Google Search Console Gets an Update

Google Search Console Gets an Update

Google has updated the Search Analytics report in its search console, changing the way that they calculate clicks and impressions in the Search Analytics report. They have added some information about the change to their Data Anomalies page, where they explain that users may notice that the clicks, impressions and CTR values seen in the report may appear different.

Google says the change means that the reports now account only for impressions made to the associated application property rather than the entire website. You will see a mention of the update in your Search Analytics report, and the new metrics are being applied to all impressions which occurred after April 26th.

Local Search Changes

John Mueller of Google posted to Google+ to explain that there were some other changes to analytics as well, including how the search engine counts links in the knowledge panel and in rich snippets, as well as in local search. Those links are now counted as URL impressions. The search engine will count an inclusion in local results as an impression. However, if the same URL appears multiple times in the local results (for example, if a chain restaurant has several branches in a city but they all use the same website), then the URL will appear under each result but that will only count once, rather than every link watering down the results.

Also, if a local result and a natural web result for the same URL appear on the same page, then that will be counted as one site impression. To make matters more confusing, however, each individual instance of the URL has its own ‘page impressions’ count, and clicks are attributed to the specific instance of the URL rather than bundling all the URLs into one. This means that webmasters should be able to enjoy much more granular tracking of clicks and results, which should help them to understand their marketing efforts better and make it easier to see how their marketing fit in with the bigger picture of their chain or brand.

Mobile Apps May Be Most Affected

For most people, these distinctions will not mean much, but chain stores and restaurants may notice a difference, and mobile apps could show significant discrepancies too. It’s worth reading up on the new algorithm if you think your site may be affected so you can understand what your reports are showing.