Analytics: Google Search Console skill

When the user wants to analyze Google Search Console data, use the GSC API, or interpret search performance.

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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

Pinpoint date: When did the metric change?
Correlate: Any releases, CMS changes, server maintenance, third-party code?
Decide: Investigate, correct, overlook, or monitor closely
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

Identify: Sort by impressions; filter positions 1-10; 1,000+ monthly impressions
Compare: Actual CTR vs expected for position (see table above)
Gap: e.g., position 4 at 2% CTR vs expected 5-7% ? ~3-5% uplift potential
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 (GA data removed 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, searchanalytics.query

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

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

1	---
2	name: google-search-console
3	description: When the user wants to analyze Google Search Console data, use the GSC API, or interpret search performance. Also use when the user mentions "GSC," "Search Console," "indexing report," "Core Web Vitals," "Enhancements," "Insights report," "search performance," "search queries," "search performance report," "URL inspection," "impressions," "CTR," "average position," "index coverage," "GSC data analysis," "Search Console API," or "searchanalytics.query." When the user wants to rewrite title tags (not only report on them), use title-tag. For meta description rewrites, use meta-description.
4	metadata:
5	version: 1.5.1
6	---
7
8	# Analytics: Google Search Console
9
10	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.
11
12	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.
13
14	## Scope
15
16	- Performance: Clicks, impressions, CTR, average position; API for export
17	- Insights: Simplified overview; top/trending content and queries
18	- Indexing: Pages indexed, pages not indexed, reasons (Coverage)
19	- Technical: Sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, Enhancements
20	- API: searchanalytics.query for programmatic access
21	- Methodology: How to read charts, avoid common mistakes, correlate with releases
22
23	## Analysis Best Practices
24
25	### Chart Reading
26
27	\| Practice \| Why \|
28	\|----------\|-----\|
29	\| Focus one metric at a time \| Stacked bar charts hide fluctuations; toggle off other metrics to see each clearly \|
30	\| Don't compare just two points \| End-of-month vs prior month misses mid-month drama; examine full trend \|
31	\| Check beyond top 10 \| Many reports default to top 10; scroll or paginate for more rows \|
32	\| Screenshot charts \| GSC retains limited history; save images for future reference \|
33	\| Record in spreadsheet \| Export at month-end; use formulas to track correlations over time \|
34	\| Track release dates \| Join dev standups, read release notes; correlate GSC shifts with deployments \|
35
36	### Investigation Workflow
37
38	1. Pinpoint date: When did the metric change?
39	2. Correlate: Any releases, CMS changes, server maintenance, third-party code?
40	3. Decide: Investigate, correct, overlook, or monitor closely
41	4. Loop in: Product or dev team for root cause
42
43	## Key Reports & Metrics
44
45	### 1. Performance (Search Results)
46
47	Location: Performance ? Search results
48
49	\| Metric \| Use \|
50	\|--------\|-----\|
51	\| Clicks \| Traffic from Google Search \|
52	\| Impressions \| How often site appeared in results \|
53	\| CTR \| Whether users think page answers query \|
54	\| Average position \| Ranking trend \|
55
56	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).
57
58	Search appearance: AMP, blue link, rich results (filterable in UI and API).
59
60	#### CTR Benchmarks by Position
61
62	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:
63
64	\| Position \| Expected CTR (baseline) \| With AI Overviews (lower) \|
65	\|----------\|-------------------------\|---------------------------\|
66	\| 1 \| 25-35% \| ~19% \|
67	\| 2 \| 12-18% \| ~12% \|
68	\| 3 \| 8-12% \| ~7% \|
69	\| 4-5 \| 5-7% \| ~5% \|
70	\| 6-10 \| 2-5% \| 2-5% \|
71
72	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.
73
74	#### Low CTR, High Impressions: Optimization Workflow
75
76	1. Identify: Sort by impressions; filter positions 1-10; 1,000+ monthly impressions
77	2. Compare: Actual CTR vs expected for position (see table above)
78	3. Gap: e.g., position 4 at 2% CTR vs expected 5-7% ? ~3-5% uplift potential
79	4. Action: Optimize title and meta per title-tag, meta-description; add schema for rich results (+10–20% clicks)
80
81	#### Rich Results & CTR
82
83	Pages with review stars, FAQ schema, or other rich snippets see 10-20% more clicks. See schema-markup.
84
85	### 2. Insights Report
86
87	Location: Performance ? Insights (or Overview)
88
89	Simplified overview; replaces standalone Search Console Insights. Data from GSC only (GA data removed Dec 2024).
90
91	\| Card \| Use \|
92	\|------\|-----\|
93	\| Clicks and impressions \| Site visibility and click effectiveness \|
94	\| Your content \| Top, trending up, trending down pages \|
95	\| Queries leading to your site \| Top, trending up, trending down queries \|
96	\| Top countries \| Geographic audience \|
97	\| Branded vs non-branded \| Brand recognition (AI-labeled; may mislabel) \|
98	\| Additional traffic sources \| Image, Video, News search, Discover \|
99
100	Trending: Based on click change vs previous period. Click items to jump to Performance report filtered to that item.
101
102	Query groups: Similar queries grouped; group name = best-performing query. Not available for sub-properties or low-impression sites.
103
104	### 3. Page Indexing (Coverage)
105
106	Location: Indexing ? Page indexing
107
108	Status grouping (updated): Valid + Valid with warning ? Indexed. Error + Excluded ? Not indexed.
109
110	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.
111
112	\| Metric \| Action \|
113	\|--------\|--------\|
114	\| Pages indexed \| Turn off "Pages not indexed" to view alone; watch for drops \|
115	\| Pages not indexed \| Turn off "Pages indexed" to view alone; watch for spikes. Distinguish intentional (noindex, robots) from accidental \|
116
117	Filter: All submitted pages / Unsubmitted pages only (dropdown near top).
118
119	Source column: Indicates whether issue is caused by website or Google.
120
121	Why pages are not indexed: Drill into reasons and example URLs. Common culprits:
122
123	- Duplicate content
124	- Noindex tags
125	- Redirect errors
126	- 5xx errors
127	- 404 errors
128	- Blocked by robots.txt
129	- Discovered ? currently not indexed
130	- Crawled ? currently not indexed
131
132	Quick check: If trend line is stable, spend ~3 seconds; move on. Investigate if fourth column (trend) shifts.
133
134	Diagnosis workflow: GSC Coverage ? click Issue ? view sample URLs ? identify pattern ? fix (see indexing for fix actions).
135
136	Coverage issue types:
137
138	\| Issue \| Meaning \| Next step \|
139	\|-------\|---------\|-----------\|
140	\| Crawled - currently not indexed \| Crawled but not indexed \| See indexing \|
141	\| Excluded by "noindex" tag \| Intentionally excluded; often valid (login, admin, legal, etc.) \| Ignore if expected; verify important pages not accidentally noindexed \|
142	\| Blocked by robots.txt \| Crawl blocked \| See robots-txt; may be intentional \|
143	\| Redirect / 404 \| Redirect or missing \| Fix URL or redirect \|
144	\| Duplicate / Canonical \| Duplicate content \| Usually OK; keep canonical \|
145
146	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.
147
148	### 4. Video Indexing (If Applicable)
149
150	Location: Indexing ? Video indexing
151
152	- Videos indexed / Videos not indexed: Toggle off the other for clear view
153	- Why videos are not indexed: Thumbnail blocked, invalid size/format, not in main content, etc.
154
155	See video-optimization for video SEO; youtube-seo for YouTube.
156
157	### 5. XML Sitemaps
158
159	Location: Indexing ? Sitemaps
160
161	\| Check \| Action \|
162	\|------\|--------\|
163	\| Status \| Confirm each sitemap says "Success" \|
164	\| URLs indexed \| Click sitemap ? see indexed count; drops indicate indexing issues \|
165	\| Bellwether sitemaps \| For large sites, monitor templated sitemaps (by country, language, division) \|
166
167	Enterprise: Glitches can block new URL crawling, cause hreflang confusion, delay fresh content discovery.
168
169	### 6. Core Web Vitals
170
171	Location: Experience ? Core Web Vitals
172
173	Priority: Mobile first (Google's higher expectations for mobile).
174
175	\| Metric \| Mobile \| Desktop \|
176	\|--------\|-------\|---------\|
177	\| Good URLs \| Target \| Secondary \|
178	\| Needs improvement \| Fix \| Monitor \|
179	\| Poor URLs \| Fix \| Monitor \|
180
181	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.
182
183	Tip: Historical chart is short; export to spreadsheet for longer trends. Share with dev team regularly; correlate dates with releases.
184
185	Layout (updated): Two tables--Poor or Need improvement; Good (click "View data about usable pages").
186
187	### 7. Enhancements (Rich Results)
188
189	Location: Experience ? Enhancements (Product snippets, Merchant listings under Shopping)
190
191	Status (updated): Two-tier?invalid (critical issues, may not appear) vs valid (no critical issues; may still have warnings). Warnings no longer top-level.
192
193	\| Type \| Examples \|
194	\|------\|----------\|
195	\| Content \| Breadcrumbs, FAQ, Events, Videos (see video-optimization), Job postings, Review snippets, Q&A, Discussion forums \|
196	\| Shopping \| Product snippets, Merchant listings \|
197	\| Other \| Recipes, Datasets, Hotels, Vacation rentals, Profile pages, Practice problems, Math solvers, Image metadata \|
198
199	Note: Reports show sample items, not full list. Use URL Inspection for unlisted URLs.
200
201	### 8. AI Overviews (GSC Limitation)
202
203	- GSC: AI Overviews clicks/impressions are not separated from organic in Performance report.
204	- Workaround: Filter queries that tend to trigger AI Overviews to estimate AI-driven visibility:
205
206	```
207	(?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
208	```
209
210	For GA4 AI traffic tracking, see ai-traffic-tracking.
211
212	### 9. Links & Disavow
213
214	Location: Links (inbound links), Security & Manual Actions
215
216	- Links report: View links to site and pages; anchor text distribution.
217	- Disavow file: Submit via GSC when necessary (manual penalty, toxic links). Use sparingly; over-disavowing can harm. See backlink-analysis for when to disavow.
218
219	## Search Console API
220
221	Method: `searchanalytics.query()` --exposes all Performance report data.
222
223	### Metrics
224
225	Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Position.
226
227	### Dimensions
228
229	date, query, page, country, device. Search appearance (AMP, blue link, rich results). Filter by search type: web, image, video, news.
230
231	### Limits
232
233	\| Limit \| Value \|
234	\|-------\|-------\|
235	\| Rows per day per search type per property \| 50,000 \|
236	\| Rows per response \| 25,000 (use pagination: startRow, rowLimit) \|
237	\| Data availability \| 2-3 days after \|
238
239	Tip: Run daily queries for one day of data to avoid quota. Verify data presence first (dimensions: date only, no filters).
240
241	Optimization: Gzip compression; `fields` parameter for partial responses; pagination for large datasets.
242
243	References: [Search Console API](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/about), [searchanalytics.query](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/v1/how-tos/search_analytics)
244
245	## Monthly Audit Checklist
246
247	- [ ] Performance: Clicks, impressions, CTR, position trends
248	- [ ] Insights: Top/trending content and queries (if available)
249	- [ ] Page indexing: Indexed vs not indexed (isolated views)
250	- [ ] Why not indexed: Trend lines for key reasons
251	- [ ] Sitemaps: All "Success"; indexed URL counts stable
252	- [ ] Core Web Vitals: Mobile good/needs improvement/poor
253	- [ ] Enhancements: No new invalid items (critical issues)
254	- [ ] Links: No manual actions; disavow only if needed (see backlink-analysis)
255	- [ ] Data exported to spreadsheet (month-end snapshot)
256	- [ ] Charts screenshotted for history
257	- [ ] Release notes reviewed for correlation
258
259	## Output Format
260
261	- Summary: Key findings, trends, anomalies
262	- Metrics: Specific numbers and date ranges
263	- CTR analysis: Actual vs expected by position; low-CTR high-impression pages
264	- Title/meta opportunities: Pages with CTR gap; specific optimization suggestions
265	- Action items: Prioritized fixes (indexing, CWV, sitemaps, enhancements, title/meta)
266	- Correlation: Suspected causes (releases, config changes)
267	- Next steps: Monitoring plan, dev handoff
268
269	## Related Skills
270
271	- title-tag, meta-description, page-metadata: Title and meta optimization for low-CTR pages; hreflang
272	- xml-sitemap: Fix sitemap errors
273	- indexing: Resolve indexing issues
274	- core-web-vitals: CWV optimization; fix LCP, INP, CLS
275	- mobile-friendly: Mobile Usability report; mobile-first indexing
276	- schema-markup: Fix structured data / rich results
277	- backlink-analysis: When to disavow; backlink audit
278	- seo-monitoring: Full SEO data analysis, benchmark
279