Last week, Google announced an awesome new feature for Webmaster Tools: the Search Analytics Report.
You may be familiar with the Search Queries report, which showed the searches users were conducting to find your website and their impressions, clicks, etc.
Though one of the most popular (and useful) features of Webmaster Tools, the Search Queries report did have its limitations. As a result of this user feedback and feature requests, Google will be replacing the Search Queries report with the improved Search Analytics Report.
New Features in the Search Analytics Report
This new report extends the functionality of the old report by allowing webmasters to break down and filter data in new ways.
The report is grouped into three areas: metrics, groups, and filters.
Metrics: At the top of the Search Analytics report you will see some familiar metrics that you can analyze: clicks, impressions, CTR, and position. Now you can take this data a step further and indicate how you’d like it to be grouped.
Groups: You can now select how your data will be grouped in the table by using the grouping categories available below the metrics: Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search Type, or Dates. As an example (below), you can now examine your clicks/impressions based on what device people are using.
Filters: The new filters are a great addition to this report. To add a filter, simply select one from the category drop-down under the category of your choice. You can either filter out data or compare the group of your choosing. In the example below, we’ve used a filter to just show us how data for desktop searches.
Beyond the added functionality mentioned above, Google said the Search Analytics report is actually more accurate and calculated differently than the Search Queries report — another benefit of this report for Webmasters.
You can access the new Search Analytics report in your Webmaster Dashboard under the Search Traffic menu item.
The search queries report will still be available in Google Webmaster Tools for the next three months. After that, you will not be able to access the report.
If you need to access the Search Queries report, go to the new Search Analytics report and there will be a link at the top of your screen to “Go back to old Search Queries report“.
For more information, you can view the full announcement here.
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