Looking to Track Your Local SEO Efforts in GA4?
With not much time until we will no longer have access to Universal Analytics, many marketers are scrambling to figure out what they do in GA4 to get it as close to the interface they know so well in UA.
One of the easiest ways to try and replicate the report areas we use consistently in UA is by creating reports in GA4.
Here is how to create one that you can use to monitor traffic, conversions, and more for your Google Business Profiles (GBP), formerly known as Google My Business (GMB).
Before We Start…
In order to be able to filter out regular organic traffic from local organic traffic via GBPs, you first must ensure you are using UTM parameters in the website link on your business profile. To find out how to create these, please reference our helpful blog post on how to do so.
Step 1: Go to Reports from the side navigation, then select Library
The Library option can be found near the bottom of the left-hand menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and click the Create New Report button and select Create Detail Report
Step 3: Select the Traffic Acquisition Template
You will then be taken to the report page where you can begin customizing various metrics and displays.
Step 4: Add Filter to Include Session Source/Medium and Select GBP Location UTMs
It should look something similar to this (especially if you are like us, and added UTMs before Google switched from GMB to GBP!):
Once you have selected all your locations, click Apply.
Step 6: Change the Default View to Session Source/Medium
Underneath the line graph, you will see a box that contains various metrics, in order to see the data from each profile individually, you will need to switch what is shown.
Step 7: Rearrange Metrics to Your Liking
Now that you can see the data separately, you also have the option to rearrange the order of the metrics below:
Select metrics from the right-hand menu, and drag and drop each metric to choose which variables you want to display in the first five positions in the row.
Pro-tip: Move conversions to be fifth, as that is one of the most important pieces of data you will want to look at!
Once done, click apply.
Step 8: Save and Name
After all the steps above have been completed, click the blue Save button and enter a name for the report, you can use something like “GBP Report” or alike.
Step 9: Locate Your New Report
Head back on over to the Library section of GA4 as you did in step 1, and you will now see your new report to access:
For easier access, we recommended adding to a collection so you find it quicker from the left-hand navigation. See GA4’s official guidance on how to do this.
