How to Use GSC to Create a Content Plan, Find New Ideas, and Update Articles

A lot of people think that GSC is not enough to compete against paid tools for content production. For sure, there are such cases. But in general, knowing how to play with its data is the real game-changer for your content strategy.

GSC is my first option when it comes to analyzing content and finding new data.

I can consider as misconceptions the following: there is a delay in Google Search Console data, which can mean you aren’t working with the most current data.

This was true, but since their API provides partial data from the previous day, the issues were fixed.

The problem is not knowing why pages aren’t indexed.
The misconception is that it’s just a place to check and update index status.

There’s so much data in GSC (especially API) that can help inform content strategy.

People often think that discovered pages are indexed, but when Google discovers pages, it's like when you see a new steakhouse or pizzeria on the street and say to check it out later. If it comes later, G will crawl.

• Work with pages positioned between spots 7 and 15. Using GSC, it’s possible to identify them by going to Search Traffic, Search Analytics, and click on Pages and Positions. It may be enough to optimize meta tags, add content, and internal links to improve rankings.
• Identify the content types that get the most backlinks. The more links from trustworthy and credible sources point to your content, the better it is. And check those from inferior websites that can hurt your reputation.

Keep this in mind when creating a content plan :)

Everything involving the API is not as common as many think.

Once you get the data, you can cluster keywords, check the most common combinations, and even perform data analysis to check where you can improve.

You can check the Coverage section via the Search Inspection API. So you can create your own workflow rather than logging in every time.

Pretty much the same as parsing SALs (server access logs). There's a ton of information hanging around, you just have to dig and wade through, and know what you are looking for.

Such as identifying "topics" for pages, predicting ranking drops, etc. If you put in the time/effort, you can get better coverage data by producing separate sitemaps for sections/content types, new content, etc. This allows you to get a clearer picture of what's crawled/indexed, and identify potential weak areas, etc.

You can use regex in GSC, detect high-impression long-tail queries and get high traffic by simply changing the title. For example, this little regex script ([^” “]*\s){4,}?) will give you queries with 4 words or more. You can edit the number in the script.

Identify what works and what doesn't – then see if you can see why.

This includes not just the "keyword" or "intent" terms, but the nature (medium/format) and the performance over time. You should get a bunch of queries that work poorly, and a bunch of those that you do well with.

You can then start looking at variants (makes, models, locations, time periods, etc.) that you can research and look for opportunities.

I'm also a big fan of using it to see potential looming failures – pages that are dropping for terms, etc. This can indicate a shift in intent, change of meaning, or more technical issues that need to be looked at.

My suggestion is to cluster the keywords you can find in GSC and look for those groups where you have 0 clicks and high impressions. This is a very quick way to add value and find what you’re not optimizing for.

Once you have exhausted all the topics, you can just expand your selection with a little fantasy. For example, the query “my dell xps doesn’t work” can give you ideas for many other laptop brands, I am pretty sure you’ll find plenty of ideas this way.

Anyway, clustering in GSC is already good if you have a website already ranking for something. In other cases, I alternate between analyzing competitors and checking keywords with tools or my knowledge of the industry.

GSC data can help you see:
• topics (not keywords, but the complementing words/phrases) that get clicks and impressions (how to do X with Y);
• queries where you can get more/less specific;
• potential openings for different mediums (video);
• queries/terms you get impressions but not clicks (you can try different intents/purposes, mediums/formats);
• topics/terms that you already perform on, but could expand/reinforce.

If you combine it with additional data (such as on-site search) – it's handy!

"Export up to 1,000 of the queries you’re showing up for in search."

“After exporting the data, categorize the queries by topic/category to understand the groupings of keywords that your site is showing up for.”

“This data will show you the areas where you need to devote more time to get more impressions/clicks within organic search, plus ideas for topics you can write about to increase your traffic and click-through rates."

It's not a surprise, that working on our content plan we use Serpstat at least to analyze competitors' top pages by rankings, traffic, and backlinks.

I'd call that a must-have :)

For large projects, you need more tools, of course.

However, for niche websites or smaller content projects knowing your audience/niche and regularly checking GSC is enough. Niche/content websites may be either built or improved without spending that much money on paid tools.

Once you test the waters, you get plenty of GSC data that you can use to model your content strategy accordingly.

Personally, for content monitoring ... I like to use GSC alongside other data points, such as UX/satisfaction metrics in GA.

For ideation, I like to use it alongside an exploration of SERPs (manual or tools) and look for gaps (questions, missing mediums, etc.) On its own – it's good enough for small sites if you do a bit of data-digging and export for regex/parsing etc.

For larger sites – you typically need to export/API grab data, and typically mix it with other data for a greater effect.