Using the two Google tools - GA and GSC

Both Analytics and Search Console are both invaluable tools for the webmaster. Used together they can help to leverage the position of a website and how it presents to the World Wide Web.

I started out using Google Analytics before Search Console but for developing a site GSC is better to determine how pages are spidered (crawled) and hopefuly indexed by Google. This also applies to other search engines, Bing, ahrefs, Yandex and others.

Inconsistant behaviour

In my experients with the comparison of how useful Google Analtics and Google Search Console are both together and which gives me the better insight into how my site is performing I added back the tracking code to a number of my pages. This was due to the observation that Google had improved the Analytics reporting and that they had changed their code (with respect to tracking) considerably since I used it last. Indeed, the new code and the ability to see visits in "real-time", which I think was there before and was available with the ld tracking code, works very well and I can see my own visits.

Here is where the inconsistancy is evident. Looking in GSC I cannot see queries that I know are being made and my pages found. What I did was to create a page that I was pretty sure would be looked for by Internet users. This page related to a computer that I wanted to purchase on-line from Aldi. This laptop was on-line only and i was pretty sure that it would be in high demand and would sell out pretty quickly. I actually ordered one as I need to replace the computer that I an writing this on as it has a cracked screen and is generally too slow. The page was indexed pretty quickly as I made a request using GSC and I performed searches for the product model number usig Google. The computer was in 3rd or 4th position in the SERP, just behind the Aldi entry (which makes sense as they are the retailer and that is really the main target for Google).

Another entry in the SERP was for ukhotdeals.com and again that made sense as they probably get spidered on a regular basis as they get unique user input and the whole purpose is to provide up-to-date information on what is on sale and what is coming up. In fact, this website should not really feature in the SERP as there is no comercial benefit for Google here.

The inconsistancy is that the query does not appear in my GSC reports although GA reports many visits over the days that the laptop went on-sale. The laptop is still in stock and I have yet to receive word on when it is going to be shipped. It should be within 3-5 days of the 28th Feb 2021. I may remove the page when the laptop becomes out of stock as I have no real intention of pursuing the product review on this website and it was mainly an experiment in SEO.

Update: - March 2021

Just after posting this page with the report of inconsistancy the queries just showed up in my GSC reports.

This seems to indicate that there is latency in the GSC reports - so patience is the key here........

Linking GA and GSC

"Now the biting makes sense!" - Google allow the sharing of data between the two.

The query information (was keywords) is now in the GSC reports this should be available in GA if the linkage is made. The linking seems to take a fair amount of time, and I don't have a lot of data!!

Update: - September 2021

I actually setup a linkage (association) between the two tools 17 September 2021. Search Console now seems to have a latency that it didn't before? The reports seem to be stuck on the 18th September - I may have to remove the association.

Also the statement above doesn't seem to make sense. At the time in March I was just adding back the Analytics code to me pages at the same time as adding content about my new computer and Aldi adverts.

I have a theory

The fact that the performance report does not seem to be updated when I access it from the GSC interface could be due to latency in the reporting. Or it could be that the report can only appear in one place, GA or GSC.

I now have an entry in GA for Search Console (under Aquisition) - which I did not before I set the association.