Guide to Using Google Tools for SEO Tracking: Google Analytics and Search Console

Every local business aims to attract its desired audience through different marketing strategies. But how will you know if your marketing efforts are working? By tracking your local SEO performance. The two most powerful Google tools for SEO tracking are Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console. Leveraging these tools will help you determine if your strategies are driving results, identify areas that need improvement, and make smart, data-based decisions to improve your overall SEO performance.

Understanding Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 is an in-depth tool that provides data on how users interact with your site. It provides a top-level summary of your website performance and reports on metric data, including:

• Page views
• Bounce rate
• Visitor time on site
• Conversion rates
• Referral statistics
• Real-time traffic

GA4 can also analyse user data by understanding audience demographics, location, and devices. It also gives better insights into user behaviour, such as what queries they type in Google to get to your website, which pages they visit before leaving your site, and what they’re typing in your search field.

Having this information will allow businesses to recalibrate their SEO efforts and optimise their websites for a better user experience.

What Google Search Console Can Do For You

Meanwhile, Google Search Console is another free service from Google that focuses on the technical aspect of the site and gives you an overview of your website’s overall performance, almost like Google Analytics.

I say almost because GSC has some features that GA doesn’t, and vice versa.

Here’s what GSC can do for you:

• Monitor queries, organic traffic, total clicks, impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and average position
• Track internal and external links, top linking sites or sites that link the most to you, and top linking text
• Allow removals of URLs you want hidden from Google Search
• Receive index reports and check which pages are properly indexed or crawled
• Check mobile and desktop URLs speed
• Submit sitemaps
• Give insights to your Core Web Vitals (CWV), Mobile Usability, HTTPS Usage
• Detect security issues like hacked content, malware/unwanted software, or risky content for users
• Show Manual Actions or identify pages that do not follow Google Webmaster Guidelines. 

How to Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console for Local SEO Tracking

Cross-analyse traffic and queries

Both Google Analytics and Search Console let you monitor your website’s traffic, which is the ultimate tell-tale sign of your site’s effectiveness in attracting visitors. GSC only provides organic traffic data, while GA4 provides data traffic information in different channels, including organic, direct, referral, etc.

You can use this traffic data and cross-analyse it with your search queries to identify content gaps. Look for pages on your website that have high usage queries but produce low traffic or engagement. This tells you what content needs to be optimised, and you can refine your keyword strategy to match it to the queries users are typing in Google.

Identify high-performing pages

Google Analytics will give you access to top-ranking articles, including how many page views it has, conversion rate, and visitors’ time spent on the page. It reveals how well your page is performing in satisfying your visitors. On the other hand, GSC can give you insight into how these pages perform in the search results and if they are optimised for search engines to rank.

Monitor User Data

GSC only allows you to examine users’ geographic data and which devices bring the most traffic to your website. Meanwhile, GA4 gives you a more comprehensive view of your user data, including their age, gender, location, devices, browsers, and what they’re searching for in your site’s search field. Knowing this information will give you a better idea of your visitors and whether or not you’re attracting the right audience.

Optimise pages for the device you get the most traffic from

As mentioned above, both tools provide information about the devices from which you get the most organic traffic. In Google Analytics, there are three device categories: mobile, desktop, and tablet. Since we know that mobile devices carry out most searches, you can use this knowledge to ensure all your web pages are mobile-friendly.

Continuously monitor the effectiveness of SEO strategies

Practising SEO is a perpetual process. You must constantly monitor your website’s performance and user behaviour to adjust your tactics based on the data you receive. If you set up these tools correctly, you can be proactive in your local SEO strategies and achieve your desired results.

We’ve only touched on the tip of the iceberg about what these Google tools can do for SEO tracking. There’s still so much to discover and experiment on your own, and we highly recommend that you start setting up your GA4 and GSC accounts to enhance your local SEO strategy.