Google Search Console vs Google Analytics
Both tools are free from Google, and both report on your website. Search Console covers what happens in Google Search, before the click. Google Analytics 4 covers what happens on your site, after the click, for visitors from every source.
| Compared on | Google Search Console | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | How your pages appear in Google Search and how often people click them | Visits to your site from every source, and what visitors do there |
| Where the data comes from | Google Search itself. Nothing to install on your site. | The Google tag on your site. Visitors who block it or decline cookies can be missing. |
| Main metrics | Clicks, impressions, CTR and average position | Users, sessions, engagement rate, key events and revenue |
| Search queries | Yes, the queries that showed your pages | No, except through the Search Console link in GA4 |
| Other traffic sources | No, Google Search only | Yes: other search engines, social, email, referrals, ads and direct visits |
| Index status | Yes, through URL Inspection and sitemaps | No |
| Time zone | Pacific Time | The property's time zone |
| QuerySail tools | list_properties, get_performance, compare_performance, inspect_urls, list_sitemaps | list_properties, list_fields, run_report, compare_report, run_realtime_report |
Use Search Console to find out which queries a page ranks for, why its clicks changed, or whether Google has indexed it. Use Google Analytics to find out how many visitors a page gets from all sources and whether they sign up or buy.
Why use both
Search Console has clicks, impressions, average position and the queries for each page, but it stops at the click. Google Analytics 4 has sessions, engagement and key events, such as sign-ups or purchases, but it does not show which Google searches brought the visitor.
Put them side by side and you can answer questions that neither tool answers alone:
- Which pages get a lot of search traffic but few key events?
- Which pages convert well but rank too low to get many clicks?
- Which queries bring visitors who leave without engaging?
What you need
- A Search Console property and a GA4 property for the same site, both readable by a Google account you can sign in with.
- An AI app that supports more than one MCP server, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor.
- Both QuerySail servers: the Google Search Console MCP server and the Google Analytics MCP server. One plan covers both.
Connect both servers
- Create a QuerySail account. The trial needs no card.
- Open Account → Connections. Select Connect Search Console, then Connect Google Analytics, and approve read-only access on Google's consent screen each time.
- Add both endpoints below to your AI app as two separate connectors, and sign in with your QuerySail account when each one asks.
https://mcp.querysail.com/gsc/mcphttps://mcp.querysail.com/ga4/mcpThe steps for each AI app are in how to connect Search Console to ChatGPT and Claude and how to connect GA4 to ChatGPT and Claude. Do them once for each endpoint.
Six steps
The prompts use the sample site Sample Outdoors. Replace the property names, dates and URLs with your own.
1. Check that both servers answer
Which Search Console properties and which Google Analytics properties can you access?
Tool: list_properties (both servers)
Each server has its own list_properties tool. Note the two IDs for the same site, for example sc-domain:sample-outdoors.example in Search Console and properties/100000001 (Sample Outdoors (web)) in Google Analytics.
2. Get search clicks by page from Search Console
For sc-domain:sample-outdoors.example, show clicks, impressions, CTR and average position by page for October 1 to October 28, 2026. Show the top 50 pages by clicks.
Tool: get_performance
Give fixed dates so both reports cover the same days. Search Console returns full URLs, such as https://sample-outdoors.example/blog/best-hiking-boots.
3. Get visits and key events by landing page from GA4
For Sample Outdoors (web), show sessions, engagement rate and key events by landing page for the same dates. Only include sessions where source / medium is google / organic. Show the top 50 landing pages by sessions.
Tool: run_report
The filter on sessionSourceMedium keeps only visits from Google's unpaid results, which is the traffic Search Console counts. The Organic Search channel also includes Bing and other search engines. GA4 returns paths without the domain, such as /blog/best-hiking-boots.
4. Join the two reports by page
Match the two lists by page path, ignoring the domain and any trailing slash. Make one table with clicks, average position, sessions, engagement rate and key events for each page. List the pages that appear in only one report separately.
No tool call. Your assistant works with the rows it already has.
Your assistant joins the rows it already has. A page missing from one report is not proof of zero. Search Console returns only top rows, and GA4 may withhold small values.
5. Find the two kinds of opportunity
From the joined table, list pages with many clicks but few key events per session. Then list pages with a high key event rate that rank at average position 8 or worse.
No tool call. Your assistant works with the rows it already has.
The first list is pages that already get search traffic but do not lead to a key event, so the work is on the page itself. The second list is pages that convert well but get little search traffic, so the work is on rankings.
6. Look at the searches behind one page
For https://sample-outdoors.example/blog/best-hiking-boots, show clicks and average position by query for the same dates.
Tool: get_performance
Filter Search Console to one page and group by query. If the top queries ask something the page does not answer, visitors leave, and a better match between query and page can help more than a new call to action.
Example result
Made-up example. We invented these numbers to show the shape of a result. They do not come from a real site or a QuerySail customer. For October 1 to 28, 2026, Search Console dates in Pacific Time and GA4 dates in the property's time zone:
| Page | Clicks | Avg. position | Sessions (google / organic) | Engagement rate | Key events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /blog/best-hiking-boots | 1,840 | 3.2 | 1,610 | 0.41 | 6 |
| /blog/winter-camping-checklist | 960 | 5.8 | 870 | 0.66 | 31 |
| /products/tents | 210 | 11.4 | 190 | 0.72 | 24 |
Read it like this. /blog/best-hiking-boots gets the most clicks but 6 key events from 1,610 sessions, and only 41% of those sessions are engaged. That page needs work on what visitors find after the click. /products/tents converts about one session in eight but sits at position 11.4, below the first page of results, so better rankings there would bring the most new key events.
The data shows what happened, not why. Treat your assistant's explanations as ideas to test.
Why the numbers do not match
Search Console clicks and GA4 sessions for the same page are almost never equal. Compare pages with each other, not the two totals.
- Different counts. Search Console counts clicks on Google results. GA4 counts sessions, and only from browsers that ran the Google tag. Visitors who decline cookies or block scripts are not in GA4.
- Time zones. Search Console dates are in Pacific Time. GA4 dates are in the property's time zone. Each QuerySail answer names the time zone it used.
- URL format. Search Console reports full URLs. GA4 reports paths. Ask your assistant to match on the path and to ignore trailing slashes.
- Missing rows. Search Console returns only top rows for page and query breakdowns, and GA4 withholds small values when it applies thresholds. A page missing from one side does not mean zero.
- Fresh data. The last two or three days are still being processed in both products. QuerySail uses finalized Search Console data by default, and GA4 can take 24 to 48 hours to settle.
Other ways to combine the data
Search Console reports inside GA4
In GA4 Admin you can link a Search Console property to a web data stream. GA4 then shows Search Console reports for queries and landing pages. They are useful for a quick look, but you build each comparison in the GA4 interface, and you cannot ask follow-up questions in plain language.
Export both and join them in a spreadsheet
Export pages from Search Console and landing pages from GA4, then match the URLs with a lookup formula. It is free, but every new date range or filter means two new exports and another round of matching.
Looker Studio
Looker Studio has connectors for both products and can blend them in one chart. It suits a dashboard you check every week. For one-off questions, asking your assistant is faster.