How to Track SEO Results With Google Search Console

Google defines the first three in its Performance report help. Clicks: “The number of times a user clicked your site from Google Search results.” Impressions: “How many times your site appeared in Search results.” CTR is “the click count divided by the impression count.” Average position is “the average position of the topmost result from your site.”

In plain words: impressions say Google showed you, clicks say people chose you, and position says roughly where you sat. Indexed pages come from a different report and tell you how much of your site is eligible to show at all.

You need Search Console connected before any of this works, so connect it early. If you have not done that, start with Google Search Console setup. New to the whole idea? What is SEO explains the basics.

1. Write down your baseline today. Before any SEO work, note clicks, impressions, average position and indexed pages for the last full period. Without a starting point, every later number is a guess.
2. Open the Performance report. It has tabs for Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance and Dates. Queries are what people typed. Pages show which of your URLs appeared.
3. Choose a search type and a time view. Google lets you filter by Web, Image, Video or News. For time, weekly and monthly views smooth out daily noise. Pick Web and monthly for your log.
4. Compare like with like. Use the same length of period and watch for seasons. A bakery in Leeds will always see a December spike. Compare December with last December, not with October.
5. Filter by page for key pages. For each money page, record impressions and clicks. If a page you improved gains impressions first and clicks later, that is a normal order of events.
6. Track indexing separately. Open the Page indexing report and record the indexed and not-indexed counts. See Page indexing report and how to check if a website is indexed.
7. Log it and add a note. One row per month, plus a line for what you changed: “rewrote the water heater page”, “fixed sitemap”. Future you will thank present you.

// example data only, to show the format. Your real log uses your real numbers, including the months when they go down.

// the interpretations are my opinion, based on how the metrics are defined.

Month 2 shows impressions rising from 3,400 to 4,100 while indexed pages rose from 18 to 24. That fits: six more pages in the index gave Google six more chances to show the site. Clicks rose by 14, a smaller step. That is normal, because new pages usually appear at low positions before they climb.

Month 3 shows clicks at 161, up from 134, after rewriting three service pages. Did the rewrite cause it? Possibly, but one month cannot prove it. This is why the log has a “what I changed” column. If the next two months keep rising, the story gets stronger. If they fall back, you learn that too, and you adjust.

Tip: when a page matters, open the Pages tab, click that page, then switch to the Queries tab. You will see the searches that page appears for. Pages with many impressions and few clicks are the first ones to get a better title and description. Pages with clicks but few impressions are ready for more internal links, which you can plan with an internal link audit.

• Judging after a week. Google’s starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours, others in several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging.
• Trusting the newest data. Google says the latest data may be preliminary and can change within a few hours. It shows as a dotted line.
• Comparing different date lengths. A 28-day period against a 31-day month is not a fair fight.
• Reading chart totals as table totals. Google notes the two can differ because of property versus page aggregation.
• Chasing average position. It is a blended figure. Look at clicks and at the pages that matter.

• Impressions and indexed pages usually move first. Clicks follow when pages reach better positions.
• After a fix, use validate a fix in Search Console and note the date in your log.
• Cross-check with a second source, such as your own analytics, if you have one. Google Search Console tracks Google only.
• If the trend is flat for a few months, check your links with an internal link audit.

Honest note: nobody can promise rankings, and anyone who guarantees a number is guessing. What you can track is progress. If you want me to read the numbers for you, my technical SEO work includes a monthly plain-English report.

• Search Console Help: Performance report (metric definitions, filters, preliminary data)
• Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide (timing of changes)
• Search Console Help: Page indexing report

// last checked 11 Nov 2026. Example numbers are invented for layout. Interpretations are my opinion.