How to Use GA4 to Track & Optimize SEO Performance

GA4 covers more than just traditional "conversions" but the extension of events now also heavily tracks customer engagement, which is super important nowadays to track with so much competition for every industry and a new focus on content optimization for long-term strategies
- Provide quick overview of differences between UA and GA4 in context of SEO
- How to do a quick review of GA4 event tracking functionality in a post-migration from UA context, considerations for GA4 integrations within typical tech stack
- Steps for setting up conversion/event tracking for SEO with GA4
- Steps for tracking engagement for SEO with GA4
- Examples of using this data for ongoing optimization and scaling SEO performance

Transcript

1. How to Use GA4 to Track & Optimise SEO Performance Leigh Buttrey AS Marketing Speakerdeck.com/leighbuttrey /leighbuttrey
2. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO • Differences between UA and GA4 in context of SEO • How to do a quick review of GA4 event tracking functionality • How to understand GA4's automated event tracking • Using GA4 for scaling SEO performance Here’s what we’ll cover:
3. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Conversion tracking for SEO is SOOO Undervalued!
4. Differences between UA and GA4 in context of SEO
5. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO What are the differences? Universal Analytics Google Analytics 4 Page View Event Event Event Social Event Transaction/Ecommerce Event User Timing Event Exception Event App/Screen View Event
6. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO • App Tracking (Firebase) • Hit Types • Session Calculations • Bounce Rate & Engagement • Cross Device Tracking • GTM is more important than ever • Account Structure
7. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO 1 Page View And <10 Seconds And No Conversion Event 1 Page View And >=10 Seconds Or Conversion Event > 1 Page View Engagement Rate Bounce Rate
8. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Event & Conversion tracking
9. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Types of User engagement • Content consumption • User interactions • Site search • User journeys • Audience engagement • Engagement rate (which has replaced bounce rate) • Video engagement • Downloads • Page views per session
10. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
11. How to do a quick review of GA4 event tracking functionality
12. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #1 Define your events Engagement examples
13. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Conversion (aka Key Events) examples #2 Define your conversions
14. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #3 Setup Events in GTM
15. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #4 Verify event tracking (GTM) Use the DeBugView in GTM to see the events in real-time
16. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #5 Verify event tracking (GA4) Use the DeBugView in GA4 to see the events in real-time
17. Making the most out of your GA4 Events / Conversions
18. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #1 Customised Reporting Create reports based on top KPIs required for quick viewing
19. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #2 Monitor & optimise Dedicate one person in your team to be responsible for the following:
20. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Review data regularly (every quarter at minimum)
21. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Regularly monitor user permissions and access control
22. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Document all changes and customisations
23. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Regularly compare your website and CRM to support data collection
24. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Backup historical data - Collect what you can from Universal Analytics
25. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Double check automated event tracking and possible duplication
26. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
27. Using GA4 for scaling SEO performance
28. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #1 Engagement event tracking Make sure to link Search Console to your GA4
29. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
30. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #2 Conversion tracking
31. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
32. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Filter Search Console to exclude your brand terms
33. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
34. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #3 Content optimisation opportunities In GA4 head over to the advertising report > conversion paths
35. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
36. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
37. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #TopTip Add in the metric “engagement rate” and then filter the report by focusing on all content that contains /blog
38. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
39. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #4 KPI reporting
40. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO #5 SEO-influenced revenue reporting
41. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO
42. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Get help with optimising GA4 for conversion tracking success asmarketingagency.com
43. /leighbuttrey | #brightonSEO Thankyou! asmarketingagency.com