The Google Search Console integration adds search performance metrics to the SEO tool in HubSpot. These metrics show how content appears and performs in Google search results.
Please note: for detailed information on how Google calculates metrics, refer to Google's Support documentation.
What do the Google Search Console metrics mean?
The following metrics are available in the SEO tool from the Google Search Console integration:
- Total pages: the number of pages detected by Google Search Console.
- Total impressions: the number of times a link to your website appears in Google search results. An impression is counted when a result loads on a page, even if it isn't scrolled into view. For infinite scroll results, the result must be visible.
- Total clicks: the number of times a visitor selects a link to your website from Google search results. Clicks from one part of the Google platform to another aren't counted.
- Average clickthrough: the number of clicks on your website relative to impressions. The average clickthrough rate is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions, then multiplying by 100.
- Average position: the average ranking of the Google search result linking to your website.
How is the average position calculated?
The Average position metric shows the average position of the top search result linking to your website across all searches.
Several factors can affect position, including:
- Device type
- Location
- Search history
- Search filters
Search results may vary based on these factors, so results may differ from what appears in a personal search.
What counts as a position?
On a search results page:
- Only elements that link to external websites are counted.
- Ads and query refinement links aren't counted.
- Results are counted from top to bottom and left to right (based on language direction).
For example, when searching Google for pasta, most results link to external websites, such as Wikipedia. These results are counted as position placeholders.
You may also see query refinement links or images on the search results page. These often appear in a carousel.
Selecting one of these links opens another Google search, such as for spaghetti or pizza, instead of an external website. These query refinement links aren't counted as position placeholders and are skipped when calculating position.
Please note: some carousel images or featured links do lead to external websites, so these would be counted as position placeholders.
In the examples below, the diagram on the left includes an image carousel that links to external pages, so it is counted as a position placeholder. The diagram on the right includes query refinement links, so it is not counted.
Please note: similar-looking search results pages may produce different position values depending on whether the links point to external websites or additional Google searches.
To determine whether a result is counted, hover over a link to preview the URL. Query refinement links begin with https://www.google.com/search?q and aren't counted as position placeholders.
Why are the number of clicks, views, or sessions different in Google Search Console and HubSpot?
Metrics may differ between HubSpot and Google Search Console for the following reasons:
Which URL is data associated with?
Google Search Console assigns data to a canonical URL that represents all variations of a page. This includes:
- Desktop and mobile versions.
- Alternate URLs that point to the same page.
- Multi-language variations.
Clicks, impressions, and position data from all variations are grouped under the canonincal URL.
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