Want to know more about how people are interacting with your brand online? Need to better learn what is (and isn’t) connecting with your target audience?
Google collects a treasure trove of data that can help you understand how people are finding and using your website. Two major tools to analyze that data are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
At Webspec, we work with these programs every day. And trust us – we know all of the data they offer can be overwhelming.
With that in mind, here are some of the tips and tricks we have to help your business get the most out of the data Google can provide.
What Are Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console?
First, some basics. What are Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console? They are free tools from Google that collect data relevant to your website. These two tools have different purposes: While Google Analytics 4 collects data about the traffic to your website, Google Search Console collects data related to how your website is appearing on search engine results pages.
What Is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is a tool from Google that gathers and compiles data on user activity from your website and applications. Once you install a Google Analytics tag on your website, you can use the program to view and create reports about what’s bringing people to your site or app, how long they’re staying, what they’re clicking on, and much more.
Want to know how many users visited your site in the past month? How many people are coming to you through Google search versus links from outside websites? What are your most-viewed pages? This is the tool for you.
A quick side note: Google Analytics 4 recently replaced the previous version of Google Analytics, which was known as Universal Analytics. How is the new version different? We’ve rounded up the top things to know about GA4 here.
What Is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is another tool that collects data on organic search traffic coming to your site from Google searches. Once you verify with Google that you’re the owner of the site, Google Search Console will gather important information about how Google is indexing your content, and how the search engine perceives your site’s user experience.
Want to know more about what Google search terms are bringing people to your site? Or, what pages from your site Google is including in its search results? Then this is your tool.
OK. Now for the tips.
Tip #1: Remove Internal Traffic in Google Analytics
Tool involved: Google Analytics 4
If you’re using Google Analytics to see the number of views you’re getting on a page, you’ve also probably clicked on that page a few (or a few hundred!) times yourself. You may wonder how much of that page traffic is actually coming from other visitors to your site versus from you.
Google Analytics gives you the option to eliminate data on search traffic coming from your organization’s IP address so you only see clicks from other users. You can access this through the “Admin” tab under “Data Streams.”
Tip #2: Customize Your Events, Dimensions, Metrics & Conversions in Google Analytics
Tool involved: Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics has a lot of useful data that it collects by default and compiles into reports. But it also gives you the option to customize your data and gear it toward what your business needs.
To do that, you can set up custom events, dimensions, and metrics as well as mark certain events as “conversions.” There’s a lot to be said about each of those measurements, but here’s a brief description:
- Events measure actions that happen on a website, such as a click or a download. Google Analytics automatically includes many events, but you can also add custom events that are important to your specific business, such as when a user accesses a specific page.
- Dimensions are factors that describe your data, like the country where a user accessed your site, or the type of device they used. While there are many dimensions that Google automatically collects, you can also define additional dimensions you want Google to report.
- Metrics are numerical measurements that can be applied to your data, like the average duration of a session on your website, or the number of new users who are visiting your site. Similar to dimensions, Google allows you to define additional metrics to be reported.
Tip #3: Connect Google Search Console With Google Analytics 4
Tools involved: Both
One of the ways to get the most out of your Google Analytics and Google Search Console data is to link the two tools together. Linking Google Search Console with your Google Analytics account will let you partner your organic search data with the wealth of other data that Google Analytics gathers. It will unlock new reports that dig deeper into Google organic search queries and organic search traffic.
First, you have to ensure your property is verified in Google Search Console, and that you have Google Analytics tags installed on your website. You must also be an “editor” on the GA4 property and a verified owner on the Search Console property.
To integrate the data, go to the “Admin” settings on your Google Analytics account and look under the “Property” column to find “Search Console Links” under “Product Links.” See Google’s documentation for more information on how to accomplish each of those tasks.
Tip #4: Examine Indexing Errors in Google Search Console
Tool involved: Google Search Console
So, your site is up and running and you’re publishing content. But is Google having issues finding it?
Google Search Console is an essential tool to monitor your site’s status with Google. You can submit a sitemap to help Google’s bots crawl your pages, and you can see straight from Google whether it’s including them in its search index – and why it may not be.
Using the Google Search Console Page Indexing Report, you can monitor any indexing issues Google is having with your site and make sure that all of your important pages are appearing.
Tip #5: Look for Key Organic Search Terms in Google Search Console
Tool involved: Google Search Console
What are the top search terms bringing people to your site?
Google Search Console allows you to see page views and the query that brought people to your site. You can find it under the “Performance” tab in the menu.
The report will not only show you the number of “clicks” on pages from these search terms but also the number of “impressions” those pages had, meaning the number of times they were included in a search result.
What are your best search terms? What terms result in several “impressions” but not many “clicks?” This is a great place to start taking a look at those pieces of data.
Tip #6: Check Your Page Experience & Core Web Vitals with Google Search Console
Tool involved: Google Search Console
Slow loading times and poor performance on mobile devices are a few website flaws that can hurt your site’s performance. If people have a bad user experience on your site, they might not come back.
Google can help you learn more about your website’s user experience through its Page Experience, Core Web Vitals, and Mobile Usability reports.
The reports will show you URLs on your site that aren’t performing well on certain metrics and would benefit from targeted improvements. That will help you figure out what areas to emphasize as you enhance the health of your site.
Ready to Get Started? Webspec’s SEO Experts Can Help!
These are just a few of the many ways you can maximize the free tools Google offers your site. To learn more about your Google Analytics and Google Search Console data and how to leverage both to build your brand, talk with the experts at Webspec. We’ll help you make these tools to their fullest potential for your business!
