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I am looking into some reports in Google Analytics, however my attention has been brought to the fact that I cannot seem to find approximately matching numbers between google search console and Google Analytics traffic numbers, for the same time period, for the same domain.

I have compared the same time period (13. April to 13. April) in search console "clicks" with "sessions" in Google Analytics traffic acquisition for source/medium = "google / organic". As seen in the below screenshots, the numbers in GA are 25% HIGHER (not lower) than Search Console.

Search console clicks

Google Analytics sessions

The domain is running HSTS so all requests are HTTPS and should be counted both places.

  • Is it the right metrics I am comparing
  • Why are they different in the way that GA number is larger? I would understand why "sessions" would be smaller, but not the other way around
  • Which of the numbers should I trust?
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Search Console is only showing data for the top 1,000 queries your site was returned for. The Google Analytics report has no such limit.

You can trust both. Just be aware that Search Console data is always a sample, not the full picture, and you can never know to what extent that sample is representative.

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  • Do you have any "prof" of that statement of the top 1000 queries? :-)
    – Niels Kristian
    Commented May 15, 2019 at 20:20
  • I don't think the top 1000 limit affects the totals. It just means adding up all the values int he table is typically a lot less than the total.
    – Tony McCreath
    Commented May 16, 2019 at 4:02
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What you want to see is the organic entrances, which is the total number of visitors who entered your website on a specific page.

This is the closest metric in GA to "clicks" on Search Console.

You can read more here about the differences between entrances and sessions in GA.

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