google-search-console

# Analytics: Google Search Console Guides analysis of Google Search Console (GSC) data: performance metrics, indexing, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, and rich results. Covers best practices for monthly monitoring and actionable insights. **When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1-2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output. ## Scope - **Performance**: Clicks, impressions, CTR, average position; API for export - **Insights**: Simplified overview; top/trending content and queries - **Indexing**: Pages indexed, pages not indexed, reasons (Coverage) - **Technical**: Sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, Enhancements - **API**: searchanalytics.query for programmatic access - **Methodology**: How to read charts, avoid common mistakes, correlate with releases ## Analysis Best Practices ### Chart Reading | Practice | Why | |----------|-----| | **Focus one metric at a time** | Stacked bar charts hide fluctuations; toggle off other metrics to see each clearly | | **Don't compare just two points** | End-of-month vs prior month misses mid-month drama; examine full trend | | **Check beyond top 10** | Many reports default to top 10; scroll or paginate for more rows | | **Screenshot charts** | GSC retains limited history; save images for future reference | | **Record in spreadsheet** | Export at month-end; use formulas to track correlations over time | | **Track release dates** | Join dev standups, read release notes; correlate GSC shifts with deployments | ### Investigation Workflow 1. **Pinpoint date**: When did the metric change? 2. **Correlate**: Any releases, CMS changes, server maintenance, third-party code? 3. **Decide**: Investigate, correct, overlook, or monitor closely 4. **Loop in**: Product or dev team for root cause ## Key Reports & Metrics ### 1. Performance (Search Results) **Location**: Performance ? Search results | Metric | Use | |--------|-----| | **Clicks** | Traffic from Google Search | | **Impressions** | How often site appeared in results | | **CTR** | Whether users think page answers query | | **Average position** | Ranking trend | **Dimensions**: Query, page, country, device, date. Filter by search type: web, image, video, news. Use to find low-CTR high-impression pages (title/meta optimization opportunities). **Search appearance**: AMP, blue link, rich results (filterable in UI and API). #### CTR Benchmarks by Position Use to compare actual CTR vs expected. Benchmarks vary by SERP features (AI Overviews, featured snippets). **Zero-click**: When SERP features satisfy intent without a click, organic CTR drops; factor into expectations. See **serp-features** (Zero-Click section), **featured-snippet**. Clean SERPs: | Position | Expected CTR (baseline) | With AI Overviews (lower) | |----------|-------------------------|---------------------------| | 1 | 25-35% | ~19% | | 2 | 12-18% | ~12% | | 3 | 8-12% | ~7% | | 4-5 | 5-7% | ~5% | | 6-10 | 2-5% | 2-5% | **Interpretation**: If actual CTR is below expected for your position, prioritize title/meta optimization. Over 90% of first-page results have CTR below 10%; significant upside exists. #### Low CTR, High Impressions: Optimization Workflow 1. **Identify**: Sort by impressions; filter positions 1-10; 1,000+ monthly impressions 2. **Compare**: Actual CTR vs expected for position (see table above) 3. **Gap**: e.g., position 4 at 2% CTR vs expected 5-7% ? ~3-5% uplift potential 4. **Action**: Optimize title and meta per **title-tag**, **meta-description**; add schema for rich results (+10–20% clicks) #### Rich Results & CTR Pages with review stars, FAQ schema, or other rich snippets see 10-20% more clicks. See **schema-markup**. ### 2. Insights Report **Location**: Performance ? Insights (or Overview) Simplified overview; replaces standalone Search Console Insights. Data from GSC only (no GA since Dec 2024). | Card | Use | |------|-----| | **Clicks and impressions** | Site visibility and click effectiveness | | **Your content** | Top, trending up, trending down pages | | **Queries leading to your site** | Top, trending up, trending down queries | | **Top countries** | Geographic audience | | **Branded vs non-branded** | Brand recognition (AI-labeled; may mislabel) | | **Additional traffic sources** | Image, Video, News search, Discover | **Trending**: Based on click change vs previous period. Click items to jump to Performance report filtered to that item. **Query groups**: Similar queries grouped; group name = best-performing query. Not available for sub-properties or low-impression sites. ### 3. Page Indexing (Coverage) **Location**: Indexing ? Page indexing **Status grouping** (updated): Valid + Valid with warning ? **Indexed**. Error + Excluded ? **Not indexed**. **Indexed vs Not indexed are complementary**: Not all site content should be indexed. Login, admin, duplicate content, legal boilerplate, and low-value pages often intentionally use noindex. Indexed and non-indexed pages can reference each other (e.g., sitemap includes indexable URLs; noindex pages still exist and link internally). Non-indexed is not inherently a problem--investigate only when important pages are excluded. See indexing (noindex usage) and robots-txt (crawl control) for when to exclude. | Metric | Action | |--------|--------| | **Pages indexed** | Turn off "Pages not indexed" to view alone; watch for drops | | **Pages not indexed** | Turn off "Pages indexed" to view alone; watch for spikes. Distinguish intentional (noindex, robots) from accidental | **Filter**: All submitted pages / Unsubmitted pages only (dropdown near top). **Source column**: Indicates whether issue is caused by website or Google. **Why pages are not indexed**: Drill into reasons and example URLs. Common culprits: - Duplicate content - Noindex tags - Redirect errors - 5xx errors - 404 errors - Blocked by robots.txt - Discovered ? currently not indexed - Crawled ? currently not indexed **Quick check**: If trend line is stable, spend ~3 seconds; move on. Investigate if fourth column (trend) shifts. **Diagnosis workflow**: GSC Coverage ? click Issue ? view sample URLs ? identify pattern ? fix (see indexing for fix actions). **Coverage issue types**: | Issue | Meaning | Next step | |-------|---------|-----------| | Crawled - currently not indexed | Crawled but not indexed | See indexing | | Excluded by "noindex" tag | Intentionally excluded; often valid (login, admin, legal, etc.) | Ignore if expected; verify important pages not accidentally noindexed | | Blocked by robots.txt | Crawl blocked | See **robots-txt**; may be intentional | | Redirect / 404 | Redirect or missing | Fix URL or redirect | | Duplicate / Canonical | Duplicate content | Usually OK; keep canonical | **URL Inspection**: Verdicts: "URL is on Google," "URL is on Google, but has issues," "URL is not on Google." Use for important pages; verify canonical, internal links, sitemap; Request indexing if needed. ### 4. Video Indexing (If Applicable) **Location**: Indexing ? Video indexing - **Videos indexed** / **Videos not indexed**: Toggle off the other for clear view - **Why videos are not indexed**: Thumbnail blocked, invalid size/format, not in main content, etc. See **video-optimization** for video SEO; **youtube-seo** for YouTube. ### 5. XML Sitemaps **Location**: Indexing ? Sitemaps | Check | Action | |------|--------| | Status | Confirm each sitemap says "Success" | | URLs indexed | Click sitemap ? see indexed count; drops indicate indexing issues | | Bellwether sitemaps | For large sites, monitor templated sitemaps (by country, language, division) | Enterprise: Glitches can block new URL crawling, cause hreflang confusion, delay fresh content discovery. ### 6. Core Web Vitals **Location**: Experience ? Core Web Vitals **Priority**: Mobile first (Google's higher expectations for mobile). | Metric | Mobile | Desktop | |--------|-------|---------| | **Good URLs** | Target | Secondary | | **Needs improvement** | Fix | Monitor | | **Poor URLs** | Fix | Monitor | **Why URLs don't have good score**: Click "Open report" → grouped example URLs by issue type. For threshold values and fixes, see **core-web-vitals**. **Tip**: Historical chart is short; export to spreadsheet for longer trends. Share with dev team regularly; correlate dates with releases. **Layout** (updated): Two tables--Poor or Need improvement; Good (click "View data about usable pages"). ### 7. Enhancements (Rich Results) **Location**: Experience ? Enhancements (Product snippets, Merchant listings under Shopping) **Status** (updated): Two-tier?*invalid* (critical issues, may not appear) vs **valid** (no critical issues; may still have warnings). Warnings no longer top-level. | Type | Examples | |------|----------| | Content | Breadcrumbs, FAQ, Events, Videos (see **video-optimization**), Job postings, Review snippets, Q&A, Discussion forums | | Shopping | Product snippets, Merchant listings | | Other | Recipes, Datasets, Hotels, Vacation rentals, Profile pages, Practice problems, Math solvers, Image metadata | **Note**: Reports show sample items, not full list. Use URL Inspection for unlisted URLs. ### 8. AI Overviews (GSC Limitation) - **GSC**: AI Overviews clicks/impressions are not separated from organic in Performance report. - **Workaround**: Filter queries that tend to trigger AI Overviews to estimate AI-driven visibility: ``` (?i)^(who|what|where|when|why|how|which|is|are|can|does|should)|\b(vs|versus|compare|difference|pros and cons|guide|tutorial|best|top|list)\b ``` For GA4 AI traffic tracking, see **ai-traffic-tracking**. ### 9. Links & Disavow **Location**: Links (inbound links), Security & Manual Actions - **Links report**: View links to site and pages; anchor text distribution. - **Disavow file**: Submit via GSC when necessary (manual penalty, toxic links). Use sparingly; over-disavowing can harm. See **backlink-analysis** for when to disavow. ## Search Console API **Method**: `searchanalytics.query()` --exposes all Performance report data. ### Metrics Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Position. ### Dimensions date, query, page, country, device. Search appearance (AMP, blue link, rich results). Filter by search type: web, image, video, news. ### Limits | Limit | Value | |-------|-------| | Rows per day per search type per property | 50,000 | | Rows per response | 25,000 (use pagination: startRow, rowLimit) | | Data availability | 2-3 days after | **Tip**: Run daily queries for one day of data to avoid quota. Verify data presence first (dimensions: date only, no filters). **Optimization**: Gzip compression; `fields` parameter for partial responses; pagination for large datasets. **References**: [Search Console API](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/about), [searchanalytics.query](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/v1/how-tos/search_analytics) ## Monthly Audit Checklist - [ ] Performance: Clicks, impressions, CTR, position trends - [ ] Insights: Top/trending content and queries (if available) - [ ] Page indexing: Indexed vs not indexed (isolated views) - [ ] Why not indexed: Trend lines for key reasons - [ ] Sitemaps: All "Success"; indexed URL counts stable - [ ] Core Web Vitals: Mobile good/needs improvement/poor - [ ] Enhancements: No new invalid items (critical issues) - [ ] Links: No manual actions; disavow only if needed (see **backlink-analysis**) - [ ] Data exported to spreadsheet (month-end snapshot) - [ ] Charts screenshotted for history - [ ] Release notes reviewed for correlation ## Output Format - **Summary**: Key findings, trends, anomalies - **Metrics**: Specific numbers and date ranges - **CTR analysis**: Actual vs expected by position; low-CTR high-impression pages - **Title/meta opportunities**: Pages with CTR gap; specific optimization suggestions - **Action items**: Prioritized fixes (indexing, CWV, sitemaps, enhancements, title/meta) - **Correlation**: Suspected causes (releases, config changes) - **Next steps**: Monitoring plan, dev handoff ## Related Skills - **title-tag, meta-description, page-metadata**: Title and meta optimization for low-CTR pages; hreflang - **xml-sitemap**: Fix sitemap errors - **indexing**: Resolve indexing issues - **core-web-vitals**: CWV optimization; fix LCP, INP, CLS - **mobile-friendly**: Mobile Usability report; mobile-first indexing - **schema-markup**: Fix structured data / rich results - **backlink-analysis**: When to disavow; backlink audit - **seo-monitoring**: Full SEO data analysis, benchmark