Thursday, February 03, 2011 at 2:08 PM
Webmaster level: All
Last year we relaunched an exciting feature in Webmaster Tools: Search Queries, an analysis tool that visualizes your site’s presence in our search results. It has two main parts: an interactive graph, and a table containing detailed data related to queries for which your site appears in our search results.
Two of the most important pieces of information in the table are ‘impressions’ and ‘clicks.’ ‘Impressions’ shows the number of times your pages were shown in the search results for a certain query, and ‘clicks’ is how many times users actually clicked on a result from your site.
Based on webmaster feedback, today we’re announcing a slight change in how these numbers are represented in Webmaster Tools, to simplify their interpretation. Instead of showing numbers rounded to two or three digits, the numbers will now be shown with one or two significant digits. For example, instead of Webmaster Tools showing you 246,000 impressions, it will now show 250,000 impressions, which is a nicer representation for a better, less confusing experience. We have not altered the way we calculate the numbers internally, but only changed how we round them in Webmaster Tools. Generally, a difference of less than 10% between the numbers you see now and those you saw prior to this change should not be considered significant.
We hope that this update makes Search Queries easier to understand. If you want to learn more about this feature you can visit our Help Center. If you have feedback or suggestions for Search Queries, please let us know in the Webmaster Help Forum.
48 comments:
Yea, now it more usable to view impressions. Thanks, Google!
Will these changes be also implemented in export tab (file)?
Yuck! You are dumbing-down the results for stupid people. I'm against this change.
Thank you, Google, for making our statistics even less precise! Who cares about a ±10% difference, after all? We don't really need that level of precision! We appreciate your transparency and willingness to share information to the webmaster community! Keep up the good work!
I would have preferred the results to be left as they were. Rounding numbers just means they're less accurate, rather than less confusing.
What is the use of rounding it to one-two significant figures. Previous was fine as it was displaying the exact figure.
if thegoogle is doing that such type of change I think it will be effectable for google result in the transparacy of resul..
The idea of ronding the figures will help us to find more clear data..
Oh please, how is less precise better for users? :/
funny, i was expecting a change here. but on the opposite direction!
more accurate data is what we need, not a nicer view.
if i want to see a better view, i'd look at girls, not at search query on GWT
Sorry guys but I don't see this as an improvement...less accurate figures are helpful how?
@must: Google engineers decided to round out numbers because they love to see lots of zeroes (as in the word "G0000000000gol", y'know).
I also heard that the TBPR indicator will soon undergo a similar restyling in a less-is-more fashion: instead of showing PageRank on the 0-10 scale we've become accustomed to over the years, the new Toolbar will have one big ON (green) / OFF (blank) LED indicator. Very neat!
Go Google, keep up the awesome innovation for the people!!!
These comments are going to be the funniest mailing list I've ever subscribed. EVAR.
Ok, so following the phishing post trying to get new AdSense publishers to sign up on Jan 24th, this is now the second post in under two weeks which is making me question the sanity of whoever makes these decisions...
I find the introduction of a 1-in-10 rounding margin of error to be a step in completely the wrong direction.
They're called Webmaster Tools, not Webmaster Guesswork Accessories...
Rounding significant figures looks fine, you're helping easier overview...
But it is not fine when exported data is rounded as well.
I disagree with this update. I am not sure why earlier numbers were confusing. I think this is adding more inaccuracy to the results. Please revert this change.
I dont see how this is helpful in the slightest - now they are even more inaccurate than they were before. This is not a good change...
(If it really such an issue for some people, add preferences in the settings Google, dont take away even more accuracy from the data)
Thank you for update. I got a lots of help from your previous video post on search query. It helped my lot in researching & focusing on top keywords.
zlancer: AN HERO.
Hey Googlers,
Are you adjusting the numbers to the accuracy of behind it? If the numbers are not accurate, and you round them this might be good, if you are rounding more accurate numbers I agree with others here that it is a change to the worse.
Does this change affect numbers in adwords keyword research tools as well?
"zlancer: AN HERO."
That would not be my first choice of word...
It takes a special kind of genius to comment spam the Official Webmaster Central Blog. ;-)
Sasch: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22AN+HERO%22
Hello all,
I fee a bit of clarity is needed.
The numbers in Webmaster Tools are representations and work a lot like names of people. All we’re doing here is changing the names slightly to remove some confusion. There isn’t really a gain nor loss of in transparency or accuracy because although the names changed slightly, they still represent the same thing internally. The goal now and previously is to make webmasters aware of significant changes to long-term trends and not bog them down in minute fluctuations.
Hope this clarifies things a bit more.
Thanks,
Pierre
the horror
No wonder they dumbed it down. Reading by the comments on this blog, they must think the Internet is full of idiots.
@Pierre Far: What "confusion" do you aim to remove, exactly?
The new "names" may represent the same thing internally, but they are a less accurate representation.
This update reduces the quality of information that is made available to webmaster.
Dear Google,
It is not a good sign when the only good comment on this list of comments is a spammer named smsinhindi.com whom is obviously trying to gain links.
You should listen to the other real webmasters whom are all screaming "MORE ACCURACY IS BETTER!"
Because I tend to agree!
Well.well Google Masters. Thanking for the spirit of innovation. Confusion in stats felt previously. Now by dividing as Impressions and Clicks more clarity achieved. Hope the rounding off tenpercent also be implemented as the situation needs. Thanking once again the google. Best Wishes.
OK, I think I finally got it. See my comment at SearchEngineLand: http://goo.gl/F1u4b
I wasn't confused before. Just like anything else Google publishes, you need to take as a "relative" number anyway :(
Yes -- catering to people who can't read numbers is less than cool.
thanks you for your advices and trasparency!
In the example table there is an error:
for the "google blog" line the new value for 33,100 should be 33,000, not 35,000!
And about the decision... less precision is always worse!
I have to agree with everyone else on here. The last thing any webmaster needs is less specific information.
Rounding is always a good idea!
I have a question related to those results, though.
When clicking on those results (like google.com in this example) you are shown a list of pages that were clicked.
However, I have many examples where the pages listed there do NOT even appear in the Google SERPS´first 100 results .... UNLESS the search-keyword is combined with other terms...
Why are those clicked pages still listed here if they could not be clicked with only the shown search term?
10% is not so small fault to be dropped. Does 243 looks worth than 250??
WOW, I have seen for our site its good and tremendous approach for everyone. Google always implement something new for our all users.
Thanks for your guideline and support.
Will that be?
I had seen my site too.
it is good approach. Although Google always implement something new for everyone of us, how often do we use it fully? How accurate i the data compare to the ranking?
I (or I think) no one will/want to remember IMPRESSIONS (If this is the objective of this change). I would prefer exact details rather rounding data.
Chirag.
How come the "Avg Position" isn't very accurate?
Is the Avg Position based on internal data versus what's actually in the SERPs?
It seems Google Webmaster is getting their data from a source that isn't live..
According to Google Webmaster we have many Avg Positions in the 20's range, yet when we search Google our URL's are no where to be found.
as long as you don't round the clicks and the CTR is based on Googles' internal data, I don't mind...impressions only mean something when it results in a click, no? I still love you Google.
ROTF, now googles numbers are as good as their serps. ;)
Thanks for the update. It is good to know how you arrived at the numbers.
Very nice informative article
this is just my suggestion: accuracy is more important to us. I didn't like this changes,please to something.
I have checked its really useful features,
but i want more, how can we know that from which country search engine or domain search comes,
like some one write on search engine Google.co.uk ( Best SEO Companies )
so how we can check its come from Google.co.uk or Google.com ? because when i checked search quires then i have to check this keyword on every Country search engine . its very problem for me , can you guide me how i can get exact search engine details.
I daresay ... for someone who advises clients to put these figures into a spreadsheet and analyse even the minutest up- or downticks in seach frequency (plus Alexa and other rankings) DAILY to determine if e.g. a new article has led to increased traffic or not, "rounding" in the thousands is actually an impairment not an improvement. Little as I otherwise critisize Google's effort, but this is -to me- a deterioration of sorts.
this is confusing.
How to I get or obtain more search queries?
Please help. Thanks
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