An SEO dashboard for free: Search Console, GA4 and Looker Studio

Start with one page you can read in under a minute. The point is a weekly read, not a data dump.

• Three KPIs: clicks from search, signups from search, revenue from search
• Trend: last 28 days vs previous 28, and a 6‑month sparkline for clicks
• Top pages by clicks and by impressions, last 28 days
• Top queries by clicks, with a brand filter toggle
• Pages gaining and pages losing clicks, last 28 vs previous 28
• Diagnostics at a glance: impressions, average position, indexed pages, Core Web Vitals pass rate, referring domains count

Put the KPIs at the top. Put movement next. Put the top pages and queries under them. Keep the diagnostics in a thin row at the bottom.

A finished screen looks like this: a clicks scorecard, a signups from search scorecard, a revenue from search scorecard, two small sparklines, two tables for pages and queries, and two small tables for movers up and down.

A KPI is the number you read weekly. A metric is the one you read when a KPI moves. Keep both on the screen, but separate them in your mind.

• KPIs: clicks from search, signups from search, revenue from search
• Diagnostics: impressions, average position, indexed pages, Core Web Vitals, referring domains

Looker Studio connects to Search Console and GA4 for free, so you can show both KPIs and diagnostics on one page. Search Console itself can be the whole dashboard for most small sites as of 2026. Add GA4 only if you track signups and revenue well.

1. 1

   Create a new report

   Open Looker Studio, create a blank report, and title it “SEO dashboard”.

2. 2

   Add the Search Console connector

   Click Add data, choose Google Search Console. Pick your property. Choose the Site Impression table for sitewide widgets. You can add the URL Impression table later for page‑level detail.

3. 3

   Set the default date range

   Set Last 28 days as the default. Turn on comparison to Previous period. This drives the up and down tables later.

4. 4

   Add the clicks KPI

   Insert a Scorecard. Metric: Clicks. Filter: Query does not contain your brand, if you want non‑brand. Name the scorecard “Clicks from search”.

5. 5

   Add the trend sparkline

   Insert a Time series. Metric: Clicks. Dimension: Date. Set the period to Last 6 months for a sparkline under the KPI.

6. 6

   Add impressions and position diagnostics

   Insert two Scorecards under Diagnostics. Metrics: Impressions, Average position. Keep them small. They are context, not the headline.

7. 7

   Add Top pages by clicks

   Insert a Table. Dimensions: Page. Metrics: Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Average position. Sort by Clicks desc. Limit to 10 rows.

8. 8

   Add Top queries by clicks with a brand toggle

   Insert a Table. Dimension: Query. Metrics: Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Average position. Add a Control for Advanced filter on Query. Pre‑set a Named filter: Brand (Query contains “yourproduct”). Add a second Named filter: Non‑brand (Query does not contain “yourproduct”).

9. 9

   Add Pages gaining and losing

   Duplicate the Pages table twice. For the first, set Sort by Difference in Clicks desc, label it “Pages gaining”. For the second, sort by Difference in Clicks asc, label it “Pages losing”. Show 5 rows each.

10. 10

    Make a page‑level detail view

    Add a second report page. Use the URL Impression table as the data source. Add a Page control to pick one URL. Show its queries, last 28 days vs previous, to see where a single page gained or lost.

Use a filter for your country if most of your market is local. For example, filter Country equals United States to match your paid search tests. Keep one unfiltered view to see global lift from links and mentions.

For a small product site, you do not need a rank tracker. The queries table shows the phrases that matter and how they move when you ship pages or improve speed. If you need rankings for a handful of terms, use the Search Console queries filter and the date compare. Save a Named filter per query group, like “pricing terms” or “alternatives terms”.

Only add GA4 if you trust your events and attribution. The job here is to see signups and revenue from the Organic Search channel next to clicks from search.

1. 1

   Ensure GA4 events exist

   In GA4, confirm you record sign_up or your signup event, and a purchase or subscription event if you sell online. Ensure currency and value are set on revenue events.

2. 2

   Check channel grouping

   In GA4, Organic Search is the default channel for unpaid search clicks. You do not need to tag them. Make sure your UTMs do not overwrite the channel on internal links.

3. 3

   Add GA4 to Looker Studio

   In your report, Add data and pick Google Analytics. Choose your GA4 property. Use the Events and Traffic Acquisition fields.

4. 4

   Add the signups KPI

   Insert a Scorecard. Metric: Event count where Event name equals sign_up. Add a Filter: Default channel grouping equals Organic Search.

5. 5

   Add the revenue KPI

   Insert a Scorecard. Metric: Total revenue or Purchase revenue. Filter: Default channel grouping equals Organic Search. If you run trial to paid, add a second scorecard for trial_started to see upstream movement.

6. 6

   Add a landing page to signup view

   Insert a Table. Dimension: Landing page. Metrics: Event count for sign_up. Filter: Default channel grouping equals Organic Search. This shows which pages bring signups, not just clicks.

Do not try to blend GA4 and Search Console into one metric. Put the scorecards side by side. Clicks move first. Signups and revenue follow with a lag. You want to see both without forcing a model you do not trust yet.

Read it in this order. First, do clicks rise or fall versus the previous 28 days. Second, which pages and queries make the change. Third, what is the likely cause you can act on this week.

• Trend up, top pages flat, new queries appear: a launch or a mention is pulling new discovery. Ship internal links from /guides/getting-started to related pages.
• Trend down, movers show a few losing pages: open one page’s detail, compare queries, refresh the copy for intent match, add an FAQ block.
• Trend flat, impressions up: more exposure, weak snippets. Fix titles and meta descriptions on the top pages. For example, shorten /pricing to a clear value line.
• Big swing from one country: add a country filter to see if a local mention moved you. Consider a country page if it keeps happening.

Use the page detail view to tie a change to a query. Example: /pricing lost clicks on “yourproduct pricing” and “yourproduct cost”. Tighten the H1, add a short plan table, and link to a calculator. Recheck in 28 days.

You do not need a separate “winners and losers” tool. The date comparison in Search Console gives you the delta by page and by query inside Looker Studio.

1. 1

   Find pages gaining

   Open the “Pages gaining” table. Click a row like /guides/getting-started. Switch to the page detail. Sort queries by Difference in Clicks desc. Add internal links to the rising query topic across related guides.

2. 2

   Find pages losing

   Open “Pages losing”. Click a row like /blog/best-alternatives-to-yourcompetitor. Sort queries by Difference asc. If queries are still relevant, refresh the page. If the intent shifted, split the page into a cleaner alternatives page and a separate comparison page.

3. 3

   Spot snippet issues quickly

   If CTR fell while position held steady, your snippet lost appeal. Rewrite the title and meta description. For example, change “Flexible pricing” to “Simple pricing, start free” on /pricing.

4. 4

   Handle seasonal dips

   If both impressions and clicks dip across many pages, it is likely seasonal. Note it in your monthly report. Do not rewrite everything at once.

Use one small rule: make the smallest edit that explains the change. One internal link, one title tweak, one section added. Ship, then watch the next 28 days before sweeping changes across the site family.

If you are not yet tracking signups well in GA4, skip GA4 for now. Search Console on its own gives you clicks, queries, pages and movement. That is enough to steer weekly work for a small product site.

• You ship one or two pages a month. You want to see if they pull queries.
• You run no complex funnels. A signup is a simple form or OAuth.
• You do not have e‑commerce revenue events yet.
• You need a fast weekly read without attribution debates.

Keep GA4 on the roadmap. Once signups and revenue events are stable, add the two KPIs in Looker Studio. Until then, fix what Search Console shows: missing intent, thin sections, weak internal links, slow pages, and titles that truncate.

Your monthly report fits on one page. It holds what changed in the KPIs and why, what you shipped, what the next month does, and the figures as a table. The dashboard gives you the inputs in minutes.

1. 1

   Summarise KPI movement

   “Clicks from search up 18% versus last month, signups from search steady.” Pull the numbers from the scorecards.

2. 2

   Explain the causes

   List the two or three pages or queries that moved. “/guides/getting-started gained on ‘how to use yourproduct’ after adding steps and screenshots.”

3. 3

   Note what you shipped

   One list: pages published or refreshed, internal links added, speed fixes shipped. Keep it short.

4. 4

   Set what the next month does

   Pick three actions. For example: write /integrations/slack, refresh /alternatives-to-yourcompetitor, fix LCP on /home under 2.5 seconds.

5. 5

   Attach the figures

   Paste a small table or an exported PDF of the dashboard. Keep the same 28‑day window each month.

This sits under your SEO plan. The plan is your strategy with dates and an order: which pages to write, which to refresh, and which technical debts to clear this quarter. The dashboard tells you if the plan is working week by week.

Write goals as a figure and a date for a KPI. For example: “two hundred clicks a week from non‑brand searches by March”. Do not set goals as positions on one keyword. They bounce, and they do not map to revenue.

Put the goal number next to the KPI on the dashboard. A small text label like “Goal: 200/week” under the clicks scorecard keeps the target in view. Review it every month when you do the report, not every day.

Do not crowd the page with every metric. You do not need bounce rate, sessions, or every index coverage status on this screen. They belong in a deeper dive, not a weekly read.

• Backlink counts from third‑party tools belong in a separate audit. On this screen, one referring domains count from your own list is enough.
• Rank tracking widgets add noise. Use Search Console queries on the page detail view when you need ranks as context.
• Do not automate dozens of new pages to hit a graph target. As of 2026, scaled content abuse violates Google’s spam policies. Ship pages that carry an answer or data of their own.

If you want an outside view, buy a report once and keep shipping. Porteur is one option: a one‑off report with judgement you can act on, then back to your weekly dashboard read.