Search Console data
Search Console data is joined with Analytics data via the Landing Page dimension. This integration lets you see how pre-click data like queries and impressions correlate with post-click data like bounce rate and transactions.
The Search Console reports include one dimension that is specific to Google Web Search data:- Queries: The Google Search queries that generated impressions of your website URLs in Google organic search results.
The Search Console reports in Analytics use four metrics specific to Google Web Search data:
- Impressions: The number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user, not including paid Google Ads search impressions.
- Clicks: The number of clicks on your website URLs from a Google Search results page, not including clicks on paid Google Ads search results.
- Average Position: The average ranking of your website URLs for the query or queries. For example, if your site's URL appeared at position 3 for one query and position 7 for another query, the average position would be 5 ((3+7)/2).
- CTR: Click-through rate, calculated as Clicks / Impressions * 100.
Landing Page dimension
Search Console aggregates its data under canonical URLs (learn more), whereas Analytics uses the actual landing page URL. This distinction will impact reports that include the landing page dimension including Landing Pages and Devices/Countries (when Landing Page is added as a secondary dimension). For example, Impressions and Click metrics for web, mobile web, and AMP URLs could be aggregated as follows under a canonical URL:
| URL | Impressions | Clicks |
| http://www.example.com | 1000 | 100 |
| http://m.example.com | 1000 | 100 |
| http://www.example.com/amp | 1000 | 100 |
| Canonical URL | Aggregated Impressions | Aggregated Clicks |
| http://www.example.com | 3000 | 300 |
Analytics has behavioral data for the individual URLs of the landing pages, for example:
| Landing Page | Sessions | Transactions |
| http://www.example.com | 100 | 10 |
| http://m.example.com | 100 | 10 |
| http://www.example.com/amp | 100 | 10 |
When Analytics reports include the data from Search Console that is joined on the Landing Page dimension, those reports include the discrete behavioral data for the individual landing pages and the aggregated data for the canonical URL. All data in Analytics Search Console Reports is filtered on Landing Pages that are also Canonical URLs. For example:
| Landing Page | Sessions | Transactions | Impressions | Clicks |
| http://www.example.com | 100 | 10 | 3000 | 300 |
Landing Pages report
The Search Console Landing Pages report lists the landing pages for your site, and includes the Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversion metrics for all page URLs associated with your site. Only Landing Page URLs that are also Canonical URLs are included in this report.
If the URLs for your site are performing well in terms of appearing in search results (e.g., Impressions, Clicks, CTR) but are not performing well in terms of engagement with the associated pages (e.g., Sessions, Pages per Session, Conversions), then your content might not be fully relevant to what users had in mind, or your site design might be making it difficult for them to accomplish their goals. In addition to site content and design, your users may also experience site-performance problems, which you can investigate in the Site Speed reports.
Keep in mind that a single URL is typically associated with many unique queries, and generic queries can have a beneficial effect on the Average Position value. For example, on a classic-car site, a generic query for classic cars might return only the URL for the home page, while a more specific query like classic cars Ford might return the URL for the home page along with other site pages devoted specifically to Fords.
Countries report
The Countries report lets you see which countries produce the best search performance and user engagement for your landing pages.
If you notice strong search performance but poor user engagement from a specific country, then that can be a good signal to develop a language-specific version of your site for those users.
Devices report
The Devices report lets you see which category of devices (desktop, tablet, or mobile) delivers the best search performance and user engagement.
If you notice strong search performance but poor user engagement from specific devices (for example, mobile or tablet), then that can be a good signal that you need to reevaluate the way you have developed content and/or designed your site for that device.
Queries report
The Queries report lists the Google Search queries that generated impressions of your website URLs in Google organic search results.
Understanding the correlation between how users search and the relevancy of your pages to those queries provides insight into how to optimize your content.
The number of impressions that each page generates and the average position of impressions let you understand how well the search engine correlates your content to user queries.
Clicks and click-through rate let you understand how well users correlate the search results with their intentions.
When a query returns only a single URL from your site, then Average Position value is based on the position of that URL in the search results. When a query returns more than one URL from your site, the Average Position value is based on the URL that appears highest in the search results. To protect user privacy, queries that are made infrequently or that contain sensitive or personal information are grouped together as (other).
Differences between metrics and dimensions in Search Console and Analytics
The following table identifies terms that are used in both Search Console and Analytics reports.
| Term | Search Console usage | Analytics usage |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks | Used exclusively for Google Search clicks | Used for both Google Ads clicks and Google Search clicks |
| Average Position | Average ranking in Google Search results | Average ranking in Google Search results |
| CTR | Click-through rate. Clicks/Impressions for Google Search clicks. | Click-through rate. Clicks/Impressions for both Google Ads and Google Search clicks. |
| Keyword | Applies to the key terms used in the written content of the website pages. These terms are the most significant keywords and their variants that Google found when crawling your site. When reviewed along with the Search queries report and your site's listing in actual search results for your targeted keywords, it provides insight into how Google is interpreting the content of your site. | In paid-search or Google Ads reports, describes a paid keyword from a search-engine-results page. In the organic-search reports, describes the actual query string a user entered in a web search. |
| Query | The actual query a user entered in Google search. | Only used in the Search Console reports. Applies to the actual query a user entered in Google search. |
Data discrepancies between Search Console and Analytics
| Context | Search Console | Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Landing-page URLs that redirect | Search Console reports the Canonical URL for a landing page, even when the click was to a non-Canonical landing page. If www.example.com/amphas a canonical URL of www.example.comSearch Console reports search metrics for www.example.com |
Analytics reports the URL that results from the redirect, for example:www.example.com |
| Page has no Analytics tracking code | Data for the page appears in Search Console. | Data for the page does not appear in Analytics. |
| Number of URLs recorded per site per day | Search Console records up to 1000 URLs for landing pages. | Analytics does not observe the 1000-URL limit, and can include more landing pages. |
| Analytics property tracks multiple domains | Search Console can link to a single domain. | If an Analytics property collects data for multiple domains, the Search Console reports have data for only the single linked domain. |
| Time zones vary | Search Console timestamps data according to Pacific Daylight Time. | Analytics timestamps data in each view according to the time zone identified in the view settings. |
| JavaScript not enabled in browsers | Search Console collects data regardless of whether JavaScript is enabled. | Analytics collects data only when JavaScript is enabled. Users can opt out of data collection by implementing a browser add-on. |
