How to Create an SEO Report in Power BI
Moving your SEO reporting from native dashboards into a tool like Power BI can feel like going from a standard definition TV to 4K Ultra HD. Suddenly, you can see all your data - from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and even third-party tools like Semrush - in one clear, interactive view. This guide walks you through exactly how to connect those sources, choose the right metrics, and build a powerful SEO report in Power BI that turns data into clear actions.
Why Use Power BI for SEO Reporting?
While Google Analytics and Google Search Console offer valuable insights, they show you isolated parts of the picture. True SEO analysis requires blending multiple datasets to understand the full story. An SEO's daily workflow often involves bouncing between GSC for keyword performance, GA4 for user behavior, Ahrefs for backlink profiles, and maybe a Screaming Frog export for technical health. Reporting on this usually means taking a dozen screenshots and pasting them into a slide deck.
Power BI changes that. It acts as a central hub where you can:
Consolidate All Your Data: Pull GA4 traffic data, GSC query data, and backlink data from a CSV export into a single report. No more tab-hopping.
Create Rich, Interactive Dashboards: Instead of static images, you can build dynamic dashboards with slicers and filters, allowing you to drill down into trends and answer follow-up questions in real-time.
Customize Metrics and KPIs: Go beyond default metrics by creating your own calculated measures using DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), Power BI's formula language. For example, you could create a custom "Brand vs. Non-Brand" traffic segment.
Step 1: Gather Your Essential SEO Data Sources
A comprehensive SEO dashboard is only as good as the data it's built on. Before you even open Power BI, you need to identify the key data pipelines that will feed your report. For most teams, these fall into three core categories.
Core Performance Data: Google Analytics 4 & Google Search Console (GSC)
These are your non-negotiables. They form the foundation of any C-level performance report and tell you how users are finding you and what they do afterward.
Google Analytics 4: Your source of truth for on-site user behavior. You'll pull metrics like Organic Sessions, Engaged Sessions, Conversions, and New Users from GA4. It answers the question, "What happens after the click?"
Google Search Console: This is where you find pre-click and search engine performance data. Key metrics include Impressions, Clicks, Click-Through Rate (CTR), and Average Position for your target queries. GSC answers, "How visible are we in search results?"
Competitive & Off-Page Data: SEO Auditing Tools
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz provide crucial off-page context that your Google properties don't have. This includes backlink profiles, domain authority, and detailed keyword ranking information.
Backlink Data: You'll want to export data on referring domains, new and lost links, and anchor text distribution.
Keyword Ranking Data: While GSC gives you ranking data, dedicated tools can provide daily tracking and competitor comparisons.
Technical Health Data: Crawling Tools
To keep an eye on the technical health of your site, you’ll need data from a crawler like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. This data helps you quickly spot issues that could be holding back performance.
Crawling Reports: Export reports on a weekly or monthly basis that list 404 errors, redirect chains, unindexed pages, and other crawlability issues.
Step 2: Connect Your Data Sources to Power BI
With your data sources identified, it's time to pull everything into Power BI. There are a few different ways to do this, depending on the source.
From the Power BI Desktop Home ribbon, click on "Get Data." This is your starting point for all data connections.
Using Native Connectors (for Google Analytics)
Power BI has a built-in connector for Google Analytics, making this one of the easiest connections to set up.
In the "Get Data" window, search for "Google Analytics."
Click "Connect" and sign in to your Google account that has access to your GA4 property.
The Power BI Navigator will appear, showing you a list of available accounts, properties, and views. Navigate to your desired GA4 property.
Select the dimensions and metrics you want to import. A good starting point would be selecting Date, Session source / medium, Landing Page, and Device Category as dimensions, and Sessions, Engaged Sessions, and Conversions as metrics.
Click "Load" to bring the data into your model.
Pro Tip: Once loaded, open the Power Query Editor (Transform Data button) to clean and prepare your data. For example, you should filter your "Session source / medium" column to only include "google / organic" to isolate your SEO traffic.
Connecting to Google Search Console Data
Unfortunately, there isn't a direct native connector for Google Search Console in Power BI. Most experts use a third-party connector or pull the data through a data warehouse. For simplicity, the most accessible method is often to connect it via a Google Sheet.
Use a Google Sheets add-on like "Search Analytics for Sheets" to pull GSC data directly into a spreadsheet on a schedule.
In Power BI, click "Get Data" > "Web."
Enter the URL of your Google Sheet. Make sure the sharing permissions are set correctly so Power BI can access it.
From the Navigator, select the specific worksheet (tab) containing your GSC data and click "Load."
This process gives you a refreshable dataset that you can update automatically within Power BI, assuming your Google Sheet is also on an automated update schedule.
Importing Data from SEO Tools (CSV/Excel)
For tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Screaming Frog, the most straightforward method is to run your report, export it as a CSV or Excel file, and import it into Power BI.
In the "Get Data" menu, choose "Text/CSV" or "Excel Workbook."
Navigate to where you saved your export file and open it.
Review the data preview in Power BI and click "Load."
While this is a manual process, it's perfect for monthly or quarterly deep-dive reports on backlinks or technical site health. Keep your saved files organized in a dedicated folder for easy access.
Step 3: Building Your SEO Report Visualizations
This is where your report comes to life. Your goal is to tell a story with data, presenting key information in a way that is quick and easy to digest. A strong report is often divided into pages or sections, each focusing on a specific area of SEO.
Page 1: The SEO Performance Overview
This page is your at-a-glance dashboard for executives and stakeholders. It should answer the question, "How is our organic performance trending?"
KPI Cards: At the top of the page, add several "Card" visuals for your most important metrics: Total Organic Sessions, Total Organic Conversions, Average Engagement Rate, and New Organic Users.
Area Chart for Trend Analysis: Use an "Area Chart" visual to show Organic Sessions over Time (using your Date column on the X-axis). To add more context, you can create a second measure to show traffic from a previous period for comparison.
Donut Chart for Top Landing Pages: Add a "Doughnut Chart" visual to show your top 10 organic landing pages by session count. This quickly highlights your most important SEO content.
Page 2: Keyword & Query Performance
This section uses your GSC data to dive into keyword rankings and search visibility.
Table for Detailed Keyword Data: Create a "Table" visual to display your queries. Add columns for Impressions, Clicks, CTR, and Average Position. Use conditional formatting to color-code CTR (e.g., red for low, green for high) to quickly spot outliers.
Scatter Plot for Opportunity Discovery: A "Scatter Chart" can be a powerful way to find "striking distance" keywords. Put Average Position on the Y-axis (with the axis reversed, so 1 is at the top), Impressions on the X-axis, and Clicks on the bubble size. Look for bubbles with high impressions but a lower position (positions 5-15) — these are your opportunities.
Page 3: Backlink & Domain Authority Report
Using your exported data from Ahrefs or Semrush, this page tracks off-page SEO health.
KPI Cards: Add cards for Total Referring Domains, New Backlinks, and your latest Domain Rating/Authority.
Line Chart of New Referring Domains: Show the growth of referring domains over time with a basic "Line Chart." This provides a top-level view of your link-building momentum.
Table of Top Links Built: Create a table showing the most recent or highest-authority backlinks acquired. Include the referring URL, target URL, and the anchor text.
Step 4: Making Your Report Actionable
A beautiful dashboard is useless if it doesn't lead to action. Enhance the user experience with these final touches.
Add Interactivity with Slicers
Slicers are filters that sit on the report page. Add slicers for key dimensions like:
Date Range: The most crucial slicer. This lets users look at performance over the last 30 days, quarter, or a custom range.
Device Category: Quickly compare performance on desktop vs. mobile.
Campaign/Landing Page Group: Filter the report to focus on specific sections of your website or marketing campaigns.
Context is King
Don't just show data, explain what it means. Use text boxes to add titles, section headings, and brief notes next to your charts. A simple "Note: The spike on Jan 15 was due to the 'New Features' blog post launch" can save a lot of confusion. Know your audience - an executive overview should focus on high-level trends and conversions, while a report for the marketing team can include more granular, tactical data.
Final Thoughts
Building an SEO report in Power BI allows you to unify all your performance data into a single source of truth, moving beyond isolated metrics to see the complete picture of your search presence. By connecting GSC, GA4, and SEO tool data, you can build an interactive, actionable dashboard that truly guides your strategy.
While Power BI is incredibly powerful, it comes with a steep learning curve. Sometimes, you just need clear answers without spending hours building connections and designing charts in a complex tool. At Graphed, we automate the entire process for you. We connect to your marketing and sales data sources in seconds, allowing you to use simple, natural language to create dashboards, build reports, and get instant answers - no Power Query or DAX formulas required.