Are you wondering about the differences between Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and how you can use each to further the success of your blog or website?
By the time you are done reading, you will know the differences between Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
You will also know how to use them to your advantage by following my actionable strategies.
Let’s explore Google Search Console vs Google Analytics.
Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics
When it comes to drawing similarities between Google Search Console and Google Analytics, you should know that both are free SEO tools. By understanding the metrics at both sites, you can make informed decisions that guide your future success with your blog posts.
Both tools offer you everything you need in order to analyze your blog’s performance on Google’s search engine. Between the two tools, you won’t need more.
Google Search Console tells you how your keywords are performing in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), along with information about your website’s user experience. In addition, you can use Google Search Console to ask Google to inspect any article you have changed or want to submit to Google’s index, rather than relying on users to search for your website on Google or enter its URL directly.
On the other hand, Google Analytics tells you all the other metrics you need in order to make predictions about the success of future articles.
How to Set Up Google Analytics
Before benefiting from a post on Google Search Console vs Google Analytics, you need to set up Google Analytics.
Here you can access Google Analytics.
How to Set Up Google Analytics:
One important note:
Have you heard Google Analytics is going away?
In 2023, Google Analytics is becoming GA4. If you don’t switch over, you will lose your Google Analytics history.
If you are still interested, read on.
How to Use Google Analytics
How to know your best social media referrers:
Before you start your social media promotion, determine which social media sites you will find your target audience.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Go to Analytics.Google.com
Step 2: Click Acquisition/All Traffic/Channels.
Step 3: Scroll down and click “Social.” You will see which social media sites are sending you visitors.
Notice: You can change the date range. A one-week view is the default. This may not be enough to give you a comprehensive view of which social media sites are sending you traffic.
Google Analytics can also provide you with other important metrics.
Knowing which pages most interest your site visitors is crucial to understanding your target audience. Replicate content that interests them.
How to know your best-performing content:
Step 1: Go to Analytics.Google.com.
Step 2: Scroll down to “Which pages do your users visit?”
Again, feel free to change the date range to get a more thorough idea of which content most interests your website visitors.
Google Analytics Advantages
Comprehensive dashboard
You can’t beat Google Analytics if you’re looking for a free SEO dashboard other than a report of the keyword rankings that Google Search Console offers you.
However, Google Analytics offers you all other performance metrics such as
- The days your posts perform the best
- The times your posts perform the best
- See visitors in real-time on your website.
- A comparison of different time periods
- The ability to switch time periods and even create custom time period filters.
- The behavior of your audience in terms of how they access your blog.
- The social media sites are sending you different amounts of traffic
- The demographics of your audience.
- Active users and user retention over time.
- The pages users visited. The default is a one-week view.
- Sessions by the electronic device. In other words, what are visitors using to access your blog?
- Free plug-ins let you see your Google Analytics on your blog without leaving your website.
- Use the free app to check your analytics on the go on your mobile device.
In addition, although I don’t use GA to monetize, marketers can set goals in Google Analytics and get reports on how well they are meeting those goals.
See visitors in real-time on your website.
If you click “Real-Time Report,” you’ll see how people are finding your articles.
A comparison of different time periods
You can tell I experienced a spike last week. I didn’t hit this week.
Let’s look at some more of my metrics:
From the screenshot, you can see that most of my visitors come to my blog on Monday mornings, are from the United States, and use a desktop device to access it.
Google Search Console tells you your monthly analytics.
Change the date to view SEO performance over different time periods.
How to know which sites to optimize for.
Where are your visitors coming from?
Should you optimize for search engines, social media, or both?
This is important to ensure your content gets seen by as many people as possible.
Go to Acquisition/All Traffic/Channels.
As you can see, organic search, in this case, Google, brings me an overwhelming 78.22% of my blog traffic.
Click the word “Social” to see which social media sites are sending you the most traffic so you know where to direct your promotion efforts.
As you can see, at the time of this writing, Pinterest brings me the most social traffic.
The default is a one-day view. You can change the default by clicking “Week” or “Month.”
How to know your analytics for the last month:
I was approached about a monetization opportunity, and the brand needed my stats for the last month:
Google Analytics report for the past 30 days:
Go to your Google Analytics account -> Behavior->Overview
Select the last 30 days from the top right. Click Export – > PDF
This is located at the top right of your window.
You can send the brand a PDF this way.
How to Use Google Analytics to See Page Views:
Behavior -> Overview
Refer to this image: http://prntscr.com/jrs7di.
Screenshot courtesy of Enstine Muki.
This allows advertisers to see page views and other vital stats.
How to Use Google Analytics to See Your Traffic Sources:
Aquisition -> All traffic -> Channels
Refer to this image: http://prntscr.com/jrsa7s
Screenshot courtesy of Enstine Muki.
This will help them have an idea of your traffic sources.
How to send your analytics to brands who may want to hire you:
After generating your analytics, click Export.
Click PDF.
Click your download button.
Click the report, then click the mail icon.
Enter the email address of the person you want to send your analytics to.
You may have to give Adobe Acrobat (or whatever program you’re using) permission to access your email.
How to find which pages on your site are performing best.
Navigate to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
How to find the demographics of your visitors:
Demographics: Click Audience/Overview. It will tell you the languages spoken, country, and city.
Google Analytics Testimonials
The Design Wizard blog surveyed top marketers. Google Analytics was their #1 choice for tools.
“I use Google Analytics all the time. It is one of my favorite SEO tools” (Source).
How to Set Up Google Search Console
Google Search Console was previously called ”Webmaster Tools.”
Here is the link to access Google Search Console.
As with Google Analytics, you need to connect Google Search Console to your blog.
Google Search Console Advantages
Like Google Analytics, Google Search Console is a free tool.
Like Google Analytics, GSC offers a thorough dashboard of SEO metrics.
Like Google Analytics, Google Search Console is accurate.
There are many benefits that make Google Search Console one of my most visited websites.
At Google Search Console (GSC), you can see important metrics of your blog’s performance, such as:
- Clicks
- Impressions
- Pages with first impressions
- Top growing pages compared to the previous month
- Top performing pages
- Top growing queries
- Top-performing queries
- Your audience’s devices
- Your audience’s location
- How people found you: Web, Image, or Video
- Google Penalties. Google gives you a chance to validate the errors by fixing them.
- Learn about SEO. Google Search Console’s videos and textual information help even people just beginning to learn SEO.
- Improve the user experience on your website.
Keyword Rankings
Go to Acquisition > Search Console > Queries to view all the keywords that your website is ranking for.
Blog Problems
Google Search Console lets you know the problems with your blog so you can fix them.
Growth
Google Search Console even emails you metrics.
Look:
GSC sends you monthly metrics in the form of awards.
My favorite feature of Google Search Console is “Inspect any URL.”
After I update my blog post with fresh information, I submit it to Google Search Console for inspection since there are changes in my article.
On rare occasions, Google did not index my articles, and I was able to request indexing this way.
Google Search Console vs Google Analytics: Frequently Asked Questions
Is Google Console the same as Google Analytics?
No. They have different functions. Among other metrics, Google Search Console shows you your keyword rankings and your blog’s performance. Google Analytics is a comprehensive analytics dashboard for SEO.
What can you get from Google Analytics and Google Search Console?
Google Analytics offers metrics that track your website performance. You can use those metrics to make future content planning and marketing decisions. You can use Google Search Console to check the status of indexing, website errors, and search queries.
Wrapping Up: Google Search Console vs Google Analytics
In closing, if you don’t have the budget for expensive tools like Ahrefs, consider using Google Search Console and Google Analytics to read your SEO reports.
Although I’m sure this post just scratched the surface when it comes to comparing Google Search Console and Google Analytics, this article shared the ways I use both SEO tools.
By reading this post, you received information about Google Search Console vs Google Analytics, such as the advantages, the similarities, and the differences.
Please share so bloggers and other webmasters confused about the difference can discover this post.
I look forward to your views in the comments section. Do you have insights on Google Search Console vs Google Analytics that you can share to add to the discussion?
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
