If you are just setting up your GA4 with a view of optimising your SEO you probably want to do these as a minimum
1 – Link GA4 to Google Search Console
The integration of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) with Google Search Console enhances the assessment of SEO success. Google Search Console offers insights like traffic-generating queries and site rankings for various search terms.
One nice feature of linking accounts is the additional dimensions you can apply in your analysis. For example: if deciding whether to prioritise localised SEO, Google Search Console can show your specific local search ranking performance. When coupled with GA4 you can additionally reveal the number of people from that location searching for the specific outcome. That’s neat!
2 – Ensure you can measure how SEO traffic is converting.
Sometimes you might just want to drive more traffic however, it is helpful to have business objectives in mind, how are you measuring activated users? Ensure that you have the conversion points defined and tracked so you can optimise your efforts.
In GA4 navigate to ‘Admin’ and ‘Events’, where you can configure events like clicks or page views to designate as conversions. Customised reporting will provide deeper user behaviour insights and quantifies SEO impact.
3 – Keep an eye on Referral Pages
Link building strategy is still an important aspect to SEO, keep track of those inbound links. Set up referral reporting, this offers insights into the various sites and pages that contain links leading users to your website. This information is valuable for gaining insights about your audience and establishing connections with these referring sites. It’s a great way to get a better understanding of the user’s intent when visiting your site allowing for you to align your content more specifically to their need.