What are Google Analytics Keywords?
It’s one of the most frustrating moments for anyone digging into their website data: you open up Google Analytics to see which keywords are driving traffic, only to be met with a long list of "(not provided)." This single line item often accounts for over 99% of your organic search traffic, leaving you in the dark about how visitors are actually finding you. This article explains why keywords are hidden in Google Analytics, where to find them, and how you can use that data to improve your marketing.
So, What Happened to Your Keywords?
Back in 2011, Google began its initiative to make search more secure by switching a majority of its services to use encrypted SSL search (switching from HTTP to HTTPS for search on google.com). This was a move to protect user privacy. When a user who is logged into their Google account performs a search, the search query (the keyword) they used is encrypted.
As a result, that keyword data is no longer passed along in the referrer information to websites, which is what Google Analytics and other tools traditionally used to see. Instead of a keyword like "best running shoes for beginners," analytics tools see the now-infamous "(not provided)."
Over time, Google rolled this out to all searches, whether a user was logged in or not. So, this isn't a bug or an error on your part, it's an intentional privacy feature. While this change was great for user privacy, it left marketers scrambling to understand what was driving their organic traffic. The good news is, the information isn't gone forever - it just lives in a different place.
Meet Your New Best Friend: Google Search Console
If Google Analytics is the tool that tells you what people do on your site, Google Search Console (GSC) is the tool that tells you how they found your site in Google’s search results. It's the most direct and reliable source of "pre-click" search data, including the keywords that Google Analytics now hides.
GSC is a free service from Google that gives you a wealth of information about your site's health and performance in Google Search. Most importantly for our purposes, it contains a detailed Performance report that shows you exactly which queries people are using to find your content.
This report includes four key metrics:
Clicks: The number of times someone clicked on your search result.
Impressions: The number of times your page appeared in a user's search results.
Average CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (Clicks / Impressions).
Average Position: The average ranking of your page for a specific query.
Essentially, GSC gives you the original keyword data that was lost, plus valuable context about its performance directly in the search results pages (SERPs).
How to Connect Google Search Console to Google Analytics 4
While looking at your GSC data in isolation is useful, the real power comes from combining it with your GA4 data. Linking the two tools allows you to analyze on-site user behavior (like engagement and conversions) alongside your search performance data. This helps you understand not just how people find you, but what happens after they arrive.
Here’s how to connect them:
Make Sure You've Verified Your Site in GSC: Before you can link tools, Google needs to know you own the website. You have to add and verify your site property in Google Search Console first.
Head to the GA4 Admin Panel: Open your Google Analytics 4 property and click on "Admin" in the bottom-left corner.
Navigate to Product Links: In the "Property" column, scroll down to the "Product Links" section and click on "Search Console Links."
Create the Link: Click the blue "Link" button. You’ll be prompted to "Choose a Search Console property." Click the "Choose accounts" button and select the GSC property you manage that you want to link. Click "Confirm."
Select Your Web Stream: You'll then need to select the GA4 web data stream for your site. Choose your website from the list and click "Next."
Submit and You're Done: Review the configuration details and click "Submit." That's it! It may take up to 24-48 hours for data to start flowing from GSC into your GA4 reports.
Once linked, GA4 will automatically create two new reports for you, giving you direct access to your keyword data within the Analytics interface.
Finding Your Keyword Reports in GA4
After linking the services, you can find the new Search Console reports in two ways. The quickest is to navigate directly to them, but you might want to add them to your main reporting navigation for easy access later.
Step 1: Locate the New Reports
Go to your GA4 reports by clicking Reports in the left-hand navigation. From here, navigate to Acquisition > Acquisition overview.
On this overview dashboard, you should see two new cards that weren't there before:
Google Organic Search Traffic
Queries
Clicking "View Google organic search queries" on the second card will take you straight to your holy grail: the keyword report.
Step 2: Add the Reports to Your Primary Menu (Recommended)
For convenience, you'll want these reports to be easily accessible. By default, they live unpublished in the 'Library'. Here’s how to add them to your main report menu:
In the Reports tab, click on Library at the very bottom of the menu.
You will see a "Collections" section with a box labeled "Search Console."
Click the three vertical dots (⋮) on the Search Console collection and select Publish.
Now, a new "Search Console" section will appear in your left-hand navigation, containing your "Queries" and "Google Organic Search Traffic" reports.
The "Queries" report is what you’re looking for. It shows Search Console performance data (clicks, impressions, CTR, position) for each keyword that brought users to your site. You can analyze this alongside GA4 metrics like Users, Engaged sessions, and Conversion events to get a full picture of performance.
3 Actionable Ways to Use Your Keyword Data
Okay, so you've found your keywords. Now what? Simply looking at the data isn't enough, you need to turn it into action. Here are three practical strategies to leverage your newfound GSC data within GA4.
1. Identify "Opportunity" Keywords (High-Impression, Low-CTR)
Sort your Queries report by Impressions in descending order. Now, look for keywords that have a large number of impressions but a low click-through rate (CTR). This indicates that people are seeing your page in the search results for that query, but something is stopping them from clicking.
The Opportunity: You’re already visible to a large audience. A small improvement in your CTR could lead to a significant increase in traffic without needing to improve your ranking.
How to Act: Optimize the page title and meta description for that page. Make them more relevant, compelling, and engaging. Try phrasing the title as a question or including a compelling Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in the description. For example, instead of a title like "Our Company's Services," try "Expert Data Analysis Services That Drive Growth."
2. Find "Striking Distance" Keywords (High Potential for Ranking Boosts)
Filter your Queries report to show keywords where your Average position is between 8 and 20. These are your "striking distance" keywords - pages that are hovering on the brink of the first page of Google, where most of the clicks happen.
The Opportunity: With a little extra effort, you can push these pages onto the first page and capture a much larger share of the traffic for that query. It’s often much easier to move from position 12 to position 7 than it is to move from position 50 to position 12.
How to Act:
Improve the content: Can you add more depth, examples, or data to the page? Are there any sections you can update with newer information?
Optimize on-page SEO: Ensure the target keyword is in your title, headings (H1, H2s), and introduction.
Add internal links: Find other relevant pages on your site and add links from them to your striking distance page using relevant anchor text. This passes authority and signals to Google that the page is important.
3. Align Keywords with Landing Page Performance
The standard GSC Queries report tells you which keywords attract users, but pairing it with landing page data tells you if the right content is meeting user expectations.
The Opportunity: Sometimes, Google might rank an unexpected or suboptimal page for a valuable keyword. Spotting this mismatch allows you to correct it and serve users with the best possible content, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
How to Act: In the GA4 Queries report, click the small blue '+' sign next to the 'Google Organic Search Query' table header and add 'Landing page + query string' as a secondary dimension. Now you can see exactly which URL is ranking for each keyword. For example, you might see the keyword “advanced pivot table techniques” is leading to your general blog homepage instead of your dedicated guide on pivot tables. Your action is clear: improve the on-page SEO of your dedicated guide so Google understands it's the most relevant result for that query.
Final Thoughts
While recovering your lost keyword data from Google Analytics requires a couple of extra steps, the process is well worth it. By linking Google Search Console with GA4, you not only reclaim the keywords hidden behind "(not provided)" but you also gain richer performance metrics like impressions, CTR, and search position that lead to smarter SEO and content strategy decisions.
With tools like Graphed , we help you simplify this process even further. Instead of manually digging through reports and cross-referencing data between platforms, you can connect your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts and simply ask for the insights you need. Imagine asking, "Show me my top 10 keywords by impressions with a CTR under 2%" or "What questions are people asking to find my site?" and getting an instant, visual answer. It turns hours of analysis into a 30-second conversation, letting you focus on taking action instead of just gathering data.