Here comes Google Insights: Search Console and Analytics data now merged
From the United States they report an interesting news: Google is testing a new platform to integrate in a deeper way the data of two highly appreciated and used tools, namely the Google Search Console and Google Analytics. The new product is called Insights and has already started in beta mode, according to the news: here is what it concerns and what awaits us.
Google Search Console Insights, an overall view on the site
The first to tell the news was Barry Schwartz, who from the pages of seroundtable and searchengineland provided interesting anticipations on this tool, which represents “a new experience that combines data from Search Console and Google Analytics to provide you with more useful data on your site”: at the moment the unofficial name is Google Search Console Insights and, as mentioned, is still in beta. The American company has anticipated the release through GSC messages to verified users, who could have a taste of its potential.
All data in a single tool
According to reports, Insights is currently hosted in a section of the GSC and offers a fairly clear and quick view of the performance of the site and its contents, with more in-depth reports on the performance of the site and its pages, including page views, average time on the page, referral site information and more from Google Analytics.
Main features of Insights
Schwartz also enters into the specifics of some features of Google Search Console Insights:
- In the home screen we have an overview of the site with a preview of favicon and home page and an indication of the number of views of all-time page.
- In the section “your new contents” we can see the performance of new contents, indeed: Google reports when it found the content, how many views it had and how long people remain on that content and read it.
- Another specific section shows page views and the average length of page view for a date range or on a day-by-day chart.
- The area “how people find your pages” indicates the main traffic channels, including organic, social and direct search, with data such as total views, time on pages and percentage breakdown.
- There is a section dedicated to “most popular contents” in general, which also shows articles, pictures, total views and time on the page.
- Backlinks from other sites are subdivided to show views and duration, with delta variations over time; moreover, are also indicated top referring links and the most recent links.
- The social media section presents the page views and the duration of the views through social media and divides every single source, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and so on.
The history of integration between Search Console and Analytics
It is not the first attempt to merge the two Google analysis tools, and since 2011 we can already view some data of the Search Console in Google Analytics (especially through the Target Page, to see the correlation between pre-clicks data, such as queries and impressions, and post-clicks data, such as bounce rate and transactions), while until now it was not possible to control the data of Analytics in the Search Console panel.
An easier approach to data
Insights can really be a useful tool in our strategies because it groups two different types of data and analyses: classically, the reports of the Google Search Console indicate what visitors see on our site from Google Search, while Google Analytics offers information about “what happens” when a user visits the site.
The new feature – which as mentioned is in beta, so not yet accessible to everyone (nor is certain its final release, at the moment) – has the great advantage of convenience and can help us see and analyze the data in different ways.
