Traffic from Google Analytics 4 and Search Console

Traffic & search is one of the six screens in Reports. Once you connect Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Search Console to a project, it shows the visits that arrived from AI assistants and the clicks from searches for your brand, marked with the same numbered win markers as the visibility charts.

Use it when you want commercial context for a period: did AI-assistant visits or branded searches move while your visibility moved? The screen shows timing side by side and never claims that one caused the other.

Before you start

• You need a GA4 property, a Search Console property, or both. Each source is optional.
• Only an owner or admin of your organization can connect or disconnect the Google account. See Members and roles.
• The Google connection belongs to your organization. Each project then binds its own property and site.

How to connect with your Google account

1. Open Settings, then Project, and pick "Google traffic" in the section list. The card is called "Google traffic (GA4 + Search Console)".
2. Under "1 · Connect Google", choose "Your Google account" if the card offers both ways, then press "Connect Google account".
3. Sign in with a Google account that can already see your GA4 property and Search Console site, and approve. sourcesignal receives read-only access to Analytics and Search Console, nothing else.
4. Check that the card reads "Google account connected". Under "2 · Bind this project", press "Browse granted properties".
5. Pick the "GA4 property" and the "Search Console property". If one is missing from the list, choose "Enter ID manually…". If browsing fails, type the ids into the fields. The GA4 property is its numeric id, and a Search Console domain property starts with sc-domain:.
6. Type your "Brand query terms", separated by commas, and press "Save".

The first save pulls about 400 days of history. After that, a daily pull keeps both sources current. Each source carries a status chip, such as "GA4 · data to 14 Oct", "GA4 · no data yet" or "GA4 · not bound".

How to connect through the managed integration

With the managed integration, you grant one service account email read access and the sourcesignal team runs the connection. It appears once the team switches it on for your organization.

1. On the same card, select "Managed integration" and press "Copy" beside the email.
2. In GA4, open Admin, then Property access management, and add the email as Viewer.
3. In Search Console, open Settings, then Users and permissions, and add it as Restricted.
4. Press "Browse granted properties" and bind the property and site as above, or leave that to the team. The card then reads "Property binding and brand terms are configured and managed by us."

Activation can take up to about 6 hours. Removing the grant in Google cuts access at once. If the card reads "Not available yet", Google traffic is not switched on for your organization: ask support to enable it.

What you see

Once a source is connected, a note under the cover says the dataset toggle and the platform and topic filters do not apply here, because traffic has no prompt or platform dimension. The date range, the comparison period and the granularity still apply.

• The cover leads with "Identified AI-assistant sessions" for the period, in a sentence that reminds you the number is a floor. When only Search Console is connected and your brand query terms are set, it leads with "Branded clicks" instead.
• GA4 tiles: "Engaged AI-assistant sessions" and "Key events from AI sessions".
• The "Identified AI-assistant sessions" chart, with "Organic search" and "Direct" drawn as context lines and the win markers on top. Click a marker to open that win on the Impact timeline.
• The "By assistant" table: Assistant, Sessions, vs previous, Engaged and Key events. It lists the assistants that sent identified visits this period, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and Grok. "Other AI assistants" collects AI-assistant visits from sources the list does not name.
• Search Console tiles: "Branded clicks", "Branded impressions", "Branded CTR" and "Branded avg position". Without GA4, "Branded clicks" moves to the cover.
• The "Branded search clicks" chart, with "All search clicks" as context and the same win markers.

Each chart has "View chart data" for its numbers as a table, and each tile's hint gives its definition.

What each state means

Missing data is never shown as zero. Each source shows its own state, with a button that opens the settings card.

What this screen cannot claim

• No attribution. Win markers show timing side by side. A rise in sessions or branded clicks after a placement is an association, never proof that the placement brought the visits.
• No AI Overviews or AI Mode split. Clicks from Google AI Overviews and AI Mode arrive as ordinary organic search and sit in the Organic search line. In Search Console, Google folds that activity into the numbers, and it cannot be separated.
• No conversions of its own. What counts as a key event is set in Google Analytics, not here. A tile reading zero may mean no key events are configured in GA4.
• No effect on win labels. Traffic numbers never change a win's evidence label on the Impact timeline. Those labels read tracked prompts only.

Good to know

• Recent days are preliminary. GA4 figures finalize about 24 to 48 hours behind, and Search Console about 2 to 3 days behind. The daily pull re-reads recent days, so they correct themselves.
• Engaged follows Google's rule: a visit lasting over 10 seconds, triggering a key event or viewing at least two pages.
• Comparisons are shown only when they are fair. A change appears only when the whole earlier period falls on or after the first synced day and at least half of it has synced. "Branded CTR" and "Branded avg position" show no change.
• Branded avg position: lower is better and 1 is the top. Busier days count more.
• All time on this screen starts on the first synced day of traffic or search, whichever is earlier.
• Branded search follows your terms. A search counts as branded only when its query contains one of your brand query terms. Changing them re-pulls the full history, so every day follows the same rule.
• "Resync history" also applies the current list of recognized AI assistants to old days. "Sync now" refreshes recent days only. Both appear once a property or site is bound.
• Freshness at a glance: Settings, then Data, then Schedule lists the traffic refresh and the latest day of data.
• Revoking access. "Disconnect" on the card removes the connection at Google as well. If you revoke access from your Google security page instead, the card reads "Access was revoked from the Google side" once the next pull notices, and offers "Reconnect Google".
• Clients see the same screen. On a share link and in the PDF, the explanations stay but the connect buttons are not offered. See Sharing, printing and briefings.
• The Overview carries two GA4 tiles, "AI-assistant sessions" and "Key events from AI sessions", with a "Connect GA4" link in the app when GA4 is not set up.
• Agents cannot connect Google. Spot and agents connected over MCP can never connect a Google account for you.
• Your agent can pull now. Once Google is connected, your agent can ask for "Sync now" or "Resync history" for you. It is a change card you apply, unless you let your agent do that kind of change on its own, and it only reads from Google.