GA4 and Search Console: The Reports Worth Checking Monthly

What's inside

• Google Analytics 4: traffic acquisition, key events by channel, landing pages, and pages and screens, each with its menu path and the question it answers.
• Google Search Console: performance, queries, pages, page indexing, Core Web Vitals, and security and manual actions.
• Reading the numbers: why comparing with the previous month and the same month last year matters, why Search Console clicks and GA4 sessions never quite match, and the 16-month limit on Search Console data.

Who it's for

Business owners and marketers who have GA4 and Search Console set up but aren't sure which reports deserve their attention, and anyone preparing a simple monthly update for colleagues.

How to use it

Pick a fixed day each month and run through the reports in order. Before judging results, make sure every enquiry type is set up as a key event in GA4, the term GA4 now uses for conversions. Look out for queries with high impressions but a low click-through rate, which point to weak titles, and for queries in positions 8 to 20, which are within reach of page one. Note down site updates and campaign launches as they happen, so you can match changes in the numbers to what you did.