Search & Content Optimizer (Google Search Console)
The Search & Content Optimizer connects to your Google Search Console account and shows you what is really happening on your site: which queries bring clicks, which pages rank just off page one, and which questions you get impressions for but have not answered properly. Turn on the Content Optimizer for a site and it also crawls your pages daily, so you can see how well each page covers the queries it ranks for and track the effect of every content change.
Who can use it
| Plan | Access |
|---|---|
| Lite | Sites with up to 1,000 clicks a month |
| Standard | Full access, 5 Content Optimizer site slots |
| Pro | Full access, 10 site slots |
| Unlimited | Full access, 20 site slots |
Extra Content Optimizer slots can be added to Standard, Pro and Unlimited for $10 a month each.
Connecting Google Search Console
- Open Content Tools › Search & Content Optimizer in the sidebar.
- The first time, you are sent straight to Google to sign in. Choose the Google account that has access to your Search Console properties and allow read-only access to Search Console data.
- You return to KeywordsPeopleUse with a card for every property that account can see.
To connect another Google account, or disconnect one, go to keywordspeopleuse.com/google-accounts and use Add Google Account or Disconnect. We only ever request read-only access and never change anything in your Search Console.
The overview page
Each property shows total clicks and impressions for the selected date range with a trend chart. Google algorithm updates are marked on the chart so you can see whether a change in traffic lines up with one. The privacy toggle blurs domain names, which is useful when screen-sharing.
A property's page
Click a property to open it. The chart at the top shows clicks, impressions, average CTR and average position over time, with markers for any content changes the Content Optimizer has detected. Below it are four tables: Queries, Pages, Countries and Devices.
Quick filters above the Queries table surface the usual opportunities in one click:
- On Page 2 – queries ranking 11 to 20, where a modest improvement gets you onto page one.
- Questions – queries phrased as questions, ideal for FAQ sections and new articles.
- No Clicks – queries with impressions but no clicks, where your title or snippet is not winning the click.
- Impressions > 500, Position > 10, Position < 10 – volume and position cut-offs.
Use Export data on any table to download it as CSV.
Enabling the Content Optimizer for a site
On the property page click Enable Content Optimizer for this site. This uses one of your plan's slots and starts a daily crawl of the site's pages. Once enabled you get three extra columns in the Pages and Queries tables:
- Cosine Similarity – how closely a page's content matches the query, so you can spot pages ranking for things they barely mention.
- Mentions – how many times the query's terms actually appear on the page.
- Content Change History – a log of every time the page changed, with a diff view, lined up against the ranking chart so you can see what helped and what hurt.
If you have used all your slots, the button changes to Purchase additional slot for $10 per month. Only the account owner can buy slots. A site can be removed from the optimizer at any time, which frees the slot; there is a short Cancel removal window in case you change your mind.
Suggested workflow
- Filter the Queries table by Questions and On Page 2.
- For each promising query, run a People Also Ask search to see the related questions.
- Check Cosine Similarity and Mentions for the ranking page. If they are low, the page is ranking despite barely covering the topic, and adding a proper section usually moves it up.
- Make the change, and watch the content-change marker on the chart over the following weeks.