Search our Knowledge Base
Search

Traffic Summary



The Search Traffic Summary is the main dashboard for Google Analytics overview data. Customize the display of this report in white label dashboards and PDF reports by setting graphs, charts, tables, and columns to show or hide.

This traffic analysis report can be filtered by:
  • Key metric (e.g., sessions, page views, bounce rate, goal completions, etc.) (UA accounts - Goal Completions, GA 4 - Event Count)
  • Goals (i.e., all goals or specific goals) (Universal Analytics)
  • Segments (e.g., mobile traffic, device type, social traffic, etc.) (Universal Analytics)
  • Search type (Organic, Organic Paid, Exclude Organic, Exclude Paid)
  • Specific keywords
  • Event category (Universal Analytics)
  • Custom Google Analytics Developer options 

Important! 
  • Google Analytics integration is required, please refer to this documentation
  • To include AdWords metrics in this report AdWords must be linked to the site's Google Analytics profile, refer to Google's support document.
  • Currently, Google Analytics 4 Integration: 
    • Supports partial reporting
    • The Google Ads and segments are not available
    • The Goals option is replaced by the Events
    • The New Users metric is not available in the Traffic Overview
    • Has Limited Filters

Analytics Overview
Located in: Site Traffic (Analytics) > Overview > Traffic Summary
 

Analytics Traffic Summary

 
Analytics Search Traffic Overview Report

Traffic Graph

 
Key Metric Graph

Traffic Graph Features
  • The graph can be set to display or hide, in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Traffic Graph, graph labels can be turned on or off in that same section
  • The Key Metric can be selected in Report Options > Analytics Settings > Key Metrics; the default is Sessions. 
  • A Compare to Past feature can be enabled in Report Options > Date settings
  • Google algorithm changes can be enabled to display in the graph in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Rank Risk Index
  • Notes can be set to display in the graph in Report Options > Notes
  • Hover over any point or number on the graph to view daily details for the selected key metric     

Traffic Overview Metrics

 
Traffic and Goal Achievements

Below is the image for the report with the Universal Analytics connection. In the Google Analytics 4 report, the Goal Completions and the Goal Conversion is replaced by Event Completions and Event Conversion. The New User metric is currently not available for the GA 4 connection.
Traffic Metric Features
  • This metrics table can be set to display or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Traffic Overview (note that both Traffic Overview and Traffic Metrics must be set to display)
  • A Compare to Past feature can be enabled in Report Options > Date settings
  • To include Goal metrics, Goals must be selected in Report Options > Analytics Settings > Conversions > --All Goals-- or select individual ones from the list
  • For clarification, New User Sessions % is based on Google's ga:percentNewSessions metric that represents the percentage of sessions by users who had never visited the site before. It does not represent the number of new users between one period and the previous. In this Google Developer document, it is described as the calculation of ga:newSessions / ga:sessions

New vs Returning Users Chart

             
 
The New vs Returning chart can be set to display or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Traffic Overview (note that both Traffic Overview and New vs Returning must be set to display).   
The New Users metric is based on Google's ga:newUsers metric and represents the number of sessions marked as a user's first sessions.
       


Top Channels Chart

             
 
The Top Channels chart can be set to display or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Traffic Overview (note that both Traffic Overview and Top Channels must be set to display)  



Device Overview Chart

 
The Device Overview chart can be set to display or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Traffic Overview (note that both Traffic Overview and Device Overview must be set to display)  



Google Ads Metrics

             
 
PPC Performance Summary
The AdWords table can be set to display or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > AdWords 
As mentioned at the beginning of this documentation, the current version of the GA 4 API does not support Google Ads.

To include AdWords metrics in this report AdWords must be linked to the Google Analytics profile, refer to Google's support document.

Top Referrers Table

             
 
Referral Traffic

For the Google Analytics 4 accounts, the Goal columns are replaced by the Event Completions column.
Top Referrers Table Features
The following columns can be set to show or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Top Referrers:
  • Pages / Session
  • Goal Completions (Universal Analytics)
  • Goal Conversions % (Universal Analytics)
  • Event Count (GA4 connections)
The number of results to display in the table can be selected in the same Report Options section. This is very useful when adding this table to a white label PDF report or dashboard to share with clients.

Top Keywords Table

             
 
Keyword Search Referrals

Top Keywords Table Features
  • This table can be set to show or hide in Report Options > General Settings > Report Sections > Top Keywords
  • The number of results to display in the table can be selected in the same Report Options section. This is very useful when adding this table to a white label PDF report or dashboard to share with clients. 

Report Options

 
Report Title


Dates

  • Select Report Dates from the Report Options calendar tool or select a Custom Date Range in the top right toolbar
  • Check the Compare to Past box and select a period, if desired.

    If "Previous Period" is elected and the report date range is set to a 31-day month (e.g., July), and the previous month has only 30 days (e.g., June), then the report will include the last day of the month prior to that (e.g., May 31). This is the way Google calculates the dates in their reports.

    We also offer a "Calendar Month(s)" option that compares each full calendar month in the report date range to the previous month(s). For example, if you select a report period of April 1 - May 31 (i.e. 61 days), the previous Calendar Months compared will be February 1 - March 31 (59 days), even though the total number of days in the 2 periods are not the same. As opposed to the "Previous Period" setting, resulting in a comparison period of January 30 - March 31 to match the 61 days of April 1 - May 31.

    The "Same Time Last Year" setting matches exact dates (e.g., January 1, 2018 - June 30, 2018, compared to January 1, 2017 - June 30, 2017).
Analytics display settings

Display Settings

  • Custom Report Title: (optional) enter text to display as the report's title
  • Data Source Icon: display or hide Google Analytics and Google Ads icons next to custom report and section titles for the related data type
  • Algorithm Updates: display or hide the notation of Algorithm Updates in the top graph
  • Notes: display or hide Single Date or Date Range Notes in the top graph
select columns to display

Report Sections

Display or hide the display of the following sections and columns:
  • Traffic Graph
    • Graph Labels
  • Traffic Overview
    • include Traffic Metrics
    • include New vs. Returning Users Pie Chart
    • include Top Channels Pie Chart
    • include Device Overview Chart
  • Google Ads data (Google Ads account must be linked to the site's Google Analytics profile - refer to Link Google Analytics and Google Ads)
  • Top Referrers Table
    • include Pages/Session
    • include Goal Completions (Universal Analytics)
    • include Goal Conversions % (Univeral Analytics)
    • include Event Count (GA 4)
    • Limit Results: select the maximum number of results to display
  • Top Keywords Table
    •  Limit Results: select the maximum number of results to display
Google Analytics key metric

Google Analytics Filter by Key Metric

Select to filter data by a specific metric:
  • Sessions
  • Page Views
  • Bounce Rate
  • Users
  • New Users
  • New Users (%) (Universal Analytics)
  • Pages per Session
  • Goal Completions (Univeral Analytics)
  • Event Count (GA 4)
Analytics Goals and Conversions

Conversions

Show or hide goal data:
  • Hide Goals
  • All Goals (Universal Analytics)
  • All Events (GA 4)
  • Specific Goals that appear in the list are based on the goals that have been created in the Google Analytics account for the property
Filter Goal data by:
  • All Sessions
  • All Goals
  • Specific Goals that appear in the list are based on the goals that have been created in the Google Analytics account for the property

Select the Currency symbol type from the list of world currencies. The currency option is available in case Google doesn't send us the correct currency settings. We don't run a currency conversion, we simply display the numbers that pass from AdWords to Google Analytics to Rank Ranger, and you have the option to set the currency symbol based on what you have set up in your Google AdWords account.

Additional Analytics Filters

Additional Segment, Search Type & Keyword Filters

  • Filter by Segments (optional) that are available in the connected Google Analytics account (Univeral Analytics)
  • Choose the desired Search Type:
    • All
    • Organic
    • Paid
    • Organic & Paid
    • Exclude Organic
    • Exclude Paid
  • Enter Keyword(s) (optional) if you want to filter the report by a keyword. Enter a plus (+)  before positive keywords and minus (-) before negative keywords with a space between each keyword/phrase in the Filter by Keyword field.  More information...
  • Select an Event Category (optional) based on Events that have been created for the connected Google Analytics account. (Universal Analytics)
  • Set a Custom Filter: refer to Google's Metric Filter and Dimension Filter support documentation
Click the Apply Changes button

Google Analytics API limits the number of requests from an IP address for a domain each day. If you see a screen in our Analytics section that displays titles but no data, it could be that you/your team have exceeded that threshold by multiple rechecks. Logging in from a different IP address or waiting until the next day should resolve the issue. Please contact us if the issue is not resolved within 24 hours.

Landing Page Tags for Google Analytics Reports

More

Add to PDF Report

More

PDF Report Settings - Overview

More

Add to Marketing Dashboard

More

Add to Client Dashboard

More

Google Analytics Reports and Graphs

More

Google Search & Ad Metrics Glossary

More

Get the ultimate SEO tools with the Rank Ranger Software
Learn More About Rank Ranger