Why the numbers differ from Search Console
Search Console reports the same traffic in several ways that do not add up to each other. This is which one each screen uses, and why.
If a figure here is not the one you see in Search Console, it is usually one of the reasons below, not missing data.
Three kinds of data
We import three kinds of data from Search Console for every site.
| Data | What it is | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Site totals | Clicks and impressions for the whole property, by day, with no breakdown | The Overview's totals and chart, the Sites page, the coverage check on the Action plan, and the device and country tables in Breakdowns |
| Page data | Clicks and impressions for each page, by day | Top pages and the biggest gains and drops on the Overview, Pages, page actions and experiments |
| Query data | Clicks and impressions for each search query and page, by day | Queries, the brand split in Breakdowns, and query actions |
The totals at the top of Search Console's Performance report are site totals, and so are the totals on our Overview and Sites page, so those should match Search Console for the same days. Lists of pages and queries add up to less, for the reasons below.
Pages count differently from the site
When one search shows two of your pages, Search Console's site totals count one impression. The page data counts one for each page. So adding up pages can give more impressions than the site total.
Google also leaves some rows out of the detailed data when there are very many of them. That pulls the page and query totals down.
Anonymised queries
Google hides searches made by very few people, to protect their privacy. Their clicks and impressions still count towards the page data, but the queries themselves never appear.
That is why the Queries list adds up to less than the Pages list. On a site with many unusual, one-off searches, the gap can be large.
Coverage
On the Action plan, choose one site to see how much of its traffic the detailed data covers. For example: "Detailed page data represents 97% of impressions and query data 61%."
Low query coverage means many of the site's searches are hidden. Treat query-level evidence with more care on that site.
Other reasons the numbers differ
- Dates. Our periods end on the "data through" date, the last day Google has finalised. Search Console's own reports can include newer, unfinished days. See How long your data is kept.
- Search type. We import web search only. Image, video, news and Discover traffic are not included.
- Property. A Domain property and a URL-prefix property for the same site report different numbers. Check you are comparing the same one. See Connect Search Console.
- History. A period longer than your plan keeps shows only the days we hold.
- Daily limit. Each plan keeps a site's most-clicked pages and searches, up to a limit a day. On a site with more than that, page and query lists add up to less than the site totals the Overview shows. The rows left out have the fewest clicks, so clicks are affected least. The coverage check above shows how much is kept. See How long your data is kept.
- Averages. Our CTR is total clicks divided by total impressions. Our average position is weighted by impressions, so a page seen 10,000 times counts for more than one seen 10 times.