Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 fundamentally changed how analytics data is collected and reported^[1]. Universal Analytics (UA) tracked sessions and pageviews with fixed dimensions. GA4 tracks 'events' — every user interaction is an event, including page views, scrolls, clicks, video plays, and conversions. This flexibility allows GA4 to track cross-device user journeys (a user on mobile then desktop is one user in GA4, two different sessions in UA). GA4 also uses machine learning to fill data gaps from consent-based measurement gaps. The reporting interface changed significantly — standard reports are simplified, while custom 'Explore' reports allow sophisticated analysis. For SEO, the 'Acquisition > Traffic acquisition' report replaces UA's 'Channels' report, and 'Organic Search' traffic can be segmented by landing page, device, country, and date.

Several GA4 reports are particularly useful for SEO analysis^[1][2]. Traffic Acquisition (Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition): shows sessions, engaged sessions, conversion rate, and revenue by channel — filter by 'Organic Search' to see purely SEO traffic. Landing Page report (Reports > Engagement > Landing page): shows which pages users first land on from organic search, with engagement metrics. This reveals which pages drive organic traffic and how well they engage visitors. User acquisition: shows new users by channel — useful for understanding whether SEO is bringing new users or primarily returning visitors. Integrating Search Console into GA4 adds the Search Console collection, enabling 'Queries' and 'Google Organic Search Traffic' reports that combine GA4 engagement data with Search Console's click/impression data.

Conversion tracking in GA4 requires marking specific events as 'Key Events' (formerly 'Conversions')^[2]. Built-in auto-tracked events include page_view, scroll, and click — enable enhanced measurement in the GA4 Admin to also track file downloads, form interactions, and video engagement automatically. Custom events require implementation via Google Tag Manager or the gtag.js library. For content marketing, typical conversions to track: newsletter subscriptions (form submission event), content downloads (file download event), free trial sign-ups (account creation event), and demo requests (form submission on specific pages). Set up audiences in GA4 to track users who visited specific pages (blog readers, pricing page visitors) and analyze their conversion paths — this reveals which content types best contribute to pipeline.