How to Link Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools

Connecting Google Analytics and Google Search Console is one of the most effective ways to upgrade your website's analytics without any complex setup. This free integration pulls valuable keyword and ranking data directly into your Analytics reports, giving you a much clearer picture of your SEO performance. This article walks you through why this connection is so important and provides a step-by-step guide to get it done.

What Are Google Analytics and Google Search Console?

While both are free tools from Google that help you understand your website's performance, they answer different questions. Think of them as two sides of the same coin: how people find you, and what they do once they're on your site.

Google Analytics is all about user behavior. It tells you what people do after they arrive on your website. You can use it to answer questions like:

• How many people are visiting my site?
• Which pages are the most popular?
• How long do visitors stay on my site, and what actions do they take?
• Where are my visitors coming from (e.g., social media, direct links, search engines)?
• Which marketing channels are driving the most conversions or sales?

In short, Google Analytics focuses on the on-site user journey, engagement, and conversion metrics.

Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) is all about your site's performance in Google search results. It focuses on what happens before someone clicks through to your site. You can use it to answer questions like:

• Which search queries are people using to find my site?
• How often does my site appear in search results (impressions)?
• What is my click-through rate (CTR) for specific keywords?
• What is my average search ranking for certain terms?
• Are there any technical issues (like crawl errors or mobile usability problems) hurting my SEO?

Essentially, Search Console is your direct line of communication with Google, helping you monitor search performance and technical health.

Why You Should Link Google Analytics and Google Search Console

When you use these tools separately, you only get pieces of the story. Google Analytics might tell you that you had 1,000 visitors from organic search, but it won’t tell you which specific search terms they used to find you. Search Console will show you the keywords, but it won’t tell you what those visitors did once they landed on your site.

Linking them together bridges this gap. It pipes your Search Console data directly into your Google Analytics reports, marrying pre-click SEO data with post-click user behavior data. Here are the main benefits:

1. Unlock Deeper SEO Reports in Analytics

Once linked, a new set of "Search Console" reports becomes available within your Google Analytics property. These reports allow you to see your top-performing organic keywords and landing pages right alongside GA4 metrics like user engagement, conversions, and revenue. You can stop switching between tabs to cross-reference data and get a complete view in one place.

2. See Which Keywords Drive Valuable Actions

This is arguably the biggest win. Instead of just seeing that the term "DIY home decor ideas" brought you 500 clicks, you can also see how those 500 users behaved. Did they sign up for your newsletter? Did they make a purchase? By combining keyword data with conversion data, you can finally identify the search terms that drive real business results, not just traffic.

3. Analyze Landing Page Performance from a Search Perspective

The "Google Organic Search Traffic" report shows you which of your pages receive the most Impressions and Clicks from Google Search. Combining this with GA4 bounce rates or engagement rates helps you understand the entire user journey. For example, you might discover a page that gets a lot of search impressions but has a low click-through rate, suggesting you need to improve your title tag or meta description. Or you might find a page that gets a lot of clicks but has high bounce rates, indicating the content isn't meeting searcher intent.

4. Simplify Your Reporting Process

Instead of manually exporting data from two different platforms into a spreadsheet to create a performance report, you can build dashboards directly within Google Analytics. This allows you to visualize clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position alongside user behavior and conversion data, all in one streamlined workflow.

Before You Begin: A Quick Checklist

The linking process is straightforward, but you need a few things in place first to ensure it goes smoothly. Before starting, make sure you can say "yes" to these three conditions:

• You are using the same Google account to access both your Google Analytics property and your Google Search Console property.
• For Google Analytics, you must have "Editor" permissions for the GA4 property you want to link.
• For Google Search Console, you must be a verified "Owner" of the property. "Full" or "Restricted" user permissions are not sufficient to create the link.

How to Link Google Analytics and Google Search Console: A Step-by-Step Guide

As long as you've met the prerequisites above, connecting the two accounts takes only a couple of minutes. Here’s exactly how to do it.

Step 1: Go to the Admin Section in Google Analytics

Log into your Google Analytics account. In the bottom-left corner of the screen, click on the gear icon labeled "Admin."

Step 2: Find the “Search Console Links” Setting

You will now see three columns: Account, Property, and Data Streams/Reporting View. Look at the middle "Property" column. Scroll down until you find the "Product Links" section. Click on "Search Console Links."

Step 3: Start the Linking Process

On the next screen, you’ll see any existing links. If you see nothing, it means you're ready to create one. In the top-right corner, click the blue "Link" button.

Step 4: Choose a Search Console Property

A new panel will slide out from the right. Click the "Choose accounts" button. A list of all the Google Search Console properties you own with that Google account will appear.

Select the radio button next to the Search Console property that matches the website you’re tracking in GA4. Click "Confirm."

Step 5: Select Your Web Data Stream

After confirming the GSC property, you'll be taken to the next step. Here, click "Select" to choose the appropriate web data stream from your Google Analytics property. This is what tells Analytics where to send the Search Console data. Most sites will only have one option here. Once selected, click "Next."

Step 6: Review and Submit

The final screen gives you a chance to review your settings. You'll see the Search Console property and the GA4 web stream you've selected. If everything looks correct, click the "Submit" button.

You should see a green "Link created" success message appear in the corner of your screen. That’s it! You've successfully linked the two platforms.

Finding Your Search Console Data in Google Analytics

It can take up to 48 hours for data to start flowing from Search Console into your Analytics reports, so don’t worry if you don’t see it immediately. Once the data starts populating, it’s not always obvious where to find it.

The best way to see the new reports is to add the "Search Console" collection to your default reporting menu. It's a one-time setup that makes the data easily accessible forever.

1. In the left-hand navigation, click on Reports.
2. At the very bottom of the report menu, click on Library. This is where unpublished reports are stored.
3. You will see a section called "Collections." Look for the card named Search Console.
4. Click the three vertical dots on the Search Console card and select Publish from the dropdown menu.

Immediately after you click "Publish," a new "Search Console" section will appear in your main reporting navigation menu on the left.

Now, when you click on the "Search Console" dropdown, you’ll see two new reports:

• Queries: This report shows you all the organic search queries that are bringing users to your website, along with their associated clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position.
• Google Organic Search Traffic: This shows your top-performing landing pages from an SEO perspective. You can analyze which pages get the most search impressions and clicks.

These published reports give you a native, integrated view for monitoring your SEO performance. You can now analyze which keywords drive engaged traffic or which landing pages from search lead to the most conversions, all without ever leaving Google Analytics.

Final Thoughts

Linking Google Analytics and Google Search Console is a foundational step for anyone serious about SEO. It transforms two good, standalone tools into an incredibly powerful reporting suite that provides a 360-degree view of your organic search performance and on-site user behavior. The setup takes less than five minutes and pays dividends by unlocking clearer, more actionable insights.

While this integration is a great start, the reality is that your marketing and sales data still likely lives across a dozen different platforms — Google Analytics, GSC, Google Ads, your CRM, your e-commerce platform, and more. To connect all the dots, we built Graphed. Our platform connects all your data sources in just a few clicks, so you can stop jumping between browser tabs and start getting answers. Instead of getting lost in GA4's complex interface, you can simply ask questions in plain English — like "Show me our top 10 landing pages from Google search that converted last month" — and instantly get a real-time dashboard with the answer.