One of the most popular features of Google’s Webmaster Tools, the Search Queries report, is now getting even more useful. After listening to user feedback, Google has announced it is replacing the Search Queries report with a new and improved Search Analytics report.
The new Search Analytics report includes many features users have been clamoring for — such as the ability to compare desktop and mobile traffic, the ability to compare metrics in different countries, and more.
You can break down and segment your data nearly any way you’d like with the new Search Analytics report, which allows for a very precise analysis of your search traffic. Want to see how your search traffic and queries compare before and after “Mobilegeddon”? Yep, you can do that pretty easily with this new tool.
If your site caters to an international audience, you can use the Search Analytics report to narrow down which countries are searching most for your brand. Just choose “impressions” as your metric, filter by your brand name, and group results by country to show a sorted list of impressions by country.
Compared to the old Search Queries report, Google says Search Analytics is more accurate and calculated different. All differences and new features are detailed here in Google’s Search Analytics help center article.
To give site owners time to transition from using the old report, Google is going to keep Search Queries available for the next three months. After that time, everyone will have to use Search Analytics.
