📊 GSC Performance Knowledge Base

1.1 - Timeframe Selection: This allows users to view data from a specific period, like the past month, week, or custom range.
1.2 - Location Filter: This lets users select a geographic region to analyze, showing data either globally or for a specific country.
1.3 - Profile/Project: Show the project name you are viewing. Useful for those managing multiple sites.
1.4 - Export: Download PDF for the dashboard.
1.5 - Share: Public Shareable link

2.2 - Domain Rating (DR): A measure of the site's authority based on the quality and quantity of its backlinks. Higher DR indicates a stronger backlink profile.
2.3 - Backlinks: The total number of links pointing to the site from other pages across the web, reflecting the volume of incoming links.
2.4 - Referring Domains: The count of unique domains (websites) that link to the site, showing link diversity and the breadth of sources.

3.1 - Keywords: The total number of keywords the website ranks for in search engines, indicating the site’s visibility across various search terms.
3.2 - Traffic: The estimated number of visitors reaching the site through organic (unpaid) search results.
3.3 - Impressions: The number of times the website appeared in search engine results, whether clicked or not.

4.1 - Paid Keywords: The count of keywords for which the site is running paid advertisements, reflecting its scope in paid search efforts.
4.2 - Paid Traffic: The estimated number of visitors arriving through paid ads, showing the effectiveness of these campaigns.
4.3 - Ads and Budget: Indicates the total number of active ads and the budget spent on these ads, giving insight into paid campaign investment.

5.1 - Improved & Declined Keywords: This shows changes in keyword rankings, indicating how many keywords moved up or down in the search results.
5.2 - Keyword Positions: A detailed breakdown of where keywords rank in search results, segmented into different position groups (e.g., top 1, top 2-3, etc.). This helps identify areas where the site ranks well and where it has growth potential.

6.1 - Position Segmentation: This chart shows the distribution of keywords across different ranking positions over time, with categories like “Highest Rank,” “Hyper Traffic,” and others. Each segment represents various levels of ranking, from top positions to deeper pages.
6.2 - Trends Over Time: This line or bar graph shows how keyword positions have changed over a given period, helping identify ranking trends.

7.1 - 31-Day Running Search Impressions: Shows trends in how often the site appears in search results over the past 31 days, providing insight into visibility changes.
7.2 - 31-Day Running Organic Traffic: Tracks daily changes in organic search traffic, helpful in spotting growth or decline in visitors.
7.3 - 31-Day Running Economic Value of Traffic: Estimates the monetary value of organic traffic, helping to quantify SEO impact.

8.1 - Keyword List: Shows the top-performing keywords in organic search, providing insight into the terms that drive the most traffic.
8.2 - Search Intent and Position: Displays the intent behind the keyword (e.g., informational, navigational) and its rank, helping assess alignment with user needs.

9.1 - Page List: Displays top-performing pages in organic search, which shows which pages generate the most traffic.
9.2 - Average Position and Keywords: Shows the average rank of these pages and the keywords driving traffic to them, giving an idea of page performance.

10.1 - Traffic Ranges: A breakdown of the number of pages and the total traffic within different traffic bands (e.g., 1-100 visitors, 1001-5000 visitors), showing the distribution of page performance.

11.1 - Ranking Trend: A line graph that visualizes the change in Google rankings over time, highlighting the site’s overall ranking progress or decline.

12.1 - Sitemap Path: Lists the URLs of the site’s XML sitemaps, which help search engines find and crawl the site's pages.
12.2 - Issues and Warnings: Shows any errors or warnings associated with each sitemap, which could affect search engine crawling and indexing.
12.3 - Pages Submitted: Indicates the number of pages in each sitemap, reflecting the size of the site’s content in each category.
12.4 - Google Indexing Status: Shows the last time Google indexed each sitemap, providing a sense of how recently the site’s pages were crawled.

The date range indicates the period over which the data is being analyzed. You can adjust this range to view data for different timeframes. The location selector gives the option to select which location data you want to explore. Share buttons provide the URL to share the report publicly.

The overview displays key metrics like “Organic Keywords,” “Keywords in Top 3,” and “Traffic Value.” It summarizes the overall keyword performance, keyword rankings in the top 3 search results, and the estimated monetary value of organic traffic.

This area visualizes the keyword position history over time. The chart shows fluctuations in keyword rankings with a color-coded breakdown representing different ranking ranges (e.g., positions 1–10, 11–20). The chart legend provides categories such as "Highest Rank," "Hyper Traffic," "Traffic," "Striking Distance," "Developmental," and "Deep Traffic," each representing a distinct range of rankings and their corresponding potential impact.

This table contains detailed information about specific keywords. Each row represents a keyword and provides data across multiple columns.

Lists the specific keywords being tracked. Keywords are clickable links, which probably direct to more in-depth information or performance details on each keyword.

Displays icons or tags indicating the type of search intent (e.g., informational, transactional) associated with each keyword, which helps in understanding the motivation behind each search.

Shows the current ranking position of each keyword in search results. Any changes in position (such as rank increase or decrease) are also noted, likely with icons or color codes.

Displays an estimated number of visits each keyword brings to the website, based on its ranking position and search volume.

Indicates how often the website appears in search results for each keyword, providing insight into visibility and exposure.

Shows the average cost-per-click for each keyword, which can help estimate the competitive value and potential advertising cost if targeting the keyword in paid search campaigns.

Represents the estimated number of monthly searches for each keyword, offering insight into demand and popularity.

Options to customize the columns displayed in the table or export the data, allowing users to focus on specific metrics or download the data for offline analysis.

Indicates the number of results and provides options for navigating through multiple pages of keywords.

The date range indicates the period over which the data is being analyzed. You can adjust this range to view data for different timeframes. The location selector gives the option to select which location data you want to explore. Share buttons provide the URL to share the report publicly.

The chart visually represents keyword movement over time, using color-coded bars to indicate the status of each keyword. Green for keywords that improved in ranking. Red for keywords that declined in ranking. This chart helps users quickly understand whether keywords are generally gaining or losing positions over the selected period.

The chart visually represents keyword movement over time, using color-coded bars to indicate the status of each keyword. Green for keywords that improved in ranking. Red for keywords that declined in ranking. This chart helps users quickly understand whether keywords are generally gaining or losing positions over the selected period.

These tabs allow users to filter the keyword table based on status:
​New: Keywords that are newly ranked.
​Improved: Keywords that have moved up in ranking.
​Declined: Keywords that have moved down in ranking.
​Lost: Keywords that are no longer ranking.

This line chart visualizes the history of keyword cannibalization over time. The chart tracks the number of keywords affected by cannibalization, allowing users to see trends and patterns in keyword overlap.

This table provides detailed information on individual keywords that are cannibalized, including multiple columns with key metrics.

List each keyword that has instances of cannibalization. These keywords are clickable, likely allowing users to access more detailed information or view the URLs competing for each keyword.

Indicates the number of different pages that rank for the same keyword, giving insight into the extent of cannibalization for each keyword.

Displays the average ranking position across all pages that rank for each keyword, helping users assess the impact of cannibalization on search visibility.

Shows the average cost-per-click for each keyword, providing an idea of the keyword’s commercial value if targeted in paid search campaigns.

Represents the estimated number of monthly searches for each keyword, indicating demand and popularity.

Displays the total number of cannibalized keywords and provides pagination controls for navigating through the data set. The current view shows a limited number of results per page, with options to move between pages.

A time-based line chart that visualizes the historical trend for backlinks and referring domains over several years.

Displays a bar chart categorizing the types of links, such as text, image, form, and frame links, helping users understand the composition of backlink types.

Another bar chart illustrates the distribution of follow and nofollow links, highlighting the quality and potential impact of backlinks on SEO.

Analyze individual backlinks in detail. Each column in the table provides specific information about the links pointing to the target website, giving insight into both the quality and characteristics of each link.

This section (accessible via a tab) displays the distribution of anchor text of backlinks, which is the clickable text of the link on the source page. Anchor text can provide insight into keyword targeting and relevance, as it indicates how other sites describe the content of the linked page.

Referring domains are the unique websites that contain links pointing to the target site. This section (also accessible via a tab) provides a list of these domains, along with details about the number of backlinks from each domain.

Referring IPs display the unique IP addresses associated with the referring domains.

This section (accessible via another tab) displays the specific pages linking to the target site that are indexed and linked from other sites.

1.1 - Groupings: Lists different page group categories or segments (e.g., "Unassigned", "Audit").
1.2 - Impressions, Traffic, Traffic Value: Metrics for each grouping.
1.3 - Graph Toggle: Option to visualize the metrics through charts.

Represents the distribution of metrics among different page groupings—interactive controls to show which elements want to display.

3.1 - Rank Position: Indicates the position of keywords in search results.
​3.2 - Traffic, CTR (Clickthrough Rate), Impressions: Performance metrics associated with each rank position.

4.1 - Visualizes keyword position metrics such as traffic and impressions.
4.2 - The line indicates the clickthrough rate (CTR) trend over different rank positions.

5.1 - Table listing types of search result appearances (e.g., AMP, translated results) and their related traffic and impressions.

6.1 - Pie Chart displaying the share of traffic from different devices (e.g., mobile, desktop).

7.1 - Table of URLs showing which pages receive the most traffic and impressions.

8.1 - Table of countries, indicating the amount of traffic and impressions received from each location.

While others have a higher value, it's directly proportional to clicks, impressions, and keywords' CPC, and inversely proportional to the position. So higher clicks/impressions/cpc mean a higher score, and higher positions mean a lower score.

Owner (verified or delegated) or Full User access to the GSC site in the account is required.

We previously used complex algorithms to filter out junk (misspellings) or irrelevant keywords. As of October 23, 2024, we have discontinued using these filters, which may result in varying GSC performance numbers.

This option is only available for Pro and Enterprise plans.

If you can't connect GSC to Search Atlas, or if it was previously connected but is not working now, follow these steps:

When data is not visible in GA4 after connecting to GSC, it could be due to:

a. Lack of data in GSC itself – Verify this by checking directly in the GSC

b. Performance tool.

c. Insufficient data recorded in GA4 – Confirm activity on your Google Analytics property.

d. Possible incompatibility with the Google API, which might require further escalation or updates to the integration.

When comparing metrics from GSC and Search Atlas, discrepancies often arise from factors such as:

a. Filters Applied: For example, Search Atlas reports filtered by country (e.g., "US") may only match GSC data for the same country. Minor differences may persist due to platform requirements for loading and synchronizing all components through APIs.

b. API Synchronicity: GSC data in Search Atlas is fetched via the GSC API. This fetching process may result in slight delays or discrepancies compared to the live GSC dashboard.

To ensure more consistent results, consider the following tips: