> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gradial.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Google Search Console

> Connect Search Console so Gradial can read how your pages actually perform in organic search — and turn queries, impressions and position data into content changes it can execute.

## Why connect Search Console

Search Console holds the one dataset that says what people actually typed to find you, and which of your pages Google decided to show them. It is the most direct signal available about the gap between what your content says and what your market is looking for.

It is also, for most teams, a report someone opens quarterly. The data says a page ranks in position 14 for a query with real volume, or that impressions on a section have been declining for two months, or that a query you should own returns a page that doesn't answer it — and then the finding sits in a slide, because acting on it means briefing, writing, reviewing and publishing a change.

Connecting Search Console puts that data next to the thing that can act on it.

***

## What Grady can do

| Capability                        | Detail                                                                                                                                  |
| :-------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Query organic performance         | Clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, by query, page, country and device                                        |
| Compare over time                 | Period-over-period movement, to separate a real decline from normal variance                                                            |
| Surface recommendation candidates | Pages and queries where the data suggests a specific content change is worth making                                                     |
| Feed the work                     | Findings become content updates Gradial can execute — new or rewritten copy, metadata, internal links — through your normal review path |

<Note>
  This connection is **read-only** against Search Console. Gradial reads performance data; it does not submit sitemaps, request indexing, or change any Search Console setting.
</Note>

***

## Prerequisites

* A Search Console property for each site you want Gradial to read
* At least **Restricted** access to that property for the account authorizing the connection
* Permission in your organization to connect a Google account to Gradial

***

## Set up the connection

<Steps>
  <Step title="Confirm your property type">
    Note whether each property is a **domain** property (shown as `sc-domain:example.com`) or a **URL-prefix** property (shown as `https://www.example.com/`). Both are supported, and the distinction matters: a domain property covers every subdomain and protocol, a URL-prefix property covers only what its prefix matches.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the integration in Gradial">
    Go to **Settings → Integrations**, find **Google Search Console** under Analytics, and select **Connect**. Authorize with a Google account that has access to the properties you want to read.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select the properties">
    Choose which Search Console properties this connection covers. You can select more than one — a multi-brand or multi-region estate usually wants several.

    Only the selected properties are readable. Adding a property later is a change to this integration, not a new connection.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm">
    Ask Grady for a summary of organic performance over the last 28 days. If the numbers match what you see in Search Console, the connection is working.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Using it

Search Console data is most useful when the question is specific. Some starting points:

```
Which pages have lost the most organic clicks in the last 90 days
compared to the previous 90? Show me query-level detail for the worst five.
```

```
Find queries where we rank between positions 8 and 20 with over 500
monthly impressions, and the landing page doesn't directly answer the query.
For each, tell me what the page is missing.
```

```
Write meta titles and descriptions for every page in /resources/ that is
missing one, using the top query for that page as the signal.
```

```
Which pages get impressions for queries we shouldn't be ranking for?
That usually means the content is ambiguous about who it's for.
```

The last step in each case is the useful one: Gradial can execute the change it recommends, in your CMS, through your existing review and approval path.

<Tip>
  Search Console covers traditional organic search. For how your brand appears in AI answer engines — a different dataset and a different set of fixes — see [Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)](/docs/insights/geo) and [GEO Monitoring](/docs/insights/geo-monitoring). Teams increasingly need both.
</Tip>

***

## Who this is for

| Role                          | What this unlocks                                                                         |
| :---------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **SEO Lead / Organic Growth** | Findings that get executed rather than filed, without writing every brief yourself        |
| **Content Strategist**        | Query data shaping what gets written, and evidence for what should be retired or merged   |
| **Content Marketer**          | Knowing which existing pages are close to ranking and worth a rewrite                     |
| **Marketing Leadership**      | Organic performance summarized on demand, and tied to the content changes made against it |
| **Web Producer**              | Metadata and structural gaps identified in bulk instead of page by page                   |

***

## Availability

**Access:** Must be enabled for your organization. Contact your Gradial team to get access.