[M]ost people with a website or blog have Google Analytics installed or have at least heard of it, but Google Search Console (previously called Webmaster Tools) is an equally important part of the SEO puzzle. Analytics and Search Console actually work together to give you a complete picture of how your web visitors found you and how they behave once they are on your site.

Amongst other things, Google Analytics will tell you which links people used to get to your site, how many pages they visit, how long they spend on them and which pages they leave from. Search console, on the other hand, is about they found you. You can use it find out which search terms people are using to find you, submit new content and remove any content you might not want shown in results and keep an eye on any malware or spam issues that might be affecting your site’s performance.

HOW TO INSTALL GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Before we go any further, you’re going to need a Google account. If you don’t have one already, then you’ll be prompted to create one before you access Analytics. Once you access the Analytics area, you simply need to follow the on screen prompts to set up your account. Once you’ve set it up, head over to the Admin tab and create a new property (a property refers to an individual website).

At this stage, it would be a great idea to head over and read Google’s own Getting Started Guide, which is really easy to follow.

Once you’ve added your site as a property, next you’ll want to grab the tracking code. The Google guide is here and here’s a screenshot where I’ve highlighted the standard block of tracking code and the tracking ID (starts with UA) that you may also need, depending on how your website is configured. Divi and ProPhoto both have areas where you can insert the tracking code block (see below) whereas Showit uses the tracking ID.

If you are using a WordPress theme that doesn’t easily allow you to add Google Analytics tracking code, you can use this Google Analytics plugin to add it as well as display some stats within your dashboard, or you can kill two birds with one stone and use the SEO plugin All In One SEO Pack to add your tracking ID.

HOW TO CONNECT TO GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Firstly, go sign up for Search Console with the same Google credentials and add your site as a property (see below).

You can see that I have added my site as a property both with and without the ‘www’. Once you’ve verified your ownership, Search Console will prompt you to do a number of things, including choosing how your site url is displayed by default.

The final step, at this stage, is to verify ownership of your site with Search Console. The simplest way is to use Google Analytics to verify it. As long as your tracking code is in the ‘head’ area box, you can simply ask Search Console to carry out the verification. If that method doesn’t work for you, and you are using All in One SEO Pack, you can use the HTML tag method and add the tab code (see below) to the general settings area of All In One SEO Pack.

Hit verify and you’re done. There is plenty you can do with Search Console now, like submitting a sitemap and checking for crawl errors, but we’ll come back to that another time.

HOW TO CONNECT TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS WITH SEARCH CONSOLE

This is the biggie – the final step that lots of people miss out on doing. Connecting Google Analytics to Search Console in viewed favourably by Google. They like it when you use their tools and they like it even more when you get them to talk to each other. It’s another little green light that lets Google know your site hasn’t been built by a spammy robot. It also means you can access many Google Analytics tools from within your Search Console area.

In Search Console, select the property you want to connect to your Analytics account and look for the Analytics property tab in the menu. See below. This will bring up a screen where you can select your Google Analytics property and hit connect.

That’s it! You’re done. Your Analytics and Search Console properties are now officially friends. Learning how to interpret the data you see in both areas is interesting but it takes a while to understand what you’re seeing. We’ll be looking at both in detail later in this blog series.

PS. If you’re a photographer, you’ll want to get in on the action over at Fuel Your Photos. They also have a fabulous Facebook group.