The Battle | Google Analytics Vs Google Search Console in 2021

Are you interested in knowing if Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA) are in competition? If you do, then let me inform you that these two products are quite different in the solutions they provide to webmasters and content creators. GSC and GA products are key to an effective digital marketing and SEO strategy.
These two products are independent in their purpose but they do offer valuable insight when used together.

Google Analytics was built with user behavior tracking in mind while Google Search Console was built specifically to help site and app owners improve their SEO game.
If you read on, I’ll walk you through a step by step process on how to set them up.

If you’ve done any research on data and how big companies are leveraging data to reach the mass audience and earn explosive return on Investment (ROI), then you’ve probably heard about Google Analytics. Tracking data helps target your market promotion efforts to avoid wastage. If you are an Entrepreneur or a business owner, then you have to jump in and see how you will benefit.

In this post I will share with you tips on how to set-up Google Analytics and Google search console to leverage the power of data.

What is Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an online tool developed by Google, it gives insight to users to enable them track how well their content as well as user engagements are performing – and so much more!
Google Analytics can measure web metrics such as website visitors, location, time spent by a user, what pages they looked at, how long they spent on a page, security issues, when it was last crawled, what website bring you traffic, improving site speed.

How to setup Google Analytics

1. Enter Analytics.google.com in browser to see the message below/Login if not logged in and click on start measuring.

2. Now Enter name in Account setup screen (You can use website name)

3. On the Next screen, Enter property details and click on ‘show advanced options’ and toggle the Universal Analytics Property

4. On the next screen, Enter information about your business

5. Create, Read and Agree to Google’s Terms and Conditions

The above view is how the Analytics dashboard will look like when completed.

What is Google Search Console(GSC) ?

Google Search Console used to be known as “Google Webmaster Tools,” an online service available to website owners at no charge.
Google Search console shows metrics on how often your website is being crawled each day, if there are sitemaps, errors on your page, performance, keyword queries, and links to your site.

How to setup up GSC

1. Go to Google Search Console

2. Click ‘Add property’, top left under the search drop-down

Choose the URL prefix for multiple verification methods. You can add up to more properties to your Google Search Console account.
Make sure you enter your full URL. For example, http(s)://yourdomain.com/

3. Click the arrow next to ‘HTML tag’ to expand the option

There are several ways to verify your site, but we’ve made it easy for you. Scroll down to Other Verification methods, select dropdown menu and copy the meta tag displayed in box as shown below:

4. Log in to your WordPress website or Blog

For your custom designed Blog
Insert the meta tag into the head section of your HTML markup before the title tag.

For your WordPress Blog
Using Plugins- log in, to your Dashboard.
Install and Activate an SEO Plugin (SEO Plugins are many and process may differ), after activation, go to SEO Settings> Webmaster Tools and look for google search console and paste the verification meta tag code that was copied.

Manual, without plugin

Under Appearance, select Theme Editor to display the window, on the right hand side, select the file labelled ‘Functions.php’ add to the end of the file, the code below:

 
 function add_meta_tag_gsc() {
 
 echo " -INSERT COPIED META CODE HERE- " ;

}

 add_action('wp_head', 'add_meta_tag_gsc');

5. Save and Go to Google search console to verify ownership

Conclusion

Looks like we’ve reached the end. Now, here’s the take, Google Analytics and Google Search Console can’t be compared because they are tools serving different purpose, while the former is for measures user behavior, the latter checks search performance. Both products are needed for an effective digital marketing strategy

With the descriptive step by step process, we have walked through how-to setup google Analytics and google search console. Now it’s time to write and promote valuable content on your site.
If this article was helpful, you comment and share

Cheers!