What are the differences between Google Search Console and Google Analytics?

Digital Marketing Questions & AnswersCategory: SEOWhat are the differences between Google Search Console and Google Analytics?
Community Manager Staff asked 2 years ago
Google Search Console and Google Analytics are very different tools: Search Console is a tool created by Google for website owners, search engine optimization specialists and other more technically minded people to see in depth information provided to users by Google directly. Google Analytics is an analytics based tool that once set up on your website will track all user behaviour, referring traffic sources (including Search Engines) and many other specialized information about customer journey, goals, events and even monetization. Another way to think of the difference between Google Search Console and Google Analytics is... Google Search Console data is the best information provided about Google Search rankings (google.com). This is what Google thinks about your website. Ranking, CTR (Click Through Rate), indexed pages, queries and visits by country and much more.  Google Analytics is the best information for traffic on your website, and specifically (in this case) traffic referred by Google Search.
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Best Answer
Community Manager Staff answered 2 years ago
This is a question we hear often about these two platforms. Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results. You don't have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but Search Console helps you understand and improve how Google sees your site. Search Console offers tools and reports for the following actions:
  • Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.
  • Fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content.
  • View Google Search traffic data for your site: how often your site appears in Google Search, which search queries show your site, how often searchers click through for those queries, and more.
  • Receive alerts when Google encounters indexing, spam, or other issues on your site.
  • Show you which sites link to your website.
  • Troubleshoot issues for AMP, mobile usability, and other Search features.
Google Analytics is a platform that collects data from your websites and apps to create reports that provide insights into your business.

Measuring a website

To measure a website, you first have to create a Google Analytics account. Then you need to add a small piece of Javascript measurement code to each page on your site. Every time a user visits a webpage, the tracking code will collect anonymous information about how that user interacted with the page.For the Google Store, the measurement code could show how many users visited a page that sells drinkware versus a page that sells houseware. Or it could tell us how many users bought an item like an Android doll by tracking whether they made it to the purchase-confirmation page.