To achieve both numbers and quality, you need precise insights into your web traffic. And that’s where Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Search Console (GSC) come into play.
Linking these two powerful tools can unlock a wealth of information and help you sift through the data noise to find your true traffic.
With no further ado, here’s the GA4 search console integration guide on how to make this happen.
Why Should You Link GA4 to GSC?
Needless to say, linking GA4 to GSC comes with many benefits, some of which you might not know.
1. Improved insight into organic search performance. By linking GA4 to GSC, you can see how your website ranks for different keywords, and how many people are clicking on your listings in search results. Thanks to this, you can find out how people are finding your website through organic search, and how they are interacting with your content once they arrive.
2. Access to important SEO metrics. Activating GSC gives you access to important SEO metrics such as Search Queries and In-Page Analytics. Also, until GA4, you couldn’t access all the search terms regarding your impressions or clicks, as that number was capped at 1000. Now you can.
3. Ability to analyze user behavior. By linking GA4 to GSC, you can analyze organic searches related to your site and see where your site is ranked in search results. You can also see which landing pages are the most engaging and how many users actually convert. With this data in hand, you can improve the CRO of your website.
4. Limit access to GSC functionalities. This is especially useful in bigger teams and organizations. By linking GSC and GA4, you can limit access to GSC functionalities by removing a website from Google search. So, in practice, by exporting search console data, you can give your team access to search console data without giving them access to everything in GSC.
5. More security and privacy. GA4 is more secure and private because it doesn’t track your IP address. Additionally, there are built-in ways to remove user behavior. GA4 also makes progress toward privacy regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Now that you know more about linking those two platforms together, here are a few easy steps for the GA4 Search Console Integration.
How To Link GA4 To GSC
To link GA4 to GSC follow these 6 steps:
- Navigate to your GA4 property and click “Admin” at the bottom left of the screen
You’ll then see the “Property” column in the middle - Click the “Link” button in the top right
- Click “Choose accounts”
- Click the check box next to the correct GSC property
- Click “Confirm”
- Click “Next”
That’s it! You’ve now linked GA4 to GSC.
Reporting caveats
The Search Console collection of reports is unpublished by default. You can find the collection under Library in the left navigation and publish it from there.
Search Console metrics are only compatible with Search Console dimensions and the following Analytics dimensions:
- Landing page
- Device
- Country
The Search Console reports display data from the web data stream you select when you create the link between Search Console and Analytics. If you delete the link and create a new one that uses a different web data stream, then all date ranges for reports will use the web stream you select for the new link.
Traffic VS TRUE Traffic
So, you’ve linked GA4 to GSC and you can now find your website’s traffic with more detail, options, and user privacy.
But how can you find your traffic vs your true traffic?
To find your true traffic, you need to exclude all irrelevant traffic coming on your website. Accordingly, there are two factors you need to exclude are:
- Traffic that came through irrelevant keywords.
- Traffic that came only to login. This is especially true for online platforms such as SaaS and other digital tools and platforms.
Need Help with Google Analytics 4?
Hopefully, this GA4 search console integration guide came in handy and you’ve now linked GA4 to GSC successfully.
However, if you need any help regarding this or any other GA4 or G2C task, don’t hesitate to contact us!
We can help you with anything from your Analytics & Actionable Reporting to a full GA4 Migration, in case you haven’t done that yet on your website.
I write for GrowthRocks, one of the top growth hacking agencies. For some mysterious reason, I write on the internet yet I’m not a vegan, I don’t do yoga and I don’t drink smoothies.
