When it comes to tools for digital marketing Google Search Console is an important one to utilize. It provides so much information that is crucial for Search Engine Optimization. Information like what types of keywords your site is ranking for, what average position you are ranking for those keywords, and how often users are clicking your site in the search results after typing in those specific keywords. In today’s blog post, Punchmark is going to walk through the basic steps that will allow you to access this.
Before we get started, log in to Google Search Console. You can access the tool here: https://search.google.com/search-console/about.
Your email address is all you need to login. If you are unsure about which email address is attached to your Google Search Console account (or you would like a new one to be added) you can contact Punchmark.
Find Out What Keywords Your Site Ranks For
Next, you’ll want to review Google Search Console’s “Performance” report. This contains many of the basic pieces of data we’ll be covering. Keywords are also called “queries” within the tool.
To see your keywords/queries, after you’ve logged in, select “Performance.” You should see a page that looks similar to this:
Here’s a breakdown of the definitions you should know:
• Clicks: how many times a user/person clicked through to your site
• Total impressions: how many times your site shows up in the search results
• Average Click-Through-Rate (CTR): percentage of impressions that resulted in a click
• Average Position: on average, where a keyword or page is ranking in the search results
Setting Up the Report
Now that we know the basic definitions there are a few steps you’ll want to take before reading the report. First, you’ll want to update the date range. Keyword rankings fluctuate...daily! That’s why Google Search Console reports on an average.
Keep this in mind where you’re selecting the days you want to review. To look at keyword current performance a good rule of thumb is to start by reviewing the past month. To look at historical trends you can review the auto-selected ‘Last Three Months’.
You also have the ability to select custom date ranges. You can look at the past day, the past week, or whatever you need for your purposes. However, we typically recommend starting with a larger data set, like the last month.
Click on the ‘Date’ button and update as needed.
Select compare if you would like to see how you’re performing over the prior month/period.
Then, once you’ve selected the date range, you should update the country. Press the +New Button, select Country, and select the country your business is in. Press apply.
Filtering Queries
By default, the queries report will be selected. Now that you have the keyword report set up you can scroll down the page to see every keyword you show up in search results for across your entire website. If you would like to see how you’re performing for specific types of keywords you can also set up a keyword filter.
To do so, press the +New button. Select query. There are three options:
Query Containing
Select to be able to see how keywords are performing containing a certain word. For example, setting up a filter with “query containing: engagement” will allow us to see different variations of keyword phrases like best engagement rings, engagement rings near me, etc.
Query Not Containing
This will allow you to remove a keyword group from the report. So, for example, if we wanted to look at the keywords that weren’t around our brand name, we could add “query not containing: punchmark”.
Query is Exactly
This is for when you’re looking at how an exact, particular keyword phrase is performing.
What Pages Rank for What Keywords?
If you want to see what keywords your individual pages rank for you’ll need to take a couple more steps.
First, click the “Pages” tab, and then select the page you want to review. Then, toggle back to the queries tab.
This will show you how only that page is ranking for keywords. Not every page on your site will rank for the same terms. In fact, they should be different! You would want your engagement rings page to pull keywords around engagement, as you would want your custom design page to show up for keywords around custom jewelry.
So, in the end, your filters might look something like this. We've selected the past 3 months to look at historical data, we've implemented a query filter to remove all our company branded terms, and we are looking at the performance for just our homepage.
While there are many ways you can utilize the Google Search Console report understanding the basics of how to filter and set up the keyword report will allow you to start to become familiar with the tool.
This post was written by Punchmark's Search Engine Marketing Manager, Katie Kinlaw.
Holding a background in SEO and Adwords across many different types of industries, Katie is a results-driven and hardworking professional. Years of experience have prepared her for clients of any size, budget, or background. When she isn't organizing marketing campaigns, she is listening to True Crime podcasts and television shows.
Have questions on the above? Feel free to reach out at katie@punchmark.com.