Linking Search Console to GA4: The Two Organic Search Reports

This guide uses Analytics Help: Connect Search Console to Google Analytics, the Queries report, the Google organic search traffic report and Customize report navigation; and Search Console Help: Performance report overview, About the data, Dimensions and data groupings and Troubleshooting data discrepancies. Quotes are from those pages.

What the link adds to GA4

Search Console and Google Analytics 4 see the same visitor from two sides. Search Console sees the Google search before the click: the query, the impression, the position. GA4 sees what happens after the click: engagement, events, enquiries. Linking them puts both views in one place. In Google's words, you can see "which queries lead to clicks, and how those clicks translate to user behavior, like which landing pages engage users more and how many users interact with key events".

The link is made between a GA4 web data stream and a Search Console website property, and it makes two reports available in GA4:

• Queries (Google Organic Search Queries): search queries with their Search Console metrics. You can break it down by Search Console dimensions, "but not by Analytics dimensions".
• Google organic search traffic: landing pages with Search Console metrics and GA4 metrics side by side, which you can break down by country and device.

Two rules apply to both. Search Console keeps 16 months of data, so the GA4 reports also show at most 16 months. And Search Console data reaches both tools "48 hours after it is collected by Search Console", so the last two days are always missing.

Before you link

Google lists two prerequisites:

• Permissions. You need the Editor role on the GA4 property and must be a verified owner of the Search Console property. You can verify ownership during the linking process. Deleting a link later needs only the Editor role in GA4.
• The same pages. Google asks you to "be sure that your Google Analytics property and your Search Console property are collecting data for the same set of web pages". If GA4 tags only part of the site, or the Search Console property covers a different host, the landing page report will mix Search Console rows with no matching GA4 activity.

The start date of the data in GA4 depends on the order in which the two things happened. If the web data stream existed first and you verified the site later, data is available from the time of site verification. If the site was verified first and you created the stream later, data is available from the date you created the stream. Either way, linking does not bring in data from before the later of those two dates.

Creating the link

From GA4, the steps in Google's help page are:

1. Go to Admin, and under Product links click Search Console Links.
2. In the link table, click Link.
3. In the row "Link to Search Console properties I manage", click Choose accounts and select the Search Console property. Click Confirm, then Next.
4. Select the web data stream for your site and click Next.
5. Review the settings and submit.

Google notes that "you can also create the link in the Search Console". Once it exists, a link cannot be edited: to change it, you delete it and create a new one. That has a side effect worth knowing before you touch it. If the new link uses a different web data stream, "all date ranges for reports will use the web stream you select for the new link", including dates before the change.

One property, one stream

The link is strictly one-to-one. Google's limits are:

Item	Can be linked to
A GA4 web data stream	Only one Search Console property
A Search Console property	Only one GA4 web data stream
A GA4 property	Only one data stream linked to a Search Console property

So if an agency, a former developer or another team already linked your Search Console property to a different GA4 property, that link has to be removed before you can create yours. Checking Search Console Links in GA4 Admin is a quick way to see what is connected today, and it belongs on any website handover list.

Publishing the Search Console reports

This is where most people get stuck: the link is in place, but the reports are nowhere in the menu. Google explains that the Search Console collection of reports "is unpublished by default". To show it:

1. In GA4, click Library at the bottom of the left navigation. You need the Editor or Administrator role to see it.
2. Find the Search Console collection card.
3. Click More (the three-dot menu), then Publish.

The collection then appears under Reports as Search Console > Queries and Search Console > Google organic search traffic, for everyone with access to the property. If you cannot find it in the Library, Google also offers Search Console as a collection template when you create a new collection. A property can have up to 7 collections, and collections are listed in alphabetical order, which you cannot change.

The Queries report

The Queries report shows Search Console data inside GA4. Its dimension is Organic Google search query, the query that triggered an impression, which you can split by country and device category. Its metrics are:

• Organic Google search clicks and impressions.
• Organic Google search click through rate, clicks per impression. Note that GA4 returns it as a fraction: "0.0588 means about 5.88% of impressions resulted in a click".
• Organic Google search average position. Google's example: a URL at position 3 for one query and position 7 for another averages position 5.

What this report does not have is any GA4 behaviour: no engagement, no key events per query. Search Console metrics are only compatible with Search Console dimensions plus landing page, device and country. The same data is also in Search Console itself, where the Performance report adds filters, date comparisons, search types and a chart. For quick reading, Search Console also has a simpler Insights report.

The Google organic search traffic report

This is the report the link is really for. Each row is a landing page (the dimension is Landing page + query string, the page and query string of the first page view in a session), and it puts the four Search Console metrics next to GA4 metrics:

• Active users
• Engaged sessions: sessions that "lasted 10 seconds or longer, or had 1 or more key events or 2 or more page or screen views"
• Engagement rate and average engagement time
• Event count and key events
• Ad revenue, if you integrate an ad platform

So for one page you can read how often it appeared in Google, how often it was clicked, and whether those visitors then stayed or sent an enquiry. The key events column only counts what you have marked, so the report is as useful as your key events setup. Two limits from the help pages: you can drill into country and device only, and the Search Console reports "currently do not support time-series charts".

Why the numbers differ

Expect the GA4 reports, the Search Console Performance report and your GA4 organic traffic figures to disagree. Google's Search Console Help gives several reasons:

• Privacy. Some queries "that are searched a very small number of times" are left out. These anonymized queries are included in Search Console's chart totals but are not listed in the table, so query rows never add up to the total.
• Row limits. Search Console "stores and shows only the most important data rows", and its table shows at most 1,000 rows.
• Property vs. page counting. When totals are counted by property, two results from your site for one search count as one impression, and the top position is used. Counted by page, each URL counts separately. Google notes that CTR and average position "are generally higher when aggregating by property".
• Time zones. Search Console labels daily data in Pacific Time. If your GA4 property uses another time zone, single days won't match exactly.
• JavaScript. Google notes that tools such as Google Analytics "track traffic only from users who have enabled JavaScript in their browser". So a click counted in Search Console does not always become a session in GA4.
• Time lag and processing. Search Console data usually takes 2-3 days, and some processing, such as removing duplicates, changes the counts.

There is also a difference of scope. The Search Console metrics count Google organic search only, while GA4 recognises many search engines as organic sources; the default list in Google's help page includes Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and others. Compare like with like, and use each figure for what it measures: Search Console for visibility in Google, GA4 for what visitors did.

Putting the reports to work

A few ways we would read the Google organic search traffic report (our suggestions, not Google's):

• High impressions, low CTR. Pages Google shows often but people rarely click. The page title and meta description are the usual first things to rewrite; see our SEO basics.
• Many clicks, low engagement rate. The page gets the visit but doesn't hold it. Check that it answers the query the Queries report shows for it and that it loads fast on a phone.
• Clicks without key events. On service pages that should bring enquiries, look at the calls to action and the form.
• Good pages with few impressions. Pages that convert well but are rarely shown are candidates for better internal links and content work.

For a monthly view, pick a handful of these figures and track them the same way each month, as in our guide to a monthly website report. If you want them in a dashboard with other sources, Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) has its own Search Console connector; see our Data Studio dashboards guide.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I see the Search Console reports in GA4 after linking?

The Search Console report collection is unpublished by default. An Editor or Administrator has to open Library at the bottom of the left navigation and publish the Search Console collection.

How long does Search Console data take to appear in GA4?

Google says Search Console data is available in Analytics 48 hours after Search Console collects it. Data starts from the later of two dates: when the web data stream was created or when the site was verified in Search Console.

Can I link one Search Console property to two GA4 properties?

No. A Search Console property can be linked to only one GA4 web data stream, and a GA4 property can have only one data stream linked to a Search Console property.

What permissions do I need to link Search Console and GA4?

The Editor role on the GA4 property and verified ownership of the Search Console property. You can verify ownership during the linking process.

Can I see key events for each search query?

No. The Queries report works with Search Console dimensions only. Key events and engagement are shown per landing page, in the Google organic search traffic report.

How far back does the Search Console data in GA4 go?

At most 16 months, because that is how long Search Console keeps its data.

The link only pays off when the site behind it is measured properly: one GA4 tag on every page, key events on real enquiries and pages written for the searches they get. That is part of our website development work. See all our services, or email [email protected].