Google has officially launched a new Search Analytics Report aimed at giving marketers more insights into their website traffic.

Data dump

The update replaces the Search Queries Report, and allows users to compare mobile traffic acquisition before and after Google's recent mobile update.

Other nifty features include the ability to compare search data across devices, which may reveal more about how your audience interacts across desktop, mobile and tablet.

Feature fill out

The Report also allows users to compare data across type of search results, such as, web, image and video.

But perhaps the most welcomed feature is the ability to compare search data across time periods.

This is particularly useful for those wanting to examine their site performance data from Google Analytics.

Bullseye?

Google says that the data provided in the Search Analytics Report is much more accurate than the previous tool.

This will be news to any SEO specialist’s ears, after the old report came under scrutiny for providing inaccurate impressions, clicks, average position and CTR metrics.

Clear vision

An example of the improvement Google has made in collecting that data is most clear in the new Impressions metric.

In the old Report, every page of a site which appeared in a search result was counted as an individual impression.

In the Search Analytics Report, all pages of a site that appear in a search result are collected and represented as one impression.

So, if you are comparing the data across the new Report and older reporting tools, you should notice a decrease in impressions but potentially an increase in CTR.

For more on the Search Analytics Report, check out this handy help document provided by Google.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melissa Rauff is an audience acquisition specialist and co-founder of Audience Lab, an independent digital consultancy specialising in data-driven channel strategies. Audience Lab assists brands in finding, engaging and retaining the most important people to their business, their customers.