Library·SOP·SEO
Compare GA4 Organic Search sessions, useful landing pages, and the lead and purchase results your property can measure.
Last reviewed: · Editorial review
Clarity, structure and references reviewed in this version. This is not a test in a live account.
Compare GA4 Organic Search sessions, useful landing pages, and the lead and purchase results your property can measure.
This SOP covers:
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Use one workbook copy for one site and comparison. Confirm the property and dates before recording numbers so they refer to the same website and period.
Use the private SEO Results workbook for this site and reporting month. If you are continuing the monthly SEO report, keep using its existing workbook copy and dates. If you are doing a standalone GA4 check, first make a private copy of the shared workbook.
If you reached this step from Run a monthly SEO review and create a client report, open that same private workbook. Keep its current report dates, time zone, scope, and Search Console results unchanged. Continue on the GA4 tabs.
For a standalone GA4 check, open the SEO Results workbook and choose Make a copy. Save it in a private folder, then give it a clear name such as “Client — Organic Search review — YYYY-MM”.
Open Read Me. This procedure uses Monthly Summary, GA4 Results, and GA4 Landing Pages. If you are in the monthly report copy, leave the existing Search Console tabs and their results unchanged; for a standalone check, leave those tabs for the separate Search Console procedure.
Open Google Analytics and select the property that measures the website you are reporting on.
Select the GA4 property the site owner uses for this website. Confirm its name and ID with the owner if needed. Enter the exact name in GA4 Results → GA4 property name and the ID in Property ID. Do not change property settings.
Confirm which domain the property measures and which existing event represents a lead or purchase for this client. Use the site owner’s business definition; do not assume every generate_lead or purchase event means one unique lead or settled order.
When continuing the monthly report, use the dates and GA4 property time zone already recorded on Monthly Summary. For a standalone check, confirm the property’s time zone first, then use the latest completed calendar month and the month before it in that zone.
For a standalone check, open Google Analytics → Admin → Property details and read the property’s Time zone. Use it for month boundaries and enter the exact zone in Monthly Summary → GA4 property time zone. Do not change the setting.
If Property details is unavailable or the time zone is missing, ask the property owner or reporting contact to confirm it. Do not use your computer’s local zone. For a standalone check, wait to set the month dates until the property zone is known.
For a standalone check, enter the first and last days of the latest completed month and the month before it, using the GA4 property time zone. In the monthly report, keep existing dates. Month lengths can differ; state both ranges and note that the longer month may have higher raw totals because it includes more days.
If this is a standalone check, enter Client / site, Prepared by, the four period dates, GA4 property time zone, Comparison method, Report as-of date, and Report scope / filters on Monthly Summary. If continuing the monthly report, leave these shared fields and all collected Search Console values as they are. The GA4 Results dates link to this context.
Read the GA4 report’s data freshness notice. Standard processing can take 24–48 hours. For a standalone check, enter the date you checked in Report as-of date; in the monthly report, keep the parent’s as-of date and add a visible delay to GA4 Results → Data freshness / delay note.
Traffic acquisition groups sessions by how visitors began that session. Use the session channel group so the Organic Search row includes unpaid search traffic across search engines.
In GA4, open Reports and choose Traffic acquisition. The report may appear under a collection such as Acquisition or Generate leads; use the report with the exact title Traffic acquisition, not User acquisition.
Open the upper-right date picker. Set the current Start date and End date from Monthly Summary. Turn on Compare, choose Custom, and enter the comparison Start date and End date from the workbook. Apply the dates; leave the workbook dates unchanged.
Set the report’s main table dimension to Session default channel group and use its Organic Search row.
If the table is grouped by another dimension, open its dimension selector and choose Session default channel group. Keep this session dimension for sessions, engagement, and the selected event checks below.
From the Organic Search row, copy Sessions, Engaged sessions (visits meeting GA4’s activity rule: configured time threshold, a key event, or 2+ page/screen views; not leads), and Engagement rate for each range. Enter them on GA4 Results under Current and Previous.
Use an existing event only when it matches the business action being reported. A missing event means the outcome is not measured in this view, not that the business had no leads or sales.
In the Key events column, open its selector (often All events) and choose a candidate event that may represent the agreed lead action. Check what it records before entering a count.
Ask the site owner or check setup notes to learn which successful action triggers this event. Confirm it records the agreed completed lead action and was measured throughout both periods. If either point is unclear, use the unverified-event instructions below and leave the lead counts blank.
After the event’s meaning and date coverage are confirmed, write its exact name in GA4 Results → Selected lead event name(s) and its Organic Search values in Key events — selected lead event(s) for both periods. In Key event selector, record the selector label and event name.
If no lead event appears in the selector, leave Current and Previous blank on Key events — selected lead event(s). In GA4 Results → Outcome measurement status, keep any existing label and add “Lead event unavailable in this report,” and explain the limit in Monthly Summary → Problems or limits. Continue with sessions and landing pages.
If the owner or setup notes cannot confirm what action the event records or that it was tracked in both periods, leave the two Key events — selected lead event(s) inputs blank. In GA4 Results → Outcome measurement status, keep any existing label and add “Lead event unverified,” then explain in Monthly Summary → Problems or limits. Continue with sessions and landing pages.
For a missing or unverified event, ask the owner to check its meaning or tracking with the linked lead/purchase tracking guide. Repeat this check after any separate setup. Do not create an event or change key-event settings here.
Use the same Key events selector to review purchase if it is the agreed completed-purchase measure. Confirm its meaning before recording a count, and keep it separate from Total revenue.
Ask the owner or check setup notes to confirm purchase records the agreed completed purchase and was tracked across both periods. Count it only when both points are clear.
After confirmation, enter the exact event name in GA4 Results → Selected purchase event and its Organic Search counts in Key events — purchase event for both periods. If unavailable or unconfirmed, use the matching blank-result step below.
If purchase is missing or not selectable, leave Current and Previous blank on Key events — purchase event. In GA4 Results → Outcome measurement status, keep any existing label and add “Purchase event unavailable,” and explain the limit in Monthly Summary → Problems or limits. Continue with sessions, landing pages, and other measured results.
If the owner or setup notes cannot confirm what purchase records or that it was tracked in both periods, leave the two Key events — purchase event inputs blank. In GA4 Results → Outcome measurement status, keep any existing label and add “Purchase event unverified,” then explain in Monthly Summary → Problems or limits. Continue with sessions, landing pages, and other measured results.
Copy Total revenue from the Organic Search row for each period into GA4 Results → Total revenue, and enter the displayed currency in Currency. If no value or metric is available, leave it blank and explain under Monthly Summary → Problems or limits. Keep the label; it is not purchase-only revenue.
Keep every missing or unverified event listed in GA4 Results → Outcome measurement status. If both are affected, combine the labels, for example: “Lead event unavailable; Purchase event unverified.” Explain both limits in Monthly Summary → Problems or limits. For unique leads, qualified leads, paid orders, refunds, or accounting revenue, ask the owner which CRM or order system confirms it.
Landing pages show where a session began. Compare the Organic Search page rows to find pages that explain a useful part of the change, then record only the pages worth discussing.
In the same Traffic acquisition report and date ranges, add Landing page + query string as a secondary dimension (an extra page column beside the channel). Keep Session default channel group as the main dimension.
Use the secondary-dimension control beside the main dimension and choose Landing page + query string. If the property does not offer it, check Reports → Engagement → Landing page and use an available session-source dimension only if it preserves Organic Search scope; otherwise mark the page breakdown unavailable and ask a property editor about report access.
Review the Organic Search page rows for the selected dates. Record the pages with the largest useful gain or loss, or pages important to the client’s goal, on GA4 Landing Pages. For each, enter current and previous Organic Search sessions and current/previous engaged sessions, then add a short evidence note, next action, owner, and follow-up date.
Describe what changed and what the reports actually show. Keep different platforms and measurement scopes separate, and make the next check specific.
Read the workbook’s calculated changes before writing. Compare like-for-like values and keep a checked zero separate from a blank or unavailable metric.
Enter 0 only when GA4 showed zero for a checked report row. Leave metric inputs blank if the row was not checked, the event is unavailable, or report data is missing. Use the note fields for the reason.
If another reviewer is completing the Search Console tabs, keep its clicks separate from GA4 Organic Search sessions. Search Console clicks are from Google Search; GA4 sessions are site visits attributed to Organic Search across search engines. They can differ because a click does not always start a measured session, so do not reconcile them as if they should match.
On Monthly Summary, write short entries in Wins / evidence, Problems or limits, and Client-ready findings. Name the measure and comparison. For example: “Organic Search sessions were lower than the prior month; three landing pages explain most of the change. GA4 did not have a lead key event to compare.” Do not say what caused the change unless another check supports it.
If Organic Search sessions rise but the selected lead key-event count falls, report both changes separately. Check that the same event was measured in both periods, then compare the landing-page rows. If measurement was consistent, choose a focused page review; do not say the traffic increase caused fewer leads.
Use Actions to take on Monthly Summary to assign the next checks or work supported by the evidence.
Choose 1 - High for the most urgent or highest-impact supported action, 2 - Medium for useful work that can follow, or 3 - Low for lower-impact work to schedule later.
Choose Not started before work begins, In progress while someone is doing it, Waiting when a person or input is needed, or Complete after the action and its promised check are finished.
Assign the person who can do the action and set a due or recheck date. If the next action depends on access, missing tracking, or a technical cause you have not checked, assign that investigation instead of claiming the cause is known.
Review the full workbook before handing the findings to the monthly SEO report owner or client lead.
