Fake Data In GSC!?

[mcfarlanek]

I love GSC as a tool because I can find so many opportunities that only I can see because it's my data.

But sometimes I find weird data, that I see often across my sites.

For example;

I like to take a look each month to see what queries are losing/gaining to the previous months. So I use the compare filter to look at the last 28 days vs the previous 28 days.

And I always find a few terms as shown in the screenshot below. It will show a query similar to "Coffee Makers On Sale" (not the actual term) that I know I shouldn't be ranking for.

The query shows up with a crazy amount of impressions, like in the screenshot above. It also appears to rank in the top 3

Yay Me! Right?

But wait. No clicks! Why?

A quick incognito search for the term on both mobile/desktop and my site isn't anywhere to be seen.

• I'm not one of the images
• I'm not in the top 8
• I'm not in the PAA
• Can't find it.

I check Ahrefs for the same term and apparently I don't even rank for that query.

Is this a bug in GSC, or am I missing out on an opportunity here?

I've also seen instances where I find a query that I rank for very well and get clicks.

But when I compare the previous month it shows a huge loss in clicks. It will show something like 0 or a crazy low number for the past month.

But then when I look at the term for the past 30 days without comparing it to the previous month there isn't a drop at all.

I hate finding these things because it makes me think the data in GSC is flawed.

What do you all think?

 

[Ryuzaki]

I don't think it's completely accurate. There's also no single version of Google. There's split tests, there's personalization, there's device-based results, location-based results, etc.

I also recall some situation where you may appear in the image carousel but not be visible (like maybe it only shows 3 on mobile and you're #4 and visible on desktop), yet it still counts but gets no clicks. I'm really vague on this one, but I do remember there being discussion about it.

 

[mcfarlanek]

I don't think it's completely accurate. There's also no single version of Google. There's split tests, there's personalization, there's device-based results, location-based results, etc.

I also recall some situation where you may appear in the image carousel but not be visible (like maybe it only shows 3 on mobile and you're #4 and visible on desktop), yet it still counts but gets no clicks. I'm really vague on this one, but I do remember there being discussion about it.

Good point about versions of Google, I didn’t think of that.

any thoughts on why I might see 0 clicks for a query in the current month when comparing.

But when looking at the current month without comparison it shows clicks?

 

[secretagentdad]

There's a bunch of stuff like this.
Especially in the Legal and SEM fields.
Some keywords just have thousands of bots hitting them all day long.