How to Check Keyword Ranking in Google Analytics

If you've recently navigated to Google Analytics hoping to find a clear list of the exact keywords driving traffic to your site, you probably ended up staring at one frustrating phrase: "(not provided)". You're not alone. This article will explain why keyword data is hidden in Google Analytics and show you the simple, free way to unlock your keyword rankings by connecting another essential Google tool.

Why Can't I See My Keyword Rankings in Google Analytics?

There was a time when Google Analytics openly displayed the organic search terms that brought visitors to your website. But that changed back in 2011 when Google transitioned to secure search (HTTPS) to better protect user privacy. When a user is logged into a Google account, their search query becomes encrypted.

For website owners, this resulted in the "(not provided)" line item in our analytics reports, which now accounts for the vast majority of organic search traffic. While this move was great for user privacy, it took away a direct line of sight for marketers and content creators.

Today, Google Analytics 4 focuses on what happens after a user lands on your site - their behavior, engagement, and conversions. It's not designed to tell you the specific search query that brought them there. For that information, we need to turn to its sister platform: Google Search Console.

Your Go-To Tool for Keyword Data: Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results. It's not optional for anyone serious about SEO. It's the source of truth for your organic search performance, providing data directly from Google's index.

While GA4 measures on-site behavior, GSC measures your site's performance in the search results themselves. It provides crucial metrics you can't get from Analytics, including:

• Impressions: The number of times your website appeared in search results.
• Clicks: How many people clicked through to your site from the search results.
• Average CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (Clicks ÷ Impressions).
• Average Position: And here's the one you're looking for! Your website's average ranking for a specific search query.

The best part is that you can connect GSC directly to your GA4 property. This allows you to view your keyword and ranking data right inside the Google Analytics interface, blending on-site behavior with pre-click search metrics.

How to Link Google Search Console to Google Analytics 4

Connecting the two tools is straightforward. Before you start, make sure you have "Editor" permissions for your Google Analytics 4 property and that you are a verified owner of your Google Search Console property for the same website.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Google Analytics 4 account.
2. Click the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner.
3. In the "Property" column, scroll down to the "Product Links" section and click on Search Console Links.
4. Click the blue Link button in the upper-right corner.
5. A new panel will appear. Click Choose accounts and select the GSC property you want to link. (You should see a list of GSC properties for which you're a verified owner). Click Confirm.
6. Click Next. Now you need to select your web stream. Choose the appropriate website data stream and click Next.
7. Review your settings on the final screen. If everything looks correct, click Submit.

That’s it! The link is created. It may take up to 48 hours for data to start flowing from Search Console into your GA4 reports.

How to Find Search Console Reports in GA4

Once you've linked the accounts, you have one more quick task to complete: making the GSC reports visible in your GA4 navigation menu. GA4 doesn’t add them by default, but it's a simple, one-time setup.

Adding the Search Console Reports to Your Reporting Library

1. From your GA4 dashboard, click on Reports (the bar chart icon in the left-hand menu).
2. At the very bottom of the reporting menu, click Library. This is where GA4 stores pre-built report collections.
3. In the "Collections" section, you’ll see a card for Search Console. If it says "Unpublished" below it, that's the one we need.
4. Click the three vertical dots on the Search Console card and select Publish.

Go back to your main Reports view, and you’ll now see a new "Search Console" section in your left-hand navigation, containing two reports: "Queries" and "Google organic search traffic." Now you’re ready to analyze your keyword rankings.

Digging into the GA4 "Queries" Report

This is where you'll spend most of your time. Navigate to Reports > Search Console > Queries. Here, you finally have a direct view of your organic keyword performance.

The report table shows several key metrics:

• Google organic search query: The actual keywords users typed into Google to find your site.
• Google organic search clicks: The total clicks your site received for that query.
• Google organic search impressions: The number of times your site appeared in results for that query.
• Google organic search average position: Your average ranking position for that search term. A lower number is better.
• Google organic search click-through rate: The percentage of people who saw your listing and clicked on it.

Practical Ways to Use This Data

With this information right inside GA4, you can do some powerful analysis. Here are a few things you can do right away:

1. Find Your "Striking Distance" Keywords

These are your best SEO opportunities! These are keywords where you have high impressions but a low average position (e.g., between 11 and 30). This means people are seeing your site, but you're probably on the second or third page of Google, so your click-through rate is low.

To find them, click the down arrow next to "Google organic search impressions" to sort your impressions from highest to lowest. Now scan for keywords with an average position greater than 10. These terms are prime candidates for a little optimization love. Improving on-page SEO, building a few internal links, or updating the content for these terms can often push them to the first page, resulting in a significant traffic increase.

2. Identify Your SEO All-Stars

Sort the report by "Google organic search clicks" to see which keywords are currently driving the most organic traffic. Are these the keywords you expected? This is often a great reality check against your SEO strategy. It helps you understand what's truly resonating with searchers and which topics your site is seen as an authority on.

3. Discover New Content Ideas

What are you ranking for that you didn't even know about? Slowly scroll through your full query list. You will almost certainly find unexpected keywords related to your industry that are already bringing you some traffic. If you're ranking for a term without deliberately trying, imagine what you could do by creating a dedicated blog post or landing page that targets it directly!

Limitations to Keep in Mind

Having GSC data in GA4 is a huge win, but it's important to understand the limitations. First, remember that Average Position is just that - an average. Your ranking can fluctuate based on the searcher's location, device, and search history, so one user might see you at position #5 while another sees you at #9.

Secondly, while you can see GA4 metrics like engagement and conversions in reports alongside GSC data, directly tying a specific keyword to a user who eventually purchased a product is still very difficult within the standard GA4 interface. GA4 knows a user came from "Google / organic," but because of the "(not provided)" privacy measure, it doesn't tie that user's session directly back to the "blue widgets" query that brought them there. Bridging that last gap often requires hours of exporting data and messy spreadsheet formulas.

Final Thoughts

So, can you check keyword rankings in Google Analytics? The answer is yes, but not by using GA4 alone. The true power comes from linking Google Search Console to your Analytics property. This simple connection breaks down the walls of "(not provided)" and gives you visibility into the queries, clicks, impressions, and average positions that define your organic search presence.

We know that stitching together data from different sources is often the most time-consuming part of analysis. Seeing your top keywords from Search Console is one thing, but connecting those keywords to real business outcomes in Shopify, HubSpot, or Salesforce is another manual battle. This is exactly why we built Graphed. We let you connect all your data sources so you can ask plain-English questions like, "Which keywords are generating the most leads in HubSpot?" and get an instant, unified answer. It removes the need to cobble together reports manually and turns hours of analysis into a simple, 30-second conversation.