The update went live on the 14th of April and it was a bit weird and confusing for me but finally I think I've gotten the hang of it. Remember how I said this tool could help you check for keywords you didn't know about? Well with the updated tool it can help you check that and get some more insight into those keywords. However, as with all things related to statistics, I advise you should not take what it says as law...
Here's a shot of what it looks like, on a good day.
#1 Date Range: With the date range tool, you can analysis exact periods, maybe dates when you produced a really interesting article that brought a lot of people to your site, there usually would be a spike on the graph on a day like that. This would come in handy for in-depth analysis of linkbaiting, keywords and Clickthrough rates which SEO clients sometimes ask for.
#2 Clickthrough and #3 Impressions: Clickthrough and Impression are created whenever a page from your website is found on the search result for a particular keyword. An Impression is when it is 'seen' and a Clickthrough is when it is actually clicked on and directed to your website. The Clickthrough % is a percentage of Clickthrough over Impressions. Once again, this is why the love for Page 1 is so high, however even if you're on Page 1, you have to be up there with the right keyword like I mentioned in my earlier post.
#4 Query/Keyword: This is the actual search phrase or keyword which brought your website to the search engine result page. The Impression value will usually always be more than the Clickthrough rate, but if you are found under the right keyword, the difference between Impressions and Clickthroughs will be reduced. Here's another screenshot of the Query expanded, I like this part:
Expanding the keyword shows the position in the search result, the Impressions, Clickthrough and percentage for that particular position. There are a number of positions because it takes into consideration Google domain results from different countries (you know the result you see in Google Nigeria is not the same as Google UK). On first glance the position with the highest impression and clickthrough is #3 and it also tell us the exact page for that keyword, if it isn't your home page. Being found for multiple pages of your website is always a plus.
So far, it seems the the farthest page counted is Page 3, so if you're not found on the first 3 pages, then it means you need to step up your game...
I'll continue to have a play with it and see if there more to it.If you've had a play with the tool let us know what you think. Good, bad, same difference or what?
If you want to know more about the Google Webmaster Tool, visit the Google Webmaster Central.
