Google Webmaster Tools Now Provides More Specific Search Query Data

Google Webmaster Tools will now provide more specific details about the number of impressions and clicks your site gets from search. Also, a new filter will be of particular interest to those webmasters who have a lot of mobile traffic.

Here's a look at both of the announcements from Google.

No More Rounding of Search Queries

Previously, Google would simply round up impression and click data. Sometimes Google was not just rounding to the nearest thousand, but to the nearest million, which can give webmasters an impression that their website might be doing better or worse than it really is.

Now Google is changing the way they display their search query numbers in Google Webmaster Tools. You'll see the specific data right down to the individual click or impression.

Google hopes more specific data will make the information more actionable for webmasters. This will also help webmasters who have sites with a lot of "The change will be rolled out within the next few days and will display for those that have at least one page from their website displaying in Google's search results.

Mobile Search Queries Filter

Search query stats for both desktop and mobile will now be displayed in Google Webmaster Tools individually rather than being lumped together. Because users interact with websites differently depending on whether they are using a mobile device or a desktop, this can help webmasters determine problem areas or if there is something mobile users are searching for that might not be apparent otherwise.

Google also is displaying the mobile data when webmasters have utilized a "skip redirect" where a mobile user is being redirected to the proper mobile page. This helps webmasters determine when a user saw a desktop page in the search results, but was redirected to the mobile page when they clicked on that result.

To switch between mobile and desktop search queries in Webmaster Tools, simply click on your search queries page, then select the appropriate filter to display the different results for mobile and desktop.

Mobile is increasing in importance. Traffic from mobile devices only continues to climb, so having more detailed mobile specific information regarding search queries will be extremely helpful.

If you're working on a mobile optimized sites, and don’t forget that Google has best practices for mobile optimized websites on their Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites page.

Source Link:-  http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2321842/Google-Webmaster-Tools-Now-Provides-More-Specific-Search-Query-Data