Where Are Search Terms in Google Analytics?

Looking for the specific Google search terms that bring people to your website? In Google Analytics 4, this important piece of information isn't where you might expect. This guide will show you exactly how to find and analyze your users' organic search queries by connecting Google Search Console directly to GA4.

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Goodbye Universal Analytics, Hello Search Console

If you're used to the old Universal Analytics (UA), you might remember an "Organic Search" report that gave a glimpse into the queries people used. However, for years, the most valuable data was hidden behind the frustrating label "(not provided)" to protect user privacy.

Google Analytics 4 takes this privacy focus a step further and doesn't have a built-in report for organic search queries at all. Instead, the answer to "Where are my search terms?" now lies exclusively with a different tool: Google Search Console.

This is actually a good thing. Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool built specifically to help you understand how your site performs on Google Search. Combining its data with GA4 gives you a much richer analysis than UA ever could, allowing you to see not just which terms brought people in, but what they did after they arrived.

Linking Google Search Console to GA4: Your Step-by-Step Guide

To view your search query data within the GA4 interface, you first need to link the accounts. This process is simple, but an important prerequisite is having the right permissions. You must have the Editor role in your Google Analytics 4 property and be a verified owner of the Google Search Console property.

Once you've confirmed your permissions, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your GA4 property.
2. Navigate to the Admin section by clicking the gear icon ⚙️ in the bottom-left corner.
3. Under the Property column, find the "Product Links" section and click on Search Console Links.
4. In the top-right corner, click the blue Link button.
5. A new screen will appear. Click Choose accounts and select the GSC property you manage that you wish to link. (Ensure the URL of the GSC property matches your GA4 data stream). Click Confirm.
6. Click Next, then under "Select web stream," choose the appropriate data stream for your website.
7. Click Next again to review your selections, and then click Submit.

Your two accounts are now connected! It may take up to 48 hours for data to start flowing into the new reports in GA4.

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How to Access the Search Console Reports in GA4

Upon linking the accounts, GA4 automatically creates a new collection called "Search Console," which contains two valuable reports:

• Google Organic Search Traffic: This report focuses on the landing pages that receive traffic from Google Search. It pairs landing page URLs with Search Console metrics (Clicks, Impressions) and GA4 metrics (Engaged sessions, Users, Conversions).
• Google Organic Search Queries: This is the important report. It shows you the specific search terms people used to find your site.

For some reason, these new reports aren't added to your main navigation menu by default. You need to "publish" them to make them visible. Failing to do this step is a common point of confusion for many users.

Here’s how to add them to your left-hand menu:

1. In GA4, go to the Reports section (the icon with a bar chart).
2. At the very bottom of the report navigation menu on the left, click Library.
3. You will see a "Collections" area with a card labeled Search Console. You may need to scroll if you have many collections.
4. Click the three vertical dots (⋮) on the Search Console card and select Publish.

That's it! A new "Search Console" section will now appear in your main reporting navigation, giving you easy, one-click access to your queries and organic traffic reports.

Analyzing Google Organic Search Queries in GA4

Now that you can access the report, let's explore how to get valuable insights from it.

Navigate to Reports > Search Console > Google Organic Search Queries. Here you'll see a list of important search queries driving visitors to your site, along with key metrics from GSC:

• Google Organic Search Query: The exact search term the user typed into Google.
• Google Organic Search Clicks: The number of times users clicked your website link from Google Search for that query.
• Google Organic Search Impressions: The number of times your website link was shown on a search results page for that query, whether it was clicked or not.
• Average Position: Your website’s average ranking spot on Google for that query.

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Unlock Deeper Insights by Combining Metrics

The true power of this integration is the ability to analyze post-click behavior. You're no longer just looking at rankings and clicks, you can see what actually happens next. By adding secondary dimensions from GA4, you can start answering much more interesting questions.

Consider these examples of actionable analysis:

1. Identify High-Performing Content

Question: Which queries bring in the most engaged users?

How to answer it: In the report, look at the table. To the right of the Search Console metrics, you'll see GA4 columns like Engaged sessions, Engagement rate, and Event count. Sort the table by Engaged sessions or filter for queries with an Engagement rate above a certain threshold. High-engagement queries indicate that your landing page content perfectly matched the user's search intent. This tells you which topics are resonating most with your audience, giving an excellent roadmap for future content.

2. Spot Content Optimization Opportunities

Question: Which queries rank well but have low clicks and engagement?

How to answer it: This is my favorite use case for this report. Sort the data by Impressions to see important queries where you often appear in search results. Now, look for queries that have high impressions but a low number of Clicks. This pattern is a signal that your page titles and meta descriptions aren't compelling enough to attract a click, even though Google sees your content as relevant.

Rewrite these titles and descriptions to better reflect the search query's intent and offer a clear value proposition. It’s one of the quickest SEO wins you can find.

3. Tie Search Queries to Conversions

Question: Which search queries actually lead to conversions?

How to answer it: The ultimate goal is to connect search performance to real business outcomes. In the report, use the dropdown menus above the table to view conversion events. If you have a sale event named purchase or a lead event named generate_lead, you can select it.

The report will update to show you exactly which search terms led to a conversion. Queries driving paying customers are your most commercially valuable phrases. Prioritize defending your rankings for these terms and creating similar content clusters to capture more of that high-intent traffic.

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What About Paid Search Terms?

It's important to differentiate between organic and paid search. The methods described above are entirely for finding search terms from organic traffic coming from Google Search.

If you're running Google Ads and have linked your account to GA4, you can find the Google Ads search queries report under Acquisition > Acquisition Reports. This report is structured similarly, allowing you to see which paid queries are driving clicks, conversions, and ad revenue, which helps you optimize your ad budget and bidding strategies.

Final Thoughts

While Google Analytics 4 no longer shows organic search terms out-of-the-box, integrating it with Google Search Console unlocks far more power than ever before. Setting up this link is the only way to analyze how specific search terms relate to on-page user behavior and business goals, combining pre-click SEO data with post-click engagement metrics.

Connecting platforms like Search Console, Google Ads, and Google Analytics is fundamental to seeing the big picture. However, gathering all this information still regularly involves a lot of manual reporting across different platforms to tie performance together. To simplify this, we built Graphed . After linking your data sources with one click, anyone on our team can analyze performance by simply asking questions in plain English. You can instantly create dashboards with prompts like, "Show me my top 10 organic search queries with high engagement from Google Analytics," and get a real-time answer without any digging.