Integrations · Google Search Console
Google Search Console integration: Google's figures beside your real visits
The Google Search Console integration in Skald syncs Google's queries, pages, clicks, impressions and position every 6 hours, and puts them beside the visits Skald counted from your log. Google's figures stay Google's: synced, never forced to match.
Google Search Console integration means reading Google's own search figures (what people searched, how often your pages were shown, where they ranked) into another tool. Skald reads them with a read-only Google service account, shows them on Traffic › Search, and cross-checks Google's clicks against its own visits from Google. One of the Skald integrations.
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- status Last synced 13:40 · next ~19:40synced
- days 93 stored, newest Fri 16 Oct2 provisional
- google 1,597 clicks · 70,211 impressionsGoogle's figures
- queries Not given by Google: 221 clicksshown, never hidden
- skald Visits from Google search, same dayscounted from the log
Sample data. Google's side and Skald's side, kept apart.
[01] the search tab
Search Console queries, pages and position in Skald
Your server log never sees a search. Google does. Skald brings Google's figures to Traffic › Search: clicks, impressions, CTR and average position, for 7 days, 28 days, 3 months or 16 months.
Google leaves rare queries out to protect searchers, so the queries add up to less than the total. Skald shows that gap as Not given by Google, never hides it. Rows past the top of each day's table are added up as (all others), so every table still adds up to its total.
Queries
What people searched for, with Not given by Google shown.
Pages
Your pages in the results. Google counts these by page, so the table has its own total.
Countries
Where you were shown, under Google's own names.
Devices
Desktop, mobile and tablet.
Search appearance
How you were shown, under Google's own names.
[02] connect
Connect Search Console from the dashboard, no shell
Skald reads Search Console with a service account: a robot Google account that can only read. An install admin makes it once. Each site then gives it access in two minutes.
A client's site? Your client gives the robot access in their own Search Console. Copy text to send gives you a short message with the steps and the robot's email, ready to paste into an email.
Once: make the robot
In Google Cloud console, enable the Google Search Console API, make a service account with no role, and download its JSON key. Upload it in Settings › Integrations › Search. From then on Skald shows only the robot's email.
Per site: give it access
In Search Console, Settings › Users and permissions › Add user: paste the robot's email and set Restricted. Restricted can only read.
Pick the property, test
Find my properties lists the ones that cover this site's host names. Test connection reads the last 3 days, for example "OK: 412 rows, clicks 37". Nothing is saved yet.
Connect, with history
Choose none, 3 months or 16 months. The history comes in the background, with its progress on the page.
[03] the cross-check
Search Console clicks vs real visits, never forced to match
The Cross-check panel puts Google's clicks beside Skald's own visits from Google search, by day and by landing page. They never match exactly. Pick a reason why.
A click is not a visit. Two clicks by one person can be one visit, and a click closed before the page drew is no visit in Skald.
| Landing page | Google's clicksSearch Console | Visits from GoogleSkald, from the log |
|---|---|---|
| / | 412 | 371 |
| /pricing/ | 188 | 164 |
| /docs/setup/ | 143 | 131 |
| /blog/log-analytics/ | 96 | 84 |
Sample data. What matters is the ratio over time. When it moves sharply, the panel says so: that is usually a tracking break, such as a page that stopped loading or a redirect that drops the referrer.
- 01:40 sync · fetched 4 days againok
- 07:40 sync · 14 Oct now finalok
- 13:40 sync · 15 and 16 Oct provisionalprovisional
- ~19:40 next syncdue
[04] how fresh it is
Synced every 6 hours, provisional days marked
Google's figures arrive 2 to 3 days late, and the newest days can still change. Skald marks them provisional and fetches the last days again on each sync, until Google says they are final.
Sync now asks for a sync at once (admins, at most once in 10 minutes). If a sync fails, say because someone removed the robot from Search Console, the Search tab and Integrations say why and what to do, and the site's mail recipients get one mail, not one per sync.
[05] checked again
How Skald checks the Search Console figures it stores
These are Google's figures, so Skald cannot recount them from your log. It checks that it stored them whole instead, every day, by a separate road.
Every table re-added
Each stored table is added up again, and checked against the day's total. Rows, (all others) and Not given by Google always make the total.
One day asked again
Skald asks Google for one day's total again and compares it with what it stored. If they disagree, the tab says so.
Skald's side counted twice
The visits from search in the cross-check are Skald's own figures, counted twice like every other one.
[06] what it does not do
What the Search Console integration does not do
Google's figures are Google's. Here is where they stop.
What it does not do
- It does not replace Search Console. The figures are synced as Google gives them, and never added to a Skald figure.
- Google's API gives no AI Overview or AI Mode figure, and Skald never guesses one. AI Mode clicks show in your log when they carry
udm=50. - Rare queries are left out by Google. Skald shows the gap; it cannot fill it.
- 16 months at most, because that is all Search Console keeps. Web results only; no ad clicks.
- Clicks and visits never match exactly, and Skald never makes them.
keep reading
More on Google Search Console integration
questions
Google Search Console integration FAQ
Straight answers, including what Skald does not do.
Does Skald replace Google Search Console?
No. Skald sits beside it. The queries, impressions and positions are Google's figures, synced as Google gives them and never added to a Skald figure. What Skald adds is the other side: the visits your server log counted from Google, and the AI crawlers and bots Search Console never shows. Skald and Search Console compared.
Why do Google's clicks not match Skald's visits from Google?
A click is not a visit: two clicks by one person can be one visit, and a click closed before the page drew is none. Some browsers send no referrer, so their visits count as Direct. Google's days are Pacific Time. Skald never forces the two to match; it watches the ratio, and says so when it moves sharply.
Can the Search Console integration show AI Overviews or AI Mode?
No. Google's Search Analytics API gives no AI Overview or AI Mode figure, and Skald does not invent one. If Google adds a search appearance value for them, it shows under Google's own name. Separately, your log shows Google AI Mode clicks when the address carries udm=50. Google AI Mode traffic.
What access does Skald need to my Search Console?
Read-only access for one robot Google account, a service account made once per install. You add its email to Search Console as a Restricted user, which can only read. Skald keeps the key on the server and shows only the robot's email after that.
How much history can Skald fetch from Search Console?
Up to 16 months, all that Search Console keeps. When you connect, choose none, 3 months or 16 months. The history comes in the background, with its progress on the page, then the syncs every 6 hours take over.
How fresh are the Search Console figures?
Google's figures arrive 2 to 3 days late, and the newest days can still change. Skald marks them provisional and fetches the last days again on each sync until Google calls them final. The status line says when it last synced and when the next sync is due.
$ tail -f access.log | skald
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