How to Turn Google Search Console Data into a Content Plan

Google Search Console already tells you which searches show your site, how high you appear and how often people click. To turn that into a content plan, export your queries and pages, pull out three lists (queries you almost rank for, pages that need a refresh, and topics with no proper page), group them by intent, then score each group and work from the top.

This guide walks through that process step by step for a B2B manufacturer or exporter. You need Search Console access, a spreadsheet and about an hour for the first pass.

What Search Console data can and cannot tell you

Before you plan anything, know what the numbers mean. Google's help center defines the four core metrics in the Performance report:

Metric	What it means
Clicks	How many times someone clicked through to your site from Google Search
Impressions	How many times your site appeared in Search results
CTR	Clicks divided by impressions
Average position	The average position of your topmost result

A few limits matter for planning:

• The default view covers the last three months. You can widen it. Google's guide to analyzing traffic drops recommends looking at 16 months to spot yearly patterns, which is useful if your buyers order on a seasonal or trade-show cycle.
• The table is capped. It shows at most 1,000 rows, so rare long-tail queries can be missing from the table even though they count in the chart totals.
• Some queries are hidden. Google omits anonymized queries to protect privacy.
• Big sites can get everything else. Bulk data export to BigQuery includes all performance data apart from anonymized queries and is not affected by the daily row limit. It only collects data from the day you set it up, so older history still comes from the reports or the API.

For most small and mid-sized manufacturer sites, the regular report is enough.

Step 1: Export queries and pages for two periods

Open the Performance report and export two views:

1. Queries for the last three months.
2. Pages for the same period.

Then use the date filter's Compare option to look at the same months against the previous period or the previous year. Google suggests using Weekly or Monthly granularity when comparing date ranges, so weekday effects don't distort the picture.

Two filters help B2B sites in particular:

• Branded vs non-branded. Search Console has a branded queries filter that separates searches containing your company name from everything else. It is only available for top-level properties with enough query volume. Planning should focus on non-branded queries, because those are people who did not already know you.
• Country. If you export, filter by your main target markets. A query that is strong in your home country but weak in the US or Germany tells a different story.

Step 2: Find striking-distance queries

"Striking distance" means queries where you already appear, but not high enough to get many clicks. These are often the fastest wins, because Google already connects your site with the topic.

How to find them:

1. In the Queries export, filter for non-branded queries.
2. Sort by impressions, highest first.
3. Keep queries with an average position somewhere in the middle of page one to the second page. We use roughly 5 to 20 as a starting range and adjust it to the site.
4. For each query, check the Pages tab (click the query row, then switch to Pages) to see which URL is ranking.

Remember that average position is an average. Search results vary by time, place, device and the searcher's history, so treat it as a direction, not an exact rank.

Example: an exporter of industrial ball valves sees "full port vs reduced port ball valve" on page two, ranking with a general product category page. The query wants a comparison, and the site has no comparison page. That goes on the list as a likely new article.

Step 3: Find pages to refresh

Next, look at pages rather than queries. Three patterns are worth a refresh:

Pattern in the data	What it usually means	First thing to try
High impressions, low CTR	The result shows up but does not attract clicks	Rewrite the title and check the snippet
Clicks falling compared with last year	Demand shifted, competitors improved, or the page is out of date	Update facts, specs and examples
Many different queries landing on one page	The page is covering several intents	Consider splitting it

Google's own help suggests using the query dimension to find queries with high impressions and low CTR as opportunities to improve your title and description. When you rewrite, follow Google's title link guidance: descriptive, concise and no keyword stuffing. Note that Google creates snippets mainly from page content, so a better meta description only helps if the page itself answers the query clearly.

Refresh for real, not for show. Google's helpful content guidance asks whether you are changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed. Add new data, updated standards, better photos or answers to new buyer questions.

To see whether visitors actually engage, Google recommends pairing Search Console with Google Analytics and checking the landing page report for organic Google traffic.

Step 4: Find missing topics

Missing topics are queries where your site appears only by accident: the ranking page is about something else, or it is a homepage or category page that does not answer the question.

Ways to surface them:

• Question filter. Add a query filter with Custom (regex) and use something like ^(how|what|which|why|can) to list question-style searches. Search Console uses RE2 regular expressions, and matching is not case-sensitive by default.
• Buyer-intent words. Try (price|cost|moq|lead time|supplier|manufacturer) to find commercial searches that may deserve a dedicated page rather than a blog post.
• Query groups. Properties with a large volume of queries may see Query groups in the Search Console Insights report. Google groups similar queries, including misspellings and different phrasing, using AI. It is a useful first pass for spotting themes.
• AI features. Search Console now has generative AI performance reports showing impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates for AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. They show which of your pages already appear there.

Example: a fastener exporter filters for "how" and finds "how to choose stainless steel grade for marine bolts" landing on its homepage. Nothing on the site answers it directly. That is a missing topic.

Step 5: Group queries by intent, then decide the action

A raw query list will contain many ways of asking the same thing. Google's SEO Starter Guide notes that its language matching can understand how a page relates to many queries, even without the exact words. So you do not need one page per wording.

Add two columns to your sheet:

• Subject: what the query is about (for example "ball valve port size").
• Intent: what the person wants (compare, learn, check price, find a supplier, get a spec).

Sort by Subject, then Intent. Rows that match on both become one cluster. Then decide one action per cluster:

Signal	Action
Several related queries already land on one relevant page	Update that page
A repeated need has no page that answers it	Create a new page
One page is trying to serve two different intents	Split it into two focused pages
Off-topic, too vague, or not something you sell	Ignore for now

Check the Pages tab before creating anything new. If a relevant page already ranks, updating it usually beats publishing a near-duplicate that competes with it.

Step 6: Score and rank the clusters

Not every cluster deserves the same effort. Give each one a simple 1 to 3 score on three factors and multiply them:

1. Demand: total impressions for the cluster in your export.
2. Winnability: how close you already are, whether you have a related page to link from, and how strong the pages above you look when you search the query yourself.
3. Business value: how close the topic sits to what you actually sell and to a quote request.

A cluster scoring 3 × 3 × 3 goes first. A high-impression topic far from your products may still rank below a modest one that leads straight to an RFQ. The score is a sorting aid, not a forecast.

Example (illustrative scores):

Cluster	Action	Page type	Demand	Win	Value	Score
Full port vs reduced port ball valves	New	Comparison article	2	3	3	18
Ball valve pressure rating chart	Update	Existing spec page	3	3	2	18
Ball valve MOQ and lead time	New	Buyer FAQ page	1	2	3	6
History of valves	Ignore	None	2	1	1	2

When scores tie, start with the page others will link to, such as a main product guide, so supporting articles have somewhere to point.

Step 7: Turn it into a backlog writers can use

Each row in your backlog should be one cluster, not one query. Keep it scannable:

• Cluster topic and the main query
• Action (new, update, split)
• Target URL or page type
• Score
• Pages that should link to it
• Owner and due date

Then review it once a month with a fresh export. New queries appear, positions move, and some clusters will need re-scoring.

Image: Kanhaiya Sharma via Pexels, Pexels License

Checklist before a topic goes to a writer

• The cluster has one clear intent, not several.
• You checked the Pages tab for an existing page that already covers it.
• The page type matches the intent (comparison, spec page, buyer guide, FAQ).
• Demand, winnability and business value are scored.
• You listed which existing pages will link to it.
• Facts the writer cannot know, such as MOQ, tolerances, certifications and lead times, have an internal owner who will confirm them.
• There is a realistic date with time for editing and fact-checking.

Image: Pixabay via Pexels, Pexels License

If you would rather not rebuild this spreadsheet every month, Blogo connects Search Console and your WordPress site, recommends the next article with the evidence behind it, researches and fact-checks the draft, and sends it to WordPress as a draft for your team to approve.

FAQ

How far back should I look in Search Console? Start with the last three months for current opportunities, then compare against the previous year. Google suggests a 16-month view when checking for seasonal patterns.

What counts as a striking-distance query? A non-branded query where your site already appears but sits too low for many clicks. We start with an average position of roughly 5 to 20 and adjust for the site. Always check which page is ranking.

Should I write a new article for every query variation? No. Group variations by subject and intent. One strong page can rank for many related phrasings, and separate near-duplicate pages tend to compete with each other.

Why don't my exported rows add up to the chart total? The table shows at most 1,000 rows and leaves out anonymized queries, while the chart totals include them. Large sites can use bulk data export to BigQuery for more complete data.

How often should I update the plan? Monthly is a practical rhythm for most B2B sites. Re-export, re-score the clusters, and check whether the pages you published or refreshed are gaining impressions and clicks.