#2 in the Series
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Google Search Console
As part of a comprehensive digital marketing measurement package, Google Search Console provides invaluable information on actual user searches that resulted in traffic to your website. This information comes straight from Google and can be found in the Google Search Console dashboard in the Search Query report. (Note: Google Search Console was formerly known as Google Webmaster). In addition to viewing the search terms, the data also includes the impressions for your website for these search terms and the resulting click through rate (CTR).
To view this data, first you must have Search Console set up, then log in, then select the report. There is a more convenient way to access this data. But we are getting slightly ahead of things. First, you need a free Google Search Console property set up.
Set Up Google Search Console
We are assuming you already have a Google account and a Google Analytics account. You will need to be logged into your Google account. Then go to:
https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome
Create your Google Search Console account. Make sure you use the same protocol (https:// or https://) and include or exclude the www from the settings depending on how your website is set to display. For example, if the URL of your website is normally displayed as https://example.com then be sure to use https:// and be sure to exclude www.
The most difficult part of setting up a Google Search Console property is performing the verification step. We suggest you read the Google documentation on this.
Link Google Search Console to Google Analytics
Once your Google Search Console property is properly set up and verified, it can be added to your Google Analytics account. Sign in to your Google Analytics account and click the Admin gear icon in the lower left to bring up the dashboard.
On the following page, click the menu link for Adjust Search Console
On the following page click the Add link. Because you are logged into your Google account which was used to set up both the Google Analytics account and the Search Console Property, a list of website properties will appear. If you are only working with one website, then only that property will appear. Select the website property and click Save then OK to Add association. this will resolve to that property in Google Search Console, leaving Google Analytics open in a previous tab. Click back to Google Analytics and click the Done button. To confirm that the association has been set up properly, from the Google Analytics dashboard, refresh the page. Then click the Adjust Search Console button again and you should see your Google Search Console property.
Search Console Data in Google Analytics
It may take up to 24 hours for Google Search Console data to be available in Google Analytics. To check for the data, in Google Analytics, click Acquisition - Search Console - Queries. This will provide you a view to the same data that is reported in Search Console, but much more conveniently in the same reporting tool as the rest of your analytics data.