Finding problems and opportunities in the data

Most opportunities in Search Console data fall into a few patterns. Running the same analyses every month or quarter finds them reliably.

Five standard analyses

Analysis	How to find it	Typical action
Striking distance	Queries at average position about 4–20 with significant impressions	Improve the page: answer the query better, add internal links, refresh content
Low CTR for the position	CTR well below your typical CTR at that position	Rewrite the title and description, check the intent match, check the results page features
Impressions, no clicks	Page-one impressions with zero clicks	Check intent. The results page may answer the query directly, or your page may be the wrong type
Declining pages	Compare the last 3 months with the previous 3 (and with last year)	Diagnose: content, competition, SERP changes or technical problems
Unowned queries	Queries with impressions but no target page in your keyword map	Assign them to a page, or plan new content

The opportunity finder

After you import Search Console queries, the keyword map in your Workspace shows an opportunities panel covering four of these analyses. It is deliberately conservative:

• "Significant" means at least the median impressions of your imported queries (and at least 20).
• "Low CTR" compares each query with your own median CTR for queries at similar positions, because general industry CTR tables do not reflect your results pages.

Declining pages

To find pages losing traffic in Search Console, compare the last 3 months with the previous 3 months, open the Pages tab and sort by the clicks difference. For each page that lost a lot:

1. Did it lose rankings, or impressions (less demand), or CTR (results page changes)?
2. Which queries dropped?
3. Is the content outdated compared with what now ranks?
4. Were there technical changes, such as redirects, noindex or a template change?
5. Did a core update roll out at the time? Google's guidance is to assess content honestly and avoid quick fixes.

Prioritise

Score each opportunity by impact (impressions, business value of the page) and effort. Snippet rewrites on high-impression pages are usually the quickest wins. New content takes longer but compounds. Record the work in the Workspace, and note the date, so the next report can show the result.