Three layers: visibility, visits, outcomes
Each layer comes from a different source, and a gain in one does not guarantee a gain in the next.
- Visibility is how often Google shows your pages. Search Console calls it impressions.
- Visits are the people who click through. Search Console counts clicks, and Google Analytics counts sessions on your site.
- Outcomes are what you actually want: a call, a form, a booking or a sale. They live in your own records.
Set a baseline before you change anything
Record the last 28 days of impressions, clicks and enquiries for the pages you plan to change, and note the date of each change. Without a baseline, a rise in clicks could be anything.
Connect the right data
Search Console shows what happens in Google results. Google Analytics shows what visitors do on your site, if it is installed and set to count the actions that matter, which it calls key events. Your own records, such as a sales sheet or a call log, show the enquiries the other two cannot see.
Connections should be read-only. Tractionora reads Search Console and Analytics with read-only access, and cannot change your Google accounts or your website.
Compare fairly
Compare the same number of days, and the same weekdays where you can. Holidays, seasons, a news story or a change on your side can move numbers by themselves. If you changed several things at once, say so, and do not claim credit for any one of them.
Search Console data arrives a little late, and some queries are hidden to protect searchers. Analytics may miss visitors who decline tracking. Read the direction, not the decimal.
What not to chase
- The position of a single keyword, checked from your own computer.
- Total traffic that includes searches for your own business name, which says little about new customers.
- Counts of pages published or links built.
- Any promise of a result by a given date.
A good report is short: what changed, what moved, what else could explain it and what to do next.
Try this on your own site in 30 minutes
You need Search Console and a note of what you changed.
- Open Performance in Search Console. Set the last 28 days, compare with the 28 before, and note clicks and impressions.
- Write down your top five pages by clicks, and one enquiry number for the same period from your own records.
- List every change you made to your site in the last 90 days, with dates.
- Pick one page to change next. Write the date and today’s numbers on the same note.