Skip to main content

Google Webmaster Tools’ newly launched Search Impact reports deliver a lot of very interesting data for webmasters, with a versatile set of filters to segment data. Analysing search presence and the resulting impact for a website has just been taken to a whole new level.

A select few webmasters have just been granted access to the new reports. Here are a few screenshots and an explanation of ways you can use these new reports to maximise your SEO efforts.

Segmenting search data

Search Impact reports can be accessed under the “Search Traffic” menu once logged into the Webmaster Tools interface. As of the writing of this article, the feature has been released to only a limited number of users during the alpha testing phase.

Webmaster Tools Search Impact reports

The power of the new reports lies in their segmentation feature. Users can filter the data by date, query, destination page, country, device and search type.

Webmaster Tools Search Impact reports filtering data

Get expert SEO consulting to improve your organic search rankings

Comparing performance

Multilingual websites can improve international SEO efforts by running comparison reports that show clicks, impressions, click through rate or average position in two different regions side-by-side.

Webmaster Tools Search Impact reports with data segmented by device

Similarly, organic search presence and user stats can be compared by device. Desktop, tablet or mobile stats for click, impression, CTR or average position can be looked at in pairs.

Webmaster Tools Search Impact device comparison reports

Data can also be segmented to specifically look at traffic from web search instead of all Google properties.

Webmaster Tools Search Impact report comparing Web v image

Combining filters

Most importantly, all the filters can be combined to analyse data for specific segments. For example, users can view mobile versus desktop search impact for a specific group of keywords that drive traffic to a particular page on the site from just one country.

Webmaster Tools Search Impact device comparison reports