Search Console guides

Search Console answers questions you didn't ask and raises several it doesn't explain. These are the ones that come up most: what average position really measures, why your query table never adds up, and how to tell a real traffic drop from a reporting artefact.

• Is there a Google Search Console app?

  Google has never shipped a mobile app for Search Console. Here is what exists, what the mobile web version does badly, and the options for checking your search data on a phone.

• What average position actually means

  Average position in Search Console is not your ranking. It is an impression-weighted mean across every query and every result you appeared in — which is why it moves in ways that look wrong.

• Clicks, impressions and CTR — what each one counts

  The exact definitions of a Search Console impression, click and CTR, including the scrolling rule for image and carousel results and why your totals never add up.

• Why did my Search Console clicks drop?

  A diagnostic order for a traffic drop: reporting artefacts first, then seasonality, then ranking loss, then the things that are genuinely your fault.

• Why Search Console data is two days behind

  Search Console's reporting lag, why the most recent days keep changing, and what the freshest data you can request actually is.

• Domain property vs URL-prefix property

  The difference between a sc-domain property and a URL-prefix property, what each one covers, verification requirements, and which to choose.

• What is a good CTR in Search Console?

  Why a single CTR benchmark is meaningless, how click-through rate varies by position and query intent, and the right way to judge your own.

• Striking distance keywords: positions 11–20

  How to find the queries you rank just off page one for, why they are the highest-leverage work in Search Console, and how to prioritise them.

• Search Console vs Google Analytics: why the numbers differ

  The two tools measure different things at different points in the journey. Here is what each one counts and why they will never reconcile.

• Anonymised queries: why your query table doesn't add up

  Google withholds rare queries from Search Console reports. Here is why, how much it typically hides, and how to work with the gap.