How to Set Up Search Console in Google Analytics

Thinking about your website's performance in Google Analytics while separately analyzing your search rankings in Google Search Console is like trying to put together a puzzle with half the pieces missing. Connecting these two powerhouse tools gives you a single, unified view of your organic search performance, from clicks and impressions to what happens after a user lands on your site. This guide will walk you through a step-by-step process to link Google Search Console to your Google Analytics 4 property and show you where to find the valuable new reports this connection unlocks.

Why Connect Search Console to Google Analytics?

On their own, both tools are incredibly useful. Google Analytics tells you everything about the traffic on your website - who is visiting, where they came from, what pages they looked at, and what actions they took. Google Search Console (GSC) focuses on your site's performance in Google's search results - which search queries bring users to your site, your average ranking position, and your click-through rates (CTR).

When you link them, you bridge the gap between pre-click and post-click behavior. Suddenly, you can answer much deeper questions right inside your GA4 reports:

• See Which Queries Drive Engagement: Instead of just seeing "Organic Search" as a traffic source, you can see the specific keywords people typed into Google that led to engaged sessions, conversions, and revenue.
• Analyze Landing Page Performance: You can combine GSC metrics like clicks and impressions with GA4 metrics like bounce rate, session duration, and conversions for any given landing page. This helps you identify pages that rank well but don't engage users, or pages that engage users well but need an SEO boost.
• Consolidate Your Reporting: Having your GSC data inside GA4 saves you from constantly switching between tabs. You can build dashboards and reports that show your complete organic acquisition funnel in one place.

Essentially, this integration lets you see the full story of your organic traffic, making it easier to optimize your SEO and content strategy based on what actually works.

What You Need Before You Start

The process is straightforward, but you need to have a few things in place first to ensure a smooth setup. Before you begin, confirm you have the following:

• A GA4 Property: This integration is for Google Analytics 4. If you're still on an older Universal Analytics property, that data is no longer processing, and you'll need a GA4 property for your website.
• A Verified Search Console Property: Your website must be set up and verified in Google Search Console. It's important that the GSC property URL exactly matches your website's domain (e.g., https://www.yourwebsite.com vs http://yourwebsite.com).
• The Right Permissions: This is the most common reason the setup fails. You must have Editor role permissions (or higher) in your Google Analytics 4 property and be a Verified owner of the Google Search Console property. If a team member or agency manages one of these accounts, you may need to ask them for the appropriate access level before you can create the link.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Linking GSC and GA4

Once you've confirmed you have the necessary accounts and permissions, you're ready to create the link. The process only takes a few minutes.

Step 1: Navigate to 'Admin' in Google Analytics

Log in to your Google Analytics account. At the bottom-left of your screen, click on the gear icon labeled Admin. This will take you to the backend settings for your account and property.

Step 2: Find the 'Product Links' Section

On the Admin page, you'll see two columns: Account and Property. Make sure you have the correct account and property selected in the dropdowns at the top. In the Property column, scroll down until you see the section called Product Links. Inside this section, click on Search Console Links.

Step 3: Begin the Linking Process

You'll land on a page that shows any existing Search Console links. If you don't have any, it will be empty. In the top right corner, click the blue Link button to start.

Step 4: Choose a Search Console Property

A new panel will slide out with the heading "Create a Search Console link." The first step is to "Choose a Search Console property." Click the Choose accounts button. A list of all the Search Console properties that you own will appear.

Find the GSC property that corresponds to your GA4 property, check the box next to it, and click Confirm in the top-right corner.

Step 5: Select Your Web Stream

After confirming your GSC property, you'll be taken to the next step: "Select web stream." Click Select. You should see the web data stream for your website listed. This is what connects the GSC data to the right place in GA4. Click on your website's stream and then click Next.

Step 6: Review and Submit

The final step is to review your selections. You'll see a summary showing the Search Console property and the GA4 web stream you've chosen to connect. If everything looks correct, click the Submit button. You should see a "Link created" notification, and you'll be taken back to the links list, where your new connection will now be visible.

Congratulations! Your GSC and GA4 accounts are now linked. However, the data won't appear instantly, and you need to perform one more step to make the reports visible in your main navigation.

Where to Find and Use Your Search Console Data in GA4

Linking the accounts doesn't automatically add the new reports to your sidebar navigation in GA4. By default, the Search Console collection of reports is unpublished. You need to publish it manually to make it easily accessible.

Publishing the Search Console Reports

Here's how to make your new organic search reports appear in the left-hand menu:

1. In your GA4 interface, go to the Reports tab (the icon that looks like a bar chart).
2. At the very bottom of the left navigation menu, you'll see an option called Library. Click it.
3. The Library shows all available report collections. You should now see a card labeled Search Console.
4. Click the three vertical dots on the Search Console card and select Publish.

Once you do this, you'll see a new "Search Console" section appear in your main reports navigation on the left. It may take up to 24-48 hours for data to start populating in these new reports, so don't worry if they look empty right away.

The new section contains two incredibly valuable reports:

1. The Queries Report

This report shows you the specific search queries that brought users to your site from Google. For each query, you'll see GSC metrics like Organic Google Search Clicks and Impressions alongside standard GA4 user and engagement metrics like Engaged Sessions and Conversions. This is where you can finally see which keywords attract visitors who actually engage with your content or an entire web page.

2. The Google Organic Search Traffic Report

This report focuses on your landing pages rather than keywords. It shows you which pages on your site are getting the most traffic from Google search. Just like the Queries report, it marries GSC metrics with GA4 metrics, allowing you to see which landing pages are successful at not just attracting clicks but also keeping users on your site and guiding them toward conversion events.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Sometimes the connection process doesn't go as planned. Here are some of the most common hiccups and how to resolve them:

• 'No Search Console accounts found': If you see this message when you try to 'Choose accounts', it almost always means the Google account you're logged in with is not a verified owner of any GSC property. Double-check that you're signed into the correct Google account and that you have ownership-level permissions in GSC.
• The 'Link' button is grayed out: This typically indicates a permissions issue on the Google Analytics side. You need the Editor role within the GA4 property to create product links. Check your account access levels in the Admin section under 'Property Access Management'.
• The data isn't appearing in the reports: Patience is key here. After creating the link and publishing the reports, it can take 24-48 hours for data to flow from Search Console into GA4. Check back in a day or two to see your new reporting data.

Final Thoughts

Integrating Google Search Console with Google Analytics 4 is a small setup action that delivers huge analytical rewards. By getting a complete view of the user journey - from the search query to the on-site conversion - you can make smarter, data-driven decisions about your SEO and content strategy.

Connecting all your tools is the secret to getting a clear picture of your business. That's why we built Graphed to be the easiest way to bring all your marketing and sales data together in one place. By connecting platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, Facebook Ads, and Salesforce, we help you ask questions in simple, natural language and instantly generate real-time dashboards that show you what's working across your entire funnel, not just in one platform.