Trends & Anomalies
The Google Search Console Trends & Anomalies page shows the direction of your clicks, unusual days, lasting shifts and branded searches.
The Trends & Anomalies page of the Google Search Console module shows where your Google clicks are going. It finds the days your clicks jumped or dropped, and shows what else changed on your site around those days. A sudden drop is worth a check on the same day.
Before you start
- Link a Google Search Console property to the domain. See Connect Google Search Console.
- Select Google Search Console > Trends & Anomalies in the sidebar.
- The dock on this page has only the date range and the comparison. The page always shows your whole site in Web search. For the dock, see Overview.
The first time the page runs its analysis, it shows "Waiting for this report". The first analysis can take a few minutes. After that, the analysis updates automatically after each new data pull from Google.
Trend verdict
The verdict at the top of Trends & Anomalies compares your average daily clicks with the period of the same length just before it. The headline says, for example:
- "Clicks are up 12% in this period"
- "Clicks are down 8% in this period"
- "Clicks are steady in this period" (a change of less than 1%)
- "Clicks are new in this period" (no clicks in the period before)
- "Not enough history for a trend in this period"
The line under the headline gives the averages, for example "From 120 to 135 clicks a day." The stat Against the period before shows the change in percent. If the history before the period is short, the line says "We have only 20 days of clicks before this period."
If clicks fell recently and other things changed on your site in the days before, the line says so. For example: "Clicks fell 18% on Oct 3. Two things changed on your site in the days before."
How the trend is worked out
The "?" icon of the verdict explains the method. Compared with is the period before, of the same length. Measure is the average daily clicks. Google fills in its newest days late, so the last days of a period can read low.
Search performance chart on Trends & Anomalies
Under the verdict, Trends & Anomalies shows the same KPI card as the Overview: Clicks, Impressions, CTR and Average position. Select one or two tabs to draw them. Use Day, Week or Month to change the grouping. See Overview.
On this page, the chart also has pins:
- Unusual days. The five biggest unusual days. A drop shows in red and a rise in green. The pin says, for example, "Unusual day: -320 clicks (-18%)".
- Site events. Changes on your whole site, for example a robots.txt change or an outage.
- Google updates. Days when a Google update started.
If the analysis starts after the first day of your range, a note says so. It reads "Unusual days are only checked from", then a date.
Branded vs non-branded card
The Branded vs non-branded card on Trends & Anomalies splits your clicks into three parts:
- Branded. Searches that contain one of your brand terms. These people already know your name.
- Non-branded. All other searches that Google shows. These people found you without your name.
- Not shown by Google. Searches that Google hides to protect privacy. They are in the totals, but not in either group.
Use the Clicks / Impressions control to change the metric. The card has its own Day, Week and Month control. To grow your reach, grow the non-branded part.
Tiles of the Branded vs non-branded card
| Tile | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Branded share of clicks | Branded clicks out of the clicks that Google shows a search for. Hidden searches are left out |
| Branded clicks | Clicks from branded searches |
| Non-branded clicks | Clicks from all other shown searches |
| Not shown by Google | Clicks from hidden searches, and their share of all clicks |
With Impressions selected, the tiles show impressions instead. When compare is on, each tile shows the change. The share changes in points. If Google's totals are behind the listed searches, the last tile shows "Not measured".
When the card has no brand terms
The card needs brand terms. If the domain has none, owners and admins see "Let Theo find your brand terms" with a Find brand terms with Theo button. Theo reads your top searches and suggests the words that mean your own name. You confirm each one, then the split appears. Members see "No brand terms yet" and "This split appears once an owner or admin confirms the brand terms."
If Theo has a proposal, owners and admins see a banner such as "Theo found 3 brand terms – review them". The review opens in the domain settings. The Edit brand terms button in the card header also opens them. See Domain settings.
What moved your traffic
The What moved your traffic card on Trends & Anomalies is a timeline of the five biggest unusual days in your period. An unusual day is a day when clicks ran well above or below your usual weekly pattern.
Each day in the timeline shows:
- The change, for example "-320 clicks (-18%)".
- A chip with the likely cause, when the day lines up with a Google update.
- How often it occurred before, for example "9 similar days in the last 12 months, usually back in about 2 days."
- Biggest queries: the searches that gained or lost the most clicks on that day.
- What else happened on your site: changes from 3 days before to 1 day after the day.
Events around an unusual day
The events come from other modules, for example Robots.txt Monitoring, Sitemap Monitoring, Uptime Monitoring, Site Health Monitoring, Page Monitoring and Server Log Monitoring. A change that came first is not a cause, only a place to start.
If nothing changed, the card says "Nothing we monitor changed on your site around these days". If a module is not set up, the card offers to set it up. It shows "See what else happened on your site" with a button such as Set up Uptime Monitoring.
If there are no unusual days, the page shows "No unusual days" and "Clicks and impressions moved within their normal range in this period".
Every unusual day and lasting shifts
Under What moved your traffic, Trends & Anomalies has two more tables.
Every unusual day
The Every unusual day table lists all unusual days in the period, newest first. Days smaller than a set share of the period average are not flagged. The "?" icon gives that share.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Date | The day |
| Top searches | The searches that gained or lost the most clicks on this day |
| Seen before | How many similar days there were in the last 12 months, and how long clicks usually took to recover |
| Likely cause | A Google update that began near this day, when there is one |
| Events nearby | What else changed on your site from 3 days before to 1 day after |
| Change | Clicks that day against the clicks expected from your usual weekly pattern |
Hover the Change chip to see Clicks that day and Expected. The hover of a Google update says "Usually Google re-scoring pages, not a problem on your site."
Lasting shifts
The Lasting shifts table lists the days your usual traffic level stepped up or down for good. Shift shows the average clicks a day before and after, for example "120 → 95 clicks/day". Change shows how much the usual daily clicks moved, in percent. The table also has Likely cause and Events nearby.
Troubleshooting
Why does Trends & Anomalies say "Not enough history for a trend in this period"?
The period before your date range has no Google Search Console data. If you linked the property recently, wait for more history, or select a shorter range.
Why is the Branded vs non-branded card missing?
If the domain has no brand terms, the card asks you to add them. If the period has no clicks or impressions to split, the card does not show. Ask an owner or admin to confirm brand terms in the domain settings.
Why do unusual days read lower than in Google Search Console?
Sometimes the analysis uses per-page totals. The page then says "Unusual days are worked out from per-page totals". These totals leave out the clicks that Google hides, so they can read lower than in Google Search Console.
Why do the last days of the chart look low?
Google fills in its newest days late. These days show Still updating on the chart, and their numbers can rise.
Related
- Overview - the KPIs, the dock and brand terms
- Content changes - what Google did after a page change
- Web Analytics trends - changes in visits from all sources
- Domain settings - confirm your brand terms
- Site Health overview - issues that Google Search Console data opens
Overview
The Google Search Console module shows your clicks, impressions, CTR and position in Google Search, with top queries, pages, countries and devices.
Organic revenue
The Google Search Console Organic revenue page matches your Google clicks with Web Analytics sales to show what each page earns from organic search.
