Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Compare Trends: Google Search Console vs Google Analytics

By Japsimran Kaur
November 10, 2022

The digital space is a highly prosumer-based system. Content producers are content consumers and vice-versa. This makes it harder to differentiate between the two and Google recognized that early on. A user-friendly experience and quality content have always been priority points for Google. To which the stern guidelines and dynamic algorithms attest. Therefore, Google is one of the most preferred search engines.As per stats, Google holds approximately 91% of the share in the search engine market. To keep itself a dominant player, Google introduced a set of tools used by SEO service providers in India to refine their strategies and put their best foot forward. So, today we will talk about two such tools, Google search console and Google analytics.

Google Search Console

Google search console, commonly known as the webmaster tool, is a tool that is used to analyze the visibility of your site in the SERPs. It shows how the different web pages of your website are ranking in the organic search results for your targetted keywords. GSC basically monitors the position of your website and the action a searcher takes towards it. The important metrics that are offered by Google search console to analyze website health are

Total Clicks
Total CTR - Click-through rate
Average CTR
Average position
Mobile usability
Indexability and Crawlability
URL Inspection

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a tool that assists marketers in analyzing the website’s performance and user engagement. It is an exceptionally beneficial tool to understand the behaviour and pattern of the visitor and what they seek and prefer while navigating through your website. The important metrics that are offered by Google Analytics to gain the visitor’s insights are:

Session duration
Bounce rate
User demographics
Pages engaged per session
Total Engagement rate
New users
Conversion rate

How is Google Search Console different from Google Analytics?

Now that we understand what the two tools work on, it is time to clear out the confusion that surrounds the differentiation between the two. We have divided the same into precise yet concise pointers for better understanding. 1. Metrics The metric used by Google Analytics is how visitors interact with the website and the overall traffic rate. Therefore, it helps in creating strategies around increasing the traffic rate by understanding the preferences and behavioural patterns of the visitors. The metric used by Google Search Console is the visibility of the website in the SERPs. Therefore it helps in creating strategies around increasing the ranking of the website in the search results through various technical practices. 2. Scope application Google Analytics is applied by marketers in their analysis to get visitor insights which are further used to identify best-performing pages and visitor preferences. This gives more empirical backing while creating the marketing strategies. Google Search Console is applied by an SEO services company in India under their technical SEO analysis. They aim at enhancing the website structure and its indexability. 1. Relationship analysis Google Analytics analyzes the relationship between a visitor and the website. Google Search Console analyzes the relationship between the search engine and the website. 2. Digital experience Google Analytics ultimately assists in creating a user-friendly digital experience by understanding the target audience and identifying what does and does not work for them. Google Search Console assists in creating a Google-friendly digital experience by understanding the Google algorithms and updates in order to cater to the Google bot's requirements. 3. SEO Facet Google Analytics analyzes the progress of various on-page SEO practices such as:

Navigational comfort
On-page content
Internal linking
Creating high-quality and useful content

Google Search Console provides insights into more technical and off-page SEO practices such as

External linking
Website architecture
XML sitemap submissions
Keyword optimization to appear in pertinent search results
Prior notification in case of threats from spam, hackers, and malware.

Traffic analysis Google Analytics basically studies how the visitor engages once it reaches your website. It is a tool that provides insights on how to optimize your website appearance and navigational comfort so that the visitor spends more time on it and takes the desired actions. Google Search Console studies how a searcher reacts to your website amongst the organic search results in the SERPs and whether it is recognizable by Google or not.

Which one is the best tool for analysis?

Now that we are fully aware of the tools, the question that arises is, which one to go for? The answer is simple, Both. Both of the tools are important as they provide different insights through different perspectives. One from the perspective of a visitor and one from the perspective of Google.

Conclusion

All the tools provided by Google serve different purposes but ultimately align for a common goal; A strong online presence. Therefore, it is crucial to utilize all of them. But, it is not as simple as it seems. These tools generate copious amounts of data, so drawing out useful insights from them can be tedious. This is why businesses seek professional SEO service providers to do it for them. #ARM Worldwide is one of the best SEO services companies in India. Our team of professionals take an oath to support you at each step of your digital journey and get your brand the recognition it deserves.