Start with one service question
Choose a question such as “Is our water-heater repair page attracting searches for the service we offer?” This is easier to act on than staring at an all-site line chart. Record the date range, search type, page filter, and country filter so you can reproduce the view next month.
Search Console’s performance report includes clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position. Those are search metrics, not sales results.
Read a page and its queries together
Filter to a priority service page, then inspect the query groups that appear. Separate your business name, the service itself, and clearly mismatched intent. A company offering repairs should notice a page attracting mostly searches for DIY parts, job vacancies, or a service it does not provide.
Google documents that query tables omit anonymized queries and do not contain every query row. Treat the visible rows as a useful sample of demand, not a complete inventory of every person’s search. Do not spend an afternoon trying to force the sum of visible queries to equal the headline total.
Compare the same thing twice
Use comparable date ranges and preserve the filters. For a seasonal service, check the previous period and, where available, the equivalent period a year earlier. Write down closures, promotions, weather-sensitive demand, or a page rewrite that could affect the interpretation. These are hypotheses to investigate, not proof of cause.
Google’s filtering documentation explains how to combine dimensions and comparisons. For your first review, avoid adding so many filters that a handful of searches becomes the basis for a major budget change. If the sample is small, extend the period or wait for more evidence.
A worked decision from an imperfect report
Imagine a fictional carpet-cleaning page gets more impressions but roughly the same clicks. Its visible queries now include upholstery cleaning, which the business does offer but barely explains. A sensible next step is to check whether that service deserves clearer information on the page or its own genuinely useful page. The chart alone does not tell you to publish dozens of location pages.
Now imagine clicks increase but the enquiry log shows no additional suitable requests. Test the contact path and inspect whether the search intent matches the offer. Search visibility and enquiry handling are separate parts of the journey. Changing a title will not repair an undelivered form notification.
Leave the review with a written action
Finish with one observation, one possible explanation, one action, and a review date. For example: “Repair page attracts replacement questions; add an honest repair-versus-replacement explanation and a clear assessment request; review next month.” Keep the original report view so you can compare the same evidence after the change.
Do not use one manual search from your own phone as a substitute for the report. It answers a different question about one search at one moment. Save the report view and your page-change notes together so the next review starts with comparable evidence rather than recollection.
Your practical checklist
- Choose one service page and a business question.
- Record filters and dates.
- Group visible queries by intent.
- Treat missing query rows as a reporting limitation.
- Pair search observations with enquiry outcomes.
Written with AI-assisted research and drafting, with source checks and editorial review for this guidebook. Platform facts link to official documentation. Examples and recommendations are our own; no client results are implied. Sources reviewed October 8, 2026. About Getting Found Local