The Google Search Console, part of Google Analytics, gives you valuable data on your website’s ranking in the Search Results Pages (SERPs). SERPs are where searchers see the results of their search queries. Google strives to provide the freshest, most accurate, helpful, and relevant content that matches the searcher’s request. Here’s what you need to look for in the Google Search Console.
However, before you can retrieve any data, your website must have Google Analytics set up. Google Analytics is free to use and easy to add to your website no matter what platform it’s on. If you have a WordPress website, I recommend 2 free plugins: Google Site Kit and Yoast SEO. If you need help setting these up, we can do a 1:1 training session and I can walk you through the setup. Understand, that it is crucial that you have Google Analytics and that you check it monthly.
Top Google Search Console Metrics
- Organic Impressions: This tells you how often you came up in organic (non-paid) searches.
- Organic Clicks: This shows how many searchers clicked on the link to visit your website.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): This is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions, shown as a percentage.
- Organic Average Position: This shows where you came up in Google Search. The smaller the number, the higher your page ranked.
- Top Performing Pages: This gives you a list of your top-ranking pages and blog posts on your website.
Example Search Console Report
This is a report I pulled for a client, Ripple Training. They offer tutorials for video editing software Final Cut Pro, Davinci Resolve, and Motion. Therefore, they want to rank for the software name and “tutorials”, “course,” or “training”. I started in their Google Search Console, but I wanted to sort their results in Google Sheets to better analyze them.


What This Report Tells Me
Naturally, if someone knows the name of your company and Googles that, you should come up first and have a high click-through rate (as shown by the highlighted row). But look at the top one “Davinci Resolve training” — 1758 impressions and only 15 clicks! Wow! That means they lost 1743 potential customers! And their position was #5! Who doesn’t want to be in the top 5?!
Their problem was in their Meta Descriptions. The page for “Davinci Resolve training” didn’t have one. So, Google pulled the first paragraph on the page. It didn’t say anything that would tell an interested searcher that they had “Davinci Resolve training”. It’s the same thing for some of the other search queries.
Given that, my job was to compose Meta Descriptions and page text to improve their click-through rates based on keyword research. Hopefully, with the improvements, their business will skyrocket.
Additionally, if I take these top keywords and phrases and use them as a basis for keyword research, the Google Keyword Research Tool will give me more relevant keywords. That list would give the client ideas on what to write about. Nothing like writing about what people are searching for!
What are the Average Organic Click-Through Rates for Industries?
This chart from CXL is a guide to what click-through rate you should strive for depending on your industry.


Evidently, my client needs to shoot for a solid 6% click-through rate for educational sites. Note, too, that most of these industries are highly competitive, which means you need to research your competition and see who’s ranking above you in the SERPs.
Using this data, you can improve not just your click-through rate, but ultimately, your conversion rate. You can’t get people to convert if they don’t first click through to your website! Remember, the role of the website then is to convert a visitor into a lead or a sale.
Other Valuable Insights
A new feature from the Google Site Kit plugin is “groups”. It analyzes your visitors. Why? This revelation came up under my results…
The higher the portion of new visitors you have, the more your audience is growing. Looking at what content brings them to your site may give you insights on how to reach even more people.
Google Site Kit Plugin


In the last 28 days, the New Visitor count was significantly higher than the returning visitor count. Their data tells me a lot.
Top Performing Pages
Then, I have the Most Popular Pages Report. Getting a quick view in the Google Site Plugin saves time. If I want to dig deeper, I can go to the Search Console itself.


What this tells me is that I need to do a new video on how to market on X (formerly Twitter), as well as Facebook! I imagine that this increase in interest is due to the recent political news. I’ll leave it at that. This goes to show that what’s going on in the world, no matter how unrelated you think it is, can affect your website’s SERP performance.
Have you checked your Google Analytics lately?

