Want to set your 2024 SEO priorities? Run these GA4 reports

We entered 2023 talking about GA4 and we’re doing the identical factor in 2024. Frequent readers of Search Engine Land – and all SEOs, for that matter – know why: GA4 wasn’t prepared for prime time when Google pressured us to make the swap, and we’re nonetheless working by kinks months later.

Having stated that, I’ve managed to hone in on just a few extraordinarily helpful GA4 studies that I’m utilizing to assist my shoppers set their course for natural development in 2024. Let’s dig into:

• What they’re.
• Easy methods to set them up.
• What they present you.
• Easy methods to use the insights.

Report 1: Touchdown web page efficiency 

This report will take a look at touchdown web page efficiency segmented by channel. Choose essentially the most related date vary you’d like to review – as an example, I normally use this as a month-to-month or quarterly lookback.

Mechanics

First, go to Engagement > Touchdown Web page:

Subsequent, ensure you have a Conversion column added, and specify the first conversion you’d like to research (right here, we’re inspecting kind submissions):

For an additional layer of insights, add a Supply/Medium dimension to the report:

What does it present you?

This offers entrepreneurs a tidy look into just a few alternatives.

First, in the event you type by descending periods, you may see top-viewed touchdown pages and shortly assess that are lagging in conversion fee.

This could immediate an inspection of the web page – whether or not it’s optimized for conversion, regardless of the visitors supply. 

Subsequent, you may type by lowest periods and search for pages with little quantity with registered conversions. These could also be extra niche-y, however they may help you determine conversion-friendly properties and/or themes you may double down on with further advert spend.

Sliced into touchdown web page and channel efficiency, you’ll additionally be capable of see, amongst different insights, which channels may badly want ad-to-landing web page optimization. 

How do you bake the insights into your technique?

First, high-volume touchdown pages drawing lots of advert spend (and/or natural consideration) and few conversions ought to be excessive in your record of properties to optimize in 2024.

You may additionally wish to run the record by your product crew to evaluate whether or not there are any market misalignments or aggressive disadvantages that the web page efficiency is hinting at.

Second, the lower-volume pages succeeding at changing customers ought to carry some insights on what’s working that it’s best to attempt to replicate – or amp up with further assets.

Report 2: Content material hole evaluation

You don’t want a lot GA4 manipulation for this one – what you do want is an concept of the segments you’re trying to audit for content material.

This might imply levels of the shopping for journey (high, center, backside), main merchandise/providers, or sorts of audiences/personas.

Mechanics

You need to use the touchdown web page report above to find out the record measurement you’d like to review. Obtain the highest 20, 50, or 100 (as an example) touchdown pages, and begin categorizing every in line with your segments in focus. 

What does it present you?

Whenever you’re completed, you’ll clearly see which segments want consideration in 2024.

One frequent use case (and end result) is a content material hole evaluation by levels of the shopping for journey, the place blogs fill the highest of the funnel, assets and About pages fill the center, and pages like “Get in contact,” pricing, and comparability charts tackle the underside of the funnel. 

This report allows you to monitor what number of of every web page kind you’re creating and assess the combination of content material representing every stage. You may discover one thing like, of the 100 items of content material in your web site, 90 of them are thought management weblog posts, and 10 of them are Contact and bottom-funnel pages, however the center of the funnel is under-represented.

I typically discover that manufacturers have overloaded their content material in the course of the funnel, speaking all about themselves and their merchandise. This comes on the expense of top-of-funnel content material that builds consciousness in regards to the model and product and brings customers into the journey to start with.

How do you bake the insights into your technique?

Make sure you align with general enterprise targets earlier than taking motion in your content material hole evaluation findings. If, for instance, your enterprise’s high precedence is to construct consciousness for one explicit product, the evaluation you simply ran exhibiting a scarcity of content material for different merchandise is one thing to tuck away however not act on. 

Ideally, the evaluation would present a transparent alternative to contribute to your enterprise’s main targets. If there’s an viewers (let’s say CFOs) in focus the place there’s some content material however room for extra, you may drill all the way down to:

• Look at CFO-specific subjects you’ve already lined and look to optimize these pages. 
• Construct CFO-related content material to cowl what you haven’t but touched on.

Report 3: Funnel exploration

This report allows you to select a high entry web page (or a number of) and analyze how customers behave as soon as they get there. One in every of my favourite use circumstances is to see how many individuals are literally changing from weblog posts, which I’ll present within the instance beneath.

Mechanics

First, go to Explorations > Funnel exploration:

Edit your funnel steps:

Then, arrange your circulate. Beneath, I’ve specified that the primary web page visited should include /assets (which is the consumer’s weblog URL), and I’ve added a conversion occasion (gated lead kind) as one other step to be accomplished in some unspecified time in the future within the consumer’s go to:

Add a Dimension or Breakdown of first consumer medium in the event you’d prefer to see the channel that introduced the consumer to your web page. On this instance, I used to be capable of ship the consumer some fairly eye-opening information:

What does it present you?

This instance confirmed that, whereas the consumer efficiently introduced folks to their web site by weblog content material (largely from natural sources), the weblog not often transformed.

This can be a name to motion to alter your conversion methods – study, as an example, the CTA to see if it aligns with the kind of content material the consumer consumes.

How do you bake the insights into your technique?

The instance above exhibits you methods to determine massive chunks of your earned properties ripe for conversion optimization, however you should utilize the funnel exploration report in a number of methods. 

One factor I like to point out shoppers is to begin with the homepage, ask them to outline the journey they’d like customers to take, and run the report back to see what number of are literally following by.

If the quantity is decrease than anticipated, sketch out some UX testing to grasp why – and strategize methods to be extra proactive about directing customers to go the place you need them.

Set your 2024 search engine marketing course with these 3 helpful GA4 studies

In the end, I nonetheless suppose GA4 will likely be a helpful platform that will likely be a needed touchpoint for advertising and marketing groups – notably if the platform can incorporate insights on SGE as Google expands that footprint. 

Whereas we’re all (hopefully) making an attempt to stay to our 2024 resolutions, strive rolling up your sleeves and taking advantage of what GA4 has to supply. If Google meets us midway and makes the platform extra intuitive and constant, fluency with its levers will find yourself being definitely worth the effort and time.