# Search Console and Google Analytics > How to connect Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4, and how to use the tabs, the full GA4 reports, Google updates, filters, comparisons, countries and exports. ## Why connect Google Rank checks tell you where you rank. **Google Search Console** tells you what that brings: real clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position for every query and page, straight from Google. **Google Analytics 4** tells you what visitors do after they arrive: sessions, users, engagement and key events. Both are **free** in Rankfinity. The data comes from Google; no credits are used. ## Connecting Click **Connect Search Console** or **Connect Google Analytics** — in the menu under **GA4 & Search Console**, on a dashboard tile, or on an empty tab of the section. The same buttons are in **Settings › Project › Advanced settings › Integrations**. 1. If your Google account is not connected yet, Google sign-in opens. Sign in with the account that has access to the site's Search Console property and Analytics property, and allow read-only access. You come back to the same project. 2. A window lists the **Search Console sites** (or **Analytics properties**) of that Google account. Pick one with the radio button; with more than eight there is a search box. The one already used by this project is marked **This project**. 3. Click **Connect and sync**. The first import starts straight away. If the list is empty, the window says so and links to Search Console or Google Analytics, where the site owner can add you. Clients see a sentence that the agency manages the connection. Rankfinity asks Google only for read access. It cannot change anything in your Search Console or Analytics. ### Changing or removing a property A connected service shows **· connected** in the menu. Clicking it opens the same window with **Connected to this project**, the property and when it was last synced. There you can: - pick another property and click **Save and sync**; - **Sync now** — import the latest data; - **Disconnect from this project** — removes the property from this project only. Your Google account stays connected and other projects are not affected. Search Console data already imported for the project is removed (connect a site again to re-import it); Analytics data stays until a new property replaces it. ### How much history The first Search Console import brings up to 16 months of history, in parts; a progress panel shows "Importing Search Console · N/M sites · %". After that, Rankfinity syncs every night and when you click **Refresh**. Google publishes Search Console data with a 2–3 day delay, so the latest days appear later. Google Analytics history is imported the same way: up to 16 months back, in parts of about a month. While it runs, every GA4 tab shows "Importing your Google Analytics history · N of M parts · back to ". If Google's daily request limit for the property is used up, the import pauses and continues the next day by itself; it also continues at night or when you press **Refresh**. When the period you chose starts before the imported data, the tab says "Data from — earlier days of this period have no imported data yet" instead of drawing zeros. ### Who sees the data The project's data is synced with the project owner's Google connection. Team members and clients see the same numbers without connecting their own Google account. Choosing a property, however, needs your own connection, because the list of properties belongs to the signed-in person. If a Google connection expires, the numbers already imported stay, with the note "Google is not connected any more — these are the last synced numbers." ## The section Open **GA4 & Search Console** in the left menu. A switch above the tabs chooses **Search Console | GA4**; every tab works for both. Without a connection, the menu items are grey and clicking them opens the connect window. ### Tabs | Tab | What it shows | |---|---| | All sites | Every connected site in your workspace with clicks, impressions, CTR, position and changes | | Dashboard | The project's key numbers in tiles | | Website overview | KPI cards with sparklines and charts of clicks, impressions, CTR and position over time | | Keywords | Every query with clicks, impressions, CTR, position, first seen and change | | Pages | Every page with the same metrics | | Devices | Desktop, mobile and tablet, by day | | Countries | Every country with flag, clicks, impressions, CTR and position | | Traffic | Traffic by day, week or month, with the top 3 countries | | Google updates | Your daily clicks with every Google ranking update marked, and whether each one possibly hit or helped you | In GA4 mode the Keywords tab explains that Google Analytics does not provide search queries and links to Search Console, and the full GA4 reports below appear as extra tabs. ## Full Google Analytics reports In **GA4** mode, after Traffic come seven report tabs and Realtime. Each tab has report chips at the top; each report has key numbers with changes, a chart by day, and a table with search, sorting, pages and **Export** (CSV). | Tab | Reports | |---|---| | Acquisition | Session source / medium, Session default channel group, Session campaign, First user source / medium, Landing page | | Engagement | Pages and screens | | Events | Events | | E-commerce | Items, Item brands, Transactions — with the purchase journey (counts of events from session start to purchase) | | Tech | Device category, Browser, Operating system, Screen resolution, Platform | | Demographics | Country, Region, City, Language, Age, Gender | | Retention | New vs returning, Active users (DAU / WAU / MAU) | | Realtime | Active users in the last 30 minutes, by country and by page | - Everything except Realtime is read from the data already imported — opening a report makes no request to Google and costs nothing. - **Realtime** is read live from Google Analytics only when you press **Load realtime**. It is not stored and uses no credits. - **Revenue** is your own Google Analytics revenue, shown in the property's currency (for example "EUR 1,234.50"). - A property without e-commerce events says so instead of showing a table of zeros. - Google hides rows in small groups (for example age, gender or rare cities) to protect users. When that happens the report says that Google Analytics **withheld** some rows or the whole report. ## Google updates The **Google updates** tab (both in Search Console and in GA4 mode) puts your traffic next to Google's ranking updates — similar to the update-overlay tools SEOs use. - The chart shows daily **Clicks** or **Impressions** (in GA4 mode, **Sessions**) for 3, 6, 12 or 16 months. Every update is a vertical line; a shaded band shows its rollout from start to end. - Chips filter by type — Core, Spam, Helpful content, Reviews, Link, Local, Product, Other — with **Switch all off / on**. Point at or tap a marker to see the update, its dates and the result. - The table lists every update in the period with its type, dates, the change and the result: | Result | Meaning | |---|---| | Possible impact | Your traffic fell by the drop threshold or more after the update | | Possible gain | Your traffic rose by the gain threshold or more | | No clear change | It moved less than that | | Not measured | Not enough synced data around the update, traffic too low to compare, or no data yet after it — said in words | **What is compared:** traffic in the two weeks before an update started and in the two weeks after it. It is a hint, not proof: holidays, seasons, site changes and overlapping updates move traffic too, so overlapping updates are listed next to each result. The list of updates is the same for everyone. It covers Google's announced ranking updates from September 2023 onwards and grows by itself: new updates and their end dates are read from Google's Search Status Dashboard several times a day. The tab is free. The same markers appear on the ranking history chart in [Rank tracking](/docs/rank-tracking). ## Period and comparison Click the date button to open the calendar: quick periods (Last 3 days, Last 7 days, Last 28 days, Last 3 months, Last 6 months, Last 12 months, Last 16 months) or any range on two months, then **Apply**. **Compare** compares with the previous period of the same length. When there is not enough history for the previous period, the change shows "—" rather than an inflated +100%. Charts can show Clicks | Impressions and CTR | Position, either **Separate** or **All in one**. Point at a chart (or touch and slide on a phone): a vertical line follows the nearest day, every line gets a dot, and one tooltip shows the full date and the value of every line. A day without data says "not measured", not 0. On the Google updates tab the period has its own choice (3 to 16 months) and Compare is hidden, because a short period cannot fit the days before and after an update. ## Filters Filters apply to charts and tables together: - Search in queries or pages (contains text). - Device and country. - Ranges: clicks, impressions, CTR, position (from–to). Ready presets: - **Striking distance** — queries at positions 4–20 with real impressions. Usually the quickest wins. - **Low CTR** — queries whose CTR is well below your site's typical CTR at that position. Improve titles and descriptions. - **New** — queries that appeared in this period. - **Lost** — queries you had before and lost. **Reset view** clears filters. Filters, period and tab are stored in the address, so you can bookmark or share a view with your team. > **Note:** Google hides very rare queries for privacy. When you filter by device, country or query, totals are smaller than the site total. Without filters, the totals are Google's full site numbers. ## Rows and actions Click a row to expand it: a daily trend for the query or page with metric chips, gaps on days without data, and the top pages (for a query) or top queries (for a page). Each row has a link to the page and a link to the Google results. - **Track in Rank Tracking** — add selected queries to [Rank tracking](/docs/rank-tracking) for free (no scan starts). - **Cannibalisation** — queries where several of your pages compete; consider merging or redirecting. - **Export** — CSV of the current table with filters applied. ## Elsewhere in Rankfinity - The [dashboard](/docs/dashboard) shows Search Console and GA4 tiles and **Top countries**. - [Rank tracking](/docs/rank-tracking) shows Clicks and Impressions (28d) columns and a Search Console tab in keyword details, including By country. - Reports can include Search Console, GA4 channels and landing pages ([Client reports and sharing](/docs/reports)). - The [AI assistant](/docs/ai-assistant) can read and explain this data. ## Common questions **Why don't my numbers match Search Console exactly?** Check the period: Search Console ends at the last available date; Rankfinity shows the last synced date. Filtered views exclude anonymised queries in both tools. **Why is the latest data from three days ago?** Google publishes Search Console data with a 2–3 day delay. **Is a refresh limited?** Yes, there is a daily limit per project to respect Google's quotas. The night sync always runs. **Can I connect several Google accounts?** Each person connects one Google account. The project uses the owner's connection. **Why does GA4 show "Users" higher than expected?** Users are summed per day; a person visiting on two days counts twice across the period.