How to Analyse Keywords in Google Analytics

Trying to figure out which keywords bring people to your website feels like it should be easy, but opening Google Analytics often leaves you with more questions than answers. You see a list of keywords, but the top entry, accounting for almost all your organic traffic, is the unhelpful "(not provided)". This article will show you exactly how to unlock that hidden keyword data by connecting a free tool you should already be using, Google Search Console, to your Google Analytics 4 property.

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Why Is Your Google Analytics Report Full of "(not provided)"?

If you've been working with Google Analytics for a while, you remember a time when your organic keyword report was a goldmine of information. But back in 2011, Google began encrypting searches for users who were signed into a Google account. The goal was to protect user privacy by hiding the specific search query from being passed on to the website they visited. While great for users, it created a massive headache for marketers and SEOs.

The result of this change is the infamous "(not provided)" keyword. When Google Analytics receives organic traffic from a logged-in user, it can't see the keyword they used. So, it simply lumps all that traffic under one label. Over time, as more people stayed logged into Google, this "(not provided)" category swelled to represent as much as 99% of all organic search traffic, making the keyword report inside Google Analytics practically useless on its own.

You can see traffic is coming from Google, you just can't see what specific terms they searched for to get there. Fortunately, Google didn't leave us completely in the dark. They provided another tool, designed specifically for search performance, that holds all the answers.

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The Solution: Connecting Google Search Console to GA4

If Google Analytics tells you what people do on your site, Google Search Console (GSC) tells you how they found your site through Google Search. It's a free platform that shows you which "queries" (the actual keywords) people use to find your content, how many times your site appeared in search results (impressions), how many people clicked through (clicks), your average click-through rate (CTR), and your average ranking position for those keywords.

This is the data that disappeared from Analytics. The good news is you can get it back by integrating GSC directly with your Google Analytics 4 property. Linking these two powerful tools enriches your GA4 reports with this vital keyword data, allowing you to analyze search performance alongside user behavior in one place.

Once connected, you’ll unlock two new reports in GA4 that give you a clear view of your organic search performance straight from the source. It’s the official and most accurate way to bring keyword analysis back into your workflow.

Step-by-Step: Linking Google Search Console and GA4

Connecting the two platforms is a straightforward, one-time setup that takes just a few minutes. Here’s how to do it.

Before you start: Check your permissions

To create the link, you'll need the right access levels:

• In Google Analytics 4, you need to have the Editor role.
• In Google Search Console, you need to be a Verified owner of the property you want to link.

As long as you're using the same Google account for both services and have the required permissions, you're good to go.

Linking Process

1. Log in to Google Analytics and navigate to the Admin section by clicking the gear icon (⚙️) in the bottom-left corner.
2. In the Property column, scroll down to the "Product Links" section and click on Search Console Links.
3. In the top right, click the blue Link button. A new setup panel will appear.
4. Click "Choose accounts." You'll see a list of all the Google Search Console properties for which you are a verified owner. Select the one that matches the website for your GA4 property and click Confirm.
5. Click Next. On the next screen, you’ll be asked to "Select web stream". Your website’s data stream should appear automatically. Select it and click Next.
6. Review your choices on the final screen. If everything looks correct - the right GSC property is linked to the right GA4 data stream - click Submit.

That's it! You’ll see a "Link created" notification. Keep in mind that it can take 24 to 48 hours for data to start populating in your new reports. This connection is not retroactive, meaning it will only show you data from the point of connection forward.

Finding and Using Your New Keyword Reports in GA4

After you've waited a day or two for data to flow in, you’ll be able to access your new Search Console reports. For some baffling reason, GA4 doesn't always add these powerful new reports to your main navigation menu by default. If you don't see them, here’s how to make them visible:

1. In the left-hand navigation, click on Reports.
2. At the bottom of the reports menu, click Library.
3. You'll see a collection called "Search Console." Click the three dots on the card and select Publish.

Once published, you'll see a new "Search Console" section in your Reports navigation, usually under the Acquisition tab. Inside, you'll find two invaluable reports:

• Queries: This is the holy grail. It shows you the actual Google Search queries people used to find your site, along with its associated Search Console metrics: Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Average position.
• Google Organic Search Traffic: This report is a little different - it links your keyword performance to on-site actions. It uses Landing Page as the primary dimension and shows you the GSC metrics alongside key GA4 metrics like Engaged sessions, Conversions, and Revenue.

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How to Actually Analyse Your Keyword Data

Getting access to the data is just the first step. The real value comes from turning those numbers into actionable insights. Here are four practical ways to analyse your newfound keyword data in GA4.

1. Identify Your Top-Performing Keywords

This is the most straightforward analysis. Open the Queries report and sort the table by Clicks in descending order. The keywords at the top are your current powerhouses - they are driving the most organic traffic to your site right now.

For each of these top terms, ask yourself:

• Does the landing page truly satisfy the search intent? If someone searches a keyword and lands on your page, does it immediately give them what they were looking for? If not, they’ll bounce, sending a negative signal to Google.
• Is the content on that page up-to-date and comprehensive? Competitors are always trying to outdo you. Make sure your best-performing content remains the best resource available on the topic.
• Can you leverage this authority? Use internal links from these high-traffic pages to point to other important pages on your site, like product pages or service offerings, to spread some of that SEO authority around.

2. Find "Striking Distance" Keywords for Quick SEO Wins

Your biggest opportunities often lie with keywords that are almost there. These are your "striking distance" keywords - terms for which you rank on the second or third page of Google (typically positions 11-30). They get solid impressions, meaning people are searching for them and Google sees your site as relevant, but they get very few clicks because they're not on the first page.

To find these gems in your Queries report:

1. Sort by Average position in ascending order.
2. Mentally filter for anything in the 11-30 range. These are your targets.
3. Look for terms that have a decent number of impressions but a low number of clicks.

These terms are your low-hanging fruit. A little optimization effort can often push them onto page one, resulting in a significant traffic boost. For each keyword you find, analyse the corresponding page and consider improving it by expanding the content, adding more relevant internal links, optimizing the title tag and meta description for a better CTR, or acquiring a new backlink or two.

3. Discover New Content Ideas

Your keyword data is a fantastic source for new content inspiration. In the Queries report, look for terms with a high number of impressions but a very low CTR and an equally low average position. These are often keywords you're ranking for unintentionally - Google thinks a page is partially relevant, but it's not a perfect match for the user's search.

For example, you might have written a general guide to "Salesforce reporting," and you notice you're getting impressions for "how to build a Salesforce sales funnel report." Your current article might touch on this, but it doesn't cover it in detail. This disconnect is your opportunity. You can either:

• Create a new, dedicated blog post specifically about building a sales funnel report in Salesforce.
• Add a detailed new section to your existing article that thoroughly covers this subtype of report.

By creating content that directly addresses these queries, you serve the user's intent better, which can lead to higher rankings and more clicks for those specific terms.

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4. Link Keyword Performance to Business Goals

Clicks and impressions are great, but what you really want to know is which keywords lead to conversions. This is where the Google Organic Search Traffic report comes in. This report uses Landing Page as the primary dimension, showing you how your top organic pages are performing.

Sort the report by Click to see which landing pages get the most organic traffic. Then, examine the columns on the right, specifically Engaged sessions, Conversions, and Total revenue. This connects your SEO efforts directly to business outcomes.

Here’s what to look for:

• High Clicks, Low Conversions: You're getting traffic, but something is off. Does the page have a clear call-to-action? Is the content a mismatch for what a user looking to convert would expect? You may need to optimize the page for better conversion rates.
• High Conversions, Low Clicks: You've got a page that converts well, but it's not getting enough traffic. This is a prime candidate for more optimization efforts. Try to improve its ranking for relevant keywords to get more eyeballs on a proven performer.

By knowing which landing pages - and by extension, which topics and keywords - are actually driving valuable actions, you can focus your SEO and content strategy on what truly matters.

Final Thoughts

Unlocking your organic keyword data in Google Analytics 4 is a critical step in building a successful SEO strategy. By connecting it with Google Search Console, you transform the useless "(not provided)" entry into a rich source of insights, helping you understand user intent, spot content opportunities, and prioritize your efforts based on real-world performance.

Even after connecting your data sources, it can still feel like a manual process to build dashboards and hunt down the answers you need across different reports. That's why we built Graphed to be your AI data analyst. We unify your performance data from sources like Google Analytics, Search Console, and your ad platforms in one place. Instead of clicking through reports and applying filters, you can just ask a question like, "Show me my 'striking distance' keywords with over 500 impressions and an average position greater than 10," and get an instant report - all without learning a complex BI tool.