Anyone interested in search engine optimization will quickly learn that Google Search Console and Google Analytics are both essentials in the effort to achieve a high ranking on Google’s search engine results pages organically.
However, when a person first delves into Google Search Console and Google Analytics, the differences between the two platforms are not immediately apparent.
To easiest way to understand the differences between Google Search Console and Google Analytics is to know the purpose of each.
The purpose of Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the tool web developers use to connect their website to Google.
While Google’s crawlers will typically find a website on their own, it can take a considerable amount of time for them to find a website independently. Google Search Console is a tool that introduces a website and its pages to Google’s crawlers.
Once Google’s crawlers are aware of a website, Google’s algorithm will index the website and its pages. Once indexed, the website and its pages will begin appearing on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP).
Google Search Console is essentially a registry which Google uses to index websites, pages, and content.
Google Analytics, on the other hand, is a means for web developers to track that indexing.
The purpose of Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful indexing tracking platforms available. In fact, Google Analytics is the most powerful tool a web developer can use to track their website.
Unlike Google Search Console, Google Analytics has a wide range of applications. There are dozens — hundreds, actually — of different types of data and information a web developer can gather about a website, its landing pages, and the content on those landing pages.
Using Google Analytics, a web developer can determine the number of visitors who open a website or page. They can also track the actions visitors take on a website — watching a video or purchasing a product or service — and determine how long visitors remain on a website or page, etc.
Google Analytics also allows web developers to determine where visitors reside, what language they speak, what time they visited a website, the age and sex of visitors, visitors’ interests, and many other characteristics.
Ultimately, while Google Search Console and Google Analytics are both web development tools, they have different purposes. Search Console is for indexing a website while Analytics is for tracking the website!
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About Brad Nietfeldt
As one of the most sought after digital marketing gurus in America, Brad’s entrepreneurial career involves writing and producing music, successful tech start ups, working for several fortune 500 companies and in his early 20s he was of the first support staff at the then start up currently known as PayPal.com. Learn more.
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