10 Questions to Ask Your SEO Data This Week
SEO data is only useful when you ask it the right questions. Most business owners either ignore their data entirely or stare at dashboards without knowing what they are looking for. Both approaches waste the most valuable resource you have: information about what is and is not working.
Here are 10 specific questions to ask your SEO data this week. Each one has a clear purpose, and each answer tells you something actionable. You can ask these in Google Search Console, Google Analytics, or type them directly into Brass-SEO.
Quick Navigation
- 1. Is My Organic Traffic Growing?
- 2. What Are My Top 10 Keywords?
- 3. Which Pages Get the Most Search Traffic?
- 4. Are Any Pages Losing Traffic?
- 5. What Keywords Am I Close to Page 1 For?
- 6. Which Pages Have High Impressions but Low Clicks?
- 7. Are All My Important Pages Indexed?
- 8. What Is My Best-Performing Blog Post?
- 9. Where Does My Traffic Come From?
- 10. What Should I Work on Next?
- Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is My Organic Traffic Growing?
Organic traffic growth is the single most important indicator of whether your SEO strategy is working.
Why this matters: This is the single most important SEO question. Everything else is a detail.
Where to find it: GA4 > Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. Filter by Organic Search. Compare the last 28 days to the previous 28 days.
What the answer tells you:
- Growing: Your SEO is working. Keep doing what you are doing.
- Flat: You are maintaining but not gaining ground. Look for new opportunities.
- Declining: Something needs attention. Dig into which pages or keywords dropped.
This is the first question in any monthly SEO check-in.
2. What Are My Top 10 Keywords?
Your top 10 keywords reveal whether Google is sending you the right audience or the wrong one.
Why this matters: These are the searches that actually bring people to your site. If they align with your business, good. If they do not, your content may be attracting the wrong audience.
Where to find it: GSC > Performance > Search Results > Queries tab. Sort by clicks (descending).
What the answer tells you:
- Are people finding you for what you sell or offer?
- Are there any surprising keywords you did not expect?
- Are your top keywords changing month to month?
If your top keywords are unrelated to your business, read about fixing the intent mismatch.
3. Which Pages Get the Most Search Traffic?
Your highest-traffic pages are your most valuable SEO assets and deserve priority attention.
Why this matters: These are your most valuable SEO assets. They deserve attention, updates, and protection.
Where to find it: GSC > Performance > Search Results > Pages tab. Sort by clicks.
What the answer tells you:
- Which content resonates with searchers
- Where to add calls-to-action if you have not already
- Which pages to update first when content gets stale
Your top pages are also where title tag improvements have the most impact — a small CTR increase on a high-traffic page moves the needle.
4. Are Any Pages Losing Traffic?
Why this matters: Traffic losses are easier to reverse when caught early. A page that dropped from position 5 to position 15 last month may drop off page 2 entirely next month.
Where to find it: GSC > Performance. Enable "Compare" in the date picker. Select "Previous period." Look for pages with significantly fewer clicks.
What the answer tells you:
- A single page dropping may mean a content issue or new competitor
- Multiple pages dropping may signal a broader problem
- Seasonal drops are normal for some topics — check if the same thing happened last year
5. What Keywords Am I Close to Page 1 For?
Why this matters: Striking-distance keywords (positions 8-20) are your easiest wins. You are already close — a small improvement can push you onto page 1.
Where to find it: GSC > Performance > Queries. Filter by position > 7 and position < 21. Sort by impressions (descending).
What the answer tells you:
- Which keywords have the most potential if you can move up
- Which pages need content improvements or better titles
- Where to focus your optimization efforts this month
6. Which Pages Have High Impressions but Low Clicks?
High impressions with low clicks almost always points to a title tag or meta description problem that is straightforward to fix.
Why this matters: High impressions mean Google is showing your page in search results. Low clicks mean searchers are not interested enough to click. This is almost always a title tag or meta description problem.
Where to find it: GSC > Performance > Pages. Look for pages where impressions are high but CTR is below 2-3%.
What the answer tells you:
- Your title tag may be generic or not compelling enough
- Your meta description may not match the search intent
- You may be ranking for keywords that do not match your page content
Fix: Rewrite the title tag to be more specific and relevant. See the title tag guide for before-and-after examples.
7. Are All My Important Pages Indexed?
Why this matters: If Google has not indexed a page, it cannot appear in search results. Period. This is the most binary SEO issue — indexed or not.
Where to find it: GSC > Indexing > Pages. Look for pages with errors or excluded status. Or use Brass-SEO's indexing check to verify specific URLs.
What the answer tells you:
- Pages with "Crawled - currently not indexed" need content or technical improvements
- Pages blocked by robots.txt need the block removed
- Newly published pages may just need time
8. What Is My Best-Performing Blog Post?
Why this matters: Your best post tells you what your audience actually wants. Create more content like it.
Where to find it: GSC > Performance > Pages. Filter by your blog URL pattern. Sort by clicks.
What the answer tells you:
- What topics resonate with your audience
- What content format works (guides, lists, tutorials)
- What keyword types are winnable for your site
If your best post is getting stale, update it. If it is thriving, create related posts that link to it and expand the topic cluster.
9. Where Does My Traffic Come From?
Why this matters: Traffic diversification reduces risk. If 90% comes from organic search and Google changes its algorithm, you are vulnerable.
Where to find it: GA4 > Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition.
What the answer tells you:
- How dependent you are on organic search
- Whether your referral traffic (backlinks) is meaningful
- Whether social media or email actually drives website visits
If organic search is your dominant channel, that is fine — it means SEO is working. But consider building at least one additional channel over time.
10. What Should I Work on Next?
Why this matters: This is the question that turns data into action.
Where to find it: Cross-reference the answers to questions 1-9, or ask Brass-SEO directly: "What should I focus on this month?"
The answer depends on what you found:
- Traffic growing, keywords strong: Look for new keyword opportunities
- Traffic flat: Optimize striking-distance keywords to unlock page 1 positions
- Traffic dropping: Identify the affected pages and diagnose the cause
- High impressions, low clicks: Rewrite title tags
- Pages not indexed: Fix technical issues and check indexing status
For a guided walkthrough of what to do with your data, see the first analysis guide and how Brass-SEO works.
For when self-service makes more financial sense than an SEO agency, see Switching from an SEO Agency: When the Math Tips.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I ask these questions?
Monthly is the right cadence for most small businesses. Weekly checks create anxiety over normal fluctuations. Quarterly checks risk missing important changes until it is too late. Set a recurring 15-minute block once a month to run through these questions. If you find an issue, spend extra time that month investigating and fixing it.
Can I ask these questions without any tools?
You can answer most of them with just Google Search Console and Google Analytics, both of which are free. The advantage of using Brass-SEO is speed — instead of navigating multiple reports and setting up filters, you type a question and get the answer with context. But the underlying data is the same.
What if I do not have enough traffic for the data to be meaningful?
If your site gets fewer than 100 organic visits per month, some of these questions will not produce useful answers. Focus on questions 7 (are my pages indexed?) and 2 (what keywords am I ranking for?) first. Getting indexed and starting to rank is the foundation. Traffic analysis becomes meaningful once you have a baseline to compare against.
Should I track these metrics in a spreadsheet?
It can be helpful to record monthly snapshots of total organic traffic, top 5 keywords, and top 5 pages. This gives you a simple trend view over time. You do not need a complex dashboard — a simple spreadsheet with one row per month is enough. The goal is to spot trends, not to build a reporting system.
What is the most important question on this list?
Question 1: "Is my organic traffic growing?" Everything else is diagnosis. If traffic is growing and keywords are aligned with your business, the details matter less. If traffic is declining, the other questions help you figure out why. Start with the big picture and drill down only when something needs attention.