Connecting Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is Google's own report of how your verified site performs in Google Search: real impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and average position, for the actual searches people used. Connecting it brings that real data into keyword tracking, next to the estimated rank and your AI visibility.

Why connect it

The Google position LumaRank shows without GSC is a solid estimate. GSC is your real number, straight from Google, for your own site. For an SEO team that lives in Search Console, that difference matters: it is your traffic, your queries, your CTR.

GSC does not replace the estimate. It only covers your own site and only the queries you already get impressions for, so the estimate still fills in competitors and keywords you do not rank for yet.

How to connect

1. Open Company settings and find the Google Search Console card under Data sources.
2. Click Connect Google Search Console. You will be sent to Google to approve read-only access. LumaRank can never change anything in your Search Console.
3. Come back and pick which verified property matches your site. LumaRank suggests the one that matches your domain automatically.

You connect one Google account per company. Make sure the account you use already has access to the property in Search Console.

Connecting is available on paid plans.

What you will see

• Keywords table: the Google column shows your real position (in blue) for keywords GSC has data for, with impressions on hover. Where there is no real data yet, it falls back to the estimate, marked "est." You never see two numbers for the same keyword.
• Keyword detail: a Google Search Console panel with real impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position for that exact query.

Some keywords show no GSC data. That is expected: Google reports the top queries for your site and the data lags two to three days, so newer or low-traffic keywords may not appear yet. They keep showing the estimate until real data arrives.

The Search Console view

Once a property is linked, each project gets a Search Console page (in the project menu, next to Keywords). It is your site-level Google picture for the last 28 days, with every number compared to the 28 days before it:

• Traffic: total clicks, impressions, average CTR and average position, each with its change, plus day-by-day clicks and impressions charts.
• AI visibility x Google: your AI-tracked keywords plotted by Google rank against how many AI assistants cite you. It sorts them into four groups: Winning (you rank in the top 10 and AI cites you), GEO opportunity (you rank in the top 10 but the AI answers skip you), SEO opportunity (the AI answers cite you but Google ranks you low), and Low priority. Point size reflects your Google clicks. This only covers keywords you track in AI that also have Google data, so it fills in as you track more. The GEO opportunities use the same definition as the keyword opportunities, so the two always agree.
• Striking distance: queries where you rank just below page 1 (positions 11 to 20) and already earn impressions. A small improvement can move them onto page 1.
• CTR gaps: queries earning fewer clicks than is typical for their position, usually a sign the page title and description could be more compelling.
• Keyword cannibalization: queries where two or more of your own pages compete in Google's results. Competing pages can split your ranking signals; consider consolidating them or making each one target a distinct search.
• Untracked queries: real searches Google already shows your site for that you do not track yet. Add them from the Keywords page (there is a From Search Console button in the add-keywords dialog) to also watch their AI visibility.
• Where your traffic comes from: device, country and search-appearance breakdowns (including Google's special results, like rich results and AI surfaces).
• Branded vs non-branded: how much of your traffic comes from people searching your name versus everything else. Non-branded is your true earned SEO. A brand-demand tile tracks how often people search for you by name, a proxy for awareness.
• Pages losing traffic: pages whose clicks dropped the most versus the previous period, so you know what to refresh. This needs about eight weeks of history to appear.
• Top queries and top pages: your best-performing searches and URLs.

Where a block does not have enough data yet, it says so instead of showing a misleading zero. New properties fill in within a day or two of connecting. The cannibalization block needs a little longer, because it collects query-and-page data from the moment you connect.

The striking-distance, CTR-gap and cannibalization insights also appear as actions in the Actions hub (under Opportunities → Search Console), where you can mark them done or dismiss them like any other action.

Choosing or changing the property

If your site uses more than one verified property, or the wrong one was picked, use Change property on the keywords page to select the right one. Each project maps to its own property.

Reconnecting

If you remove LumaRank's access from your Google account, the card shows Reconnect needed. Click Reconnect to resume the daily refresh. To stop entirely, use Disconnect, which also removes LumaRank's access at Google.