Google Analytics, Search Console and your business profile: what to connect to see where customers come from

Short answer: you need three tools, and each sees a different part of the customer’s path. Your business profile shows what happens on the map — calls, directions, website clicks. Search Console shows what people searched for before they came to your website. Google Analytics shows what they did on the website. Since June 2026 the profile’s numbers can be shown right inside Analytics.

This guide is for owners who want to do it themselves, and for those who want to understand what their developer or agency sets up. Every step is free.

Before you start: access belongs to the business

The most common problem isn’t technical. A developer sets up Analytics or Search Console under their own account, then leaves — and the data leaves with them.

• The business should be the owner, not the contractor. Give contractors access with the role they need, and remove it when the work ends.
• Don’t share passwords. Your business profile, Analytics and Search Console all let you add another person under their own Google account — in the business profile as an owner or manager.
• Keep everything under one business Google account where you can. Linking the tools is then simpler, because it needs permissions on both sides.

Step 1: Google Analytics 4

1. In Analytics, create an account (your business), a property in it (usually one website) and a web data stream in that.
2. Copy the measurement ID, which looks like G-XXXXXXX.
3. Add the tag to your website in one of three ways: in the Google Analytics field of your CMS or website builder, as code right after the <head> tag on every page, or through Google Tag Manager.
4. Check it works: open your website and look at the Realtime report. Data should appear within about half an hour.
5. Extend data retention. By default Analytics keeps detailed data for only 2 months; in the Data retention settings switch it to 14 months. Standard aggregated reports are not affected — only detailed explorations are.

Full steps: Set up Analytics for a website.

Note: in Czechia, only with consent

Since 1 January 2022 a website may store analytics cookies only with the visitor’s prior consent. That includes Google Analytics — see the Czech data protection authority (in Czech). So Analytics should be switched on by the consent banner, not by the website itself.

There is a practical consequence: Analytics only sees visitors who gave consent. The numbers are lower than real traffic — but good enough to compare months and channels with each other. If you advertise with Google, also discuss Consent Mode with your banner provider. We are not lawyers; have the banner and policy wording checked.

Step 2: Search Console

1. In Search Console, add your website as a Domain property. It covers the whole site at once — with and without www, http and https.
2. Verify ownership: Search Console gives you a TXT record to add to the DNS at your domain registrar. A domain can only be verified this way.
3. If you have no access to DNS, add the site as a URL prefix property and verify it with a file or tag on the website — a developer can do that. Verification through an existing Analytics or Tag Manager setup also works.
4. In the Sitemaps report, submit your sitemap address — usually /sitemap.xml. WordPress creates it through an SEO plugin, most website builders do it themselves. Add a Sitemap: line to robots.txt as well.

For Google a sitemap is only a hint, not a guarantee that pages get indexed. Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months. How to add a site: Search Console Help.

Step 3: link what belongs together

Analytics + Search Console. In Analytics: Admin → Product links → Search Console. You need the Editor role in Analytics and verified ownership in Search Console. Reports on queries and on visits from unpaid Google Search appear; the report collection has to be published in the Library. Data shows up after about 48 hours — steps.

Analytics + business profile. New since June 2026: Admin → Product links → Google Business Profile. You need the Editor or Administrator role in Analytics and the Owner or Manager role in the profile. Analytics then shows profile interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings and menu views — details and limits.

• Profile numbers in Analytics cover only the last 6 months.
• With several branches, the numbers are added together; you can’t split them by profile.
• You can’t use them in your own explorations — only in the ready-made report.

The business profile connects to Analytics, not to Search Console. Search Console measures your website and now social media too (see below); you won’t see your map profile there.

Optional: social media and advertising

• Search Console and social media. Since July 2026 you can add an Instagram, TikTok or X account or a YouTube channel to Search Console. You see how your posts appear in Google Search and Discover — not how many views they get on the platform itself. The feature is rolling out gradually, so you may not have it yet.
• Advertising outside Google. If you advertise on Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit or Snapchat, Analytics can import cost, clicks and impressions from those campaigns. Ad links need consistently filled-in UTM tags.
• UTM tags on your profile link. You can add UTM tags to the website link in your business profile, for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=profile. Visits from the profile then show separately in Analytics. It’s not required and not an official Google recommendation — just common practice.

Why do it now, even if you don’t want to analyse anything yet

Data can’t be collected retroactively. Analytics starts counting on the day it is installed, Search Console keeps 16 months, and profile numbers in Analytics cover only half a year. Whoever sets up measurement today will have something to compare against a year from now.

So once a quarter, note the key numbers in a simple spreadsheet: website visits, Search Console queries, calls and directions from the profile. It takes ten minutes, and the history stays with you even if the settings or the contractor change.

What we don’t promise: measurement by itself won’t bring customers. It only shows what works and what doesn’t. Without it, though, every new contractor starts from zero and guesses what the previous one did.

Checklist

• Analytics 4 is on the website and you can see visits in the Realtime report.
• Analytics only loads after consent in the cookie banner.
• Data retention is switched to 14 months.
• Search Console has a verified domain and a submitted sitemap.
• Analytics is linked to both Search Console and the business profile.
• The business owns everything; contractors have their own access, not your password.

If whoever builds your website or runs your marketing doesn’t set this up or even ask about it, that’s a good question for the first meeting.