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A lot of people cannot tell the difference between Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Knowing the difference is crucial to analyze your website performance because they serve two completely different functions.
Be sure to check out our Google Analytics Data Discrepancies vs Google Search Console and how Google Search Engine works articles.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, is a free Google service that helps you measure your site’s Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results.
You can use Search Console to do the following.
- See which queries bring users to your site. Analyze your site’s impressions, clicks, and position on Google Search.
- Submit sitemaps and individual URLs for crawling. Review your index coverage to make sure that Google has the freshest view of your site.
- Receive email alerts when Google identifies issues on your site. See which URLs are affected by these issues and tell Google when you’ve fixed them.
- The URL Inspection tool provides detailed crawl, index, and serving information about your pages, directly from the Google index.
You can learn how to optimize your search appearance on Google and increase organic traffic to your website on Google Webmasters Youtube channel.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand.
It helps you get a deeper understanding of your customers so you can deliver better experiences and drive results by do the following.
- Understand how your site users are engaging with your content, so you know what’s working by viewing robust reports and dashboards
- Discover new insights such as which users are likely to convert or which customers have high revenue potential
- Analyze data quickly and encourage collaboration with an easy-to-use interface and shareable reports
- Turn data into insights — from detailed reporting tools to intelligent data analysis and more
- Connect Analytics with other Google’s services like Display & Video 360, Google Ads, AdSense, AdMob, and Ad Manager
You can learn more on Google Analytics Youtube channel, where you’ll find videos and product tips for Analytics, Data Studio, Optimize, Surveys, and Tag Manager.
Difference between Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Google Analytics provides data related to your website users whereas Google Search Console provides tools and insights to help you as a website owner improve visibility and presence on Google Search.
Google Analytics interprets and processes website usage data, identifies trends and opportunities you to boost your site traffic and online presence. Despite the correlation between website users and Google Search results, Google Analytics does not make strong connections on which you can base your SEO strategies.
Google Search Console suggests issues and opportunities for improvement. Due to the correlation between ranking and optimization, it matters most to those who focus on SEO.
Which one shall I use?
So, shall I use Analytics or Search Console or both? A good question!
In essence, Google Analytics focuses on clicks (user-oriented) whereas Google Search Console focuses on impressions (SEO-oriented).
Despite some areas of overlap, Search Console and Analytics serve different purposes so don’t expect to get the same results. It is up to you to decide what metrics are important to your website. If resources permit, it is a good idea to use both Search Console and Analytics.
Regardless, make sure your website is SEO friendly.
