Connecting Google Search Console on Clarisights
Google Search Console (GSC) is your organic search performance data — how Google sees your site in search results. Connecting GSC to Clarisights blends organic search clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position alongside your paid search, attribution, and analytics data for a single, unified view of search performance.
At a glance
Property | Value |
|---|---|
Authentication | OAuth 2.0 (Google) with the Search Console scope |
Permissions needed | Owner, Full, or Restricted user role on each verified Search Console property |
Account discovery | Automatic on credential validation — every property your Google user can access is offered |
Data freshness | Daily — incremental refresh runs each day for the most recent 3 days |
Lookback window | Up to 16 months historical (Google's API cap) |
Backfill on connect | Last 3 days; longer historical backfills are coordinated with your CSM |
Timezone | US/Pacific (GSC reports natively in PST) |
Currency | Not applicable — GSC has no monetary metrics |
Levels supported | Property (Account) and Object — where Object holds Query, Page, Country, Device, and Search Type as dimensions |
Limited rollout | No |
Prerequisites
A verified Google Search Console property for each site you want to connect.
A Google account with at least Restricted user access on those properties (Owner or Full user is preferred so all dimensions and search types are returned).
Permission to authorize third-party apps on the Google account you'll connect with — some Google Workspace admins block third-party OAuth.
Steps to Connect
In Clarisights, go to Integrations and search for Google Search Console. Click + Connect.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Integrations page with Google Search Console tile highlighted]
A Google sign-in popup opens. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your Search Console properties and grant the requested Search Console permission.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Google OAuth consent screen showing Search Console scope]
If you see "Permission denied" or the popup closes immediately: your Google Workspace admin may be blocking third-party apps. Ask them to allow Clarisights, or use a personal Google account that has been granted access to the Search Console properties.
Clarisights validates the token and discovers every Search Console property your Google user can see. Select the properties you want to bring into Clarisights and confirm.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — property picker listing verified Search Console sites]
If no properties are shown: the signed-in Google user does not have any role on any Search Console property. Open Search Console, confirm the user is added as Owner / Full / Restricted on the right properties, then re-run the integration.
Verify the connection
Open Integrations → Google Search Console — connected properties show a Connected status badge.
First data appears within ~24 hours after the next scheduled sync.
Quick-start check: build a new report with Property × Query and pull Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Avg. Position — you should see rows for the last few days.
Data available
Hierarchy
GSC is an organic data source — it does not have a Campaign / Ad Group / Ad hierarchy. In Clarisights, the property maps to Account, and everything else (queries, pages, countries, devices, search type) is stored at a single Object level and used as dimensions.
Native level (GSC) | Clarisights level |
|---|---|
Property (Site / URL) | Account |
Query | Object (search query as dimension) |
Page | Object (URL as dimension) |
Country | Object (geo as dimension) |
Device | Object (device as dimension) |
Search Type | Object (web / image / video as dimension) |
Dimensions
Account level
Account — the verified property (web or mobile site URL).
Object level
Search Type — one of web, image, or video. The kind of search a user ran to see the SERP.
Country — country the search originated from, as a 3-letter country code.
Device — one of Desktop, Mobile, or Tablet.
Page — the page on your site that appeared in the SERP and was landed on when clicked.
Query — the search query that produced the impression.
Metrics
GSC: Impressions — count of views of a search result from your site in the SERP.
GSC: Clicks — count of clicks on a search result from your site in the SERP.
GSC: CTR — click-through rate, computed from impressions and clicks.
GSC: Avg. Position — average rank of a search result from your site in the SERP.
Limitations & known constraints
Two levels only. Unlike paid channels (Account → Campaign → Ad Group → Ad), GSC has only Account and Object. Every dimension — query, page, country, device, search type — sits at the Object level.
Object structure varies by dimension combination. GSC lets us pull data for individual dimensions (e.g. just device) and for combinations (e.g. device & page). Each of those combinations creates differently-shaped Objects, and the totals will not match across them — see Google's note on Why do I lose data when asking for more detail?
Dimension-aware aggregation. To minimize this loss-of-detail effect, when you visualize a single dimension (e.g. device), Clarisights aggregates only Objects whose dimension combination exactly matches that selection. Different dimension combinations in different visualizations may therefore show different totals — by design.
Whitelisted dimension combinations. Some dimension combinations are restricted at the company level (via
GoogleSearchConsoleCompanyPreference) to keep volume and report performance manageable. If a particular slice doesn't return data, contact your CSM to enable that combination.Automatic data filtering. To keep reports meaningful, Clarisights filters out:
Clicks = 0 — Objects with zero clicks on a given day are dropped.
Long-tail queries — queries with fewer than 50 clicks in a calendar month are bucketed into a single "Clicks less than 50" entry. Membership is recomputed each day, so a query can leave the bucket mid-month if its clicks pass 50.
Country — if you run country-specific Search Console properties, country can be excluded entirely to cut data volume and speed up reports.
Search Type — if image/video search traffic is negligible, pulls can be restricted to web-only.
16-month historical cap — Google's API does not return data older than 16 months.
2-3 day reporting delay — GSC data finalizes after a 2-3 day window. Today's metrics will not be available immediately.
~25,000 row cap per query — Google's API limit. Clarisights paginates and stitches automatically.
No revenue or cost metrics — GSC is impressions / clicks / position only.
Operating notes
Refresh schedule: Daily — incremental sync covers the most recent 3 days each run to handle GSC's 2-3 day finalization window.
Lookback on connect: 3 days. Larger historical backfills (e.g. 16 months) are run on request via your CSM.
Adding new properties: re-open the Google Search Console integration in Clarisights to refresh the property picker and select newly-verified sites.
Credential rotation: OAuth tokens auto-refresh. Reconnect is only needed if the Google password changes, the user is removed, or access is revoked.
Bucketing & whitelisted combinations: long-tail bucketing for queries / pages and the set of allowed dimension combinations are configured per company by Clarisights ops via the GSC company preference. Reach out via chat support to adjust.
Need help?
Reach out via the in-app chat support on the Clarisights platform, or email your Customer Success Manager.