Google Search Console
Why connect Search Console?
Connecting Google Search Console does two important things for your GeoBubbles workspace.
Long-term data retention. Google only keeps your Search Console data for 16 months. GeoBubbles stores it for the full duration of your plan (3, 4, or 5 years depending on your tier), so you can spot long-term trends, seasonality, and the real impact of algorithm updates without the data disappearing.
Content optimization and prompt intelligence. The more important reason is that we actively use your GSC data to drive content priorities and prompt generation. We analyse which queries bring impressions but few clicks, which pages are losing ground, and where your brand appears in the SERP — then turn those insights into targeted prompts that help LLMs understand what your business is actually relevant for. The result is a steady stream of actionable suggestions tied to real search behaviour, not guesswork.
Without a GSC connection, prompt measurement, competitor tracking, and LLM dashboards all still work — but the SEO Attribution, Journey Analytics, and AI Brand Gap views will be empty.
Connecting your account
- Go to Settings → Integrations → Google Search Console.
- Click Connect Google account and sign in with the Google account that owns (or has access to) your GSC property.
- Grant the requested read-only permissions.
- Pick the GSC property that matches your site. Domain properties (
sc-domain:example.com) are preferred because they cover every subdomain and protocol.
You can connect multiple Google accounts and assign a different property to each site in your workspace.
Choosing the right property
GSC offers two property types:
- Domain property (
sc-domain:example.com) — covers every subdomain (www, blog, app) and bothhttpandhttps. Recommended. - URL-prefix property (
https://www.example.com/) — only covers the exact prefix. Useful when you only want one subdomain.
If both exist for the same site, pick the domain property to avoid double-counting.
Initial sync window
The first sync pulls historical data based on your plan:
| Plan | Historical window |
|---|---|
| Local | 3 years |
| Regional | 4 years |
| Global | 5 years |
The initial backfill can take 15–60 minutes depending on traffic volume. You will see a progress indicator in Settings → Integrations while it runs.
Daily auto-sync
Once connected, GeoBubbles refreshes your GSC data every day at 05:00 Europe/Zurich (UTC+2). The job pulls the latest available date from Google — typically yesterday's data, since Google publishes GSC metrics with a ~24-hour delay.
You can also trigger a manual refresh anytime from Settings → Integrations → Google Search Console → Sync now.
What we store
For each (date × query × page × country × device) row Google returns, we store:
- Impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position
- The landing page URL
- The country and device segment
This data powers:
- The SEO Attribution dashboard
- The Journey Analytics funnel
- The AI Brand Gap KPI (how many SEO-ranked keywords actually show up in AI answers)
- The Chat Cockpit 90-day rolling context
Permissions and security
GeoBubbles requests read-only access to your GSC data. We cannot modify property settings, submit URLs, or change sitemaps. You can revoke access anytime from your Google account security page or by clicking Disconnect in Settings → Integrations.
Troubleshooting
- Property not listed after connecting — make sure the Google account you used has at least Restricted permission in GSC for that property.
- Sync stuck or no data after 1 hour — disconnect and reconnect from Settings → Integrations. The next daily run will retry automatically.
- Numbers don't match the GSC UI — Google applies privacy thresholds and rounds aggregated values. Small discrepancies (< 5%) are expected.