper right to click Share exploration
3. That’s it. Any person who holds a Viewer (or higher) role in your GA4 property can view your report by logging in and going to Explore.
4. It’s easy to create Viewers and other roles within GA4. Go to Admin > Click Access Management in either the Account column or the Property column > Assign roles for existing or new members. This Google access management article will help you if you are stuck.

Exporting your Explore reports

1. Click Export data in the upper right.
   
   
2. Choose the export format

• Google Sheets
• TSV (tab-separated value)
• CSV (comma separated values)
• PDF
• PDF (all tabs).

All data in the selected visualization will be exported when you export to Sheets or TSV formats. It is possible that there may be more data than what is displayed. Only the data displayed in the visualization will be saved when you export to PDF.

Happy SEO GA4 reporting

Mary Owusu, CEO at Sprint Marketer and Professor of Digital Marketing & Analytics is President-Elect at Digital Analytics Association Board. Mary has been awarded the ATHENA Award and is one of FOUR Under 40 Emerging Leaders.

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Search Engine Watch’s first post, Three Must-Have GA4 SEO Reports You Can Build in Under 30 Minutes appeared first on Search Engine Watch.