Ready to start optimizing your website, but not sure where to start? These four GA4 reports will kick-start your analysis so you can begin uncovering areas of opportunity.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be a powerful tool to help uncover website optimization opportunities. Knowing where to start and what to focus on, however, can be overwhelming. The following are tried-and-true reports we use every day when building, prioritizing, and refining our clients’ optimization roadmaps. These reports are all “off-the-shelf”, with no need to create custom explorations.
Engagement → Landing Page
The Landing Page report is typically our first stop because it helps us understand what pages are acting as entry points for visitors. Pay special attention to the number of New Users who visit each page to take this analysis a step further. This can be a helpful way to evaluate your pages through a fresh set of eyes. Ask yourself:
- If I were a new user coming to this page for the first time, am I getting the information I need to take the next step?
- Does the average engagement time per page align with what you would expect?
- What pages drive the most revenue or the highest Key Event percentage? Are there pages with low conversion rates that are surprising to you?
The answers can help identify opportunities for optimization.
Tech → Overview
Device breakdown is a critical component to your optimization roadmap. Are most users accessing your site on a mobile device or a desktop computer? What device drives the majority of your revenue or leads? While mobile devices continue to drive significant traffic to many sites, there are still some industries and verticals that still skew desktop.
Knowing which devices and browsers your visitors are using to access your site is another important optimization input as you build test cases to see how your website looks and functions across browser/device combinations.
Engagement → Conversions (Key Events)
In GA4, Conversions have been renamed to Key Events. These are the user actions your business has deemed important. Examples of Key Events include purchases, form submissions, phone calls, and store directions clicks. These actions are the lifeblood of your website as they indicate how successful your site is at driving business value. This is a great look at the important actions users are taking on your site. Add a secondary dimension of Page or Device Category to begin digging deeper.
Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition
The last report on our list is the Traffic Acquisition report. Knowing where your visitors are coming from is important as you evaluate how your site is – or maybe isn’t – meeting their needs. This report helps you dig into the mind of your prospective customers to learn how you could improve your experience. This report is a snapshot of how your customers are coming to your site, and how the site performs once they arrive. Engagement time by channel and Key Events by channel are all important indicators of site performance and can help you uncover possible friction points within your experience.
These reports are a starting point in understanding how your site is performing, and where improvement opportunities lie. If you’re ready to take your analysis and site optimization to the next level, contact us and we can conduct a website audit and create a prioritized optimization plan to improve your KPIs and drive business value. Learn more about website optimization.