If you’ve logged into Google Analytics 4 recently and felt completely overwhelmed, you’re not alone.

Business owners tell us this all the time: “I opened GA4, saw dozens of reports, hundreds of metrics, charts everywhere, and I just closed it. It’s too much.”

Most people do one of two things. They either avoid logging in entirely because it feels overwhelming, or they try to understand everything and end up more confused than when they started.

Here’s what we tell every client at Boulder SEO Marketing: You don’t need all of it. You really don’t.

This week’s Friday SEO Tip features our Senior SEO Strategist, Barb Senkala, walking you through a handful of metrics that actually tell you whether your SEO is working. That’s it. Once you know where to look, this takes about five minutes a week. Watch the video above to learn more.

Why GA4 Feels So Different

Let’s start with why Google Analytics 4 feels so foreign. When Google replaced Universal Analytics, they didn’t just update it. They built something completely new from the ground up. The whole interface changed. The terminology changed. Where things are located has changed.

GA4 was designed for marketers and data analysts, not for business owners running a company who have a hundred other things to worry about. We’ve had clients tell us they just stopped checking their analytics because it felt like learning a foreign language.

But here’s the good news: you only need to focus on a few things.

The Four Metrics That Actually Matter

We’re going to walk through the four metrics Barb reviews for every client. These are the ones that tell the real story about your SEO performance.

Metric #1: Organic Traffic

This is your baseline. How many people found your website through a Google search? Not paid ads, not social media, just organic search. People who type something into Google and click on your listing.

Where to find it:

1. Go to Reports
2. Click Traffic Acquisition
3. Look for Organic Search in the channel list

You can filter this view by typing “organic search” in the search bar, or use the filter at the top of the report to show only organic traffic instead of all users. This gives you your totals. Specifically, sessions are typically the traffic metric we focus on.

You can select your date range at the top to review whatever time period makes sense for your business. Monthly, quarterly, year-over-year.

What to look for: Is your organic traffic going up, going down, or staying flat? That’s the first thing you want to know.

Metric #2: Engagement Rate

This metric replaced bounce rate in GA4. It tells you whether people are staying on your site or leaving immediately. The higher the engagement rate, the better.

If someone lands on your page and spends time there, that’s a good sign. It means your content matched what they were looking for when they searched on Google.

What it tells you: If your traffic is up but engagement is really low, there’s a disconnect somewhere. People are finding you but not getting what they expected. That’s a red flag worth investigating.

Metric #3: Conversions

This is the big one. Traffic and engagement are great, but what are people actually doing on your website? Are they taking action?

Where to find it:

1. Go to Engagement
2. Click Events

Conversions could be phone calls, form submissions, purchases, or downloads. Whatever matters for your business. Traffic is great, but traffic that doesn’t convert doesn’t pay the bills.

One quick note: If you haven’t set up your conversions in GA4 yet, that needs to be step one. Otherwise, you’re flying blind.

You can typically use Google Tag Manager to set up specific form tracking, phone call clicks, and campaign tracking. Anything you want to measure. Once events are configured, you can filter by organic search, all traffic, or however you want to see how many people are converting over a specific time period.

This shows you what’s actually driving business outcomes, not just website visits.

Metric #4: Landing Pages

Where to find it:

1. Go to Engagement
2. Click Landing Page

This report shows which specific pages are driving traffic to your site from search. We love this report because it shows what’s actually working. Which pages are pulling their weight, which ones are getting traffic?

It also shows your opportunities. Pages that are getting some traffic but could do better. We call these Micro SEO Strategy℠ opportunities. Pages that are close to ranking well and just need a little push.

You can filter by URL in the search bar if you’re looking for a specific landing page you just launched and want to see how it’s performing. Just type the slug in there and filter it down to see what’s being tracked for that specific page.

What We’re Hearing From Every Client Right Now

“Barb, my sessions are down. What’s going on? Are we doing something wrong?”

Here’s the reality. Sessions are dropping across the board right now, and AI is a major reason.

Google’s AI Overviews answer questions directly in search results. Someone searches for something, and Google gives them the answer right there on the results page. They don’t need to click through to the website.

Same thing with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. People are getting answers from AI without ever visiting a website.

So yes, your traffic might be down even if you’re doing everything right. This is happening to everyone.

Why the Sessions You’re Getting Are More Valuable Now

Here’s what we tell clients: The sessions you are getting are more valuable now.

Think about it. If someone could have gotten the answer from AI, but they still clicked through to your site, they specifically wanted to go deeper. They wanted to learn more. Or they’re ready to take action.

It’s quality over quantity now.

Don’t panic about the total number of sessions. Focus on whether those visitors are converting. That’s the metric that actually matters to your bottom line.

Connecting the Dots: What These Numbers Actually Mean

Let’s talk about what these metrics are telling you when you look at them together, because this is where we spend a lot of time with clients.

If traffic is going up but conversions are flat: Your content might not match what people actually need. They’re finding you, but something’s off. Maybe your call-to-action isn’t clear. Maybe the page doesn’t answer their specific question. This needs investigation.

If engagement is high but traffic is low: You’ve got great content. You just need more visibility. That’s an SEO opportunity. More people need to find what you’re already doing well.

If traffic drops suddenly: It could be an algorithm update. Time to review your content quality and see what has changed in your rankings. Check Google Search Console for any manual actions or index coverage issues.

Connecting all these dots is really what analytics is about. It’s not just looking at numbers in isolation. It’s understanding what they mean for your business when you look at them together.

How Often Should You Check GA4?

Weekly or monthly is plenty. Set a reminder, spend five minutes, and look at trends over time.

Do not check this daily. You’ll drive yourself crazy. There’s too much noise day to day. You want to see patterns, not panic over every little fluctuation.

Traffic fluctuates for many reasons. Seasonal changes, algorithm updates, industry trends, even day-of-the-week patterns. Daily checking won’t tell you anything meaningful. You need to zoom out and look at longer timeframes to see what’s actually happening.

Understanding Normal Fluctuations

This is something we walk clients through constantly. Not every dip means disaster. Not every spike means permanent success.

There are seasonal patterns in almost every industry. HVAC companies see different search patterns in summer versus winter. Tax accountants see massive spikes in March and April. Landscaping businesses see a drop-off in November and December.

Algorithm updates happen regularly. Google tweaks its algorithm constantly. Sometimes multiple times per week. Major core updates happen a few times per year. These can cause temporary fluctuations that stabilize over weeks or months.

The key is looking at trends, not individual data points. Is your three-month average trending up or down? That’s more meaningful than whether last Tuesday was better than the Tuesday before.

What to Do When the Numbers Don’t Make Sense

If you’re looking at GA4 and the numbers still aren’t making sense, or you want help figuring out what to do about them, that’s exactly what we’re here for at Boulder SEO Marketing.

We don’t just hand you reports with numbers. We interpret what those numbers mean for your specific business, identify opportunities, and create action plans to improve performance.

Our Micro SEO Strategies℠ focus on finding those landing pages that are close to ranking well. The ones showing up on pages 2-3 of Google and giving them the push they need to break through to page 1, where the actual traffic lives.

We help you understand what’s working, what’s not, and most importantly, what to do about it.

The Bottom Line on GA4

You don’t need to become a data analyst to understand if your marketing is working.

Know these four metrics:

• Organic traffic (Are people finding you?)
• Engagement rate (Are they staying?)
• Conversions (Are they taking action?)
• Landing pages (What’s actually working?)

Keep an eye on them weekly or monthly. Understand that sessions dropping right now are normal because of AI search behavior changes. Focus on whether the visitors you’re getting are converting. That’s what actually matters to your bottom line.

And if you need help making sense of it all, we’re here. That’s what we do every day.

Thanks for reading this week’s Friday SEO Tip.

Have an amazing Friday and a great weekend.

The Boulder SEO Marketing Team