Most SEO guides assume you have a £300/month Ahrefs subscription. You don't need one to know if your SEO is working. Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 are free, comprehensive, and give you data that paid tools can't — because they're the source.

What actually matters to track

Before opening any tool, be clear about what SEO progress looks like. There are four metrics that matter:

  • Organic clicks: how many times people clicked through to your site from a Google search. This is the number that drives actual business results.
  • Impressions: how many times your site appeared in search results, whether or not the user clicked. Growing impressions mean Google is showing you for more queries — clicks often follow with a lag.
  • Average position: your average ranking position across all queries where you appear. Lower number = higher ranking. Position 1 is the top result.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): the percentage of impressions that result in clicks. If impressions are high but CTR is low, your title tags and meta descriptions aren't compelling enough.

Secondary metrics include: number of indexed pages, number of queries you rank for, Core Web Vitals scores, and organic traffic conversion rate. But start with the four above — they tell the basic story of whether your SEO is moving in the right direction.

SEO is slow. Don't draw conclusions from a single week's data. Compare month-over-month (for recent trend direction) and year-over-year (to control for seasonal variation). Significant algorithmic shifts can cause temporary drops that recover — always look for a pattern over at least 3 months before concluding something is or isn't working.

Google Search Console: the core tool

Search Console is the single most important SEO tracking tool for any website. It's free, directly from Google, and gives you query-level data that no third-party tool can match for your own site — because Google is the source. See the GSC setup guide if you haven't verified your site yet.

The three reports you'll use most:

  1. Performance (Search results) — the main dashboard, showing clicks, impressions, CTR, and position over time and by query/page/country/device
  2. Indexing → Pages — which pages are indexed, which aren't, and why
  3. Experience → Core Web Vitals — page experience scores for mobile and desktop

Reading the Performance report correctly

Open Search Console → Search results. The default view shows the last 3 months — change this to "Last 16 months" to get the full picture of trends. Enable all four metrics: Total clicks, Total impressions, Average CTR, Average position.

Queries tab: your ranking keywords

The Queries tab shows every search query where your site appeared, with clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position. This is the most valuable data in the tool.

Sort by impressions to find where Google is already showing you in search results — these are ranking opportunities. Queries with high impressions but low position (10–20) are "almost ranking" — a page improvement, a few more backlinks, or better internal linking to that page could push them into position 1–5 where clicks actually happen.

Sort by CTR to find queries where your CTR is underperforming. If you're ranking position 3 for a query but your CTR is 2% (when position 3 typically sees 8–12%), your title tag or meta description isn't compelling enough. Rewrite it — see the meta descriptions guide for how.

Filter queries to exclude brand name searches (your business name) to see how you're doing in purely non-brand organic search. This gives a cleaner picture of your actual SEO performance, separate from people who already know you and search your name directly.

Pages tab: your best-performing pages

The Pages tab shows which pages drive the most organic traffic. Use this to:

  • Identify your top-performing pages — these are worth protecting and improving, not rewriting from scratch
  • Find pages that are indexed but getting zero clicks — these may be targeting queries nobody searches, or competing poorly with better-optimised pages on the same topic
  • Click through to individual pages and filter by page, then switch to the Queries tab to see which queries that specific page ranks for

Comparing date ranges

The most useful analysis: compare the current 3 months to the same 3 months last year. Click "Date" → "Compare" → "Compare to previous period (same length of time)" or select custom dates for year-over-year. Growing impressions and clicks year-over-year, after controlling for seasonal patterns, is the clearest signal that SEO is working.

Coverage and indexing

Go to Indexing → Pages. This report shows which of your pages Google has indexed and which it hasn't — and why. The key statuses:

  • Indexed: Google has indexed the page and it can appear in search results. Good.
  • Crawled — currently not indexed: Google has seen the page but chosen not to index it. Common for thin content pages, duplicate pages, or pages Google considers low quality. These are pages to improve or noindex.
  • Discovered — currently not indexed: Google knows the page exists (via a link or sitemap) but hasn't crawled it yet. Usually resolves over time; if stuck, the page may have crawl priority issues.
  • Excluded by 'noindex' tag: you've told Google not to index the page. Intended for admin pages, thank-you pages, etc. Check that no pages are here accidentally.
  • Not found (404): Google is trying to crawl a URL that returns a 404. Either set up a 301 redirect or fix the broken URL.

The Coverage report should be reviewed at least monthly. A sudden spike in "Crawled — currently not indexed" or 404 errors is a warning sign that requires investigation.

Submit your sitemap.xml here if you haven't already: Indexing → Sitemaps → Add a new sitemap. See the sitemap guide for what to include.

Google Analytics 4: organic traffic and behaviour

GSC tells you how your site performs in search. GA4 tells you what visitors do once they arrive. Set up GA4 if you haven't — add the tracking code or use Google Tag Manager.

Finding organic traffic in GA4

Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. In the table, look for "Organic Search" as the session default channel group. This is your organic SEO traffic. Track the trend over time — growing organic sessions month-over-month is the most direct measure of SEO success.

Click "Organic Search" to drill down and see which landing pages organic visitors are arriving on. Cross-reference with GSC's Pages report to see the full picture: GSC shows you impressions and clicks from search; GA4 shows you what those visitors do after arriving.

Engagement metrics

GA4 replaced the old "bounce rate" with "engagement rate" — the percentage of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, included a conversion, or had 2+ page views. For content pages, a high engagement rate (above 50%) suggests the page is genuinely useful to visitors. A low engagement rate on an organic landing page is a signal that the page isn't matching what searchers expected to find — a content or UX problem.

Don't over-interpret single-session engagement metrics. They're directional, not precise — variations in how long content takes to read, user device, and connection speed all affect them.

Conversions from organic

Set up key events (conversions) in GA4 — contact form submissions, phone number clicks, download clicks. This lets you see how many enquiries or leads are coming specifically from organic search. This number — organic conversions — is the closest approximation to SEO's actual business impact.

Even if you can't track revenue directly, a contact form submission from organic search represents a real potential client. Knowing that SEO is generating X enquiries per month makes the business case for continued SEO investment concrete.

A monthly 20-minute SEO tracking routine

Every month, spend 20 minutes in these tools and record the numbers in a simple spreadsheet. Consistency matters more than depth — a monthly record of 6 metrics over a year is more valuable than a single deep-dive analysis.

In Search Console:

  1. Check total clicks and impressions vs. the same period last month and last year
  2. Sort queries by impressions — note any new queries you're appearing for
  3. Check the Indexing → Pages report for errors
  4. Check Core Web Vitals for any new failing URLs

In GA4:

  1. Check organic sessions vs. same period last month and last year
  2. Check top organic landing pages — any new pages driving traffic?
  3. Check organic conversions (contact forms, calls) if tracking set up

Record six numbers each month: organic clicks, organic impressions, average position, organic sessions (GA4), indexed pages, and organic conversions. After 6 months you'll have a clear trend line that tells a story — growing, flat, or declining — and enough data to attribute changes to specific actions.

Red flags to watch for

These patterns in your data warrant immediate investigation:

  • Sudden drop in clicks and impressions on a specific date: a Google algorithm update, a technical issue (server down, robots.txt error, site-wide noindex accidentally added), or a manual action. Check for GSC notifications, check your robots.txt, and search "site:yourdomain.com" in Google to see what's indexed.
  • Spike in 404 errors: pages that used to exist are now returning errors. Check if a recent site update changed URLs without adding redirects.
  • Pages indexed dropping significantly: Google may have deindexed thin or duplicate content after a quality update. Review the affected pages.
  • Core Web Vitals failures increasing: a new image, script, or layout change is degrading page experience. Check PageSpeed Insights on the affected pages. See the page speed guide for fixes.
  • High impressions but rapidly falling CTR: Google may be showing AI Overviews or rich snippets from a competitor above your result, reducing clicks. Check the search results for your top queries manually.

When to consider paid tools

GSC and GA4 are sufficient for tracking your own site's performance. Paid tools like Ahrefs (from ~$129/month) or SEMrush (from ~$139/month) add things they can't:

  • Competitor analysis: see which keywords competitors rank for, which pages drive their traffic, and which sites link to them. GSC only shows your own data.
  • Full keyword research: see monthly search volume estimates for any keyword, not just ones you already rank for. GSC only shows queries where you already appear.
  • Backlink profile: a detailed view of all links pointing to your site, with quality metrics. GSC shows links but with less detail.
  • Rank tracking for specific keywords: automated daily position tracking for a defined set of target keywords. GSC shows average position across all queries, which is less precise for specific targets.

For a business spending less than £5,000/year on SEO, or just starting out, the free tools are the right choice. The paid tools add value when you're doing active competitive research, tracking many specific keywords, or managing SEO across multiple sites.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free, verified site only) offers a useful middle ground: the backlink and site audit features for your own verified site, at no cost. Worth installing alongside GSC.