Search Engine Optimization is a complicated process with many moving parts. An SEO dashboard helps you see all relevant metrics in one place. With search engine data alongside important metrics from Google Analytics, you can see a complete picture of SEO’s contribution to your digital marketing.
Why You Need An SEO Dashboard
Not everyone is willing to log into Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and all the SEO platforms you can access. A dashboard for key stakeholders gives them a high-level overview of performance, although a section to provide insights can make your dashboard even more useful.
SEO is a long-term strategy. Be sure to include trended reports to clearly identify trends in your dashboard over time. In your dashboard, be sure to include organic traffic and conversion over time, traffic by landing page, and ranking keywords in the organic search results. Customize the dashboard for your digital marketing efforts, as a dashboard unique to your specific situation is infinitely more useful than a generic one.
Using Looker Studio For SEO Dashboard
Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two of the main SEO data sources you’ll be using to populate your SEO reports. Since they are both Google products, they are easy to connect to looker studio, and you can be confident the connection will always be supported.
Looker Studio also connects to Google Sheets, an easy and free way to store data pasted from SEO tools. It also removes the need to pay for and/or learn the APIs from those tools. If you prefer the automated approach for your SEO metrics, most tools can automatically pull data into Google Sheets or Looker Studio with just a few clicks. I prefer to pull all of my data into Google Sheets first, including Google Analytics, where I can clean up the data before bringing it into Looker.
SEO Dashboard Templates
Coming Soon…
Data Sources
SEO dashboards are not one-size-fits-all. Google Analytics and Search Console should be foundational in your SEO dashboard displays, but plenty of data sources are available to track SEO performance. Choose the platforms that fit your own data and your marketing team best.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is my primary reporting data source for SEO performance. Keyword rankings are useful for understanding how SEO is directionally doing, but using Google Analytics data to track organic search traffic performance on your site is the best indicator. At the end of the day, organic traffic and conversions are major reasons for doing search engine optimization in the first place.
The reports should be filtered down to only show organic search traffic. Google/organic is likely the main traffic source/medium, but it’s worth including other search engines, like Bing, as they should also improve. The important metrics you should look at include engagement (engagement rate, bounce rate, session duration, etc.) and conversion (purchases, leads, conversion rate, and other key performance indicators).
Organic Search traffic, user behavior/engagement, and conversion metrics should be trended over time. SEO takes time, so looking at the trends over the longer-term better shows the impact of your SEO efforts. We don’t need to duplicate everything available within the platform, as some items are better viewed inside your Google Analytics account.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console shows data directly from Google’s search engine results. You can see the queries and pages receiving impressions and the average position and click-through rate for those terms. Results from an SEO campaign don’t happen overnight, so the Google Search Console data is an excellent leading indicator of performance—total impressions and average position increase, leading to clicks and organic traffic.
Google Search Console offers many more search engine optimization features, although I generally don’t bring those into my SEO dashboard. I find going into my Google Search Console account a better place to review these items, especially in the Page Experience, Core Web Vitals, and Mobile Usability reports. Google usually emails when a technical issue arises, so it’s pretty easy to stay on top of issues that could affect your SEO strategy.
Google Sheets
Google Sheets is the tool I use most to pull SEO data into my Looker Studio SEO Dashboard. The APIs from SEO tools are expensive, so most times, it’s easier to copy and paste key metrics into a Google Sheet. This is extra helpful in client reporting when authority metrics and keyword rankings are the only data used from the SEO tools.
Google Sheets are also great for lining up data from multiple sources. If I took website traffic from organic search that entered on a specific landing page and wanted to line it up with the keywords those landing pages rank for, I could easily do that with a Google Sheet. Trying to handle that with blended data in Looker Studio sounds like a nightmare, and I recommend the most straightforward way to track SEO performance.
SEO Platforms / Keyword Tools
SEM Rush
SEM Rush is the SEO platform I most often use in my SEO Reporting. Their $230/m Guru plan lets you see historical data for keyword rankings, which is great for backfilling a client report. You can also create keyword rank lists to track how those specific terms rank in the search results over time. API access is only available on their Business plan, starting at $450/m.
Ahrefs
My favorite SEO platform for keyword research and backlink analysis. Their $199/m Standard plan provides six months of keyword ranking history, while their $399 Advanced Plan provides two years. Their Advanced plan offers their Google Looker Studio connector access, but the API is only available on their $999/m Enterprise plan.
Moz
I haven’t used Moz for several years, outside of their Local SEO plan used by a few of my clients. From what I remember, it did a decent job of tracking keyword rankings and completing a site audit, but in my opinion, their data is less useful for SEO dashboards than the two platforms above. I don’t see anything on their pricing page about historical keyword rankings or API access, but I’m sure this tool could work for SEO reporting if it was the only option available.
Other Tools
There must be hundreds of other SEO platforms used by digital marketing teams worldwide. I’m most familiar with the ones mentioned above, although there are many other reliable sources for important SEO metrics. Choose the platform you’re most comfortable with, and best of luck with your SEO success!
FAQs
What is an SEO dashboard?
An SEO dashboard is a great way to show SEO Analytics data in one place. This should clearly display organic traffic, top landing pages, and ranking keywords. Providing key insights or details of your marketing efforts is always helpful, especially for client reporting.
How do I create an SEO dashboard?
The easiest way to create an SEO dashboard is to find a template and copy your own data into it. You can customize this dashboard to your needs based on your marketing campaigns.
What are my top converting keywords?
Google Analytics used to show the specific keywords driving conversions, although that stopped nearly a decade ago. You can align keyword rank data with conversions data from organic search landing pages, but that would be directional at best. Google Ads lets you see all the keyword data you want (for now…)