Where do you go when you want to understand how Google views your site? Whether you are looking for information on how Google crawls and indexes your site, how your landing pages are performing in search results pages or what content is being surfaced on a Google search engine results page, chances are the tool you use is Google Search Console. In addition to a name change (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) there are some other updates and additions you should be aware of. In this article, I’ll walk you through these to ensure you’re set up for success.
| OLD | NEW |
| | |
Access to the new reports are through the Acquisition / Search Console menu. The menu name has been changed from Search Engine Optimization to Search Console.
One of the most important is the Search Analytics reports. Located in Search Console, this feature allows content marketers and publishers to gain a better understanding of how visible their content – whether it be App content, mobile content or desktop content – is across search verticals, devices and even countries. While limited, the reports were integrated with Google Analytics. Savvy search marketers would skip the bare bones Google Analytics Search Engine Optimization reports in favor of the more rich data available in Search Console. Google Analytics 360 has changed this with a deeper integration within the search analytics reports of Google Search Console.
What Hasn’t Changed
This integration makes our job as search optimization practitioners easier. While the data provided isn’t new, having it available in Google Analytics reduces time spent downloading and lets us analyze the data from a native tool. By integrating the analytics metrics and adding reports to compare to such as the Device Type report, the new reports can help web site managers not only better understand how their content is performing in search but be able to answer key questions about their site health and search visibility.
The new Landing Page report integrates Google Analytics Acquisition, Behavior and Conversion metrics.
The new landing page report has been expanded to include the familiar Acquisition, Behavior and Conversion metrics. Having Sessions, Bounce Rate, Pages/Session and goals in one interface is especially helpful as previously you would have to use a third party paid tool or download the data and merge with Search Console. Now you can see how Google Analytics data aligns with your Search Analytics data – how impressions and clicks affect engagement and conversion on your site.
Search Console Metrics
More secondary dimensions are available. You can now slice and dice your landing page reports with dimensions including device and by country. While Query data is not available as a secondary dimension from the landing page report, you can drill down into each landing page to get an idea of what queries were used to surface your content in a Google Search.
Unfortunately, the Query data set is not integrated with Google Analytics but you can still access various dimensions.
With the Search Console landing pages report, you can now answer these questions directly from Google Analytics:
And when you are ready to take action:
The countries report replaces the Geographical Summary report. Now you can see what countries your content is most visible in, drill down by country to see the top landing pages and then drill down ever further to see what queries surfaced your content in that country. All this and you also get to view the Acquisition, Behavior and Conversion reports in-line with your Search Analytics data.
Secondary dimensions also allow you to view your top countries and landing pages by device category.
The countries report allows you to answer questions such as:
The Device Category report is fantastic. Not only can you see the same metrics as we accessed in all of the other reports, but you can also compare your desktop vs your mobile vs tablet search visibility and analytics metrics in one view. Here you can also drill down and view your top landing pages or top queries per device category.
Easily switch between queries and landing pages to discover what content resonates on what device.
As search engines adapt to increased mobile usage, this data allows marketers to answer questions such as:
Verify All Properties or Variants
The queries report, unlike the previous reports, does not integrate with Google Analytics metrics. Your data is limited to the traditional Impressions, Clicks, CTR and Average Position. Where the report has strengthened is with the secondary dimension. You can now bring in Device Category, Landing Page and Countries to examine where the queries were initiated and what the end result was.
The queries report is the only report that retained the Metric comparison tool. In the queries report you can compare metrics and visualize the result in the trend chart.
When we speak about Queries, it is important to note that this data is not the keyword reports that Google Analytics used to supply. Google is not bringing these back in the Search Console reports. The query reports are based on keyword and phrases that have been used to surface your content in a Google search result. When your content shows in a result, these are reported as Impressions and, when a visitor clicks through to your site, as a click.
While the traditional keyword data is gone, the queries report can help you answer questions such as:
If you’ve skipped the Google Analytics Search Optimization reports previously, it’s now safe to return. The reports all work well together to give you a deep view into how your content is performing in Google Search results and when the visitor clicks through to your site. And if you haven’t set up Google Analytics to work with Search Console, it is a very easy, straightforward process.
How to Integrate
The addition of these key Search Analytics reports and related functionality that let you examine and compare the content by country, device, query and landing page are tremendously helpful. Bringing the Search Analytics reports to Google Analytics will help marketers make quick analysis and reporting that they can take actionable insights.
As consumers become increasingly digitally savvy, and more and more brand touchpoints take place online,…
Marketers are on a constant journey to optimize the efficiency of paid search advertising. In…
Unassigned traffic in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be frustrating for data analysts to deal…
This website uses cookies.