How to Show Clients Success With a Google Analytics 4 SEO Report

Google Analytics 4 is a hot topic these days. Love it or hate it, it seems to be here to stay. 

You’ve seen the doomsday countdown for the past few months, and now it’s finally here–as of July 2023, GA4 has replaced Universal Analytics. 

That means UA has officially stopped processing hits (though some properties will still process data for a limited time) for many properties. Hopefully, by now, you’ve already tackled the mammoth task of migrating client accounts, but you may not have tackled everything in between (like creating a Google Analytics SEO report).

Perhaps you’re excited about all the new and shiny developments. On the other hand–let’s be real–it’s a lot to digest. Even experienced marketing agencies have been dealing with the Sunday scaries thinking about the Google Analytics updates on their weekly to-do lists.

While it may seem daunting, mastering the beast that’s Google Analytics 4 is a secret weapon that sets your agency apart from the rest. 

Ready to create top-notch GA4 SEO tactics?

How Does Google Analytics 4 Help SEO?

With streamlined capabilities and a more sophisticated algorithm, Google Analytics 4 helps agencies and their clients:

1. Understand the Customer Journey on a More Granular Level

GA4 emphasizes a user-centric approach which means you’ll have a better understanding of the full customer journey. 

Models such as "last click" or "first click" are outdated in today's internet environment, where a customer has hundreds of micro-interactions with a brand before making a conversion action. Cross-channel attribution modeling in GA4 is much more advanced than UA and better reflects the customer's journey.

Molly Lopez, Founder & CEO at Sparo

Say goodbye to the anxiety of missing out on valuable data when user behavior evolves. Google Analytics 4 now provides more unified insights across sessions, including:

• Website clicks and scroll depth

• Downloads 

• Call-tracking

• Video plays

• Form submissions

Over time, it becomes much easier to identify which SEO efforts result in higher organic traffic, conversions, or other critical metrics reported in your client’s SEO dashboard. 

Want to display your clients’ Google Analytics metrics alongside other SEO insights? It’s easy–create a customizable SEO dashboard on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days. 

A Shift From Tracking Sessions to Event-Based Data

Previously, Universal Analytics tracked behaviors during individual user sessions, which ended after an inactivity period. 

For example, take a prospect that landed on your eCommerce client’s blog and exited after 45 minutes. In this scenario, UA would have aggregated all user actions within that specific website visit and time window.

On the other hand, Google Analytics 4 now relies on event-based data, which places more emphasis on user interactions across multiple sessions. 

While attribution is still more of a calculus equation where you try to get as close to the truth as possible, Google Analytics 4 gets closer to that real journey.

Molly Lopez, Founder & CEO at Sparo

For this example, each form of engagement–such as reading a blog, signing up for a newsletter, or adding items to a shopping cart–is tracked as a separate event. 

You’ll also be able to set customized parameters and define what counts as an event (which is handy for SEO clients with varying needs). 

2. Create Customized Metrics More Easily

Use Google Analytics 4 to customize metrics even further. As our guide on GA4 Custom Metrics puts it: 

That means defining success according to your clients’ unique goals. The result? More relevant SEO reports and happier clients.

For example, say you’ve got a large-scale client with restaurants throughout the US. They want to compare the performance of individual landing pages for their Denver-based operations. 

To optimize their local search engine optimization efforts, they’re most interested in insights for mobile users over 35.

Naturally, you’ll want to create custom enterprise SEO metrics on GA4, which translates to:

• Setting SEO-related event parameters to track for each landing page (e.g., organic traffic, bounce rates, time on page, and conversion rates)

• Specifying qualitative GA4 dimensions (e.g., demographics such as age, location, and industry)

• Viewing custom Google Analytics metrics in a single interface without having to track those insights individually

• Identifying top-performing landing pages and content for optimization

Not all agencies will take the time to create custom metrics, even though they’re incredibly valuable. Use them to share insights that truly matter to your clients and demonstrate that you’re willing to go the extra mile–it’ll differentiate you in the long run.

As we’re on the note of customization, here’s another scenario. 

Let’s say this restaurant client wants to collate conversions across their websites and social media platforms over the past three months.

No need to whip out a calculator or manually add values from their historical local SEO reports. Simply log in to your client reporting tool and create a custom metric. 

Client dashboards and custom metrics are extremely valuable. We save a lot of time each month by sharing a dashboard where our clients can regularly check in and see status updates from our team. The ability to add custom metrics also makes things easier for us to aggregate KPIs across different channels.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

Go a step beyond the data provided on the back end of Google Analytics. Pull data from over 80 digital marketing platforms and create custom metrics on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

3. Enable Cross-Data-Tracking Capabilities

For a more holistic view of the user experience across your clients’ websites or apps, Google Analytics 4 now offers:

Streamlined Cross-Device Tracking

This approach provides a more granular understanding of user behavior across multiple devices (e.g., desktop computers, mobile devices).

Understanding device usage helps you to understand content consumption and where most users are coming from. That way, you’ll create well-formatted inbound marketing campaigns that move the SEO needle and reach intended audiences. 

Simplified Cross-Domain Tracking 

Previously, this involved setting up Google Tags on Universal Analytics, linking parameters, and referral exclusion lists. With Google Analytics 4, setting up cross-domain involves fewer manual configurations.

That means it’s easier to analyze how users interact with your clients’ websites and related domains (e.g., an external checkout page to complete a purchase).

Plus, Google Analytics 4 also has enhanced privacy controls that better align with evolving data protection regulations. 

Why does this matter for agencies? 

By switching to Google Analytics 4, you’ll demonstrate that you’re committed to maintaining industry standards and following data privacy best practices. Effectively communicating GA4 benefits to your clients also shows that you’re up-to-date with key marketing tools and increases client retention in the long run. 

How To Pull SEO Insights from Google Analytics 4

Leverage the full potential of Google Analytics 4 and track SEO KPIs by putting these key measures in place.

Streamline Google Search Console Insights Into GA4

Google Search Console is important for Google Analytics 4 because it provides valuable search performance data and keyword analysis. 

Overall, integrating this platform with GA4 enhances your understanding of Google organic search results. Be sure to track Google Search Console metrics like:

• Organic search keyword rankings

• Organic search click-through rates 

• Site search terms 

In a nutshell, enabling this integration enables a more comprehensive view of how organic search contributes to overall website traffic and user engagement. These insights then help you to optimize their online presence and produce Google Search Console reports with favorable results.

How To Connect Google Search Console to GA4

To get started with this integration: 

1. Head to Google Analytics and click ‘Admin’ from the right-hand menu.

2. Under the ‘Property’ column, scroll down to ‘Search Console Links.’ 

If you’re managing multiple GA4 properties, ensure you’re on the right one before proceeding. 

3. Select the Google Search Console property you want to link to GA4 (if you’re managing multiple).

4. Click Confirm > Next. After selecting the web stream for your client’s site, complete your configuration settings.

5. Want to build an SEO report with these insights? Enabling Google Search Console reports is easy. Go to Reports > Library > Create new collection. Click the ‘Search Console’ template, customize as needed, then publish your SEO report. 

Use View Filters to Hone in on SEO Insights

Looking for a way to filter and segment SEO data? Use view filters that allow you to focus on specific subsets of data and ensure accurate measurement of organic search performance. 

This helps your agency to make informed decisions and optimize based on reliable SEO insights. 

For any given search engine optimization campaign, you may choose to:

• Exclude internal organic traffic (e.g., from your clients’ staff members), which could skew overall SEO performance.

• Include data for specific geographic areas, which is especially handy for segmenting data for local SEO clients with multiple locations.

• Track metrics for subdomains in separate views, which is helpful for clients with intricate websites. It also helps to understand individual web page performance, which is useful to include in SEO reports.

To get started, go to Admin > All Filters > + Add Filter. From there, you’ll have the option to choose from predefined filters or create a custom filter. 

Tap Into the Power of Audiences

‘Audiences’ function much like Segments did in Universal Analytics, allowing marketers to dive deeper into user behaviors. However, they now come with an added layer of sophistication and potential, which also means more complexity.

The core difference between Universal Analytics' Segments and GA4's Audiences lies in their level of detail and adaptability. In other words: 

• Universal Analytics Segments were largely static and applied to historical data.

• Audiences in GA4 are dynamic, evolving based on user behavior and intended for future engagement.

Here's a walkthrough on how to use GA4 Audiences as the new-age Segments:

1.  To create audiences, open Admin > Audiences > New audience. 

You're given the option to start from scratch or use suggested audiences and templates. Suggested audiences are pre-set options based on common usage patterns. If none of these meet your needs, opt for "Create a custom audience".

For example, use the Acquisition template and then select "Organic Search” as the “First user default channel group” filter. This will enable you to identify instances where organic traffic was the first interaction. 

2. Define your audience using an array of conditions, such as user demographic data, behaviors, and traffic sources. The possibilities are nearly limitless, but remember that specificity is your friend.

3. Give your audience a descriptive name, save it, and you're good to go. Now your audience is ready to be used in analysis, reporting, or even Google Ads campaigns. Keep in mind that it can take 24 hours or more for the new audience to begin populating in the GA4 platform. 

As users interact with your client’s site and meet the conditions you've set, they'll be added to their audience. Similarly, if they no longer meet these conditions, they'll be removed. 

It's a living, breathing reflection of your client’s user base.

Create a Traffic Acquisition Report

To better understand where your clients’ website or app visitors come from, you’ll want to create a traffic acquisition report.

Wondering why it matters? A traffic acquisition report in Google Analytics 4 provides valuable insights into the sources and channels that drive traffic to your clients’ websites. 

This allows you to:

• Measure the effectiveness of their SEO traffic generation programs

• Identify top-performing keywords from Google Ads that can be added to the keyword priority list

• Create a traffic report with key metrics (e.g., engagement rates, number of sessions)

• Tweak acquisition strategies to maximize website traffic and conversion

To get started, log into your Google Analytics account and head to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. 

If you want to go a step further than a traffic acquisition report, use SEO reporting software to package multi-platform insights in one place. 

Customize it as much as needed to show your clients the overall SEO picture.

We primarily use AgencyAnalytics to create a Web Analytics report and SEO report. It's very difficult to explain the value of a service to a client without visuals. Using these reports side by side helps us show our clients a correlation between SEO and Traffic.  

Ruben Roel, President of Investigator Marketing 

Top 10 GA4 Metrics to Track for SEO

This powerful platform is all bells and whistles if you don’t know which GA4 metrics to track or what to include in a Google Analytics SEO report. 

In addition to the insights we’ve mentioned, here are the key SEO analytics to include when creating Google Analytics reports for your clients.

There’s no doubt about it–Google Analytics 4 is a powerhouse platform for SEO reporting. With so much to offer, the only drawback is the potential for confusion as agencies pull such in-depth data on so many different metrics across multiple client accounts.

Luckily, there’s a better way to spend your billable time–use a pre-built GA4 dashboard or Google Analytics report template.

AgencyAnalytics proves to be an accessible and comprehensible alternative to Google Analytics and Google Search Console. It simplifies the learning process and enhances our clients’ understanding of campaign performance. Our clients appreciate the convenience of having their data consolidated in one user-friendly interface. 

Alexa Rees, SEO Manager at seoplus+

How To Report SEO Success to Your Clients

Wondering what GA4 insights to keep tabs on in your dashboard or report? Here’s exactly what you should track.

1. Landing Page Performance

The goal of landing pages is to engage users and drive CTAs. Use these SEO insights to:

• Identify your clients’ top-performing landing pages

• Monitor Google search queries

• Determine whether any improvements are needed to drive clicks

Monitor landing page performance and optimize your clients’ landing pages. Evaluate what moves the SEO needle–use this GA4 dashboard on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

2. Traffic Acquisition Analysis 

Need to produce an in-depth traffic acquisition report? It’s a breeze with AgencyAnalytics! 

Use your GA4 dashboard to:

• Track the overall performance and traction of marketing campaigns

• Identify valuable traffic referral sources and optimize accordingly

• Monitor user behavior changes over time

Analyze organic traffic numbers and identify your clients’ best-performing SEO channels–try it free for 14 days on AgencyAnalytics.

3. Demographic Analysis

Stay on the pulse of GA4 audience insights at the click of a button. Monitor demographic-related insights to:

• Understand whether you’re reaching your client’s target audience

• Identify future targeting opportunities (e.g., for running Google Ads)

• Analyze content performance across different geographic regions

Uncover audience insights and identify any untapped markets. Use visually appealing dashboards to streamline data on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

Automated reporting software makes life easier by doing the data retrieval process for you. It also provides intuitive data visualization that clients can easily understand (which is what any agency wants, really). 

Leverage GA4 To Streamline SEO Insights and Retain Clients

By harnessing the power of GA4, agencies can uncover valuable information about user behavior, Google search results, audience segmentation, and campaign performance. 

Use these insights to make data-backed recommendations, optimize digital marketing strategies, and showcase tangible results to your clients. 

Not only does it build trust from your clients, but it also differentiates your agency from competitors that haven’t learned the ropes.

To get the best results for your clients, use Google Analytics data to: 

• Analyze the customer journey.

• Identify any areas for website or app improvement (e.g., decrease loading times, implement recommendations from your site speed report).

• Create custom metrics that tie into business objectives.

• Monitor SEO data performance over time.

Whether you’re creating a GA4 dashboard or an SEO report with multi-platform insights, AgencyAnalytics will help you save billable time.

Say bye-bye to manual data collection across the Google marketing platform and hello to a more efficient, scalable process for your marketing strategy.

AgencyAnalytics has helped us seamlessly incorporate GA4 reporting for our clients. We are excited to see how we can expand our GA4 reporting by identifying and reporting on a slew of new KPIs found in GA4.

Rick Hogan, CEO & Co-Founder of Bleevit

Set your agency apart from the competitors and offer easy-to-understand GA4 reporting. Invest in an agency-specific client reporting platform built for your unique needs–try AgencyAnalytics today, free for 14 days.