Five Google Analytics reports worth checking once a month

Google Analytics 4 has a long menu of reports, and many small businesses open it rarely because it isn’t obvious which ones matter. Five of them answer the questions an owner actually has: where did visitors come from, which page did they arrive on, what did they look at, did they do anything useful, and what were they searching for.

This guide sets out a monthly routine using those five, based on Google’s own Analytics Help pages. It pairs with our five-question weekly marketing review: the weekly review is about enquiries and jobs, and this is the monthly look at the website behind them.

Before you start: set the comparison

A single month’s figure means little. In any report, open the date picker at the top right, choose the month, and switch on Compare. Google’s options are the previous period, the previous period matched by day of the week, and the previous year. For a seasonal business, the previous year is usually the fairer comparison.

Wait a couple of days into the new month before you look. Google says data processing can take 24 to 48 hours.

One warning about finding reports. The left-hand menu isn’t the same in every account. Google says properties created before 27 March 2023, set up without business information, or migrated with its Setup Assistant show a “Life cycle” collection. Properties where business information was given at setup show a “Business objectives” collection instead, with reports grouped under headings such as “Generate leads”. Google’s Help pages give the paths used here, such as Acquisition then Traffic acquisition, so your menu may group the same reports differently. If a report is missing, Google says someone with the Editor role or above can add it back.

1. Traffic acquisition: where visits came from

Find it under Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. It groups sessions by channel. Google’s definitions include Organic Search (non-ad links in search results), Paid Search (ads on search engines), Direct (a saved link or a typed address), Referral (non-ad links on other sites), Organic Social, Email and AI Assistant, for visits from sources such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot.

Use this report, not User acquisition, for a monthly check. Google explains the difference with an example: someone who first arrives from Google and then returns ten times by typing your address appears in User acquisition as eleven Google sessions. In Traffic acquisition, the ten return visits count as direct only if they fall outside the key event lookback window; inside it, they are still credited to Google. User acquisition is about how people first found you, and Traffic acquisition is about the sessions themselves, for new and returning visitors alike.

What to look for: which channels grew or shrank against the comparison period, and whether any channel brings visits but no key events (see report 4).

2. Landing page: where they arrived

Google’s Help page gives the path as Engagement, then Landing page. It defines a landing page as the page path and query string associated with the first pageview in a session. The report lists sessions, active users, new users, average engagement time per session and key events for each one.

Your home page is rarely the only front door. This report shows which service pages, articles or location pages people arrive on, and which of those lead to an enquiry.

What to look for: landing pages with plenty of sessions and no key events. Those are the pages to improve first. If you run ads, check that the ad’s destination page appears here and performs. Our guide on whether your landing page keeps the promise your ad makes covers what to fix.

3. Pages and screens: what they looked at

Also under Engagement, this report counts views of every page, not only the first. Google notes that repeated views of the same page are counted. It also shows active users, views per active user and average engagement time.

What to look for: whether your most important pages, such as services, pricing and contact, are among the most viewed. If the contact page gets views but enquiries are flat, the form or phone link deserves a test. If you see addresses you don’t recognise, our story on Analytics’ hostname allowlist explains one way stray data gets in.

4. Key events: what they did

Analytics records events, but it doesn’t know which ones matter to you until you say so. Google defines a key event as an event that measures an action particularly important to the success of your business. Events that were previously marked as conversions are now called key events; Google now uses “conversion” for Google Ads conversions created from them.

For a service business, the usual candidates are a submitted enquiry form, a booking or a tap on the phone number. Google’s instructions are to create or identify the event, then mark it as a key event. For a new event, that is under Admin, Data display, Events, with a “Mark as key event” switch. Whoever built your site can tell you which events already exist.

Once marked, key events appear as a column in the Traffic acquisition and Landing page reports, and you can filter that column to a single key event. Google says marking a key event needs the Marketer role or above.

Two related figures are worth knowing. Google counts a session as engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has two or more screen or page views. Engagement rate is the percentage of sessions that were engaged, and bounce rate is the percentage that were not. Google says most reports don’t include these two rates by default, and an Editor has to add them.

What to look for: the number of key events this month against the comparison, and which channels and landing pages they came from. Check the total roughly matches the enquiries you actually received. A large gap suggests the tracking needs attention.

5. Search Console queries: what they searched for

The Google searches that lead people to your site come from Google Search Console, which you can link to Analytics. Google says linking adds two reports, Google Organic Search Queries and Google Organic Search Traffic, but the collection is unpublished by default: you find it in the Library and publish it, and it then appears in the menu as Search Console, with the first report labelled Queries.

The Queries report lists the searches your site appeared for, with clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position. Google lists several limits: the data is available 48 hours after Search Console collects it, goes back at most 16 months, and can’t be combined with most Analytics dimensions, only landing page, country and device.

What to look for: queries with many impressions and few clicks, which may point to a page title or description that isn’t earning the click, and searches you’d expect to appear for but don’t.

What the numbers won’t tell you

Analytics counts visits it can measure, and some rows may be withheld. Google says it applies data thresholds, which you can’t adjust, to stop anyone inferring the identity of individual users. They are more likely with small user counts over a narrow date range, and Google says rows with search query information may also be withheld. Google suggests widening the date range.

Treat the figures as direction, not an exact count. The routine works when the same five reports are compared the same way each month, and when each look ends with one thing to change.

Checklist

• Set a monthly date. Check Google Analytics a few days into each month, because Google says data processing can take 24 to 48 hours.
• Turn on Compare in the date picker. Choose the previous period, or the previous year if your trade is seasonal.
• Mark your enquiry actions as key events. Ask whoever built your site which events exist for form submissions, bookings and phone taps, and have someone with the Marketer role or above mark them as key events in Admin.
• Open Traffic acquisition. Note which channels rose or fell and which bring visits without key events.
• Open the Landing page report. List the pages with many sessions and no key events, and pick one to improve this month.
• Open Pages and screens. Confirm your services, pricing and contact pages are among the most viewed.
• Link Search Console and publish its reports. After linking, find the Search Console collection in the Library and publish it so the Queries report appears in the menu.
• Compare key events with real enquiries. If the Analytics total is far from what your inbox and phone show, ask your web developer to check the tracking.