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LESSON 6 OF 7 · 7 MINUTES

Read your results without fooling yourself

Clicks go up and down for many reasons. Compare like with like, wait long enough, and write the dates down.

You published on a Tuesday. On Friday clicks were up 30%. It is tempting to call that a win. It might be a holiday ending, a competitor's page dropping, or Google testing something.

Three habits that keep you honest

  • Compare a period with the same length period just before it. Twenty-eight days against twenty-eight days.
  • Wait two weeks after publishing before you judge a page. Search takes time to settle.
  • Write down what you did and when. A result means little without the date beside it.

One sentence, then the numbers

Before you open a chart, write the result as one sentence: "Clicks up 21% on the 28 days before, 1,245 to 1,505." If you cannot write the sentence, the chart will not help.

EASIEST WAY

Results opens with that sentence, then the daily clicks and the queries that moved. The timeline puts what you did beside what happened, and gives each article a verdict after fourteen days that does not change later.

Open Results

Or open the timeline

DO IT YOURSELF

Keep a spreadsheet with two tabs: one for what you did and the date, one for Search Console clicks by week. Every Monday, write one sentence comparing the last four weeks with the four before. Look at the dates tab before you decide what caused it.

Do it now

  1. Write down everything you published this month, with dates.
  2. Compare the last 28 days with the 28 before.
  3. Write the result as one sentence.
  4. Wait two weeks before judging a new page.

Quick answers

Clicks went down after I published. Did the article hurt?

Rarely. Check what else changed that week, and wait the full two weeks.

What if I have very little traffic?

Then watch impressions and position, which move before clicks do.