Currently, in the market, there is an endless variety of tools that help you with an array of tasks.
However, there are two tools famous for their capabilities–Google SEO Analytics and Google Search Console.
By mastering these tools, many marketers plan, execute, and measure their campaigns successfully.
Therefore, there is an ongoing discussion on which tool from Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics is an absolute need for today’s online marketing world.
These two will be allies if you don’t want to shoot in the dark.
In this blog, let’s compare Google Analytics vs. Google Search Console to determine which one is imperative for your SEO strategy.
Also Read: Essential SEO Tracking Metrics for Business Growth
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a tool that does wonders in improving your website’s ranking. Above all, it is free
Of course, only if you know how to use it in the right way.
Regardless of whether more people view your website via desktop or mobile, you may utilize it to learn how many people are visiting it and how they found it.
It also helps in the comprehension of the most popular pages on your website.
You can use it to submit a sitemap, identify and correct faults on your website, offer ideas, and more.
What is Google Analytics?
For Google SEO Analytics, this is a web analytics service that offers data and fundamental analytical tools.
People with a Google account can access the service for free.
It gathers visitor data and monitors the functionality of websites.
Tracking goal completions like purchases assists organizations in identifying the main sources of user traffic and evaluating the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, it runs to identify patterns and trends in user engagement and obtain additional visitor data like demographics.
It plays a part in increasing website traffic and improving visitor retention. Small and medium-sized retail websites utilize it to collect and evaluate various customer behaviour metrics.
Now that you know the definitions of these Google SEO analytics tools, we can move to the major difference between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics.
Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics: 8 Critical Differences
Although both of these tools play a role in improving SEO, they don’t work on similar goals.
That’s why there is a need to draw a comparison between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics by stating these factors:
1. Purpose
The first pointer to differentiate between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics is their goal. Both of these work towards an entirely different goal.
Google Search Console emphasizes your website’s performance in Google’s search results. It offers information on search requests, indexing, and visibility.
Inversely, Google Analytics focuses on website traffic and user behaviour. Users can get information on user behaviour, engagement, and conversion monitoring.
2. Metrics Tracked by Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics
Between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics, you will see how varied their metrics are.
Google Analytics Metrics
Among the most noteworthy Google SEO Analytics metrics, you will find:
Audience Demographics: Users are categorized by dimensions, such as age, gender, in-market segments, affinity categories, and other factors. The segments of these dimensions are useful for marketing purposes.
Average Session Duration: The average length of time a visitor spends seeing your site expressed in seconds. (To calculate this metric and present it as information, the tool divides the total number of sessions by the total number of session durations.)
Bounce Rate: The percentage of internet visitors who bounce off your website without clicking on another page is known as your bounce rate.
Conversions: According to Google SEO Analytics, anything that is important to your business’s success is considered a conversion. This covers both micro- and macro-conversions, such as joining the email marketing list and making a purchase.
Unique Pageviews: According to Google Analytics, any view on your website is considered a regular pageview. The total number of pageviews minus all views from users that viewed the page more than once within a single session is known as a unique pageview.
Google Search Console Metrics
Average Position: This represents your typical position in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Clicks: The number of users that clicked on your link
Click-Through Rate (CTR): This measures how often people find and click on your website from search engine results. To compute it, Google divides clicks by impressions.
Impressions: The number of individuals that viewed your link on Google.
Keyword Queries: This measure includes the keywords that your pages rank for, as well as the queries that users use to find your page. This metric helps users with keyword research.
Quantity of Backlinks: Backlinks are links that lead to your website.
Internal links: The number of links on your website that take users from one page to another.
Mobile Usability: The ease of use of your website on mobile devices is known as mobile usability. As we all know, it is a significant part of an SEO strategy.
Index Coverage Reporting: You can see how Google’s crawlers interact with your website via this set of measurements.
From the metric above, you can tell that Google Search Console is more focused on providing data for a website.
On the contrary, Google SEO Analytics has metrics that are centred toward the target audience.
Therefore, this is the most prominent contrasting factor between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics.
3. Target Market
Although it is a Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics blog, let’s not forget to acknowledge how great these resources are.
Be it web developers, content creators, or website owners, they work amazingly.
However, for those who do not own or manage a website, Google Search Console offers nothing of use.
SEO and the technical components that help your website rank well in SERPs are the main areas of focus for Google Search Console.
Websites are the main emphasis of Google Analytics, but it also covers social media, email marketing, and advertising efforts.
4. Session and Clicks
Regardless of how many times a person clicks a link within the same browsing session, Google Search Console counts a click as any view of a website.
On the other hand, Google Analytics records a single click for each session.
To explain this in simpler words, let’s say a user clicks on the website, reloads the page, leaves, and then clicks the link again. Google Analytics would only record one click.
However, in the same scenario, Google Search Console would record three.
For Google Search Console, a session is whatever a user performs after making a single click on a search engine.
As per Google Analytics, whatever a person does within 30 minutes of visiting a website is considered a session.
Google Analytics would only record one session, whereas Google Search Console would record two.
In this factor depicting the difference between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics, there is another important thing to know.
GSC doesn’t consider views on PowerPoint, PDFs, Word documents, and Excel Sheets. But Google Analytics does.
5. Cost of Service
Despite use constraints, Google Search Console is free.
For the majority of customers, Google Analytics is also free.
Nevertheless, Analytics360 is required if you want extra functionality. Premium services offered by Analytics360 include detailed insights, a tool that answers questions about your data, and predictive data analysis with machine learning.
Analytics360 is intended for enterprises with substantial data processing requirements.
Handling Data
As the method of reporting is different in both tools, there is another difference between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics.
Initially, only one domain’s worth of data can be reported by a single Google Search Console account. Therefore, unless you have subdomains, you will require an account for each domain you own.
Conversely, if you add Google Search Console as a data source, you will only receive data for the domain associated with the account.
Nevertheless, a Google Analytics account can provide data for numerous domains.
Secondly, Google Analytics can report data from redirected URLs. This doesn’t work in a similar fashion with Google Search Console. When a redirected link is encountered, it records the traffic using the canonical URL.
A URL that Google thinks best reflects the redirected links is known as the canonical URL.
6. Procedure for Verification
Before they can provide data, Google Search Console and Google Analytics ask you to validate your domain or data source.
However, the difference between Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics lies in the method of doing it.
You can register for Google Search Console after signing into your Google account. Then, adhere to these instructions to validate your domain and add your website.
The method is as follows:
- Choose the kind of property you own.
- The choices are Domain or URL Prefix.
- If you select Domain, it will enable Google Search Console to function for all of your subdomains and protocol prefixes.
- Google Search Console will solely examine traffic going to your own domain if you select URL Prefix.
- You must now provide proof that you are the domain’s owner.
- If you choose URL Prefix, use an HTML tag, an HTML file, Google Analytics, or Google Tag Manager to check your website.
- If you choose Domain, click on your DNS provider, copy the text, and add it to the DNS page.
- Select Verify.
It takes around three days for it to verify your website.
To begin using Google Analytics:
- Sign into your Google account.
- Connect your data sources separately, including your website, social media accounts, and other marketing platforms.
- Follow the instructions.
7. Finding Errors
Google Search Console offers comprehensive details on issues that hinder users from successfully interacting with your website.
It may even determine whether users of your page have a good page experience. Also, if HTTPS is used and the website functions well on mobile devices.
That aside, it features a Security Issues option that checks your website for three items:
- Malware
- Hacked Content
- Warning indications of social engineering
Google Analytics’ error reporting features are not as detailed. It can identify user issues such as 404 error pages, JavaScript faults, and data validation mistakes.
8. Important Insights on Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics
Search Console offers fine-grained information on SERPs through Search Analytics reports.
Users are directed to the website by search queries from search results, clicks, CTR by query, and traffic percentage by user device.
Google SEO Analytics monitors devices but does not link device information to particular queries. Bots and spiders are also excluded.
The numbers get increasingly erroneous the more data you filter out. Because of privacy regulations, Google cannot give data that may lead to personally identifying information.
Can These Two Work In Tandem?
Yes, many users already combine Google Analytics with Google Search Console.
They specifically add information to Google Analytics from Google Search Console.
By doing this, they get more in-depth information on digital marketing.
That helps in boosting their SEO efforts and helps in increasing website traffic.
It also facilitates reporting your marketing data by enabling the creation of reports and infographics using data from Google Search Console.
The best part is that using these two simultaneously is as straightforward as this:
- Open Google Analytics.
- After selecting Acquisition, select Search Console.
- Choose from the following four options: Landing Pages, Countries, Devices, and The queries.
- Click Set Up Data Sharing for Search Console.
- After entering your property’s options, click Save.
You will get these benefits:
1. Interface Changes
Google Search Console and Google Analytics differ primarily in that the platform adapts to the features of the client’s website.
It also takes into account search engine result pages and evaluates how well the website performs in comparison to rivals.
For instance, after being added, the discover and search results tabs determine how much traffic they will accept.
The interface will change in response to the needs of the user. It will present their product specifications with optimal optimization for the greatest outcomes.
2. Organic Data
Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics are equivalent in terms of data evaluation.
To analyze its success, Google Search Console looks at search impressions, clicks on your search snippets, click-through rate, and web page ranking.
Furthermore, the client will be able to determine which customer search queries to filter by date, age, or country with the use of Google Search Console.
Google Search Console will thoroughly evaluate the website by integrating it with Bing or Google.
FAQs
Is it possible to utilize Google Analytics and Google Search Console at the same time?
Yes, you may use Google Analytics and Search Console in tandem to have a thorough understanding of user behaviour and website performance.
Which tool for Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics works better with websites that sell goods online?
Google Analytics is better suited for e-commerce websites as it provides comprehensive e-commerce tracking and reporting options.
Which one should I choose from Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics?
Both work in different areas, so it is not a case of choosing the best one. On top of that, they are free tools, so you don’t even need to stress about your budget.
Can SEO analysis be done with Google Analytics alone?
Google Analytics is an excellen tool for SEO analysis. For a more thorough study, Google Analytics should be used in conjunction with other specialized SEO platforms.
Summary
Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics serve different purposes and have different functionalities. Yet, they both perform equally good.
In order to maximize technical SEO and content, Search Console provides webmasters and SEOs with organic search data directly from Google.
In contrast, Analytics gives digital marketers powerful tools for tracking engagement, optimizing conversions, and assigning cross-channel attribution to any search engine.
Nevertheless, you can add search context for behaviour analysis for optimally informed strategies. Merging the two benefits both the audience and the website.
If you want full information about your website and how the audience sees it, you can get help from The Dream Agency.