Using Google Looker Studio for White Label SEO Reports

Looker StudioGA4 is a dumpster fire. Well, it’s great for data collection, but the UI is a hot piece of trash when it comes to report generation.

But don’t worry—Looker Studio can save the day. We used Looker Studio (formerly called Data Studio before Google acquired Looker) for many years before GA4’s launch, but now it has become more essential than ever.

 

Why Looker Studio for Building White Label SEO Reports?

In our opinion, nothing beats Looker Studio as a white label SEO reporting tool.

Challenges of Manual White Label SEO Reporting

Too many agencies rely on manual report-building in applications such as Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, or Google Slides. Creating reports this way is massively time consuming, but necessary in order to combine data from multiple SEO data sources in a way that clients can understand. 

Haivng data analysts spend their time copy/pasting data from point A to point B is not only an inefficient use of their talent, it’s also not at all scalable. That’s where Looker Studio comes in. 

Benefit #1: Multiple Data Sources

A screenshot of a sample SEO reporting dashboard in Looker StudioYou can pull SEO metrics from a multitude of Google data sources, including:

  • Google Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
  • Google Search Console
  • Google BigQuery
  • Google Ads
  • Google Sheets

You can also pull in non-Google data via Community Connectors. These connectors import data from popular SEO tools such as:

  • SEMRush
  • SERPStat
  • Ahrefs
  • SE Ranking
  • and more

Benefit #2: Data Visualization

Looker Studio provides a wide variety of ways to visualize data, making it easy to digest information and spot patterns in the data. 

Chart types include:

  • Line
  • Bar
  • Column
  • Time Series 
  • Scorecard
  • Table
  • Pivot Table
  • Pie
  • Donut
  • Scatter
  • Bubble
  • Geo Map
  • Area
  • Bullet
  • Treemap
  • Guage
  • Heatmap
  • and more

There are also interactive elements such as:

  • Filters (dropdowns, checkboxes, etc. for filtering data on-the-fly)
  • Date Range Controls (quickly change date ranges to view different time periods)

Benefit #3: Templatization & Customization

Looker Studio makes both standardization and customization easy. The ability to create a template in Looker Studio and duplicate it for multiple clients is a huge time saver. 

You can create a masterful SEO report just once, then simply duplicate your template for each client.

You can white-label your Looker Studio SEO by adding your agency’s logo to the top as a report header. Logos can be set as report-wide elements that automatically appear on each page without copy/pasting. Alternatively, you can fully brand the report with your client’s logo and colors.

Branding is easy in Looker Studio as it only entails a single logo swap each time you copy a template, and perhaps some quick changes to the theme colors.  

What Data Does a Good SEO Report Include?

A good SEO report should include a good amount of data, but not enough to overwhelm the client.

  • Easy-to-understand Summary: A sea of numbers is overwhelming for even the most data-savvy client. A good SEO report should contain a plain-language text section with a high-level overview of the report’s performance written by your data analysts or account managers.

    We handle this by connecting a Google Sheet to a table in Looker Studio so that each month’s custom-written analysis shows up in the correct time frame. The date column in the Google Sheet ensures that the correct summary is shown when the date range controls are used to alter the time period on the report.

    A screenshot (with some text redacted) showing a plain language summary of a monthly SEO report in Google Sheets which is connected to Looker Studio 

  • Keyword Rankings: Before a client can get organic search traffic, they must have a presence in search engines. We track the total number of ranking keywords as a “lead-up” metric. This metric, once it grows enough, leads to increases in organic search traffic. It’s also important for identifying “low hanging fruit” – content that is ranking in a low position for certain keywords that could be improved to move higher.
    An image of a bar chart in Looker Studio representing SEO keyword rankings

  • AI Overview Positions: Using the Ahrefs connector, we report on AI Overview visibility and opportunities. If a client ranks for a term in the traditional SERPs but not AI Overviews, and an AIO does exist for that term, it’s automatically labeled in Looker Studio as an opportunity.
    A screenshot (with some text redacted) of an AI Overview visibility report in Looker Studio.

  • Organic Search Traffic: Obviously, clients want to know how much SEO traffic they are currently getting, but we argue that it’s most impactful to include month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons, as well as a time series chart so the client can see progress over time. SEO takes time; therefore, it’s important to show gradual progress over time. Looker Studio makes this easy.
    A screenshot of an SEO traffic trends bar chart in Looker Studio

  • SEO Conversions: We call this the “mother metric” – it’s the bottom line must-have metric for any SEO campaign. Ensure that accurate conversions are established in Google Tag Manager and marked as key events (the new term for “conversions”) in GA4. (Need help with this? Check out our White-Label Analytics Services!)
    A screenshot of a bar chart showing SEO conversions over time in Looker Studio

  • SEO Conversion Rate: It’s important to show the value of SEO by comparing the conversion rate of the organic search traffic to other marketing channels. SEO traffic often converts at a better rate than other sources. Showing this data can help you retain your SEO clients.

  • Top SEO Landing Pages: It’s important to show clients what content is performing well so they can be convinced to produce more of the content that works and less of that which doesn’t.
    A screenshot of top SEO landing pages in Looker Studio
  • Page Speed: This is a super important technical SEO metric that should be monitored regularly. We use a Google Sheet with an API connection that pulls mobile and desktop PageSpeed Insights scores once per month and shows them on the Looker Studio SEO report as a gauge. 
    A screenshot showing two gauge charts in Looker Studio, one for mobile PageSpeed Insights score and one for desktop

  • Domain Authority: When it comes to backlinks, we believe that quality is more important than quantity, so tracking a metric such as Domain Authority or Authority Score, whatever your preferred SEO tool calls it, is our recommended metric for tracking off-page SEO efforts, versus quantity of backlinks. That being said…

  • Number of Referring Domains: We like this metric as it indicates whether or not the client is doing the proper public relations and social media work to get their site linked to from new sources.

Need Help Setting Up Your Looker Studio Reports?

Although Looker Studio makes SEO reporting easier than manual reporting, it does have its nuances and glitches. If you’re getting frustrated trying to figure it out, we can help.

We can create customized reports that organize your data in an easy-to-understand way. For marketing agencies, we can also “white label” reports for your clients using your brand assets. 

We can also train your staff on a one-off or regular basis to do any of our specialties, including Looker Studio.

Also, keep in mind that Looker Studio isn’t limited to generating SEO reports—it can be integrated with almost any application that offers API access, giving your clients access to all of their data in one place. This is a huge selling point for many of our clients, and can be for yours as well! 

Contact us today to discuss how our white label analytics services can help your agency grow.

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