John Mueller answered the good old question on why Google Search Engine and Google Analytics differ in Discover traffic reporting.
John Mueller is Search Advocate on the Search relation team for Google. The question was raised during one of the sessions of last week’s Google’s Search Central SEO office hours Hangout.
Mueller gave a brief explanation on why there is a difference in the Discover traffic reports for Search Console and Analytics.
The discrepancies between the two always confuse marketers. The most common difference is the number of clicks for a specific page in GSC and GA.
From this, the question arises, why is there this difference? And why is Google not solving the issue causing confusion among SEO marketers?
The question asked was like this:
“My question is about the performance measurement of Google Discover.
I have a client whose website has been running for seven or eight years, and their content is excellent.
What I see are a specific date and a specific page. If Search Console shows 100 clicks, if you check that specific page and a specific date in the analysis, it will show sessions and The difference between clicks.
It shows about 20 sessions under analysis.
So there are many differences.
What is a good way to measure the performance of Google Discover? “
To which John responded:
“I think the only way to measure it is in the search console. Because especially in Analytics, traffic from Discover is almost always folded into Google search, and then you can’t separate it.
Therefore, only in Search Console can you see the bigger picture. “
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GSC Is More Accurate Than GA
According to John’s response, it can be concluded that search console data is more accurate for tracking Discover traffic than analytics.
So, Why Analytics Doesn’t Accurately Track Discover
The question followed up with another question of why Analytics tracks Discover in a way that doesn’t differentiate it from Google search.
Mueller responded with:
“In particular Discover, we see as a part of Google Search, so we don’t separate it out.
…At least the Discover team basically decided well. Discover is a part of Search, so we’re not going to separate it down.”
Google Discover content is not the direct result of a search. But it could be an indirect result of a user’s search history that reveals their interest in particular topics.
So there might be some topics that get surfaced in Google Discover through search history.
Therefore, Because of the surfaced data from Google search to Google Discover, the Discover traffic gets folded in Google search and does not differentiate between the two. Hence, the Search Engine and Analytics Differ in Discover
GSA For Discover Analytics
Google does acknowledge that there is a difference between data tracking for Discover traffic of Search Console and Analytics.
The possible reasons for this given by Google are:
- There could be a lag between when the numbers are calculated and when they are visible to Webmasters.
- Time zone matters
- Table totals might be less than the chart totals.
From this, it is good to know that Analytics is not as accurate as of the Search console. And there will be no further confusion among marketers about the database.