Search Console Insights, the new Google integrated platform, is ready
We talked about it almost exactly a year ago, announcing the release in beta version: now the test period is over and Search Console Insights, the platform that brings together both the data of Analytics and Google Search Console, is officially open to all (or almost). The new experience allows to simplify the analysis of the performance of the contents of a site in the Research and to better understand the public, to the advantage of content creators and publishers.
What is Search Console Insights
Search Console Insights is a new experience tailored to those who work on the sites, powered by data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics; as written by Ziv Hodak and Idan Avraham in the introduction post, allows you to have “an overview and useful information on the performance of content” to web content creators, bloggers or site owners, regardless of their technical experience, helping them to “understand how the public discovers the content of the site and what arouses their interest”.
In particular, the platform helps you to answer these types of questions on your site:
- What are the most performing contents?
- How are the new contents going?
- How do people discover content on the Web?
- What do people look for on Google before they visit content?
- Which article links users to the site and its contents?
Content as the center
As the two Googlers point out, this tool allows content monitoring because “the production of excellent content is an effective way to create a loyal and involved audience that can help you achieve your goals, such as growing your business and your brand, raising awareness of a cause or helping people”.
Such “great content comes in many ways and forms: a stimulating blog post, a helpful guide or a fun questionnaire, and creating them requires commitment, dedication and much attention to what the public appreciates”.
Therefore being able to count on specific data of insights – in fact – on the reception of these articles is definitely an advantage.
How Google Search Console Insights works
Search Console Insights is part of Google Search Console, and therefore is available to all users with a Google Search Console verified property; the post clarifies that it can also be used by those who do not use Google Analytics, but to get the full experience and a greater and more in-depth amount of content information it is suggested to associate (connect) the Google Search Console property to the Google Analytics property relating to the same site.
Currently, Search Console Insights only supports the AU properties of Google Analytics (Google Analytics Universal Analytics properties, whose ID starts with “UA-“), but Google has already anticipated that it is working to support the properties of Google Analytics 4 and allow all users of Google Analytics to take advantage of the platform.
Therefore, if data is missing in Search Console Insights it may mean that the Search Console is not properly connected to the Google Analytics property, or that the GA property is not yet supported.
Google offers four different ways to access Search Console Insights reports:
- Select the link that appears at the top of the Search Console Overview page.
- Login from the “Google Search Console in search results” feature.
- Use the direct link, to be saved as bookmark (or search for “search console insights” on Google and visit the site).
- In addition, the Google iOS app will soon feature Search Console Insights in the account menu (tap on the profile image), and Google is working to also add support for the Google Android app.
A year of testing
As said, it has been over a year now that everybody talks about Search Console Insights: initially there were several leaks on the functionality in June 2020, then Google announced the beta testing phase with an invitation to participants, selected among GSC users.
Now Search Console Insights is available to everyone, but there don’t seem to be any obvious differences from the version presented last August – or, at the very least, Google has chosen not to make known the updates performed.
The usefulness of Search Console Insights
For those who create content for the web and “hope” to get revenue is definitely a useful opportunity to count on a platform that offers more data, more views, more ways to see and understand the performance of the pages of the site. In addition, the integration between (certain) Google Analytics data and those of Search Console can be very convenient and helps to see data in new ways.
With this tool it may be possible to obtain new information on content performance, but also ideas for new content and marketing ideas for our business.
As Ziv Hodak and Idan Avraham write, Google cares “a lot about the content ecosystem and appreciates the community of website makers that makes the Web interesting and useful for so many people,” and with Search Console Insights hopes to “help creators to improve and achieve their goals“.
