Organic Search Traffic Analysis In GA4 – Complete Guide

In order to conduct organic search traffic analysis in GA4, we are going to create a new exploration report from scratch.

This new report would have nine tabs.

Each tab would display one sub-report, which measures the performance of organic search traffic to the website.

Following are the nine sub-reports we would create in our exploration report:

#1 Overview – This report provides an overview of each organic search traffic source:

#2 Landing Pages – Use this report to measure the performance of landing pages for organic search traffic:

#3 Devices – Use this report to measure the performance of different devices (desktop, mobile, smart TV, tablet) which sent organic search traffic to your website:

#4 Browsers – Use this report to measure the performance of different web browsers which sent organic search traffic to your website:

#5 Countries – Use this report to determine from where the organic search traffic is coming to your website:

#6 Conversions – Use this report to determine all the conversions generated by organic search traffic on your website:

#7 ECommerce – Use this report to measure the ecommerce performance of organic search traffic to your website:

#8 User Flow – Use this report to determine how the organic search traffic is using your website:

#9 Funnel – Use this report to determine how organic search traffic is converting on your website:

#1 Creating the ‘Overview’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Make sure that your GA4 property has collected at least 30 days of historical data before you move forward. Otherwise, your data analysis would not be statistically significant.

Step-2: Login to your GA4 property and then click on the ‘Explore’ link:

Step-3: Click on the ‘Blank’ exploration report template:

Step-4: Name your report ‘Organic Search Traffic Analysis’:

Step-5: Set the date range to the last 30 days:

Step-6: Click on the + button next to SEGMENTS:

Step-7: Click on the ‘User Segment’ button:

Step-8: Name the new segment ‘Organic Search’:

Step-9: Click on the drop-down menu:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-10: Search for ‘First user medium’:

Step-11: Click on the ‘First user medium’ in the search result:

Step-12: Click on the ‘ADD FILTER’ button:

Step-13: Click on the text box below the ‘Condition’ box:

Step-14: Click on ‘Organic’ from the drop-down menu:

Step-15: Click on the ‘Apply’ button:

Step-16: Click on the ‘SAVE AND APPLY’ button at the top right hand side:

Step-17: Click on the + button next to ‘DIMENSIONS‘:

Step-18: Search for the ‘First user source/medium’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-19: Search for the ‘Landing Page’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-20: Search for the ‘Event Name’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-21: Search for the ‘Item Name’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-22: Search for the ‘Device Category’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-23: Search for the ‘Browser’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-24: Search for the ‘Country’ dimension and then click on the checkbox next to it:

Step-25: Click on the ‘Import’ button to import all the selected dimensions to the report:

You should now see all the imported dimensions listed under the DIMENSIONS section:

Step-26: Click on the + button next to METRICS:

Step-27: Search and select the following metrics one by one in the exact order as mentioned below and then click on the ‘Import‘ button:

Views
Total users
Sessions
Engaged sessions
Engagement rate
Event Count
Conversions
Total revenue
User conversion rate
Session conversion rate
Event revenue
Item views
Item quantity
Add-to-carts
Ecommerce purchases
Item revenue

You should now see all the imported metrics listed under the METRICS section:

Step-28: Double click on the dimension ‘First user source/medium’ so that it is automatically added to the Rows section:

Note: When you double-click on the ‘First user source/medium’ dimension, you won’t see any change to the canvas on the right. But the dimension has been added to the canvas. Only when you start adding metrics to the canvas will you start seeing the dimension(s) added to the canvas.

Step-29: Double click on the following metrics one by one, starting from the very top, so that they are automatically added to the blank canvas on the right:

Views
Total users
Sessions
Engaged sessions
Engagement rate
Event Count
Conversions
Total revenue

You should now be able to see the dimensions and metrics added to the report canvas on the right:

overview view added dimensions and metrics

Step-30: Scroll down and then click on the drop-down menu next to ‘Cell Type’:

Step-31: Click on ‘Heat Map’ from the drop-down menu:

Your report should now look like the one below:

Step-32: Double click on ‘Free form 1’:

Step-33: Rename the tab to ‘Overview’:

#2 Creating the ‘Landing Pages’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the arrow button next to ‘Overview’:

Step-2: Click on ‘Duplicate’ from the drop-down menu:

Step-3: Name the new tab ‘Landing Pages’:

Step-4: Click on the cross button next to the dimension ‘First user source/medium’ in order to remove it from the report:

Step-5: Double click on the dimension ‘Landing Pages’ so that it is automatically added to the canvas on the right:

You should now be able to see the ‘Landing Pages’ report on the canvas:

#3 Creating the ‘Devices’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the arrow button next to ‘Landing Pages’:

Step-2: Click on ‘Duplicate’ from the drop-down menu:

Step-3: Name the new tab ‘Devices’:

Step-4: Click on the cross button next to the dimension ‘Landing Page’ in order to remove it from the report:

Step-5: Double click on the dimension ‘Device Category’ so that it is automatically added to the canvas on the right:

You should now be able to see the ‘Devices’ report on the canvas:

#4 Creating the ‘Browsers’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the arrow button next to ‘Devices’:

Step-2: Click on ‘Duplicate’ from the drop-down menu:

Step-3: Name the new tab ‘Browsers’:

Step-4: Click on the cross button next to the dimension ‘Device Category’ in order to remove it from the report:

Step-5: Double click on the dimension ‘Browser’ so that it is automatically added to the canvas on the right:

You should now be able to see the ‘Browsers’ report on the canvas:

#5 Creating the ‘Countries’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the arrow button next to ‘Browsers’:

Step-2: Click on ‘Duplicate’ from the drop-down menu:

Step-3: Name the new tab ‘Countries’:

Step-4: Click on the cross button next to the dimension ‘Browser’ in order to remove it from the report:

Step-5: Double click on the dimension ‘Country’ so that it is automatically added to the canvas on the right:

You should now be able to see the ‘Countries’ report on the canvas:

#6 Creating the ‘Conversions’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the + button next to the ‘Countries’ tab:

Step-2: Click on ‘Free form’:

Step-3: Name the new tab ‘Conversions’:

Step-4: Double click on the ‘Organic Search’ segment to add it to the canvas on the right:

Note: You won’t see the ‘Organic Search’ segment applied to the canvas until you start adding metrics. However, you should see the ‘Organic Search’ segment listed under ‘SEGMENT COMPARISONS’:

Step-5: Double click on the ‘Event name’ dimension to add it to the canvas on the right:

Step-6: Double click on the following metrics one by one in the exact order as mentioned below to add them to the canvas on the right:

Conversions
Total users
User conversion rate
Session conversion rate
Event revenue

Step-7: Scroll down and select cell type to ‘Heat map’:

You should now be able to see the complete ‘Conversions’ report on the canvas:

#7 Creating the ‘Ecommerce’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the + button next to the ‘Conversions’ tab:

Step-2: Click on ‘Free form’:

Step-3: Name the new tab ‘Ecommerce’:

Step-4: Double click on the ‘Organic Search’ segment to add it to the canvas:

Step-5: Double click on the ‘Item name’ dimension to add it to the canvas on the right:

Step-6: Double click on the following metrics one by one in the exact order as mentioned below to add them to the canvas on the right:

Item views
Item quantity
Add-to-carts
Ecommerce purchases
Item revenue

Step-7: Scroll down and select cell type to ‘Heat map’:

You should now be able to see the complete ‘Ecommerce’ report on the canvas:

#8 Creating the ‘User Flow’ report

Follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the + button next to the ‘Ecommerce’ tab:

Step-2: Click on the ‘Path Exploration’:

Step-3: Name the report ‘User Flow’:

Step-4: Double click on the ‘Organic Search’ segment to apply it to the report:

Step-5: Double click on the ‘Device Category’ dimension to apply it as a breakdown dimension to the report:

Step-6: Click on the cross button next to ‘Event Count’ to remove this metric from the report:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-7: Double click on the ‘Total users’ metric to apply it to your report:

Step-8: Click on the drop-down menu under ‘STEP +1’:

Step-9: Click on ‘Page title and screen name’:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-10: Hover your mouse over a blue bar next to a page title (say ‘Google Online Store’) to see the breakdown by device category:

From the screenshot above, we can conclude the following:

The Google online store page was visited by 5.2k users in the last 30 days.
The majority of users came from desktop (3.3k), followed by mobile (1.9k) and tablet (59) devices.

Step-11: Click on the blue bar next to the page title to see how the users navigated from that page. Let’s click on the blue bar next to ‘Home’.

Once you click on the blue bar, you should see another step added to the report, which shows the progression from the ‘Home’ page:

Step-12: Click on the blue bar next to the page title to see how the users navigated from that page. Let’s click on the blue bar next to the page ‘Men’s/Unisex|Appar..’: