Google Search Central integrates Analytics with Search Console data
Google Search Central adds new documentation for combining Search Console and Analytics data to improve SEO analysis capabilities.
Six days ago, on February 6, 2025, Google Search Central released comprehensive documentation explaining how site owners can integrate Google Analytics and Search Console data to enhance their SEO analysis capabilities.
The new documentation focuses on helping website owners utilize both tools together to gain deeper insights into how users discover and interact with their websites through organic search. The integration allows site owners to monitor metrics from both platforms and visualize the combined data through Looker Studio dashboards.
According to the official documentation, Search Console provides data about website performance in Google Search results, including impressions, clicks, and search queries that bring visitors to websites. Google Analytics complements this by tracking visitor interactions after they arrive on the site, including metrics like page visits, time spent, and user actions.
The documentation addresses a common challenge many site owners face - data discrepancies between the two platforms. Search Console clicks and Google Analytics sessions are calculated differently, leading to variations in reported numbers. The documentation explains several technical reasons for these discrepancies, including:
- Implementation differences in Google Analytics tracking
- Cookie consent and tracking opt-outs affecting data collection
- Timezone variations between platforms (PST for Search Console)
- Different attribution models
- Canonical URL handling variations
- Traffic categorization differences
- Non-HTML page tracking variations
- Bot traffic filtering differences
To help site owners visualize and analyze the combined data effectively, Google has provided a Looker Studio dashboard template. The dashboard includes filters for country and device data, along with key metrics like sessions, engagement rate, returning users, clicks, and click-through rate (CTR).
The documentation emphasizes that while exact numbers may not match between platforms, the general trends and patterns should show similar trajectories. Site owners are advised to investigate significant discrepancies but accept minor variations as normal due to the different measurement systems.
For technical implementation, the documentation provides detailed steps for setting up the dashboard template and connecting data sources. This includes configuring Search Console URL Impression data and Google Analytics metrics within Looker Studio.
The integration supports advanced features such as:
- Data blending capabilities through BigQuery
- Country and device filtering options
- Customizable date ranges for analysis
- Automated trend monitoring
- Side-by-side metric comparisons
The documentation also includes specific guidance for investigating traffic patterns through both tools' native interfaces. For Google Analytics, this involves using the Traffic Acquisition report and Landing Page report with organic search filters. In Search Console, users are directed to utilize the Performance reports for understanding traffic fluctuations.
For WordPress users, the documentation notes the availability of the Site Kit plugin, which provides a unified dashboard within WordPress for viewing both Analytics and Search Console data. For more advanced analysis, users can export bulk data from both platforms to BigQuery for detailed analysis and custom reporting.
This documentation release represents a significant step in Google's efforts to help website owners better understand and optimize their organic search performance through comprehensive data analysis and visualization tools.