Google Search Console · Concept

What is Keyword clustering?

Keyword clustering is grouping search queries by the topic they belong to, so that a subject can be tracked and reported as one line instead of as a hundred individual queries. Each cluster carries the summed impressions, clicks and average position of its queries.

Queries · 100%Reporting38%
  • Reporting38%
  • Templates27%
  • Pricing14%
  • Connectors12%
  • Uncategorised9%

Queries grouped into topics, so a cluster moves before any single keyword does.

Data source
Google Search Console
Type
Concept

Why it matters

A site rarely ranks for one query per page; it ranks for a family of them. Reporting by cluster shows whether the family is growing, which is the question a content plan needs answered, while a query table only shows which member moved.

How to read it

Clusters are built by rules or by similarity, and both leave an "uncategorised" bucket; its size is a measure of how well the clustering fits the site. Check that a cluster does not mix intents, because a topic that combines "what is" queries with "buy" queries will average two different behaviours into one number.

In a Data Studio report

In a Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) report clusters are a computed dimension over Search Console queries: a table of clusters with keyword count, impressions, clicks, CTR and position, a stacked chart of cluster visibility week by week, and a funnel of how the queries distribute across topics.

Where to find it in Google Search Console

Not in Search Console: the clusters are built in the report from the Queries export under Performance, then Search results.

Keyword clustering on the Keyword clusters page of the Google Search Console Dashboard for Data Studio
Page 13, Keyword clusters, of the Google Search Console Dashboard for Data Studio.Open the live demo to see it with real data.

See it in a report