How to Find Top Keywords in Google Analytics

Trying to find which keywords are driving traffic to your website in Google Analytics can feel like a dead-end. You navigate to your traffic reports, excited to see which search terms are leading people to you, only to be met with a long list of "(not provided)." It’s a common frustration, but it doesn't mean your keyword data is gone forever.

While the old way of seeing every single keyword is a thing of the past for privacy reasons, you can still get the data you need to guide your SEO strategy. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to unlock your organic search query data and find other valuable keyword clues right inside Google Analytics.

The Elephant in the Room: Why Keywords Are “(not provided)”

Before we dive into the solution, it’s helpful to understand why you’re seeing "(not provided)" in the first place. Back in 2011, Google began encrypting search queries to protect user privacy. When someone is logged into a Google account and performs a search, the search query they use is hidden within the secure (HTTPS) session.

Consequently, when that user clicks on a search result and lands on your site, Google Analytics can tell you the traffic came from Google organic search, but it can't tell you the specific keywords they used to get there. The keyword data is masked, and GA labels it as "(not provided)." While this was a positive move for user privacy, it left marketers and SEO professionals scrambling for data.

The good news is that Google didn't leave everyone completely in the dark. They provided an official, and much more powerful, way to access this information directly: Google Search Console.

The Best Solution: Connecting Google Search Console to GA4

The single most effective way to see your organic keyword search data within the Google Analytics interface is to link it with your Google Search Console (GSC) account. GSC is a free tool from Google designed to help you monitor your site's performance in Google search, among its many features is a detailed report of the search queries users type to find your website.

When you link GSC with Google Analytics 4, you import that valuable keyword data directly into GA4, allowing you to analyze it alongside user behavior metrics like engagement, conversions, and revenue.

How to Link Google Search Console to Google Analytics 4

The process is incredibly straightforward. You'll need admin permissions for both your GA4 property and your GSC property to complete these steps.

1. Navigate to the Admin section in GA4 (the gear icon in the bottom-left corner).
2. In the Property column, scroll down to the Product Links section and click on Search Console Links.
3. Click the blue Link button in the upper-right of the screen.
4. A new screen will pop up. Click Choose accounts. You will see a list of GSC properties you manage. Select the checkbox for the one you want to link. Click Confirm.
5. Click Next. Now you’ll need to associate this GSC data with a web data stream from your site. Click Select and choose your website’s data stream.
6. Click Next again to review your selections, and then click Submit.

That’s it! The link is now active. Keep in mind that it can take 24-48 hours for the new data and reports to start populating in your GA4 property.

Finding Your Keyword Data in GA4 (After Linking)

Once you’ve successfully linked the accounts and allowed some time for data to accumulate, two new reports will be added to your Reporting library. To access them:

In the left-hand navigation, go to Reports.

You may see a new section called Search Console in your navigation. If not, click on Library at the very bottom. You’ll find the new report collection there, which you can publish to add it permanently to your main report navigation.

Inside the Search Console drop-down, you’ll find two powerful reports.

Google Organic Search Queries Report

This is where you'll find your treasure trove of keyword insights.

This report lists the actual search queries users have typed into Google to find your website. Next to each query, you'll see four key metrics from Google Search Console:

• Organic Google Search Clicks: The number of times users clicked your site’s link in the search results for that query.
• Organic Google Search Impressions: The number of times your site's link appeared in the search results for that query.
• Organic Google Search Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (Clicks/Impressions).
• Organic Google Search Average Position: Your website's average ranking position in the search results for that query.

This data is invaluable for guiding your SEO efforts. For example, you can sort this report to answer critical questions:

• Keywords with high impressions but low CTR: These are your "opportunity keywords." People are seeing your site in search results, but something about your page title or meta description isn’t compelling enough for them to click. Improving these elements for the corresponding landing pages can yield a quick traffic boost.
• Keywords with an average position between 11 and 20: These are your "striking distance" keywords. You're ranking on page 2 of Google, where very few people look. Focusing on building some internal links or acquiring a few new backlinks to the pages ranking for these keywords could be all it takes to push them onto page 1.
• Unexpected or new keywords: You might discover you’re ranking for terms you never even targeted. This is a direct line into your audience’s vocabulary and can open up new avenues for content creation.

Google Organic Search Traffic Report

This report connects your keyword performance to on-site actions. It swaps out the primary dimension from 'Query' to 'Landing Page.' Here, you'll see Sessions, Engaged Sessions, Average Engagement time, and Conversions tied to the pages people land on from organic search. This helps you understand which pieces of content are not only attracting search traffic but also keeping users engaged and driving them toward your goals.

Digging Deeper: Other Keyword Clues in GA4

While connecting GA4 and GSC is the primary method for finding keywords, there are a couple of other reports within GA4 that provide valuable clues about what your visitors are looking for.

The Site Search Report

What if you could read your users' minds as soon as they landed on your website? The site search report is the next best thing.

This report tracks what users are typing into the search bar on your own website. This is a goldmine of insight into user intent. These visitors have already found your site, and now they are telling you in their own words exactly what they are hoping to find next. Are they searching for an answer to a certain pain point or looking for details and pricing on a specific product? Review your site searches to identify common questions and create content tailored to those terms.

To access this information in GA4, go to Reports > Engagement > Events and click on the view_search_results event. On the following screen, you’ll see cards with different parameters. The one you want is search_term, which lists the exact queries users entered into your site’s search box.

The Landing Pages Report

You can also work backward from your top-performing content to infer which keywords are driving traffic. Navigate to Reports > Engagement > Landing Page. By default, this report shows all traffic sources.

First, add a filter for organic search to narrow down the data. Click Add filter, select the 'Session default channel group' dimension, and choose 'Organic Search'.

Now, look at your top organic landing pages. The URL and Page Title of a well-optimized post often reflect its target keywords. For example, if your top-performing page is /blog/how-to-calculate-customer-lifetime-value, you can reasonably infer that it’s ranking for high-intent keywords like "how to calculate LTV," "customer lifetime value formula," or "what is LTV." While this isn't exact query data, it gives you a strong directional sense of which topics are resonating with search audiences.

Final Thoughts

Uncovering top keywords in Google Analytics is no longer a matter of simply looking at one report. However, by combining the powerful, direct query data from Google Search Console with behavioral clues from your site search and landing page reports, you can assemble a comprehensive picture of what brings users to your site and what they want when they get there.

Stitching this information together and manually cross-referencing reports to find answers is a huge step up, but it can still be time-consuming. At Graphed, we designed our platform to eliminate this exact kind of friction. Instead of manually joining fragmented data, you can connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts once and then start asking questions using natural language. A prompt like, "Show me my top 10 keywords by clicks from Search Console and which GA4 landing pages they point to," instantly generates the report for you, turning hours of analysis into a few seconds without ever touching a spreadsheet.