Connect Search Console to GA4 in Admin > Product links > Search Console links, then link your verified Search Console property. One catch trips almost everyone up: the Search Console reports are hidden by default. To see them, go to Library, find the Search Console collection, click More, and click Publish. The Queries and Google organic search traffic reports then appear in your left menu.
Connecting Search Console to GA4 brings your organic search data (the actual queries people type to find you) into the same place as the rest of your analytics. It’s genuinely useful, and it’s also the integration people most often get half-right: they link it, then wonder why no reports appear.
This guide covers both halves: the link, and the step that makes the reports show up.
Before you start: You need to be a verified owner of the Search Console property and have the Editor role on the GA4 property.
What you get from connecting Search Console
Once it’s working, GA4 gains two reports built on Search Console data:
- The queries people searched to reach you, with clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position.
- The organic landing pages that search traffic arrives on, tied to your GA4 engagement data.
In plain English: you can finally see the search term, the click, and what the person did next, all in one tool.
How to connect Search Console to GA4
Step 1: Open Search Console links
In GA4, go to Admin > Product links > Search Console links.
You should see: A page with a Link button in the top right.
Step 2: Choose your property
Click Link, then Choose accounts. Pick the verified Search Console property you want and click Confirm.
If your property isn’t listed, you’re not a verified owner of it. That has to be fixed in Search Console first.
Step 3: Pick a web stream
Click Next and choose the GA4 web data stream to associate with the link. Most properties have one.
Step 4: Submit
Click Next, then Submit.
You should see: Your Search Console property listed as linked. But you’re not done, and here’s the part that trips people up.
The step everyone misses: publish the reports
Linking does not make the reports appear. The Search Console report collection is unpublished by default, so you have to turn it on.
- Click Library at the bottom of the left menu.
- Find the Search Console collection card.
- Click More (the three-dot menu), then click Publish.
You should see: A Search Console section appear in your Reports navigation (left menu), with the two Search Console reports inside. Google documents this in Connect Search Console to Google Analytics.
If you don’t see the Library link at all, you don’t have Editor access. Ask your property administrator.
The two Search Console reports
Once published, you get:
- Queries: the search terms that brought people to your site, with clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position. This is your keyword performance, inside GA4.
- Google organic search traffic: your organic landing pages tied to GA4 engagement, so you can see which search-driven pages actually hold attention.
Common problems
“I linked it but see no reports.” You skipped publishing the collection. Go to Library and publish the Search Console collection.
“My property isn’t in the list.” You need to be a verified owner in Search Console, not only a user.
“The numbers don’t match Search Console.” They never will exactly. The two tools measure different things (queries and clicks vs sessions and users) and use different time zones.
What to do next
You’ve got organic search data flowing into GA4. Here’s where to go from here:
- Read the organic reports alongside the rest of your standard reports.
- Put search data on a dashboard so it stays visible. See how to build a GA4 dashboard.
- Link Google Ads too for the paid side. See how to link GA4 to Google Ads.
For the full picture of how GA4 works, start with our GA4 beginner’s guide.