Search query
The actual words a person puts into a search box. It belongs to the searcher; the keyword in your content plan belongs to you.
See it
What it is
A search query is the exact string a person submits to a search engine: 'best rain jacket for cycling', misspelling and all. The engine interprets those words, the searcher's location, language, and context, then chooses a results page. One query can surface many pages, and one page can appear for thousands of queries.
Reach for queries when you want the language of real demand rather than the language inside your content plan. Google Search Console's Performance report shows queries that produced impressions or clicks for your property. Grouping them by intent and topic reveals what people expected when your page appeared.
The gotcha is confusing a query with a keyword. A query belongs to the searcher; a target keyword belongs to your strategy. The other trap is expecting analytics to hand you the words. Since Google moved signed-in search to HTTPS in 2011, referral data reads '(not provided)' instead of the query, which is why Search Console exists. It withholds some rows for privacy too, so its visible queries never add up to every impression and click.
Ask AI for it
Analyze these search queries using the Google Search Console Search Analytics API query dimension. Preserve each original query, cluster close variants by topic, label search intent as informational, navigational, commercial investigation, or transactional, and report impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and average position. Do not merge phrases whose result pages imply different intents. Return one recommended landing page and content format per cluster.