I Connected GA4 to Brass-SEO. Here's What It Said.

Q: Is my data safe with read-only access?

Brass-SEO uses read-only OAuth scopes (analytics.readonly for GA4 and webmasters.readonly for GSC), which means it can view your data but cannot modify, delete, or write anything in your Google accounts. Google's Third Party Data Safety Team verified and approved this OAuth configuration. For the full security breakdown, see why we built Brass-SEO read-only.

I have a confession: I know how GA4 works, and I still do not enjoy using it. The reports are there. The data is real. But every time I open GA4 to check something, I end up clicking through three different reports, adjusting date ranges, filtering by traffic source, and then trying to remember what the numbers mean relative to last month. It takes fifteen minutes to answer a question that should take thirty seconds.

That is why I connected my GA4 account to Brass-SEO and started asking questions instead of navigating dashboards. The difference was immediate.

Try it on your own data

Brass-SEO reads your GA4 and GSC data and explains it in plain English. Start your 3-day free trial — $25/month after that.

The GA4 Dashboard Problem
The Setup: Two Minutes, Three Steps
What I Asked and What It Told Me
Dashboards vs. Answers
The Cross-Referencing That Changes Everything
What You Can Ask on Day One
Frequently Asked Questions

The GA4 Dashboard Problem

GA4 contains over 30 standard reports across Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, and Retention categories, but provides no guidance on which report answers which business question. The interface is built for analysts who already know what they are looking for, not for business owners who have a question and want an answer.

Here is what a typical GA4 session looks like when you have a question:

Open GA4. Land on the Home overview. Skim a bunch of cards that show a little of everything.
Click into Traffic Acquisition because you want to know where your visitors come from. See rows of channels with numbers. Wonder whether 2,400 sessions from organic search is good or bad.
Realize you need to compare to last month. Click the date picker. Toggle comparison mode. Now there are two numbers in every cell.
Notice sessions are up 12% but engagement rate dropped. Is that a problem? Click into the Engagement report to investigate. Lose track of what you originally wanted to know.
Give up and close the tab. Fifteen minutes gone. No clear answer.

The data in GA4 is genuinely valuable. The interface is the bottleneck. What if you could skip the interface entirely and just ask your question?

That is exactly what connecting GA4 to Brass-SEO does. If the whole GA4 experience feels overwhelming, you are not alone — see I Don't Get Google Analytics for more on why the tool is confusing and what actually matters inside it.

The Setup: Two Minutes, Three Steps

Brass-SEO requires both Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 — not one or the other, both. GSC shows how your site performs in Google search results. GA4 shows what visitors do once they arrive. You need both sides of the picture for the analysis to be useful.

The setup process:

Step 1: Connect Google Search Console. Click the Connect GSC button on the Brass-SEO dashboard. Google's OAuth screen appears. You authorize read-only access (the webmasters.readonly scope — Brass-SEO cannot modify your data). Google's Third Party Data Safety Team has verified and approved this OAuth connection.

Step 2: Connect Google Analytics 4. After GSC is connected, the Connect GA4 button appears. Same process — Google's OAuth screen, read-only access (analytics.readonly scope). Brass-SEO matches your GA4 property to your GSC property automatically based on your domain.

Step 3: Subscribe and start asking. The subscribe button appears only after both GSC and GA4 are connected. It is $25/month with a 3-day free trial. Once subscribed, the conversational AI interface opens and you can start asking questions about your data immediately.

The entire process takes about 2 minutes from signup to first question. For a detailed walkthrough with screenshots, see the setup guide. For context on why Brass-SEO uses read-only access, see why we built Brass-SEO read-only.

What I Asked and What It Told Me

Brass-SEO's conversational AI has access to five tools it can use to answer questions: query_site for GSC and GA4 data, get_page for crawling individual URLs, check_indexing for Google's URL Inspection API, get_playbook for SEO playbooks, and get_help for product guidance. When you ask a question, the AI decides which tools to use and what data to pull.

Here are the questions I asked on my first session and what the AI came back with.

"How is my organic traffic trending?"

The AI pulled my GA4 sessions for the last 28 days and compared them to the previous 28 days. Instead of showing me a table of numbers, it told me: organic traffic was up 18% month over month, the top three landing pages driving the growth, and which traffic source (organic search) was outperforming the others. One question, one answer, 30 seconds.

In GA4, getting this same answer requires navigating to Traffic Acquisition, toggling the comparison period, sorting by organic search, then cross-referencing with the Landing Pages report. That is four clicks minimum and a lot of mental math.

"Which pages have high traffic but low engagement?"

This is where the cross-referencing kicked in. The AI pulled both GSC data (to find pages with the most impressions and clicks) and GA4 data (to check engagement rate on those same pages). It flagged two pages that were getting significant organic traffic but had engagement rates below 30% — meaning visitors were arriving and leaving almost immediately.

For each flagged page, the AI suggested possible causes: one had a title tag that promised something the content did not deliver, and the other was loading slowly on mobile. These are the kinds of insights that require manually correlating data from two different tools when you are doing it yourself.

"What are my best-performing keywords?"

The AI pulled my GSC query data sorted by clicks, showed me the top 10 keywords driving traffic, and noted which ones had improving positions versus declining positions. It also flagged three keywords in the 11-20 position range — what SEO professionals call striking-distance keywords — where a small improvement could move them onto page one.

"Is this page indexed?"

I gave it a URL I had published recently. The AI used the URL Inspection API to check Google's index and told me the page was crawled and indexed, when it was last crawled, and that Google's chosen canonical matched my declared canonical. That same check in Google Search Console requires manually pasting the URL into the inspection tool, waiting for the API call, and interpreting the results yourself.

Dashboards vs. Answers

Answering a single SEO question in GA4 requires navigating to the correct report, setting date ranges, applying filters, and interpreting raw numbers — a process that typically takes 10-15 minutes per question. Brass-SEO starts with your question and returns an interpreted answer in about 30 seconds.

GA4 Dashboard	Brass-SEO
You navigate to the right report	You ask a question in plain English
You set date ranges and filters manually	The AI selects the relevant time period
You see rows of numbers	You get a narrative explanation
You cross-reference by opening a second report	The AI cross-references GSC and GA4 automatically
You interpret what the numbers mean	The AI tells you what changed and why it matters
10-15 minutes per question	30 seconds per question

This does not mean GA4 is useless. GA4 is the source of truth — Brass-SEO reads from it. But for the business owner who needs answers rather than data exploration, the conversational interface skips the parts of GA4 that create friction.

If you want to understand what the GA4 numbers actually mean so you can read them yourself when needed, see The Only 5 GA4 Numbers That Matter for Your Business.

The Cross-Referencing That Changes Everything

Brass-SEO connects to both Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 because the most useful SEO insights live at the intersection of what people search for and what they do when they arrive. Neither data source tells the full story alone.

GSC alone tells you: which queries trigger your pages in search results, your average position, impressions, clicks, and click-through rate. It does not tell you what visitors do after they click.

GA4 alone tells you: how many visitors you get, where they come from, how long they stay, and what they engage with. It does not tell you which specific Google searches brought them.

Together, they answer: which search queries bring engaged visitors (GSC clicks + GA4 engagement), which pages rank well but disappoint visitors (high GSC impressions + low GA4 engagement), and which content performs well both in search results and on-site.

When you ask Brass-SEO a question like "which pages should I improve first?", it checks both data sources. A page with 5,000 impressions in GSC but 15% engagement rate in GA4 is a clear candidate — it has search visibility but is failing to deliver on the promise. That diagnosis requires one question in Brass-SEO or 20 minutes of manual cross-referencing across two separate Google tools.

For a deeper look at how GSC and GA4 complement each other, see How to Read Your GA4 Traffic Report.

What You Can Ask on Day One

Brass-SEO's dashboard includes 11 one-click buttons for common analyses, but you can also type any question in the chat. Here are questions that work well on your first session:

Traffic overview:

"How is my organic traffic trending?"
"Where is my traffic coming from?"
"Which pages get the most visits?"

Performance diagnosis:

"Which pages have high traffic but low engagement?"
"Are any of my keywords declining?"
"What are my best opportunities to reach page one?"

Page-specific analysis:

"Audit this page: [URL]"
"Is this page indexed?"
"What keywords does this page rank for?"

Content planning:

"What content gaps do I have?"
"What should I write about next?"
"Which of my pages need updating?"

The Brass-SEO Full Analysis button runs a comprehensive check across all of these categories at once. The Brass-SEO Declining Pages button specifically flags content that is losing rankings. The Brass-SEO Opportunities button focuses on keywords where you are close to page one.

For a complete guide on what to ask during your first session, see the first analysis guide.

Ready to try it? Start your 3-day free trial — $25/month after that. Setup takes about 2 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Brass-SEO replace GA4?

No. Brass-SEO reads your GA4 data through Google's API — it does not replace GA4 or store a copy of your data. GA4 continues collecting data on your site as normal. Brass-SEO provides a conversational interface for asking questions about that data and cross-referencing it with your Google Search Console data. You can still log into GA4 directly whenever you want.

Is my data safe with read-only access?

Brass-SEO uses read-only OAuth scopes (analytics.readonly for GA4 and webmasters.readonly for GSC), which means it can view your data but cannot modify, delete, or write anything in your Google accounts. Google's Third Party Data Safety Team verified and approved this OAuth configuration. For the full security breakdown, see why we built Brass-SEO read-only.

What if I do not have Google Search Console set up yet?

Both GSC and GA4 are required to use Brass-SEO. If you do not have GSC set up, you will need to verify your site in Google Search Console first. The process takes about five minutes — Google offers several verification methods including DNS record, HTML tag, and Google Analytics verification. Once verified, your GSC data starts populating within a few days.

Can I ask about specific pages or just overall trends?

Both. You can ask broad questions ("how is my traffic trending?") or specific ones ("audit brass-seo.com/blog/my-post" or "is this URL indexed?"). The AI chooses which tools and data sources to use based on your question. Page-specific questions use the crawl tool to analyze on-page SEO elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and headings alongside the search data from GSC.

How is this different from reading GA4 reports myself?

The data is the same — Brass-SEO reads from the same GA4 property you access directly. The difference is the interface. GA4 gives you reports organized by category where you navigate, filter, and interpret. Brass-SEO gives you a conversational interface where you ask a question and get an interpreted answer that combines GA4 data with GSC data. For business owners who know what questions they have but find the GA4 interface slow or confusing, the conversational approach gets answers faster. For a walkthrough of GA4's core reports, see The Only 5 GA4 Numbers That Matter.