If someone asked you right now how many people visited your website last month, where they came from, or what they searched to find you, could you answer? If not, you’re flying blind. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are the two free tools that change that, and they should be connected to every website from day one.
Here’s what they each do and why they matter.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics tells you what’s happening on your website once people arrive. How many visitors you’re getting, how long they’re staying, which pages they’re reading, which pages they’re bouncing straight off, where your traffic is coming from (Google, social media, direct, referrals), and whether people are actually doing the things you want them to, like filling in your contact form or making a purchase.
It’s the tool that tells you whether your website is actually doing its job. Getting plenty of traffic but no enquiries? Analytics can help you figure out where people are dropping off. Got a blog post bringing in a flood of visitors? You’ll see it. A page with an unusually high bounce rate? That’s a signal something isn’t working and it’s worth having a look.
Without it you’re guessing. With it, you’ve got actual data to make decisions with. And decisions made with real data are almost always better than decisions made with gut feel alone.
Google Search Console
Where Analytics tells you what happens on your site, Search Console tells you what happens before people get there. It shows you what search terms people are typing into Google that lead them to your site, where your pages are ranking in search results, how often your site is showing up, and whether Google is finding any technical issues that might be quietly affecting your rankings.
It’s also where Google talks to you directly. If your site gets penalised, if pages aren’t being indexed, or if there are crawl errors, Search Console is where you’ll find out. Think of it as your direct line to Google. Most people never check it and have no idea what’s going on under the hood.
Why you need both
They do different things and they work better together. Search Console shows you how people find you. Analytics shows you what they do when they get there. Together you get the full picture.
If a page is getting lots of impressions in Search Console but hardly any clicks, your title or description might need work. If Analytics shows people are landing on a service page and leaving straight away, the content might not be matching what they were searching for. That kind of insight is genuinely useful when you’re trying to improve your site without just throwing things at the wall.
How to get them set up
Both tools are free. You’ll need a Google account to use them.
For Google Analytics, create an account at analytics.google.com, set up a property for your website, and add the tracking code to your site. This can be added directly to your site’s header, or if you’re already using a plugin like SEOPress or Perfmatters, you can drop the code in there without needing anything extra. The current version is GA4, which is what you want to be using.
For Google Search Console, head to search.google.com/search-console, add your website, and verify that you own it. The most reliable way to verify is by adding a TXT record in your DNS settings, wherever your nameservers are managed. For most people that’s their domain registrar, but if your site is on Cloudflare, it’s there instead. It sounds technical but it’s usually just copying and pasting a code into one field.
Once both are set up and have had a few weeks to collect data, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how your website is performing and where it’s worth focusing your energy.
If you’re on a care plan with us, both tools will already be connected. We set them up as standard when your site goes live. If you’ve got an existing site that’s been running without them, it’s worth sorting sooner rather than later as the data only starts from the day you connect it.
Want us to get this sorted for you?
If you’d like both tools connected and configured correctly, we can take care of it.
Let’s get you sorted