SEO Google Analytics: Ways to Use Google Analytics for SEO

How to Use Google Analytics for SEO: Track, Analyse and Improve Search Performance

If you care about getting more search traffic to your website, you need to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Google Analytics gives you the data to do that.

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to use Google Analytics for SEO - what to look at, what it tells you, and how to spot opportunities to improve your site’s SEO without relying on guesswork or outdated assumptions.

Article Outline

1. What is Google Analytics and How Does It Help SEO?

2. What’s Changed in Google Analytics 4 for SEO?

3. How Do You Track Organic Search Traffic in GA4?

4. Which Landing Pages Are Driving Organic Search Results?

5. Can You Still Use Google Analytics for Keyword Insights?

6. How Do Search Console and Google Analytics Work Together?

7. What SEO Conversions Should You Track in GA4?

8. How Can You Spot SEO Issues Using Engagement Metrics?

9. What Does Attribution in Google Analytics Tell You About SEO?

10. What Are the Smartest Ways to Use Google Analytics to Improve SEO?

1. What is Google Analytics and How Does It Help SEO?

Google Analytics is essential for anyone working on search engine optimisation. It tells you what happens after someone clicks on your website in the search results.

That includes whether they stayed, what they clicked on, and whether they converted.

For SEO, that matters. Rankings alone don’t mean anything if the traffic doesn’t do anything useful.

Google Analytics helps website owners understand which parts of their content are working for organic search and which aren’t.

For example, let’s say you’ve just published a new blog post. You can use Google Analytics to:

• See if it’s attracting visitors from Google Organic

• Check whether those visitors stayed and engaged

• Spot if people are arriving but leaving straight away (a sign of poor search intent match)

• Compare SEO performance against other channels like paid search, direct, or social

This is how you move from vague “traffic growth” to clear actions that improve your website or app’s performance.

2. What’s Changed in Google Analytics 4 for SEO?

Google Analytics 4 changed a lot of things - some good, some frustrating. GA4 moves away from sessions and instead focuses on events.

Every user interaction, like a scroll or a click, is counted as a separate event. That gives you more detail but takes getting used to.

This new model in Google Analytics affects how you track SEO-related behaviour. Instead of relying on sessions or bounce rate, you now look at engagement metrics like:

• Average engagement time

• Scroll depth (an event you can track easily)

• Event completion tied to organic traffic

Some key points worth knowing for SEO:

• Landing page reporting in GA4 must be built manually using Explorations or custom reports

• Enhanced measurement events include things like video plays or outbound link clicks - useful for SEO-related content performance

• GA4 does not include all the old Universal Analytics reports by default - you’ll need to recreate some of your favourite dashboards

To make the most of GA4 for SEO, take time to customise your analytics property. Set up event tracking, link your Google Search Console, and create SEO-specific views in Explorations.

3. How Do You Track Organic Search Traffic in GA4?

To analyse SEO traffic, you need to isolate organic search visits. In GA4, this means using the right filters in your acquisition reports.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition

2. Change the dimension to Session default channel group

3. Look for “Organic Search”

4. Add secondary dimensions like Landing Page + Query string to dig deeper

From here, you can see:

• Which landing pages are pulling in traffic from search engines

• Where visitors came from (e.g., Google organic vs Bing or DuckDuckGo)

• How those sessions performed in terms of engagement and conversions

You can also compare SEO traffic against paid search, referrals, or email campaigns. That helps answer questions like: “Is our blog driving more traffic than Google Ads?” or “What’s bringing the best ROI?”

Google Analytics lets you slice the data any way you want - by URL, by page title, even by country - so long as you set up the filters correctly.

4. Which Landing Pages Are Driving Organic Search Results?

Landing pages are the starting point for analysing your SEO results. These are the pages that show up in the Google search results and receive organic clicks.

In GA4, you’ll need to build a custom report to view landing page data for organic search traffic. Once it’s set up, you can view:

• Traffic by landing page

• Bounce and engagement metrics

• Goal completions or conversion events

• Which search engine brought in the traffic (usually “google / organic”)

This is where you’ll spot both your best performers and weak links. Let’s say you have five landing pages on the same topic, but only one gets 80% of the organic traffic. That tells you something’s working - and something else isn’t.

Watch for pages with:

• High impressions but low click-through rate

• Good click-through rate but poor engagement

• Solid traffic but low conversions

By tracking these metrics, you can tweak your pages to better match search intent, improve keyword targeting, or optimise internal links.

5. Can You Still Use Google Analytics for Keyword Insights?

Not directly, but there’s a workaround.

Google Analytics stopped showing most keyword data years ago - everything started showing as “(not provided)”. But by linking your Google Search Console account, you unlock real keyword and query data in GA4.

Once linked, you can:

• View impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position for each query

• See which search queries are driving traffic to each landing page

• Compare performance by search term, device type, or country

It’s not perfect, but it’s enough to guide your keyword research and content updates. You’ll find:

• Keywords that show up in impressions but don’t bring traffic

• Queries with high search volume that your pages almost rank for

• Landing pages that are ranking for irrelevant terms

You can also combine this data with tools like Google Keyword Planner to expand your keyword ideas reports.

6. How Do Search Console and Google Analytics Work Together?

Search Console and Google Analytics give you a full SEO view when used together.

Search Console shows you what happened before the click:

• Which queries triggered your site

• How often your site appeared in the search results

• Where you ranked for each keyword

Google Analytics shows you what happened after the click:

• How users engaged with the page

• What they did next

• Whether they completed any actions or converted

Together, they help you answer important questions:

• Are we ranking for the right search terms?

• Are those terms bringing the right kind of traffic?

• Is that traffic doing anything useful on the site?

If a page gets loads of impressions but barely any clicks, that could be a title or meta description issue. If people click but leave straight away, your content might not match the query.

These insights are exactly what you need to improve your SEO performance.

7. What SEO Conversions Should You Track in GA4?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of focusing on traffic numbers alone. But SEO should drive real business results. That’s why conversion tracking matters.

In GA4, you can set up conversion events to track actions that matter. These might include:

• Contact form completions

• Clicks on “Call Now” buttons

• Viewing a product or pricing page

• Signing up to a newsletter

You can filter these by channel, so you can isolate the ones that came from organic search. If you’re using Google Tag Manager, it’s easy to trigger conversions based on scrolls, button clicks, or specific page views.

Make sure your GA4 setup includes:

• A defined list of conversion events

• Custom dimensions like "traffic source" or "landing page"

• Attribution reporting to view conversion paths

SEO doesn’t always get the last click, but it’s often where the journey starts. Tracking these actions helps show the impact of SEO on your marketing goals.

8. How Can You Spot SEO Issues Using Engagement Metrics?

Your page might rank, and it might get traffic - but if people leave straight away, something’s wrong.

In GA4, you’ll want to pay attention to:

• Average engagement time

• Bounce rate (yes, it’s back)

• Pages per session

• Scroll events

If your page has poor engagement metrics, it might mean:

• The page is slow to load

• The content doesn’t match the user’s search intent

• There’s no clear call to action

One overlooked feature is internal site search. If people are using your internal search engine straight after landing, that can tell you the landing page didn’t give them what they needed.

Also watch the search exit metric - when someone performs a site search and then leaves. That’s a red flag and might suggest your site isn’t offering what people search for.

9. What Does Attribution in Google Analytics Tell You About SEO?

Attribution is how Google Analytics figures out which traffic sources deserve credit for conversions.

It’s especially important for SEO, because organic visits often happen early in the buyer journey - not right before the sale.

GA4 offers several attribution models:

• First-click

• Last-click

• Linear

• Position-based

• Data-driven (default in GA4)

You can view these in the Attribution > Conversion Paths report. This helps you answer:

• Did SEO bring the user in, even if they converted via email later?

• How often is organic search part of the journey?

• Are there key SEO pages that assist conversions but don’t close them?

Understanding attribution helps give SEO the credit it deserves - and helps you focus on the pages and keywords that contribute to your broader sales funnel.

10. What Are the Smartest Ways to Use Google Analytics to Improve SEO?

Now that you’ve got the data, what should you actually do with it?

Here are smart, practical ways to improve your ecommerce site’s SEO using Google Analytics:

• Use landing page reports to spot your top SEO performers - and update similar pages

• Look for high-exit pages and fix content, CTAs, or internal links

• Monitor trends in organic traffic to catch sudden drops or changes

• Use site search data to discover what visitors are looking for and build new content

• Set up alerts for traffic dips on key URLs

• Compare SEO traffic against paid and referral to check ROI

• Use Google Tag Manager to track scroll depth or outbound clicks

• Run A/B tests on SEO pages with high traffic but low conversions

The key is not just collecting analytics data - but acting on it. Your SEO efforts should be guided by what the numbers tell you, not by assumptions or outdated practices.

Summary: Key Points to Remember

• Google Analytics 4 gives you detailed insight into how users behave after clicking a search result

• Use the right filters to isolate organic search traffic and understand performance

• Landing page analysis helps you identify both top performers and problem areas

• Search Console fills in the keyword data missing from Google Analytics

• Conversion events show what value SEO actually brings to the business

• Engagement metrics help you spot content that doesn’t meet user needs

• Attribution reports reveal how SEO supports the full customer journey

• Use internal search behaviour and scroll events to improve content structure

• Don’t just look at the numbers - use them to drive real improvements

If you need help with your SEO – whether it's Local SEO, national, or ecommerce – talk to SEOJet today!