Why not just use a domain property instead of prefix properties for https, http and www in Google Search Console?

Question

I just added my website to Google Search Console as the domain validated property example.com. Now when I try to link it with Google Analytics [GA], it says no property is added to the console.

Perhaps Google Analytics is right because I have not added any prefix property. It was just a domain name (example.com). To link my GA with GSC I have also added these prefix properties:

• https://example.com
• http://example.com
• http://www.example.com
• https://www.example.com

[all of these 4 properties redirect to my domain example.com. Why?]

I'm not able to add www.example.com as a domain property in GSC because it does not allow it

Now, after adding all 4 properties of my domain GA shows these properties when I try to link GSC with GA.

So, which property I should choose to link with GA (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS) because if I choose https://example.com as I did for my website, What about other properties. Will GA show me the data about other properties all of which land on example.com (domain).

Why add so many properties to GSC when they all land on the domain (example.com)? Do I need to add a separate zone record (c-panel) for verification?

Why did I add so many properties when example.com (domain) seems like it should be more than enough?

Answer 1

Domain properties can't connect with GA for the moment.

To link with GSC with GA just added the URL of your website as property (you just need to add the actual URL of your website). Normally it's https://example.com or https://www.example.com

Answer 2

Domain properties in Google Search console are great, but they are not fully functional. You can't add them to Google Analytics, there are missing reports, and missing settings compared to prefix properties. It would be nice just to just add a domain property, but Google hasn't built enough functionality for them yet. Google says long term, you should plan to switch to domain properties but they may not be fully functional yet. I'm hoping Google has this issue on their radar, but as far as I know, we haven't heard anything from them about it yet.

You say that all four prefixes redirect to your domain name. That isn't possible. Three of the prefixes should redirect to the fourth one. My guess is that your site is running on https://example.com and your browser just doesn't show the https:// in the URL to you.

Because you are redirecting away from http and www, the only prefix property that actually matters in Google Search Console is https://example.com. The others are not going to have much (if any) data on them. The https://example.com prefix property is the one that you should link to Google Analytics.

It used to be standard advice to add all four prefix properties to your Google Search Console account. This would allow you to spot problems with your site if you saw weird stuff only appearing on one of them. Now with domain properties, it should be enough to have only the domain property and a single prefix property to link to Google Analytics. The domain property should give you the information you need instead of having the other prefix properties that only redirect.