Google Search Console Pricing 2026: Plans, Pros & Cons

Overview

Google Search Console is Google’s free service for site owners, and its Performance report is a keyword research source of a particular kind: it lists the queries for which a verified site actually appeared in Google Search results, with four metrics^[14]. These are clicks, impressions, click-through rate (clicks divided by impressions) and average position of the site’s topmost result, shown for the whole site in the chart and per URL or grouping in the table^[14].

For established sites this is often the most reliable keyword data available, because it records real impressions rather than modelled volume, and it reveals queries where a page already ranks on the second or third page and could be improved. Google notes that the newest data may be preliminary and can change within a few hours, shown as a dotted line on the chart^[14]. Limitations: the report shows nothing about keywords for which the site has never appeared, so it cannot be used to research new topics or competitors; it requires site ownership verification; and it provides no difficulty score. It is therefore used alongside, not instead of, a third-party keyword tool.