What we have measured, and what we got wrong
Not an SEO advice column. Notes on the actual mechanics of Search Console data: the places it misleads, and the places we misled ourselves before we caught it.
Add up every query and you get less than your site total
Sum a Search Console query report and it falls short of your site total. Google withholds rare searches to protect the people who typed them.
Ask for a month in one request and some of the days come back a fraction full
A month of Search Console query data in one request is ranked by clicks across the whole range, then cut. Some days come back a fraction full, and nothing errors.
Ask Search Console for one day of keywords and it stops at 5,000
Ask the Search Console API for one day of keyword rows and it stops at exactly 5,000. No error, no truncation flag. How to spot it, and what it quietly breaks.
Prefer to read it elsewhere? RSS feed
Connect your site and see the first answer today
Sign in with Google, pick a property, and your dashboard fills in while you watch, with the screen counting the days as they land.