Author: Mordy Oberstein
Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the most crucial tools for site owners that care about search visibility. Not only does GSC data come directly from the source itself (Google), it also offers a 360° view of your site, from how well it’s performing to the links it has acquired.
By integrating Google Search Console’s Performance reports into Wix’s analytics reports, we’ve made actionable SEO data far more accessible for site owners who want to use these insights to improve their site functionality and gain more organic traffic.
Let’s explore what the integration brings to the table and ways you can take advantage of the insights it offers. In this guide, we’ll cover:
Wix Analytics Search Console Reports: An overview
This integration brings with it a trove of potential data, so it’s worthwhile to understand how the reports work and what is contained within them.
Before we do, let me first tell you what Search Console Performance data is all about.
The Performance data in Search Console (upon which the Wix Analytics GSC Reports are built) helps you understand what’s happening with your website on Google. You can use it to find out the following (and more):
Is Google ranking my pages? Which ones?
How often are those pages being shown to people searching on Google?
How often are these visible pages being clicked on and bringing people to my website?
All of this is part of what makes GSC the seminal SEO tool.
Functionality
You can access Wix’s analytics reports by selecting Analytics & Reports within the left-hand navigation menu of your Wix Dashboard (as shown below). Next, select Reports within the submenu to bring up the full array of analytics reporting available to you.
Within the SEO section of the main analytics dashboard are four reports that pull in GSC data:
Top Search Queries on Google
Top Pages in Google Search Results
Google Search Queries Over Time (coming soon)
Average Position in Google over Time (coming soon)
Depending on the report, you will have the option to visualize data as a line graph, a line split graph, a combo chart, or a table.
Each data view has its own particular advantages, which we’ll explore more of later in this article.
The top section of each report lets you filter and adjust the data to your needs. This includes setting a reporting and/or comparison period, selecting primary data metrics, etc.
You can also use these settings to drill down and refine the data you want to analyze by filtering by device, country, etc.
Further, you can schedule reports to automatically get sent to your email address or to download the data for further customization.
Lastly, should you customize the way the data is displayed, you’ll have the option to save this as a preset for the next time you visit and review the report.
The performance data available in Wix’s GSC Analytics reports
Before we explore what’s contained within each of the GSC Analytics reports, let’s briefly review the data metrics available within them. These are the foundational metrics you’ll encounter:
Impressions — The number of times a link to your site appeared in Google search results.
Clicks — The number of times someone clicked a link to your site in Google search results.
Click-through Rate (CTR) — The percentage of impressions that were clicked.
Average Position — Your site's average position in Google search results (excluding paid search).
These metrics are the same ones you’ll find in the Performance reports within GSC itself. If, at any time, you’re unsure as to what a metric means, simply click on the link to View report definitions located under the report’s name.
Understanding the data in your Wix Analytics GSC reports
Now that we’re aware of the data we’ll be working with, let’s explore the actual Wix Analytics GSC reports in greater detail. As mentioned above, the Google Search Queries over Time and Average Position in Google over Time reports are coming soon, so for now, we’ll focus on the Top Search Queries on Google and Top Pages in Google Search Results reports.
Top Search Queries on Google
The Top Search Queries on Google report helps you immediately identify which pages on a site are its top performers (according to impressions or clicks).
Moreover, you can apply a secondary metric (either average position or CTR) to help you better qualify the data.
In the screenshot below, I’ve set impressions as the primary metric (see the blue bars) and average position as the secondary metric (reflected by the individual data points).
You can see there are about 750 more impressions for the search query seo podcast than there are for the term seo podcasts (plural) despite the average rank being within the same vicinity.
The obvious question is, why?
Are there just more searches for the term seo podcast than there are for seo podcasts? Does the small position difference mean something in terms of how the results page is structured (resulting in one term producing more impressions than the other)? The data here helps me identify inconsistencies so that I have a starting point to dive deeper.
For example, one of the things I might do is head to the line split view within the Average Position over Time report (coming soon) and compare the two search queries. Perhaps there was a spike in impressions for one of them (which would indicate that, for a brief period of time, the page ranked higher than usual) as, again, we are looking at average position. It’s entirely possible that the averages for both keywords are similar, but that one of them sees fluctuations that push the page higher up in the rankings from time to time.
Again, the data here is a great starting point to dive deeper so I can better understand my site’s performance.
Remember, you can also adjust the report to your needs. The settings within this report let you set how many queries you want to analyze and allow you to filter according to device and region, or to select a specific query.
The table view of the Top Search Queries on Google report offers you an easy way to review the entire scope of your query performance.
Here, I’ve ordered the table according to country, with comparison data added in as well:
Top Pages in Google Search Results
Oftentimes, what we care about are not necessarily the search queries, but how the pages on the site perform overall. At the end of the day, your goal might be to understand how a page performs across all of the search queries that drive impressions and clicks from Google.
For this, you can use the Top Pages In Google Search Results report.
Similar to the Top Queries On Google report, you are automatically served with your top-performing assets—in this case, pages across two metrics. For example (in the screenshot below), I have impressions as the main metric (represented by the blue bars) and the average position shown as the specific data point:
Check out the table view if you want a more comprehensive view of the data.
In the screenshot below, I’ve removed the date column so that the table shows the aggregate totals for the entire reporting period (as opposed to a per-day breakdown):
Making SEO data more efficient and available for all
In sports, there’s a famous saying: the best ability is availability. That’s what we aimed to do when integrating Google Search Console into Wix Analytics. We wanted to make some of the most important SEO data available to you in a way that makes it more accessible than ever.
We manifested this in the way we display the data and in the way we made data comparisons and filtering easier than ever. At the end of the day, you now have a tool that makes the bedrock of SEO insights not only more available to you, but accessible for you as well.
For an equally accessible overview of your site’s impressions and clicks over time, along with specific page and query metrics at a glance, check out the Wix SEO Dashboard, the central location for all your SEO capabilities.
Mordy Oberstein - Head of SEO Branding, Wix
Mordy is the Head of SEO Branding at Wix. Concurrently he also serves as a communications advisor for Semrush. Dedicated to SEO education, Mordy is one of the organizers of SEOchat and a popular industry author and speaker. Twitter | Linkedin