How to Create a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Page Performance Report in Looker Studio
If you've been dabbling in SEO and working on your website's content, then you should definitely create a report for page performance. It is important to report on your website's pages and content so you can understand how they are actually performing (and where it requires more effort!). In this article, we will show you how to create a Google Analytics 4 (GA) Page Performance Report in Looker Studio!
In case you prefer to watch a video tutorial instead, here's one you can follow from XYZ Lab's Youtube Channel!
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Topics Covered:
Step 1: Navigate to lookerstudio.google.com
Step 2: Select "Blank Report"
Step 3: Connect the Data Source
Step 4: Click on "Insert" to add elements to your report
Step 5: Customize your elements
Step 1: Insert an "Image" element
Step 2: Click "Select a file"
Step 3: Upload your image and style it accordingly
Step 1: Click on "Page" and select "Current Page Settings"
Step 2: Click on "Style" and increase the Height
Step 1: Insert a "Scorecard" element and duplicate it a few times
Step 2: Select the metrics that you'd like to showcase
Step 3: Add "Text" element to title Scorecards
Step 4: Insert a "Date range control"
Step 5: Select the date range you'd like to view in the report
Step 3: Apply a "Comparison date range"
Part 3.1: Creating a Page Report for Sections of Your Website
Step 1: Duplicate the Scorecards and rename the title
Step 2: Click on one of the Scorecards, go to the Set-up column, and click on "Add a filter"
Step 3: Create the Filter
Step 4: Apply the Filter on all Scorecards
Part 3.2: Creating a Page Report for Sections of Your Website
Step 1: Duplicate the Scorecards and rename the title
Step 2: Understand the pattern of your website URL
Step 3: Click on one of the Scorecards, go to the Set-up column, and click on "Add a filter"
Step 4: Create the Filter
Step 5: Apply the Filter on all of the Scorecards
Step 1: Insert a "Table" element
Step 2: Select the Dimension "Full page URL" and select the Metrics you'd like to showcase
Step 3: Click on "Chart" and select "Table with Heatmap"
Step 4: Show the "Summary row" to see the aggregation of the metrics
Step 5: Add a "Comparison date range" to the previous period
Step 6: Title the Table accordingly
Step 7: Duplicate the Table, apply the relevant filter, and rename it accordingly
Step 1: Insert a "Time series chart" element
Step 2: Select the Metric
Step 3: Apply a comparison date range to the previous period
Step 4: Duplicate the same chart 2 more times, apply the relevant filters, and name it accordingly
Part 1.1: Creating a Blank Report
Step 1: Navigate to lookerstudio.google.com
Step 2: Select "Blank Report"
Step 3: Connect the Data Source
1. Select Google Analytics.
2. Select your Google Analytics account and property (GA4) and click "Add".
Step 4: Click on "Insert" to add elements to your report
Through this tab, you'll find all the elements that you can include in your report, such as tables, charts, scorecards, shapes, texts, images, and more.
Step 5: Customize your elements
In this example, we will insert a rectangle and text element first to create the header of the report and customize the style of the properties accordingly.
Part 1.2: Adding Images and Logo
Step 1: Insert an "Image" element
Step 2: Click "Select a file"
Step 3: Upload your image and style it accordingly
Part 1.3: Adding More Space to the Report
Step 1: Click on "Page" and select "Current Page Settings"
Step 2: Click on "Style" and increase the Height
Part 2: Inserting Scorecards for Top-level Performance
Step 1: Insert a "Scorecard" element and duplicate it a few times
A scorecard showcases a single metric. It will present the key statistics of all the pages of your website.
Step 2: Select the metrics that you'd like to showcase
Click on each element and set the metrics that showcase your top-level website performance, including traffic, qualitative metrics, soft KPIs, and hard KPIs. In this example, we are showcasing the Sessions, Views, Event count, and Conversions.
Step 3: Add "Text" element to title Scorecards
Since the overview is relevant to all pages of the website, we will add the text "All Pages" next to the scorecards.
Step 4: Insert a "Date range control"
Step 5: Select the date range you'd like to view in the report
In this example, we have set the date range to this year to date. You can see that the data will refresh to the date range that has been set (1 Jan 2023 - 3 Apr 2023, in our case). Now we have a reusable report where you can change the dates and see the updated numbers without having to recreate the report.
Step 6: Apply a "Comparison date range"
Select all the scorecards and select a comparison date range from the dropdown: Previous period.
You will see some indicators that show the comparison of performance from the current date range to the previous period. For instance, if you're looking at a weekly report, it will compare the results to the previous week; if you're looking at a monthly report, it will compare the results to the previous month.
Part 3.1: Creating a Page Report for Sections of Your Website
Think about the structure of your website; what kind of categories or pages are on your website (e.g. product pages, blog, features, pricing, etc). We want to duplicate the top-level scorecards and we will create the same format of report for the most important sections of your website. Let's use our website https://www.xyzlab.com/ as an example.
Here we have pages that are relevant to templates, and each template has a specific button and URL. Here, we want to report on the "Templates" section of our website to see the performance.
Step 1: Duplicate the Scorecards and rename the title
Step 2: Click on one of the Scorecards, go to the Set-up column, and click on "Add a filter"
Step 3: Create the Filter
In our case, we will name the filter "Templates" and set the conditions of the filter to include the full page URL that contains -template (the partial URL). This filter will narrow down the performance only to the pages that are relevant to templates.
Step 4: Apply the Filter on all of the Scorecards
Now you can see the performance of all pages as well as the specific template pages on your website. You can repeat the same steps above to apply to different categories / sections of your website. As an example, we will add another section for the Blog section of our website.
Part 3.2: Creating a Page Report for Sections of Your Website
Step 1: Duplicate the Scorecards and rename the title
Step 2: Understand the pattern of your website URL
In our case, our blog always features a URL with /post/postname. We will use this pattern to filter down to all pages that contain /posts.
Step 3: Click on one of the Scorecards, go to the Set-up column, and click on "Add a filter"
Step 4: Create the Filter
In our case, we will name the filter "Posts" and set the conditions of the filter to include the full page URL that contains /post (the partial URL). This filter will narrow down the performance only to the pages that are relevant to posts.
Step 5: Apply the Filter on all of the Scorecards
Now we have showcased the top-level performance of different categories and sections of the website. In our example, we are displaying the performance of All Pages, Template pages, and Blogpost pages. In your case, you should break down your website structure and report on all key sections of your website.
Part 4: Inserting Table for Top-Level Pages Performance
Step 1: Insert a "Table" element
Step 2: Select the Dimension "Full page URL" and select the Metrics you'd like to showcase
Add the metrics such as sessions, views, event count (soft KPIs), and conversions (hard KPIs).
Step 3: Click on "Chart" and select "Table with Heatmap"
Step 4: Show the "Summary row" to see the aggregation of the metrics
Step 5: Add a "Comparison date range" to the previous period
Step 6: Title the Table accordingly
In this case, the table is showcasing the performance of all pages, so we will title it as "All Pages Breakdown".
The completed table now shows a Delta column that displays the movements of the performance of the page by each metric in comparison to the previous period, i.e. pages that are performing better or worse compared to the previous period. It also has a Grand total on the bottom to summarize all the performance, as well as heatmaps to see the concentration of each metric across the pages.
Step 7: Duplicate the Table, apply the relevant filter, and rename it accordingly
We will recreate the same table to showcase only the template pages and the post pages performance, so we can duplicate the same table and rename it as "Template Pages Breakdown" and "Posts Pages Performance". Click on the table, navigate to the set-up column, and apply the relevant filter that we have created previously (i.e. the template and post filter).
Part 5: Inserting Time Series Chart for Trend Lines
Step 1: Insert a "Time series chart" element
Step 2: Select the Metric
In this example, we will select sessions as the metric.
Step 3: Apply a comparison date range to the previous period
The chart now shows the sessions of all pages in the defined time range in comparison to the previous period.
Step 4: Duplicate the same chart 2 more times, apply the relevant filters, and name it accordingly
Now we have three charts that represent the trend of your traffic (sessions) in various categories of your website.
Now we have completed our GA4 Page Performance Report! To review from the beginning, at the top, with the scorecards we can immediately understand the big picture of the performance of the page. We are able to see how much traffic, sessions, soft KPIs, and hard KPIs we are getting in total, and understand the contribution of the different categories to the total performance.
Underneath, we can see the trend lines of the performances in comparison to the previous period. Finally, we can deep dive into each category of the website and see the breakdown of all the different pages. This is the ideal page performance report that you can create from Google Analytics 4 using Looker Studio, and one that can help you in seeing the opportunities for improvements or growth through your website content!