Connecting your Google products will give you access to more organic reports in Google Analytics, as well as the Paid & Organic report in Google AdWords. This will allow you to have a better understanding of your organic data, which you can leverage to improve both your organic and paid search marketing efforts.

We know that organic and paid search have an impact on each other, but Search Console can help us connect the dots. Image via Pexels.

Connecting your PPC and organic search data will generally show that performance is best when your website has visibility in both paid and organic rankings for relevant queries. Typically, clicks/query are much higher when your site’s results are shown in both paid ads and organic listings. By connecting your organic and paid search data and viewing this data together, you can draw valuable insights to help improve your marketing through both of these channels.

How to Connect GA & Search Console

  1. Ensure that you have verified your site’s domain in Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools). As a best practice, claim both the www. and non-www. versions of your site, and set a preference in Settings for both properties.
  2. In the GA property that you use to view your site’s data, go to Admin > Product Linking > All Products.
  3. Navigate to the Search Console section and follow the prompts. You will need to have full permissions in both Search Console and Analytics in order to complete the link.
  4. Select the GA views you primarily use, and in which you want to see Search Console data. Then save.

Your data will not backfill, but once it has collected, you can explore the four reports under Acquisition > Search Console. The following are the two most helpful.

  • Use the Landing Pages report to view which pages have the highest organic click through rate, and to see the average organic ranking of your pages. You can use organic landing page performance to surface opportunities and insights that can help with paid search strategy. For example, if a page performs particularly well for a set of organic keywords, you should consider adding these as paid keywords and directing them to this landing page.
  • The Queries report provides valuable information about which search terms work in the organic space, which often indicates how those same terms will perform in the paid arena. I like to add an advanced filter that excludes search terms containing your brand name to mine organic non-brand queries and surface PPC keyword opportunities.

How to Connect AdWords & Search Console

  1. In AdWords, click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner and then navigate to Linked Accounts.
  2. Under Search Console, click View Details.
  3. At this point, as long as your account has full access to both products, you can link directly. If you don’t have full access, then you’ll need to submit a request for the Webmaster to approve in Search Console or in the Admin’s email.
  4. If you are successful, you will receive a “Congratulations” message.

Once data is flowing, you can review the report under Dimensions > Paid & Organic. This report is fantastic for revealing a number of insights —

  • Queries for which you are ranking organically, but do not have paid coverage. You should consider adding these as paid keywords as well. As mentioned above, clicks are generally quite a bit higher when you show both a paid ad and an organic listing on the SERP.
  • High volume paid terms where you are not ranking organically. In this case, you should consider adjusting your SEO strategy to improve your organic ranking for these terms. In the interim, you could also increase your investment in these paid keywords to improve your ad position or impression share to make up for the poor organic positioning.

All of these reports will help you gain a complete understanding of your SEM & SEO data. Use them to inform decisions about where and how you should improve your position on the SERP. Connect your Google products and start leveraging this data today!

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