Integrations
Google Search Console
Connect GSC to track organic search queries, clicks, impressions, CTR, and ranking positions alongside your AI visibility data.
Overview
Connect your Google Search Console property to understand how your organic search performance relates to your AI visibility. Track which search queries drive traffic, monitor ranking positions, and correlate organic data with AI mentions.
What You Get
- Search queries — See which queries show your site in Google results.
- Click and impression data — Understand real search traffic volume for each query.
- Average CTR and position — Track organic ranking performance over time.
- Country and device breakdowns — See how search performance varies by market and device type.
- First-party Google AI visibility — Search Console now reports how often your pages appear in Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode (impressions, clicks, CTR, position per page). AEO Optima syncs this via the Search Analytics
searchAppearancedimension, so you get your own AI-answer visibility straight from Google — free, with no third-party SERP connector. It feeds the Fusion Insights "AI Visibility (Search Console)" insight. - Daily automated sync — GSC data is refreshed every day at 7AM UTC.
Prerequisites
- A verified Google Search Console property (URL prefix or domain).
- The Google account must have Restricted access or above on the property.
- Your AEO Optima plan must be Pro-Individual or above (Pro-Individual, Pro-SME, Enterprise-Brand, Enterprise-Agency, or Custom tiers).
How to Connect
- Navigate to Settings → Integrations.
- Find the Google Search Console card and click Connect Search Console.
- You'll be redirected to Google to authorize access. AEO Optima requests
webmasters.readonlyanduserinfo.emailscopes. - After authorization, you'll be redirected back. Pick the GSC site/property to track from the dropdown. AEO Optima suggests the best match for your project (scoring each property's URL against your project's brand name and website, marked high/medium confidence) so the right one is pre-surfaced even when the Google account exposes hundreds of properties.
- Click Save. The first sync runs immediately (you don't wait for the next daily cron), and historical data from the past few days is imported. If you bound the wrong property, AEO Optima's binding diagnostics flag the mismatch.
Data Synced
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Clicks | Times users clicked through to your site from Google search |
| Impressions | Times your site appeared in search results |
| CTR | Click-through rate (clicks ÷ impressions) |
| Position | Average ranking position in search results |
| Query | The search term that triggered the result |
| Page | The landing page URL that appeared in results |
| Country | The country where the search was performed |
| Device | Desktop, mobile, or tablet |
| AI appearance | How often your pages appeared in Google's AI Overviews / AI Mode (impressions, clicks, CTR, position) — first-party, via the searchAppearance dimension |
Sync Schedule
Data is synced daily at 7AM UTC via the aeo-optima-gsc-sync background job. Google Search Console data has a processing delay of 2-3 days, so the sync window covers days 3 through 10 in the past to ensure complete data.
GSC vs SERP Tracking
| Google Search Console | SERP Tracking | |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Google's own data via API | Third-party SERP providers (Serper, DataForSEO) |
| What it tracks | Organic Google search results | AI Overviews, AI Mode, Featured Snippets |
| Metrics | Clicks, impressions, CTR, position | Brand mentions, citations, AI visibility |
| Best for | Understanding organic search traffic | Understanding AI answer engine visibility |
| Used together | Correlate organic search with AI visibility for a complete picture |
Disconnecting
To disconnect, go to Settings → Integrations → Google Search Console and click Disconnect. A confirmation dialog will appear. Your existing synced data is preserved — only new syncs stop.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| "Please revoke access and try again" | Go to myaccount.google.com/permissions, revoke AEO Optima access, then reconnect |
| No sites listed | Ensure your Google account has access to at least one Search Console property |
| Data not appearing | GSC has a 2-3 day processing delay. Check back after 72 hours |
| Stale data | The sync runs at 7AM UTC daily. Check the "Last Synced" timestamp on the integration card |