It’s been a few years since Google sunsetted Universal Analytics, and replaced it with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – so has the platform had any impact on search engine optimisation, and the way technical SEOs work? 

The quick answer is yes, GA4 has impacted SEO, but indirectly. While GA4 itself doesn’t influence search rankings, its new data model and reporting features change how SEOs track and analyse user behaviour, which can ultimately shape SEO strategies and marketing decisions. Here’s how:

Event-Based Tracking Provides Deeper Insights

GA4 moved us away from session-based tracking and uses an event-based model, allowing SEOs to track user interactions (e.g., clicks, scrolls, video engagement) much more precisely. 

This helps in understanding what people are interacting with and optimising for user experience (UX), Core Web Vitals, and engagement metrics, all of which can indirectly impact your website’s rankings.

Enhanced User-Centric Data for SEO

GA4 focuses more on individual user journeys rather than isolated sessions, making it easier to track engagement across different devices and platforms. 

This helps SEOs refine content strategies, internal linking, and user flow optimisation across multiple platforms including websites and apps.

Missing Organic Search Data

GA4 doesn’t show detailed keyword data (similar to Universal Analytics), meaning SEOs still need Google Search Console for query-level insights. However, GA4 and GSC integration can give a fuller picture of user behaviour post-click. 

On a bit of a tangent – if you want to integrate GA4 with GSC, go to your GA4 account and navigate to Admin > Property Settings > Data Streams. Select your website’s data stream, then scroll down and click ‘Link Google Search Console’ under Product Links. Choose your Search Console property and confirm the integration. Once linked, you can view Search Console data in GA4 under Reports > Acquisition > Search Console, allowing you to analyse your organic search performance alongside other site metrics.

AI-Powered Insights and Predictive Metrics

GA4 uses machine learning to generate AI-powered insights and predictive metrics, which can help marketers and SEOs make decisions about where to spend time and money. These predictive metrics include:

  • Churn Probability: GA4 estimates the likelihood that a user will disengage from your website or app, allowing marketers to take proactive steps, such as retargeting at-risk users with content or offers.
  • Purchase Probability: This predicts the likelihood that a user will complete a conversion within the next seven days, helping SEOs and marketers prioritise high-value audience segments.
  • Revenue Prediction: GA4 forecasts the expected revenue from a particular user group, enabling better budget allocation for marketing efforts.

For SEOs in particular, these predictive insights can be invaluable. By analysing trends in user behaviour, businesses can identify which content or landing pages contribute most to organic conversions. If a specific page has high engagement but low conversion probability, SEOs can improve it with  things like stronger calls to action, improved user experience, or stronger internal linking. Predictive data can also help tailor content strategies, focusing on topics and keywords that attract high-value users who are more likely to convert.

Increased Focus on Engagement Metrics

GA4 moved away from the traditional bounce rate metric used in Universal Analytics and instead focuses on engagement-based metrics, offering a more meaningful way to assess user interaction. Key engagement metrics include:

  • Engaged Sessions: A session is considered ‘engaged’ if a user spends at least 10 seconds on a page, has a conversion event, or views two or more pages. This provides a clearer picture of meaningful interactions compared to a simple bounce rate.
  • Engagement Rate: This is the percentage of engaged sessions out of total sessions. Unlike bounce rate (which only measures single-page visits), engagement rate helps determine how compelling your content is and whether it encourages further exploration.
  • Average Engagement Time: This tracks how much active time users spend interacting with your site, excluding periods of inactivity.

Bounce rate has long been a contentious metric in SEO because it doesn’t always accurately reflect user intent. For example, a visitor reading a recipe or checking business hours on a landing page might ‘bounce’ without interacting further, despite them having a successful experience with your website. 

With GA4’s engagement metrics, SEOs can gain a more accurate understanding of how users interact with content. Since Google considers engagement signals as part of its ranking algorithms, improving engagement rate and session duration can indirectly boost rankings. 

Privacy and Cookie Changes

GA4 is designed for a privacy-first digital landscape, addressing growing concerns around data collection, third-party cookies, and evolving regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and in the USA, the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). As web browsers phase out third-party cookies and user tracking becomes more restricted, GA4 has adapted by relying more on modeled data and machine learning to fill in the gaps left by missing user information.

  • Modeled Data and AI Predictions: Instead of relying solely on direct tracking, GA4 uses behavioural modeling to estimate user activity when data is incomplete due to cookie restrictions or users opting out of tracking.
  • Event-Based Tracking: Unlike Universal Analytics, which relied on sessions and pageviews, GA4 tracks user interactions through events (e.g., clicks, video plays, scroll depth), making data collection more flexible and resilient against privacy changes.
  • IP Anonymisation and Google’s Consent Mode V2: GA4 automatically anonymises IP addresses and integrates with Google’s Consent Mode, ensuring compliance with privacy laws while still providing useful analytics.

Since third-party data is becoming less reliable, SEOs and marketers have had to shift towards first-party data strategies to build deeper audience insights. This includes encouraging email sign-ups, providing gated content, and using loyalty programmes to capture valuable audience data. SEOs and marketers who prioritise first-party data, audience engagement, and adaptive measurement strategies will be best positioned for success in this evolving landscape.

Customisable SEO Reporting

One of the biggest advantages of GA4 is its ability to create custom reports and explorations, giving SEOs far greater flexibility in analysing organic traffic, user behaviour, and conversion paths than UA ever did. Instead of relying on pre-set reports, SEOs can now build tailored insights to track the exact data points that matter most to their strategies.

Conclusion: How has GA4 impacted what we’re doing with SEO?

As we’ve already mentioned, GA4 doesn’t directly impact rankings. It’s just a tool that helps website owners to measure and record data. However, its advanced tracking, user behaviour insights, and AI-driven reports can help SEOs to refine strategies for better engagement, conversions, and organic performance.

Would you like recommendations on setting up GA4 for better SEO tracking? Get in touch and we can organise set up for you, provide you with GA4 or SEO training, or even give you SEO support with our monthly retainers.