Ranking query data in Oncrawl
Ranking performance is an additional component within Oncrawl to monitor how your websites ranks by tracking your performance on ranking queries, directly in the Oncrawl platform.
It uses data provided by Google Search Console on search queries and URL performance.
Setup and configuration
Ranking performance settings are found in the Add data source page, under the Ranking performance tab.
Access configuration
You must activate Ranking performance on a project in order to use it
Ranking performance can be activated on a limited number of projects (depending on your plan)
You can only have one Ranking performance account per project
A project with Ranking performance must be linked to a GSC account
You can integrate a maximum of 10 properties linked to your GSC account
How to set up Ranking performance in a project
From the project page, go to Add data source
Switch to the tab Ranking performance
Click on Enable Ranking performance
Select a data source from which you want to retrieve data. If you don't already have a Google Data Studio data source, you can create one at this time.
Shift the property(ies) (maximum 10) to the right hand side
Click on Check sample data to have a preview of the data before import
Click on Confirm and import data to launch the initial import (month by month recovery of the last 16 months of GSC data).
The first data (i.e. the last month) is accessible after a short wait. Depending on how much data your account has, this can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Once this first import is completed, the Oncrawl will update the available data via a daily import.
Once the first data have been recorded, Oncrawl will provide you a view of the sampling applied by Google Search Console on your data:
In green the unsampled data totals reported by Google Search Console
In blue the sampled data provided by the Search Console to a platform like Oncrawl
What happens if you modify your Ranking performance setup
Modifying a setup will irreversibly change the future recovered data but will not modify the previously imported data. This can create discrepancies when looking at data over time.
When you modify your setup, any new information will be taken into account during the next daily import.
At the bottom of the page you can also access the history of changes made to the project.
Collecting Ranking performance data from Google Search Console
Your ranking performance data is collected in three steps:
Importing data occurs during the initial import and the daily imports.
Initial import
16 months of data month by month.
You can view the data during the initial import. We process the imports month by month. The most recent data is imported first.
Daily import
Retrieves Search Console data that is more recent than the data from the initial import. The daily import is launched every day and retrieves the most recently available Search Console data, usually data from three days before the daily import date.
Access to Ranking performance
To access Ranking performance you can use the following options:
From any crawl report, you have access via the sidebar
The Show Ranking performance button on the project page
How to configure search query groups
You can configure search query groups in different places:
the Search query tools section in the left-hand sidebar when looking at analysis results:
the Search query groups dashboard, via the button Configure query groups at the top right:
To create groups of queries, you have two possibilities:
From the OQL, you can configure rules to create your group from the query dimension.
From a list of queries in text format with the separator "," between each query.
Example query list format
query1,query2,this long query3,query4
Ranking performance: Dashboards and reports
You will find in this page all the global metrics related to your search queries. To refine your results, you have the possibility to sort your searches by segmentations, type of device or to modify the period.
By default, the data is displayed over the last 45 days.
Overall performance dashboard
Overall metrics of your queries with the sum of clicks and impressions, the average position and the CTR.
Performance by country
Representation of performance data by country
Top queries
Summary table of the main indicators by query. For each indicator, we show the top 100 queries.
Share of clicks by device & share of impressions by device
Distribution of the sum of query clicks or impressions by type of device (mobile, tablet, desktop)
Date comparison
You have the possibility to compare two periods of data on your dashboard. For that click on the period selected then check "Compare two periods".
Then, you can select the range of period to compare on the list:
For example, if you choose last Week over Week, you can compare the last 7 days with the 7 days before that. After selecting the range of comparison, you can change the start date of each period. Oncrawl will calculate the end date based on the range you selected.
When you click Apply filters, all of your metrics will be changed on the following dashboards:
Query dashboard
Query groups dashboard
Page groups dashboard
You can compare the value on the period selected and even see how big the change was on some metrics:
For numbers: numbers for the selected period (in blue) and the earlier, compared period (in grey) are present with the difference between them.
For overall performance:
Two lines are represented: the selected period and the earlier, comparison one.
Each day is represented individually. Hover over the line to view the detail for that day.
For performance country, we present only the difference between the two periods. The country is represented in green if performance has improved.
To see the details choose one country by hovering over it.
Top queries :
For each metric, you can view the 100 top performing queries during the selected period. For reference, the number of the earlier, compared period are also shown, as well as the difference between the two periods.
Because the top queries are related only to the selected period, sorting options for the comparison period are disabled. However, you can sort this table by the change between the two periods.
Share of clicks by device & Share of impressions by device: both periods are represented on the charts.
Query groups dashboard
You will find in this page all the global metrics related to your query groups. To refine your results, you have the possibility to filter your searches by query group, device type or even to modify the period. By default, the data is displayed over the last 45 days.
⚠️ Be careful: if you use filters to remove a value, you won't see related traffic in the totals on the page. For example, if you remove mobile traffic using a filter, totals on these charts will not include mobile traffic.
Overall performance
Set of metrics for your query groups with the sum of clicks and impressions, the average position and the CTR.
Top groups
Summary table of the main indicators by query group. By default, the table is sorted in descending order for each indicator
Date comparison
You can compare different period of time for the dashboard Query groups. Once selected, you will see the differences of data on each metric :
Overall performance:
Each group has two lines on the chart: a solid line for the selected period and a dotted line for the earlier, comparison period.
If you have too many groups, you can show only the groups you want to examine by clicking on the eye and then on the group names in the chart legend.
Top groups: for each metric, you can see the data for the selected period, the comparison period and the change or difference between the two.
Page Groups dashboard
On this dashboard you will find all the global metrics related to your page groups. To refine your results, you can filter your searches by page group, device type, or change the period. By default, the data is displayed over the last 45 days.
Overall performance
Set of metrics for your page groups with the sum of clicks and impressions, the average position and the CTR
Top groups
Summary table of the main indicators by page group. By default, the table is sorted in descending order on the sum of clicks.
Date comparison
You can compare different period of time for the dashboard Page groups. Once selected, you will see the differences of data on each metric:
Overall performance: for each page group, two lines are represented on the dashboard. the plain line for the reference period and the dotted lines for the compared period. If you have too many groups, do not hesitate to click on eye icon and select only one or more query group.
Top groups: in here for each metric, you will have the possibility to see the data on the reference period, the compared period and the delta
