How to build a compact Google Search Console Dashboard in Google Data Studio

In this post I’ll show you how to make a compact, one page Google Search Console Dashboard using Google Data Studio.

Below is a screenshot of the Google Search Console dashboard in Data Studio. The actual dashboard is at the end of this article.

How to build a compact Google Search Console Dashboard in Google Data Studio

So I’ll show you how to build the various charts in the dashboard.

Step 1: Build out the various Scorecards with Metrics

So in this dashboard we will want to add have the following standard metrics from Search Console:
– Impressions
– Clicks
– Site CTR (Click through rate)
– Average position

We also want to create the following metrics that count the distinct number of dimensions
– Days (Count of unique dates)
– Queries (Count of unique queries)

Finally, we’d like to create three custom metrics that can only appear in scorecards in Data Studio at the time of writing.
– Average Queries per Day
– Average Impressions per Day
– Average Clicks per Day

To create these final three custom metrics, you select both metrics, right click and select ‘Blend data’. This gives us a new custom metric as shown below.

Average Queries per Day = SUM(Query) / SUM(Date)

Average Queries per Day = SUM(Query) / SUM(Date)

Average Impressions per Day = SUM(Impressions) / SUM(Date)

Average Impressions per Day = SUM(Impressions) / SUM(Date)

Average Clicks per Day = SUM(Clicks) / SUM(Date)

Average Clicks per Day = SUM(Clicks) / SUM(Date)

At the end once we’ve added all our metrics and custom metrics we can have a whole row of scorecards at the top of our dashboard.

various scorecards with GSC data in google data studio

Step 2: Build a line chart with various optional metrics and a trendline

So the next chart in our dashboard is a time series line chart with a trendline. We are going to have the metrics impressions, clicks, CTR and average position in this chart.

We are going to have the metrics impressions, clicks, CTR and average position in this Google Search Console Dashboard

To set this up choose to be able to drill down into your Date dimension, so we can look at Date > Year Week > Year Month.

Have impressions as your main metric, with Clicks, Site CTR and Average Position as your Optional Metrics.

Under the Style tab have it as a Line and not a bar, and adjust to show a Linear trend line.

data for a time series line chart in google data studio showing impressions, clicks, ctr, and average position.

Since we have Drill Down and Optional Metrics enabled, we are now able to look at other metrics. For example the chart below shows the number of Clicks by Year Week.

the chart below shows the number of Clicks by Year Week.

Step 3: Build a bar chart with various optional metrics

For the next chart, we will have similar metrics to our time series line chart but instead will be displaying the data as a bar chart.

will have similar metrics to our time series line chart but instead will be displaying the data as a bar chart for our Google Search Console Dashboard

So we set up the data in the following way;

  • Dimensions (with Drill down enabled) = Date displayed as Year Month, Year Week.
  • Default Metrics = Impressions.
  • Optional Metrics = Clicks, Site CTR, Average Position.
Dimensions (with Drill down enabled) = Date displayed as Year Month, Year Week.
Default Metrics = Impressions.
Optional Metrics = Clicks, Site CTR, Average Position.

So for example, while the bar chart displays impressions by month as the default metric we can drill down and adjust the optional metrics so that it displays the site click through rate by the week of the year.

can drill down and adjust the optional metrics so that it displays the site click through rate by the week of the year.

Step 4: Build a Table showing Queries with Impressions and other optional metrics

The next chart in our dashboard is a table showing queries along with the number of impressions as the default metric, and clicks, CTR and average position as optional metrics.

Table showing google search console data for our GSC dashboard in google data studio

So for this table we have;

  • Dimensions = Query
  • Default Metrics = Impressions.
  • Optional Metrics = Clicks, Site CTR, Average Position.
a breakdown of how our table is constructed in google data studio

Step 5: Build a Geo Map showing Impressions, Clicks, CTR and Position by Country

For our final chart in our Google Search Console dashboard we are going to add a Geo Map showing Impressions, Clicks, CTR and Position by Country.

a geo map showing Impressions, Clicks, CTR and Position by Country.

To set this up we choose Country as our dimension, Impressions as our metric, and Clicks, Site CTR, and average position as our optional metrics. That way we can switch between them on our map showing the world.

we choose Country as our dimension, Impressions as our metric, and Clicks, Site CTR, and average position as our optional metrics for our Google Search Console Dashboard

Step 5: Looking at our finished Google Search Console Dashboard

After some cosmetic touches we now have our finished compact Google Search Console dashboard in Google Data Studio.

I hope you found this post useful and helpful for visualizing your search console data and that you learned a bit more about how to build Google Data Studio templates!

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Michael Howe-Ely