Search Analytics

Google Search Console SQLite Ingestion & SQL Analytics

The search-analytics skill ingests Google Search Console performance metrics into a local SQLite analytics database (search_analytics.db or $XDG_DATA_HOME/search-analytics/analytics.db) without data loss, preserving all raw JSON payloads, handling API quotas via 25,000 batch chunks, and providing direct SQL querying over indexed search traffic.

Available scripts

• scripts/search_analytics.py: Automated sync, reporting, and OAuth CLI for Google Search Console. Executed via uv run scripts/search_analytics.py (requires Google Cloud OAuth credentials).
• scripts/test_search_analytics.py: Unit and regression test suite validating schema, query extraction, and CLI flags.

⚡ Quick Start & Primary Actions

All operations are driven via the bundled Python script in scripts/search_analytics.py:

# 1. Authenticate with Google OAuth 2.0
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py auth --port 8080

# 2. Incremental Sync (Updates newest days + 3-day latency overlap)
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py sync --db path/to/database.db

# 3. Full Historical Backfill (Ingests up to 16 months of granular daily data)
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py sync --full --db path/to/database.db

# 4. Run Pre-Built SQL Reports
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report overview --db path/to/database.db
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report top-queries --db path/to/database.db
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report top-pages --db path/to/database.db
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report countries --db path/to/database.db
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report devices --db path/to/database.db
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report timing --db path/to/database.db
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py report milestone-impact --db path/to/database.db

# 5. Run Ad-Hoc SQL Query
uv run scripts/search_analytics.py query "SELECT query, SUM(clicks), SUM(impressions) FROM search_performance GROUP BY query ORDER BY SUM(clicks) DESC LIMIT 10" --db path/to/database.db

If --db is omitted, the script defaults to search_analytics.db in the current working directory.

🗄️ Database Schema & Relational Structure

The database maintains 6 relational tables and 7 high-performance analytical views. Detailed DDL and schema definitions are in references/schema.md.

Tables

1. daily_site_performance: Unfiltered property-level daily totals (dimensions: ['date']). Matches 100% of property clicks/impressions in the Search Console web interface and 28-day Achievement badges.
   • Key columns: id (PK), site_url, date, search_type, clicks, impressions, ctr, position, raw_json, synced_at.
2. search_performance: Granular keyword-level performance partitioned by query, page, country, and device.
   • Key columns: id (PK), site_url, date, query, page, country, device, search_appearance, search_type, clicks, impressions, ctr, position, raw_json, synced_at.
3. properties: Verified Search Console web properties.
   • Key columns: site_url (PK), permission_level, raw_json, synced_at.
4. sitemaps: Submitted XML sitemaps, error counts, and indexed URL counts.
   • Key columns: site_url, path (PK), type, last_downloaded, last_submitted, errors, warnings, indexed_count, raw_json, synced_at.
5. site_milestones: Release milestones and publication launches for cohort impact analysis.
   • Key columns: commit_hash (PK), event_date, title, description, category, scope, author, created_at.
6. sync_history: Audit log of backfill and incremental sync operations.
   • Key columns: id (PK), site_url, sync_type, start_date, end_date, rows_synced, status, error_message, started_at, completed_at.

📊 Analytical SQL Views

🔍 Common SQL Analytics Recipes

Pre-tested SQL query recipes are documented in references/queries.md.

1. High-Opportunity Search Queries (Rank 1-10, Low CTR)

SELECT
    query,
    page,
    ROUND(SUM(impressions), 0) AS imps,
    ROUND(SUM(clicks), 0) AS clks,
    ROUND((SUM(clicks)/SUM(impressions))*100, 2) AS ctr_pct,
    ROUND(AVG(position), 1) AS avg_rank
FROM search_performance
WHERE position <= 10
GROUP BY query, page
HAVING SUM(impressions) >= 500 AND ctr_pct < 3.0
ORDER BY imps DESC
LIMIT 15;

2. Keyword Cannibalization Detection

SELECT
    query,
    COUNT(DISTINCT page) AS competing_pages,
    GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT page) AS pages,
    ROUND(SUM(clicks), 0) AS total_clicks,
    ROUND(SUM(impressions), 0) AS total_impressions
FROM search_performance
WHERE query != ''
GROUP BY query
HAVING COUNT(DISTINCT page) > 1
ORDER BY total_impressions DESC
LIMIT 10;

⚠️ Critical Architecture: Property-Level Totals vs. Keyword-Level Breakdown

When querying and analyzing Search Console data, note the two distinct API behaviors and database tables:

1. Unfiltered Property-Level Totals (daily_site_performance):
   • Querying the GSC API with dimensions: ['date'] (and aggregationType: 'byProperty') returns 100% of property search traffic, including all rare and long-tail queries.
   • This data is ingested into daily_site_performance and powers v_daily_summary. It directly matches the Search Console Web UI Performance graphs, Total Clicks cards, and 28-day Achievement badges (e.g. 700 clicks in 28 days).
2. Granular Keyword-Level Breakdown (search_performance):
   • When querying the GSC API with dimensions: ['query', 'page', 'country', 'device'], Google automatically applies anonymized query filtering to protect searcher privacy, stripping out rare/unique queries.
   • On technical and developer blogs, long-tail anonymized queries often represent 50%–70% of total search traffic. Therefore, search_performance should be used for keyword rankings and page distributions, while daily_site_performance (or v_daily_summary) must be used for aggregate traffic totals.
3. Cross-Engine Reconciliation with Google Analytics 4:
   • GA4 records landing sessions under session_default_channel_group = 'Organic Search' across all search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) without privacy filtering.
   • GA4 Organic Search traffic naturally aligns with Search Console property-level totals (daily_site_performance), rather than the query-filtered search_performance table.

📚 Progressive Disclosure & References

• Full DDL Schema Reference: references/schema.md — Complete SQL table definitions, column types, constraints, and views.
• SQL Query Cookbook: references/queries.md — Tested SQL recipes for CTR decay curves, keyword cannibalization, and MoM trends.
• OAuth Setup Guide: references/setup_oauth.md — Step-by-step GCP project, API enablement, and credential setup.