Long used as a standard tool for data visualization and insight mining, Google Data Studio. But now that it has been connected with Looker, it is a force in business intelligence and analytics.
data ecosystem powered by Google Looker
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However, for SEOs in particular, linking to Google Analytics and other SEO tools gives you limitless options to boost your exposure, traffic, rankings, and site experience. Looker Studio relates to any permitted third-party data source, including Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Tableau, etc.
We’ll outline five ways in this post that you can use Google Looker Studio to boost your SEO.
5 techniques for enhancing SEO with Google Data Studio (Looker)
By integrating Data Studio with your SEO reporting tools, such as Google Analytics, Search Console, and others, you can track target completions, compare traffic sources, analyze organic performance, and keep an eye on backlinks. The outcome? Naturally, more website visitors will result in more purchases. Here are the steps for each of those.
first, examine organic traffic
There are various ways to monitor trends in organic traffic and engagement thanks to Google Data Studio’s numerous connectors.
Dashboard for the search console in Google Data/Looker Studio
Connecting to Google Analytics is the most effective technique to monitor organic performance.
Click “Create” after signing in to your Data Studio account at
the “Data source” button.
Create a new data source in the Google Data/Looker Studio.
Decide on Google Analytics
Google Analytics connection for Google Data/Looker Studio
You can enter the property to have your data—images, videos, or URLs—automatically imported if you’ve already set up your property settings. Additionally, you can manually select your parameter by utilizing the filters. Here is Google’s help page on properties if you’re not sure what one is.
Filter and date your data to make it more focused. Your data can be filtered by channel, web pages, device kind, nation, and more.
Options for filters in Google Data/Looker Studio
The following are some items to monitor:
CTR and clicks. The clicks and site CTR tab in Google Search Console may be used to check the click-through rates for a given time frame for your site. The most accurate representation will be a line chart, and you can use the weekly date range to see trends from particular days. For instance, a noticeable pattern change occurs during the weekends.
for certain pages. Utilize the page filter option to examine traffic patterns across particular web pages or areas of your website. To more easily compare various pages or page groupings, use a table or spreadsheet. When conducting a content audit, this can be really beneficial.
keyword effectiveness. To track keyword performance, you can link Data Studio to Google Analytics, Search Console queries, or other SEO tools like Ahrefs and Moz. Depending on the data source you utilize, there are several metrics you can view. For instance, Moz includes a number of connections for tracking SERP visibility, such as ranking distribution, click share, keyword ranks and changes, and more. You can manually add them if your preferred tracker isn’t already an official partner connector.
Moz connection for Google Data/Looker Studio
If you discover that your keyword performance is poor, your on-page SEO may need to be improved. Try our Free Keyword Tool if you’re looking for keywords to target.
2. track data from site searches
You may optimize your content and site layout by being aware of the search terms that your website visitors use when using the site search. For this, as there is no built-in feature, you must build a widget for Google Analytics. This Analytics Mania post demonstrates how to create a view search results event in Google Analytics 4 and how to link to Data Studio in order to build up site search insights.
3. Monitor objective accomplishments
You can maintain track of your objectives without switching between several windows while using Google Data Studio. All you need to do is integrate Google Analytics, and your Data Studio dashboard will allow you to track them all.
The ROI of your campaigns will then be visible to you, and you’ll be able to identify ways to raise conversion rates. This is the procedure.
Choose Scorecard under the Add Chart tab in Google Analytics.
Scorecard example from Google Data/Looker Studio
Add your target after selecting your metric. In Google Analytics, I have bounce rate objectives set up for this example, thus the goal I’m entering here is to lower the bounce rate below 30%. Since the goal comparison is expressed in percentages, the objective is equal to the present rate divided by 30%. Scorecard goal tracking using Google Data/Looker Studio
The ratio can be displayed in percentages or points, and you can use the chart of your choosing to visualize it. With that, it’s simple for me to observe (or demonstrate to my client) how close I am to lowering the bounce rate.
4. Look at the sources of traffic
You can quickly track which traffic sources—including search engines, social networks, apps, marketplaces, and more—are most effective at achieving your specific goals with Google Data Studio (Looker Studio).
All of this will help you discover new traffic opportunities and create a strong multichannel marketing strategy.
Traffic source report from Google Data/Looker Studio
For tracking any type of traffic, your dashboard can be connected to a number of different platforms, but the Google Analytics connection gathers them all in one place.
Here’s an example of how to monitor traffic coming from social media advertisements:
Open Chart Data in your Google Analytics connection.
Select a data source. YouTube ad tracker, Facebook ad tracker, etc.
Choose a chart type. For some purposes, some charts are more useful. A line chart comparing traffic from various age groups, for example, will clearly demonstrate which age group makes up the majority of your visitors.
Perfect your production. Additional filtering is possible using criteria like the number of visitors who converted and the time period.
Quick suggestions:
Examine comparison tables and charts. By contrasting the results from peak periods to off-peak periods, you might, for instance, demonstrate a correlation between your ROI and the seasons.
Calculate your profits. To identify the most lucrative channels, you can also monitor your cost per result. Enter the ad cost, impressions, and clicks as the metrics after opening your chart data options, and selecting a table or stacked chart as your chart type. That’s all there is to it—choose the comparison’s timeframe. Here, we demonstrate how to import cost information into Google Analytics.
4. Examine backlinks 5.
Get high-quality backlinks if you want to rank higher on Google. You may track your backlink profile to find out which referral links generate the most traffic by connecting your SEO tool to Google Data Studio. Here are some general pointers. The functionality you can use to track referral links depends on the connector you choose.
Find sources of referrals with high potential. You may overlook sources with great traffic potential if you solely consider the volume of traffic coming from your referral links. Instead, keep an eye out for traffic growth in percentage terms. If a recent referral link generates a spike in traffic, you may want to contact the site and try to establish more links there.
Keep track of links by category. Data exported from your backlink tracker can be grouped using the dashboard’s filter for easy tracking and referencing. For instance, you might disallow outdated backlinks or social network referral links.
Backlink report from Google Data/Looker Studio using the AHREFS connector
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Today, begin utilizing Google Looker Studio for SEO.
With the Looker integration, Google Data Studio now gives SEOs and marketers even more power in their dashboards, and the list of platform partners and integrations continues to increase daily. These are the best methods to gather insightful data about your website and improve it.
