The Monthly Analyze Review Routine

Analytics tools reward routine over exploration. This is a review that takes about 45 minutes a month and produces something other people can read. Because Analyze holds only 90 days of data at a time, the recording step is not optional.

Before You Start

Set the date range to the calendar month just finished, and leave the device filter on all devices for the first pass. Open last month notes so the numbers land next to their comparison.

Step 1: Record the Site Numbers

From the Site overview, write down sessions, unique visitors, bounce rate, average time on site, and the conversion rate for each goal. Keep these in a running document or spreadsheet, one row per month. This record becomes the only source for anything older than 90 days.

Step 2: Check the Trend Shape

Look at the traffic line for the month. Note anything that is not a gentle slope: a spike, a step change, or a sudden drop. A spike usually has a cause outside the site, such as a campaign or a mention. A step change usually has a cause inside it, such as a publish or a URL change.

Step 3: Scan Top Pages

Compare top pages by traffic against top pages by engagement. Note up to three pages worth a closer look:

• A page with high traffic and low engagement.
• A page with strong engagement and little traffic, which may deserve better internal linking.
• A page that appeared or disappeared from the list since last month.

Step 4: Open Those Pages

For each page noted, open the page details report. Check the device split, the top events, and the previous and next page lists. If the page still raises a question, open Analyze Mode and look at the clickmap and scroll depth.

Step 5: Review Goals

Check each goal for completions and conversion rate against last month. Confirm every goal is still reporting. A goal that suddenly reads zero has usually been broken by a page rebuild rather than by visitor behavior.

Step 6: Check AI Discovery

Open the AI discovery tab and note how AI referred traffic is trending and whether anything changed in how AI tools describe CAS. See AI Discovery: AEO Analytics in Analyze.

Step 7: Write Four Lines

Summarize the month in four lines: what moved, why it probably moved, what will be changed as a result, and what will be watched next month. Four lines that lead to one change are worth more than a full dashboard nobody reads.

What to Escalate

• A traffic drop of more than roughly a quarter with no campaign explanation, which can indicate a technical or indexing problem.
• A goal reporting zero after previously reporting completions.
• Click event labels that have become unreadable, which points to a build change.
• A large gap between Analyze and the marketing systems on the same action.