The tools and what each one answers
| Tool | Cost | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Free | Which searches show my site, and which pages have problems? |
| Google Analytics 4 | Free | What do visitors do, and which visits become leads? |
| Business Profile performance | Free | How many calls and direction requests come from Maps? |
| PageSpeed Insights | Free | How fast and stable are my pages for real users? |
| Screaming Frog | Free up to 500 URLs | What technical errors sit across my whole site? |
| Ahrefs or Semrush | Paid | Which keywords and links do my competitors have? |
Search Console vs GA4
The two tools measure different things, so their numbers never match. Search Console counts clicks from Google results. GA4 counts sessions and events on your site, from every source, and loses visitors who decline tracking cookies.
Use Search Console for the search side, like queries, impressions, indexing and Core Web Vitals. Use GA4 for the business side, like which pages lead to calls, forms and bookings.
Set them up right
- Verify your domain in Search Console and submit your sitemap.
- Install GA4 and mark calls, forms and bookings as key events.
- Link Search Console to GA4 to see queries next to behavior.
- Give your team access under their own Google accounts.
- Keep ownership of every account in your business's name.
That last step matters. Many owners find out after leaving an agency that the agency owns their analytics and their data history. We set up every account in the client's name, and the client keeps it.
How often to check
Look at Search Console weekly for errors and monthly for trends. Review GA4 key events monthly against your lead log. Run a crawl each quarter, and test speed after any design change.
See which SEO metrics to track. Our SEO audit uses all of these tools in one review.