How Can I Tell Which Search Engines My Visitors Used?

Wondering which search engine to put your paid search dollars towards? This step-by-step guide for both Google Analytics and GA4 will help you reveal which search engine visitors are using to get to your website, which will help identify opportunities for your organic and paid search strategy.

1. Login to Google Analytics

2. Once logged in, select Acquisition from the left sidebar.

3. In the expanded menu, select All Traffic.

4. Under the expanded All Traffic menu, select Channels

5. Now, you’ll see some new data in the right pane of your screen, showing you your site’s traffic channels. Click on the channel labeled Organic Search.

6. On the resulting screen, click Source near the top of the page.

7. Finally, the search engines that people used to find your site will show in the right pane. If you look just to the right of the search engine name, you’ll see how many visits you received from that search engine, along with the percentage of your search engine traffic that each source represents.

1. Login to Google Analytics

2. Once logged in, select Reports from the left sidebar.

3. In the expanded menu, under Life Cycle select Acquistion.

4. Under the expanded Acquisition menu, select Traffic Acquisition

5. Now, you’ll see some new data in the right pane of your screen, showing you your site’s traffic channels. Click on the Add Comparison at the top next All Users under Traffic acquisition: Session default channel grouping.

6. On the resulting screen Build comparison, click Select Dimension under Session Acquisition select Sessions default channel grouping

7. Next under Dimension values click and then check the box for Organic Search. Hit ok and click the Apply Button.

8. Under the Graph next to Sessions default channel grouping, click the + (plus sign)

9. Select Session acquisition and then Session Source

10. Finally, the search engines that people used to find your site will show in the right pane. If you look just to the right of the search engine name, you’ll see how many visits you received from that search engine. To get the percentage for each source you will have to do the math. Use this online percentage calculator.