Google launched a new SEO product specifically for content publishers, called Search Console Insights. The service pulls data from Search Console and Google Analytics to help content creators and publishers understand how audiences discover their site’s content and what resonates with their audiences.
While the product has been available in limited beta for a while, they are now rolling it out more publishers. Here’s a look at the information contained within the Search Console Insights reports.
The report starts off with an overview of site performance.
Next, there’s a report of new site content that got its first views in the last 28 days, sorted by recency. This is followed by a list of the site’s 45 most popular content in the last 28 days, grouped in threes. These stats are “best guess” numbers based on Google Analytics data.
Clicking on any page shows details on the individual page’s performance.
After the top content section, users can view a summary of how visitors discover the site, with further details on Google Search, referring links, and social media.
The social media numbers still need work – Google often doesn’t correctly attribute all referrals from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn unless the marketing / social media team use utm tracking codes to correctly identify the source channel. This is unfortunately the case with many sites on Analytics.
While this tool doesn’t contain any new information for seasoned marketers who are used to working with Google Analytics and Search Console, it does provide a simple, unified interface for content creators to track performance, and it might be a good entry point for SEOs who wish to train PR, content, and social teams on ways to track and improve site performance.
