One SEO professional asked John Mueller during his Question and Answer segment in a hangout about Google Search Console data.
They were concerned about the difference in data between the Search Console interface and data retrieved from the API.
Their main question is: is it the case that the API data should be considered more reliable?
John answered that – just as an answer, he specified – the API and the data that the user interface is built from use the exact same data and database tables.
It’s not that there’s anything more in-depth or reliable about the URL that’s in the API.
Sometimes that is useful to get more rows of examples via the API than you can when you download things via the interface.
Sometimes this is useful, especially if you have more detailed information.
John also explained that the other thing that’s a bit more confusing with the API and the data in Search Console is that, when you’re looking at a report in Search Console, you will see numbers on top that give you so many impressions or so many clicks overall.
The data that they provide in the API is the individual rows that are kind of visible in the table below the overall data in Search Console.
For privacy, and many other reasons, they filter out queries that have very few impressions.
In the UI in Search Console, on top with a number will include the aggregate full count, but the rows that are shown there don’t include the filtered information.
So as a result of this, what can happen is that if you look at the overall total in Search Console, it will be a different number than if you take the totals from API.
This happens at approximately the 34:14 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
John (Submitted Question) 34:14
When comparing data in Search Console interface with the data retrieved from the API, is it the case that the API data should be considered more reliable? And then there is some more specifically around that…
John (Answer) 34:31
What I think, overall, just as an answer there is, the data and the API and the data and the UI is built from the exact same database tables. So it’s not that there’s any kind of more in depth or more accurate data in the API than in the UI.
The main difference that you have with the API, and the URL is that in the API, you can get more rows of examples than you can when you download things. So sometimes that is useful, especially if you have more detailed information.
The other thing that is perhaps a little bit confusing with the API and the data in Search Console, is that when you’re looking at a report in Search Console, you’ll see numbers on top that give you like so many impressions or so many clicks overall. And the data that we provide in the API is essentially the individual rows that are kind of visible in the table below the overall data in Search Console.
And for privacy reasons and various other reasons, we filter out queries that have very few impressions. So in the UI, in Search Console on top with the number we’ll include the aggregate full count, but the rows that are shown there don’t include the filtered information.
So what can happen is, that if you look at the overall total in Search Console, it’ll be a different number than if you take the totals from the API, where you take all of these rows and add them. So that’s something where it’s a little bit confusing at first, but essentially, it’s the same data, it’s just kind of presented in a slightly different way in the API.
