The Performance report in Search Console shows which searches your pages appeared for. The surprising ones reveal how your words are being read; for each, decide whether to offer it, clarify the page, answer the question or leave it.

Searches you never expected

Open the Performance report in Search Console, choose the Queries tab, and read past the first dozen rows. Somewhere down the list, the searches stop making sense.

A fencing company that has never built a deck appears for deck builders. A business that stopped serving a town years ago appears for searches naming it.

Further down are questions, typed out in full, that nothing on the site answers.

None of this is a fault in the report. It is Google showing you how it reads your pages, and the way it reads them is often the way visitors skim them too.

What the report shows

Each row is a search in which one of your pages appeared, with its clicks and impressions, plus click-through rate and average position once those are switched on at the top.

An impression only means the page was shown. A search shown often and rarely clicked is one where Google thought you were relevant and the searchers disagreed.

Very rare searches are left out to protect the people who made them, so the rows never quite add up to the totals.

The filter for queries containing a word, such as a town, gathers every related search into one view.

The kinds that turn up

The third is the one worth the most. Most other rows point to a correction; an unanswered question points to a page that could be written by the people who answer it on the phone every week.

Why Google matched you

Google judges what a page is about largely from its words: headings, body text, image descriptions, and the words other pages use when they link to it.

It does not always read a sentence the way a person would. A page saying you do not build decks can still look like a page about deck building.

A town named once in an old project, a review or a footer list can be enough to show a page for searches naming that town.

That is not a fault to fix in Google. It is what the site says, read without the context the business carries in its head.

Services you do not offer

First ask whether you should. A steady run of searches for something next to what you already do is market research, and free.

If the answer is no, say plainly on the page what you do and what you do not. Somebody arriving from that search then learns it in a sentence rather than a phone call.

The aim is not to scrub the word from the site. It is a page nobody can misunderstand.

Towns you do not serve

Filter by the town, then open the Pages tab to see which page was shown. The culprit is usually an old project, a review or a list in the footer.

If you still go there occasionally, say on what terms: a minimum job, a travel charge, certain days. If you have stopped, take the town off the lists and say where you do work.

One clear service area page does more than a town name scattered across twenty.

Questions you never answered

Searches phrased as questions are the most useful rows in the report. Somebody typed exactly what they wanted to know, and your page was close enough to be shown.

If it is something your staff explain every week, write the answer on the relevant page, or give it a page of its own if it needs more than a paragraph.

A worked example

A chimney sweeping company with two vans, serving homes across a valley, read its Performance report properly for the first time this spring.

Among the expected searches were others: chimney rebuilding, furnace duct cleaning, a town over the pass it stopped serving in 2017, and many versions of how often a chimney should be swept.

Each had a source. The services page promised to handle all chimney and venting needs. A post about buying an older home mentioned rebuilding. The old town was still in the footer.

The services page now lists sweeping, inspections and small repairs, and says plainly that rebuilding a chimney is a job for a mason. The footer list became a link to one service area page.

The post stayed as it was, since its advice was sound.

The how-often searches became a page: what decides the interval, the signs a chimney is due, and what an inspection covers. The sweeps had been explaining it on the phone for years.

Searches to leave alone

Not every odd row needs action. A search with a handful of impressions over three months is noise, and chasing each one turns a useful report into busywork.

Unlike a paid ad, an appearance in the ordinary results costs nothing, so a stray search does no harm by being there.

The rows that deserve attention have real volume, a clear source on the site, and a visitor likely to leave disappointed.

The counter-case

A new site, or one with very little search traffic, will have too few rows to show a pattern. A quarterly look is enough until it does.

A business whose work arrives almost entirely by referral may find the report interesting rather than urgent.

And Search Console only shows searches where you appeared. It says nothing about the searches where you should have and did not, which is a separate job.

For most sites, though, the surprising rows are worth reading every month, because they show the site through a stranger's eyes.

Once a month

  1. Open the Queries tab for the last three months.
  2. Read past the top rows to the surprising ones.
  3. Filter by your towns and main services.
  4. Find the page each odd search reached.
  5. Say clearly what you do and do not do.
  6. Answer the real questions on the right pages.
  7. Leave the searches with only a handful of impressions.

Step four is where the report becomes a list of fixes. A search on its own is a curiosity; the page that caught it shows exactly which words need changing.

What those visitors do once they arrive is a separate question, covered in bounce rate and what it does not mean.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find the searches that show my site?

In Search Console's Performance report, on the Queries tab. Each row is a search in which one of your pages appeared, with impressions, clicks, click-through rate and average position.

Why do I appear for services I do not offer?

Usually because a page mentions them, even in passing or in a sentence saying you do not offer them. Search engines work largely from words and do not always read meaning.

What should I do about towns I do not serve?

Find the page that was shown, take the town off old lists, and state your service area clearly on one page, including any terms for occasional travel.

Which odd searches are worth acting on?

Those with real volume, a clear source on your site and a visitor likely to leave disappointed. Questions your staff answer every week are the most valuable.

Do accidental searches cost me anything?

Not directly. Unlike a paid ad, an appearance in the ordinary results is free. The cost is the visitor who clicks, finds the wrong thing and leaves with a poor impression.

Why do the rows not add up to the total?

Search Console leaves very rare searches out of the list to protect the privacy of the people who made them, so the totals include searches you cannot see.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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