Hey! Matthew here, co-founder of SEO Gets.
Today, I’m diving into a game-changing SEO metric that’s been transforming how I analyze website performance: query counting.
I’ll focus on 5 practical reasons why you should be using query counting and how it can help you find actionable insights to grow your organic traffic.
- Measuring topical coverage and expansion
- Find answers to performance inconsistencies.
- Validate cannibalization fixes.
- Track local SEO expansion.
- Understand the quality of your query growth.
1. Measure Content Visibility & Topical Coverage
One of the most powerful applications of query counting is measuring your site’s topical coverage and content visibility.
I recently analyzed a site that quadrupled its query count from August to November while maintaining relatively stable traffic levels. During the same period, impressions actually decreased slightly.
What story does this tell us?
The site was expanding its topical authority (more queries) even as seasonal demand for those topics declined (fewer impressions). Without query counting, you might incorrectly assume your SEO efforts weren’t working when in fact, you were building a stronger foundation.
2. Performance Troubleshooting Made Clear
Query counting becomes even more powerful when analyzed alongside traditional metrics. Here are a few patterns I regularly see and what they actually mean:
Pattern 1: Queries ↑ + Clicks ↑
This is the dream scenario. Your site is expanding its reach while also earning more traffic. It signals that you’re not only covering more topics but delivering high-quality content that earns clicks.
Pattern 2: Queries ↑ + Clicks ↓
This seemingly contradictory pattern often indicates that while you’re ranking for more terms, your average position has dropped. The solution? Improve your content quality to better match search intent.
Pattern 3: Queries → + Clicks ↑
When query count stays flat but clicks increase, you’re typically seeing either:
- Improved rankings for existing queries
- Increased search demand for your topics
- Growth in branded searches
Let me share a real example: A client completed a site migration, and while their query count remained stable, their clicks dropped significantly. After investigating, we discovered they had lost their sitelinks in branded search results during the domain transfer. The diagnosis would have been nearly impossible without query counting data.
3. Validating Content Pruning & Keyword Cannibalization Fixes
Shout out to Ben Goody here, who wrote an excellent post about keyword cannibalization. When you remove or merge pages to fix cannibalization issues, query counting becomes your validation tool.
Here’s why it works:
- If you remove a page and your query count drops significantly, you’ve likely made a mistake – that content was bringing in unique queries
- If query count remains stable after removal, you’ve successfully consolidated without losing visibility
We’ve built a keyword cannibalization report in SEO Gets to make identifying these opportunities simple, but you can also find them manually in Search Console.
4. Local SEO Expansion Tracking
For local businesses, query counting is invaluable for tracking geographic expansion.
While seasonal fluctuations and ranking improvements can explain increases in clicks and impressions, growing your query count typically means you’re appearing for new location-based searches (like “service in city”).
I regularly use query counting to validate that my local SEO clients are expanding their visibility across service areas, not just improving rankings for existing locations.
5. Taking It Further: Query Quality Analysis
Beyond the raw numbers, examine the quality of your queries by breaking them down by ranking position:
- Position 1-3: These drive the most traffic
- Position 4-10: First page but less valuable
- Position 11-20: Second page, minimal traffic
- Position 21+: Virtually invisible
I prioritize growth in positions 1-3, as gaining hundreds of position 21+ rankings rarely moves the needle for traffic or conversions.
How to Track Query Counting (Even Without SEO Gets)
While SEO Gets provides this data automatically (and allows for up to 50,000 queries versus Search Console’s 1,000 row limit), you can track this metric manually:
- Go to Google Search Console’s Performance report
- Note the total number of rows (queries) for a specific date range
- Record this number in a spreadsheet alongside the date
- Repeat weekly (daily would be too time-consuming)
- Create a simple line graph showing the trend using Chat GPT.
For larger sites that exceed the 1,000 query limit in Search Console, you’ll get incomplete data – that’s where tools like SEO Gets become essential.
What’s Next?
I’d love to hear how you’re using query counting in your SEO strategy. Have you discovered other creative applications? Drop me an email and let me know.
Until next time!
Matt
P.S. If manually tracking query counts sounds tedious (it is!), give SEO Gets a try. We’ve made this analysis super straightforward, and it’s free for sites under 1,000 clicks per month. Just saying. 😉
✨ Interested in simplifying your SEO analytics workflow? Try SEO Gets for free.
