Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup

The Performance report shows important metrics about how your site performs in Google Search results.

You can use this report to:

• See how your search traffic changes over time, where it's coming from, and what search queries are most likely to show your site.
• Learn which queries are bringing traffic to your site, and use this to improve your SEO efforts.

• See which pages have the highest (and lowest) click-through ratefrom Google search results.

Open the Performance report

Configuring the report

The default view of the report shows click and impression data for your site in Google Search results for the past three months. You can modify this view by choosing different metrics, dimensions, and date ranges.

Choosing metrics

Metrics are the numbers you see in the chart and table. You can choose which metrics to display by toggling the appropriate heading above the chart. 

The following metrics are available:

• Clicks: The number of times a user clicked your site from Google Search results.
• Impressions:How many times your site appeared in Search results.
• CTR (click-through rate):The click count divided by the impression count.
• Average position:The average position of the topmost result from your site. 
  • In the chart:The value is the average position of the topmost result from your entire site.
  • In the table:The value is the average position in Search results for the specific URL or grouping dimension shown in the table row.

Learn how clicks and impressions are counted .

Choosing dimensions

The dimension defines how the data in the table is grouped. For example, the "queries" dimension groups your data by the search query users typed. You can choose a dimension by selecting the appropriate tab above the table:

• Queries
• Pages
• Countries
• Devices
• Search appearance
• Dates

See dimensions and data groupings for more information.

Date range and search type

You can change the date range or search type using the filters at the top of the report:

• Date range:To change the time period, click the date filter. When you choose the 24-hour view, the graph's data points represent hours and include preliminary data .
• Search type:Use the search type filter to see data for web, image, video, or newsresults.

See advanced filtering and comparison for more information.

Time granularity

You can choose time granularity to define how data points are aggregated in the chart and table. Select Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly from the dropdown menu above the chart to spot trends.

• Hourly:Used to analyze the most recent data (available only in the 24-hour view).
• Daily:Used to detect issues or traffic spikes (not available in the 24-hour view).
• Weekly and Monthly:Used to analyze longer-term trends by smoothing out daily fluctuations (like those caused by weekends or holidays). This helps you focus on overall growth or decline in site traffic. (Not available in the 24-hour view.)

Reading the chart and table

Report data is presented in two sections: the chart and the table.

Reading the chart

The chart displays total clicks, total impressions, average CTR, and average position for your property over the selected time period.

• Aggregation:Data on the chart is aggregated by property. For example, if two results from the same site appear for one query, they count as a single impression in the chart total.
• Preliminary data:The newest data can be preliminary, meaning it's still being collected and might change in the next few hours. Preliminary data is indicated by a dotted line on the graph.

Reading the table

The table shows data grouped by the dimension you selected (for example, by query, page, or country).

• Aggregation:Table data aggregation changes depending on the dimension you select. Data grouped by Queries, Countries, Devices, or Datesis aggregated by property. Data grouped by Pagesor Search appearanceis aggregated by page.
• Discrepancies:The chart totals can sometimes differ from the table totals. This is usually due to differences in aggregation (property vs. page). See troubleshooting and data discrepancies  to learn more.
• Missing table:In certain cases where the table does not add any additional information to the chart (such as when comparing two groups with simple, exclusive data), the table might be omitted from the report.

Sharing and exporting data

Sharing the report

You can share access to the report by clicking the Sharebutton. This link grants access only to the current view of the report. It doesn’t grant access to other pages for your resource or enable the shared user to perform any actions on your property or account.

Exporting report data

Many reports provide an exportbutton to download both the chart and table data. Values shown as either ~ or - in the report (not available/not a number) will be zeros in the downloaded data.