You already use Burst to see how visitors behave on your website. But there’s one question your analytics can’t answer on its own: what did people type into Google before they landed on your site?
That answer lives in Google Search Console, and with Burst’s Search Console integration, you can now bring it straight into your Burst dashboard. No more switching between tabs, no more logging into a separate Google interface just to check your search performance. And the best part? It’s available in both Burst Free and Burst Pro.
What is the Search Console integration?
Google Search Console is Google’s free tool that shows how your site performs in Google Search: which queries people search for, how often your site shows up, and how often they click through.
Burst connects to Search Console and shows this data in a new Google Searches block on your dashboard. For every search query that brought your site into Google’s results, you’ll see:
- Query – the actual words people typed into Google
- Clicks – how many times someone clicked through to your site
- Impressions – how often your site appeared in the search results
- Click Through Rate (CTR) – the percentage of impressions that turned into clicks
- Average position – where your site ranked in the results, on average
All of it filtered by the same date range you’re already using in Burst, right next to your regular traffic statistics.
How to enable it
Setting it up takes about a minute. The steps are the same in Free and Pro:
- Go to Settings → Integrations in your Burst dashboard. At the top you’ll find the Google Search Console section.
- Turn on “Enable Google Search Console” and save your settings. A connect panel appears.
- Click “Connect”. Burst opens a Google window where you sign in and grant read-only access to your Search Console data. Keep the Burst tab open while you authorize.
- That’s it. Burst automatically finds the Search Console property that matches your website’s address — no need to pick anything from a list or paste in IDs.
Once connected, Burst starts pulling in your search data in the background. It doesn’t just fetch recent data either: Burst gradually backfills your search history, going back as far as Search Console keeps it (roughly 16 months), so you’ll soon have a rich history to explore. After that, it stays up to date automatically with a daily sync.
Good to know: Google delivers Search Console data with a delay of about two days. So if you select a date range that only covers today or yesterday, you won’t see search data yet — that’s Google’s delay, not a problem with the connection. Pick a slightly earlier range and your queries will be there.
Where to find your search data
After connecting, open the Sources tab in your Burst dashboard. There you’ll find the Google Searches block, showing your top search queries for the selected period.
The block works like every other data table in Burst:
- Change the date range to compare this month against last month, or zoom in on the week after you published a new article.
- Search within your queries to quickly find everything related to a specific topic or product.
- Sort by any column — most clicks, most impressions, best (or worst) position.
What can you do with this data?
Having your search queries next to your visitor statistics is where things get interesting. A few practical ways to use it:
Find your hidden opportunities. Sort by impressions and look for queries with lots of impressions but a low click-through rate. Your site is showing up in Google for these searches — people just aren’t clicking. Often a better page title or meta description is all it takes to turn those impressions into visitors.
Spot pages that almost rank. Queries with an average position between 5 and 15 are your low-hanging fruit. You’re on page one or just outside it. A content update, a few internal links, or answering the question more directly can push these into the top spots — where the clicks are.
Learn the language of your audience. The queries list shows you the exact words people use — which are often not the words you use on your site. If people search for “cheap website statistics” and you only ever write “affordable analytics”, you now know what to change.
See the full journey. This is where Burst shines: the search query tells you how people found you, and your Burst statistics tell you what happened next. Did visitors from that trending query actually stay and read? Check your engagement and time-on-page data in the same dashboard and connect the dots.
Check the impact of your work. Published a new blog post or reworked an important page? Give it a couple of weeks, then check whether new queries are appearing and whether your position and clicks are improving.
Your data stays yours
If you know Burst, you know privacy is the whole point. The Search Console integration follows the same philosophy:
- Burst only asks Google for read-only access — it can look at your search data, never change anything.
- Your authorization is stored only on your own website.
- The data is fetched directly from Google to your site. Nothing passes through or gets stored on Burst’s servers.
And if you ever change your mind, one click on Disconnect revokes Burst’s access. You can reconnect at any time.
Free or Pro?
The Google Search Console integration is included in both free and premium plans. We think seeing how people find you on Google is too fundamental to lock away.
Upgrading to Burst Pro makes the Sources tab around it a lot more powerful: you’ll also see your traffic sources and campaigns, so you can compare what Google Search brings you against your newsletters, social media, and ad campaigns: all in one view.
Get started
Open your Burst dashboard, head to Settings → Integrations, and connect Google Search Console. Two minutes from now, you’ll know exactly what your visitors typed into Google to find you, without ever leaving WordPress.
