GA4 is the latest measuring and analytical tool from Google, to help digital marketers understand their metrics better. Unlike the earlier Universal Analytics, GA4 focuses on events instead of session-based data.
As digital marketers analyze data, the analytics that show up in GA4 may differ from what’s displayed in the Google Search Console. But this isn’t a discrepancy or error – merely a difference in how the tools function and their respective use cases. We’ll examine the what and why of each tool and how the numbers may differ for both.
While making your monthly report you may stumble across data points from GA4 and Google Search Console which are of the same time period but organic numbers don’t match. This gives us an impression that the data is inaccurate.
This problem exists because these are 2 different tools used for 2 different use cases
GA4: why is it used?
GA4 presents data from the customer’s view, it’s used when we want to understand all the customer-centric metrics on the website.
Engagement time
New users and existing users
Website user activity
Where the user is coming from
How they landed on the website
How many conversions users perform
These are some of the metrics you, as digital as marketers, will likely track using GA4.
GA4 is also helpful in the following areas:
You want to optimize your website to increase conversions
Understanding the user journey
You need to take marketing decisions based on your user behavior
You want to understand your target audience, by looking at your TA’s demographics, interests, geography, product preferences etc.
Because of this property of GA4, it’s used by multiple stakeholders. A few of them are:
Performance marketing experts
SEO experts
Growth experts
Email marketing experts
Content marketing experts
Conversion rate optimizers
Digital strategists
GA4 is a completely different tool compared to Google Search Console. Let’s understand why is Google Search console used.
Google Search Console: Why is it Used?
Google Search Console views data from the search engine’s view. It helps optimize the website for the search engine. Some of the key metrics in focus are:
Clicks
Impressions
Average Position
Page experience
Core web vitals
Site map
Keyword performance
Page performance in search engine
Which query is driving traffic
Google Search Console’s primary function is to help SEO’s and Web Masters to optimise the website for search engines. If there are any ranking drops, Google Search Console helps us to understand what went wrong and what didn’t.
Where the Discrepancy Arises?
Google Search Console tells us how many times the website was shown in the search results and how many times the website link is clicked.
GA4 tells us how many people came to the website from organic search i.e. through search engines.
But both of these numbers differ and that gives us an impression that the data is inaccurate and something is broken. But that is not the case, even when everything is implemented correctly the data discrepancy can exist because there are 2 different platforms which are used for 2 different purposes by different sets of people to extract different insights.
Reasons for discrepancies:
Data Segregation – GA4 includes discover traffic as search traffic but Search Console segregates search and discover traffic
Landing page URL – Search Console reports the canonical page URL even when the landing page link is non canonical, whereas GA4 records the URL that results from the redirect. This can show higher numbers in google search console
Javascript enabled browsers – A small numbers of browsers disable javascript and thus the analytics script does not load in the browser and analytics doesn’t track that session or user, but Google Search Console tracks regardless of javascript blocking
Ads blocker enabled browser – Ad blocker browser restricts website to load analytics code. But search console tracking is not restricted by adblock browser
Non HTML Pages – If a page is Non HTML based like PDF or a doc which is listed in the search result, and a user clicks on the link, the click is recorded in the search console, this can result in higher traffic in search console
Time Zone difference – Google Search Console shows data in line with Pacific daylight time whereas GA4 shows data for the selected timezone. This results in data discrepancy between the 2 platforms
Number of URLs recorded – Search Console has a limit of 1000 URL for landing pages, post which it stops recording data, but GA4 does not have any limit or landing page URL this results in higher numbers in GA4
Multiple Domain – GA4 can track multiple domains in one property whereas Search Console can only track one domain, this can cause analytics numbers to be higher
Tracking code implementation – GA4 only tracks pages where tracking code is implemented, but Search Console tracks all the pages on the website. This can result in Search Console showing higher numbers
Conclusion
Your data will have discrepancies because these 2 tools were made for different purposes. Google also recognises these discrepancies. But the question is which platform to refer for data. Answer – Use the platform which is best suited to your use case!
Chandala Takalkar is a young content marketer and creative with experience in content, copy, corporate communications, and design. A digital native, she has the ability to craft content and copy that suits the medium and connects. Prior to Team upGrowth, she worked as an English trainer. Her experience includes all forms of copy and content writing, from Social Media communication to email marketing.
Don’t let the media or society define what success looks like for you. You know what you’re capable of, you the effort you’re putting in. You’ve got this 🙂 👍🏼
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