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For years the SEO world has been using some old AOL click through data to suppose just what kinds of click-through rates certain organic page 1 positions  might fetch. It was limited, old, and certainly out-of-date – but it was all we had. Until now.

In what might be the most useful bit of data Google has ever exposed to webmasters, within Google’s Webmaster Tools you can now see organic impression, click-through and click-through rate data on as many search queries as have impressions.

For me, this is like a really awesome birthday present you never expected. From out of nowhere you get this amazing gift, and it’s up to you to make the most of it. That’s what this post is all about; how to get the most out of this new (amazing) information.

Just what is this data? And what does it do?

When you log into Google Webmaster Tools, under “Your Site On The Web” in the left nav you’ll see a “Search queries” option. That is where the gold can be found.

If you use Google Analytics you’ll see the a familiar interface of blue and orange line charts, with sortable source options such as image, mobile, mobile (smartphone) and web. Also you can segment by country. The data looks like it only goes back a few weeks, so there’s no option to do long term analysis, but what we do have astounds me in its usefulness.

For each search query you’ll have the associated impression, click-through and click-through rate data, but here’s where it gets good. Click on any search query and you get the range of positions within the search results along with the pages ranked for the term – AND impression, click-through and click-through rate data for each of these data points. Wowee!

Ok, I get more data – but how useful is this stuff?

First off – you get to not only see which pages rank for a given term, you get to see which terms have indented results and which pages those are! This is easy to determine by looking at impression data on pages other than your index page. The closer the impression count, the more often the pages are shown in conjunction.

Optimization tip: If you’re getting high impression data but low click-through on an indented result, optimize the indented page for the high-impression term.

Next, spot your high-impression, low rank keywords. Simply sort by impression count and check each of your top 25-50 search terms. Boom. Instant actionability. Laura Lippay refers to these as gaps. Whatever you call them, they’re likely some of the easiest wins you’ll come across in your SEO efforts.

With this data it’s never been easier to fine-tune your optimization strategy. I’ve always been an advocate for increasing rankings on terms you already rank for, but determining which terms had the sweet-spot of high impressions and low rankings was a laborious process. This data makes it point-and-click easy. I’ve used the available Webmaster Tools data in high-level SEO strategy before, but I can see using this new data for all kinds of things that are line-level, tactical optimization. Google has delivered one heck of a tool here.

But my Analytics data is way different, what gives?

Once we’ve seen this data we all naturally want to verify (or disprove it) with what we know to be true(ish); our Analytics data. And of course the data is different across the two systems. The only conclusion we can take from this is that different systems measure things differently, and an unknowable number of variables make this so. Big deal. With web data it’s never about absolutes, but looking at things from a variety of perspectives, until you find that little nugget of truth. This data is another decision making tool, but no tool should ever make the decision for you.

What’s the big takeaway here?

Patrick Altoft hit it on the head with this quote:

“Google has always told us to stop focusing on rankings and to focus on traffic instead, with this data they seem to be showing us that a ranking is just a probability rather than an exact number.”

Ranking reports have always been the shallowest measure of SEO success. Demonstrating past position placement (as all reports do) is a terrible way to look at what your SEO efforts are doing in business terms, or future potential.  This new ranking probability concept is a much more accurate reflection of where the SERPs are these days – as your website’s position on any results page will slide around relative to Google Local listings, product placements, universal search elements such as videos and images, etc.

Really, there is no way to determine where you actually rank for any given query at any given time, but this new metric Google has provided is a fantastic measurement of where you have potential to rank – and coupled with all the actionable insights provided in the new reports, makes Webmaster Tools an absolute must for any webmaster.