free growth dashboard in data studio (ex-looker studio): ga4 + search console + one sheet (2026)

harvested 2026-10-27. goal: one live page the owner can open on a phone and see traffic, search, signups and sales together, at zero cost, without hitting ga4 quota errors.

facts that matter (with sources)

1. the name changed back. google renamed looker studio to data studio on ~10 apr 2026 ("looker studio is now called data studio" banner on every doc page; google cloud blog "looker studio is data studio"; google developer forum post "data studio is back"). the free tier is unchanged; "data studio pro" is the paid tier (~$9/user/month per kodalogic/mammoth, not needed here). old lookerstudio.google.com links still resolve (not checked on our account).
2. search console connector: two tables, pick per data source. "site impression" (query-level, matches gsc totals) vs "url impression" (page-level, also carries discover/googleNews search types). one data source holds one table; for queries and pages side by side, add two data sources to one report (data studio doc "connect to search console").
3. ga4 quotas are per property, and the dashboard shares them. current ga4 data api limits for a standard property: core tokens 200,000/day and 40,000/hour per property, 14,000/hour per project per property, 10 concurrent requests per property (developers.google.com, read 27 oct 2026). every chart, scorecard and even a drop-down control on a page is a separate request, so a page with 12 widgets opened by two people can trip the "quota exceeded" error (two octobers, nico brooks; piwik pro, 2023 write-up of the original rollout when limits were lower).
4. fix: the extract data connector. add data > extract data > pick the ga4 property and only the dimensions/metrics you need; remove "event name" (it skews totals); auto-update daily; date range advanced: end = today minus 1. pulls once a day, dashboard becomes fast and quota-proof; expect <5% variance vs the live ga4 ui, which is normal (two octobers).
5. owner's credentials on a data source let others view without their own ga4/gsc access; viewer's credentials make each viewer authorise. for a share-to-owner dashboard, use owner's credentials and share the report "view only".

the 1-page layout (6-8 widgets max, keeps under the 10-concurrent cap even live)

• row 1 scorecards (vs previous 7 days): sessions (ga4 extract), gsc clicks (site table), newsletter signups (sheet), sales £ (sheet).
• row 2: time series 28 days: gsc clicks + ga4 sessions; table: top 10 gsc queries with clicks/impressions/ctr/position.
• row 3: table: ga4 session source/medium -> key events (uses our utm vocabulary); table: top landing pages -> /ebooks/ clicks.
• one date-range control only. no per-chart filters (each adds requests).

steps (about 30 min, no install)

1. datastudio.google.com (same google account that owns ga4 + gsc) > create > data source > search console > property > site impression > web > connect. repeat with url impression.
2. add data > extract data > ga4 property > dims: date, session source/medium, landing page; metrics: sessions, key events (named) > auto update daily, end today-1 > save.
3. google sheet "cedwyn-weekly": one tab = date, signups, sales_gbp, orders, source (filled weekly by the growth report script from mailchimp/stripe/gumroad, or by hand). add as a google sheets source.
4. build the layout above; theme: plain, large type, readable at 390 px (data studio has a mobile viewer; check the page on a phone).
5. share > view only > owner's credentials. bookmark the url in the sunday report.

what not to do

• don't blend ga4 with gsc by url in one chart (blends multiply requests and urls rarely match exactly: trailing slashes, query strings). show them side by side.
• don't use a paid third-party connector (windsor, supermetrics, coupler) — the native ga4, gsc and sheets connectors cover this at zero cost.
• don't read a week's gsc data before ~3 days have passed (gsc data lags ~2-3 days); end ranges at today-3 for gsc charts.

how we apply it to cedwyn

• data sources we already have: ga4 (behind the en/cy/es consent banner, so it undercounts — see uk-analytics-statistical-exception-duaa-ga4.md), search console (connected; cedwyn property), and the weekly numbers growth-report already computes (cf_traffic.py, the project workspace). the sheet step is the bridge: append the same row growth-report writes to weekly.csv into a google sheet via the connected google workspace (sheets) account.
• add the cloudflare html-200 visitor proxy as a sheet column too, so the dashboard shows ga4 vs cloudflare side by side (the ratio tells us how much consent loss there is).
• build is a reporting change only: no public page change, no spend, no new tool on the box. it needs the owner's google account (the same one connected here). report url goes into growth-report notes for the sunday message; offer it, don't push it.
• not checked: whether a ga4 property id is recorded for cedwyn on this box (grep work/ for G- ids found none in cedwyn-growth/funnel); check before building.

sources

• docs.cloud.google.com (banner "looker studio is now called data studio", read 27 oct 2026)
• docs.cloud.google.com ; cloud.google.com ; discuss.google.dev (snippets)
• support.google.com (connect to search console, read in full)
• developers.google.com (read 27 oct 2026)
• twooctobers.com (nico brooks, read)
• piwik.pro (2023, read; older lower limits)
• kodalogic.com ; mammoth.io (snippets: pro ~$9/user)

Raw Markdown: data-studio-free-growth-dashboard-ga4-gsc-sheets.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json