How to link your Google search console info with analytics?

A closer look at Google search console and analytics

When Google reported it introduced a new tool to allow analytics to be linked with the console, it meant that important data such as impressions and click through rates can now be compared with user behavior or other metrics in the Google analytics.

The integration brought the following capabilities to the hands of marketers;

• Picking landing pages that can attract more visitors through the organic search when visitors are not engaging the site. Here, you need to improve the landing page.
• Identifying the landing pages that have higher engagement but failing to attract enough followers’ in organic searches.
• Identifying all queries that are earning a better ranking in every search page.
• Segmenting a brand’s site performance on device types.

To link and integrate the data, the user is required to ensure that his Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts are well updated.

Linking Google search console with analytics

To link the two accounts, simply go to Google Analytics Admin and navigate to All Products. Here a list of properties and status will be shown in a popup. Scroll all the way down to the Google Search Console setting. On the Acquisition>Search Console, you will be able to access all the data and start making every comparison.

• Landing pages: To look at the best landing pages performance paired with data on conversion, you have to navigate to the landing page section on the search console. To know the performance of the pages, check the average position and click-through rates. If a page is having a bounce rate of lower than 40%, it is prudent to carry an on-page SEO review to identify areas that need improvement to raise CTR.
• Countries: To understand how a site is performing in a specific region/country, navigate to the Countries Report section. Here, check for important performance including the position and click through rates. Make sure to also look at poor engagement such as bounce rates and goal completion. Here, you might consider working on a language specific version for people in specific regions.
• Devices: On the Device Report, the brand manager can compare the searches, engagement, and performances of desktops, mobile phones, and tablets. You can note the devices that have poor engagement and even divide the most effective landing pages by devices.

The most important things to consider when linking Google search console to the analytics

• The landing pages, countries and devices will appear both in Analytics and console. However, only search console will capture the queries.
• Even after you integrate the console and analytics, all the search data will only last for 3 months. It is, therefore, important to download and save the reports regularly.
• There is still some limitation because Google does not show queries with personal information and other sensitive details.

While site data can be accessed individually on the Google search console and analytics, integrating the two will help to give a better picture of the site’s SEO performance. This is a unique way of identifying underperforming sections and improving them.