Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics 4: Where to Dig for the Right Data

Google provides a range of tools to help marketers measure and improve results across their digital platforms. If you manage a website or application, you know numbers matter. Google Analytics metrics and Google Search Console data offer incredible insights into what’s working – and what’s not – on your site. It takes a bit of studying to understand the different purposes of these two platforms and know where to find the information you need.

That calls for Oneupweb’s favorite type of explainer: an extended metaphor! Let’s get into the difference between Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics vs. Google Search Console: Inside and Outside the Store

Imagine you run a bike shop and you want to understand how prospective customers outside your store interact with your brand – are they seeing your store sign by the road, the fliers you put up at the kiosk on the bike path, and the bike rack you sponsor at the coffee shop down the street?

In a digital context, that’s what Google Search Console (GSC) does; it measures how many people see your content (impressions) and how many decide to visit your store (clicks).

But what about when they enter your store? Google Analytics 4 lets you track which door they enter, which products they view, how long they stay and shop, and even what marketing efforts brought them in to begin with.

Let’s explore the metrics associated with each platform and why click counts usually don’t match session counts.  

(This is a handy glossary for many of the nerdy SEO terms and metrics ahead – pop it open in a new window, just in case.)

What Does Google Search Console Measure?

GSC measures behavior outside your website in Google’s organic search experience, including these four primary metrics:

Impressions – Impressions measure the number of times a page of your website appears as a link or SERP feature in Google’s search results. If someone sees it on any page of search engine results – whether it’s page 1 or page 100 – it counts as an impression, and it’ll count twice if they view it a second time while performing another search in the same browser session. Links in SERP features, including the AI Overview, only contribute impressions if the user expands the feature enough to see the citation link.  

Clicks – Clicks count how many times users click on your organic links on the SERP. Note that this does not include paid search results; that’s the whole other thing.

Clickthrough rate (CTR) – The percentage of clicks as a share of total impressions. If your homepage has received 1,000 impressions over the past 7 days and generated 100 clicks, your CTR is 10%.

Average position – This is your domain’s average ranking position on the SERP and plays an influential role in all the metrics mentioned above. As your average position lowers (like in golf, lower is better!), your organic links will likely see more impressions, more clicks, and better CTR, though that’s not always the case.

Average position makes a dramatic difference in how many people see and click your content. Here’s the average CTR for the top 5 positions among organic results:

How to Use Google Search Console Data

There are many ways to leverage GSC data to improve your domain’s overall performance. For many of our clients, Oneupweb uses this data to monitor search traffic, predict seasonal traffic fluctuations, and prioritize content creation and optimization. To swing way back to the store analogy, we use GSC data to determine which signs and fliers (i.e., pages and multimedia) people are seeing, which are actually driving traffic to the store, and when those signs are the most valuable, so we can freshen them up or replace them with something more relevant or shiny.

Contextualizing search fluctuations: Impressions aren’t static. Interest in a category of a product (eBikes) or service (window washing) may spike due to short-term trends or long-term changes that may or may not relate to your SEO strategy. Tracking impressions provides valuable insight into your brand’s visibility and broader interest in what you offer. Impressions are also an early indicator (earlier than clicks or sessions!) that new or optimized content is performing well.  

Predicting seasonal traffic fluctuations: As you might expect, there isn’t a lot of search volume around “air conditioning repair” in mid-January if you live in Montana. Monitoring impressions for seasonal products or services can help you set realistic expectations, manage inventory, and decide when to prioritize other offerings.

Prioritizing content creation and optimization: By examining the impressions for specific content categories on your site that are outperforming or underperforming, you can determine what to focus on and when. For example, we often work on underperforming subfolders (groups of related pages, such as all service pages or product pages) to increase their visibility. Addressing underperforming content groups improves the overall domain and ultimately positions your products and services more competitively by lowering the average position and increasing impressions.

What Does Google Analytics 4 Measure?

The basic Google Analytics metrics are:

Sessions – The number of visits to your website over a specified period.

Users – The number of specific users who visit your website. A single user can generate multiple sessions; creatively, those are called return users.

Key events – Formerly known as conversions, these are the most important actions a user can take on your site. You set your key events, and they should reflect actions that directly impact business success (that is to say, make you money). Some examples of common key events include purchases, form fills, or file downloads.

There are also several Google Analytics engagement metrics worth noting, especially when sessions are lower than normal and you want to check on traffic quality.

Engagement rate: This is the share of sessions that include at least one of the following actions or behaviors:

• Stays on the site for 10 seconds or longer
• Has 1 or more key event
• Views at least 2 pages

You can also set scroll depth (a user scrolling down a percentage of the page) to count toward engagement rate, but that requires some customization.

Engaged session duration: This measures the average length of the sessions that met the engagement criteria listed above. Longer session durations are usually a sign of quality, informative content and qualified users.

There are many other automatically collected events and Enhanced Measurement events in GA4. If you would like a quick reference besides Google’s documentation, check out our resources:

• The Big Google Analytics Glossary
• User Acquisition vs. Traffic Acquisition in GA4

How to Use Google Analytics Data

GA4 is a great tool for seeing what content (interesting blogs, new services, or top-selling products) your customers view the most and spend the most time reading or viewing. It also reveals what marketing channels are driving them to your store in the first place.

Here are some ways to analyze the data:

Top landing pages: A landing page is the exact URL a user views first when entering the site; for organic search, it’s the link they clicked from the SERP. Knowing your top landing pages will help you determine which pages are bringing users to your site and may help you direct those users to pages where key events are more likely to happen, such as product pages or your “Contact Us” page.

Engagement insights: When this metric was first released with GA4, we noted that more time spent on a page tends to lead to higher conversion rates. When we see a dichotomy of longer engaged session durations but lower key event rates, it indicates that users are distracted or confused by the page’s content. That’s when conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in handy.

Acquisition channels: How did people get to your site in the first place? The traffic acquisition reports in GA4 help you understand which marketing efforts (organic search, paid search, organic social media, etc.) attract users, and they also shed light on the quality of those sessions. You might find one channel drives a small share of sessions, but it’s very high quality, with above-average (for your domain) engagement metrics and conversions.

What Is the Difference Between GA4 Sessions and GSC Clicks​?

It seems like the number of people deciding to visit a store (clicks in GSC) should match the number of visits observed in the store (Organic Search sessions in GA4, filtered to a Google source). However, you’ve probably noticed within the two platforms that there’s a difference between clicks and sessions, sometimes a drastic one.

These are the primary reasons that GSC and GA4 numbers don’t match when you compare clicks to sessions:

• GA4 tracking is sometimes blocked by users’ privacy settings.
• GA4 allows for time zone customization, while GSC always uses Pacific Time.
• The two platforms have different attribution models: GA4’s is data-driven, and GSC’s is last-click.
• GSC only reports on canonical URLs; GA4 reports on all URLs, including variants with tracking parameters.
• GSC shows non-HTML pages, and GA4 doesn’t always show them.
• GA4 excludes bot traffic automatically, but GSC doesn’t.
• GA4’s session default channel groupings are affected by tracking parameters on URLs; when parameters are used in a nonstandard manner, non-organic traffic may show in the Organic Search channel.
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A comparison of GSC vs. GA4 will show even bigger discrepancies if you are not viewing the data optimally. Consider these two tips:

• The Organic Search channel in GA4 shows organic data from all search engines, not just Google. Add a filter to get closer to GSC click numbers.
• If you’re just viewing and exporting data directly from the GSC platform, you may be missing some of the data that you would see if you used the API. So, it’s recommended that you use the API for the closest representation of performance.

Google made a video to explain why, no matter what, you’ll see discrepancies between these two tools. Don’t let this get in the way of gleaning actionable information from both!

Integrating GSC into GA4

If you’re already familiar with GA4, the good news is that you can access Search Console data in Google Analytics. This makes it easier to see relationships between the metrics both tools provide.

How to Add GSC to GA4

Make sure you have administrator permissions for your Google Analytics property. Then, follow these steps to integrate GSC:

1. Navigate to “Admin” and find “Product Links.”
2. Select “Search Console Links.” Then click “Link.”
3. Choose the GSC account you want to connect, and click “Confirm.”
4. Select “Next,” review, and confirm. That’s it!

Once connected, you’ll be able to access pre-built reports on search query performance and see which queries drive traffic to specific landing pages on your domain.

Grow Your Brand Inside, Outside, and Everywhere

Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 are powerful tools for collecting and organizing data, but they’re only tools. A strong digital marketing strategy requires experience and creativity, traits that Oneupweb has in spades. We’ll assemble a hand-picked team of content experts, designers, and developers to craft a bold way forward for your brand, aligning with your goals and budget. See what exceptional service and nearly three decades of experience can do for your team – get in touch or call 231-922-9977 to get started.