SEO with google search console is easy, once you understand it.

Most people use GSC to track simple metrics like avg position, changes over time and what pages pulls the most visitors. Which is valuable, but not close to the potential it offers.

Search console is the main dashboard Google gives us, and considering that Google is our "frienemy", lets use that to our advantage.

The reports to focus on and why

Go into GSC, click on performance, toggle on clicks, impressions and avg. pos, then filter by pages. Then click pages individually.

You'll see each search term that page ranks for, some of them you specifically mentioned and wrote about, a lot of them you didn't.

Filter by position 4+, go through the list and ask yourself this one question:

Does my content answer this?

If yes:

but avg positions are bad, check on the actual results page for that query.

Is the top pages way higher DA than you? (I use keywords everywhere to see DA directly in search) If that's also a yes, then you can't do much except get higher DA.

If they're not, or one page is in top 10 with low DA, then improve the section targeting the query, wait a week or two and see if the rankings improved. If not, then try improving more.

If no:

Check the relevancy of that query.
Does it fit in the article? If someone searches the query, would they click my article thinking it answers that query?

Example:
Article "Best dog foods" ranks for the query "best dog food for labrador"
Those are relevant, and someone searching for "best dog food for labrador" would probably click on your article.
Improve or add a section targeting the query.

However

Article "Best dog foods" ranks for the query "What dog food is the worst?"
Those are not relevant, someone searching for that query would not click on "Best dog foods".

This is your chance to branch out, create a new post and interlink them.

This way you use GSC to guide your topical clusters, giving you the confidence that you're serving what Google actually expects from you.

Simple but effective flow chart

1. Does my content answer this?

2. Yes
   Is the top pages high DA? Can't do much.
   Is one of the top pages low DA? Improve the section targeting the query.

3. No
   Check relevancy for query, would someone click on the page when searching the query?
   Yes, improve the section targeting the query.
   No, branch out, interlink and build topical cluster.

Impressions but no clicks.

This is a common issue, especially now in the Ai days of Google.

This means is that people see your query or page, but no one clicks into it.
It can be one of three things, or a combination of them all.

• Ai is the top result that answers the query directly

• CTR is low (under 1-3%) People see your page, but never click it.

• Your article isn't relevant to the query.
  

If ai is the issue, then tough luck, you can't really beat that position. However, what you can do is optimize the page for ai so the ai results sources you. Add 2-4 sentence summary of the topic, upload charts, diagrams or other useful data for the ai to use.

If you suspect no one is attracted to click your article and CTR is low, then improve on meta title and description. Compare to what other people are saying to attract clicks in the top 10 results.

If your article isn't releveant to the query, then that's a good indication to branch out and create a new page serving the query.

You should always leave with actionable info.

Once you close GSC, you should always leave with one of three things to do:

1. Update existing content
   You rank for a relevant query but you don't adress it at all or not good enough.

2. Fix a title or meta description
   Low CTR and no clicks but you have impressions. You rank well but nobody clicks.

3. Write a new page
   You have the impressions but the page is not relevant to the query, branch out and improve your topical cluster.

That's it.

How to keep track.

GSC has a delay of 2-3 days, and stuff moves relatively, slowly so do this:

Set aside 30 minutes once a week and check your GSC data. Make a list, keep track of what to do next and what you've done.

That's the whole system.
Take action with confidence, based on the data Google gives you.