The video is in the works. Until then, the guide will get you there.
Step-by-step guide
Where to find the Visibility report
In the side menu, click "Acquisition".
A submenu opens. Choose "Visibility" there.
The Visibility report opens.
When you should check here
Search engine optimization moves slowly. Checking daily gains you nothing except the temptation to mistake normal noise for a trend. These four moments are genuinely worth it:
- After you reworked a text. New title, sharper opening, more content on a page? The SEO trend and the search terms show you whether Google rewards it. But do not expect the result the next morning, expect it after a few days to a couple of weeks.
- When visitors from search are dropping off. If the curve falls, the question is: are you ranking lower, or is there simply less searching for your topic? Position and impressions together give you the answer. And it is rarely as bad as it feels.
- Before you write your next text. The best moment of all. Here are the words your visitors actually type in. Drawing from those instead of inventing something at your desk saves you work nobody is searching for.
- Once a month, as a quick walk-through. Ten minutes is enough. You check whether the Ø position is moving in the right direction and take a look at the AI bots.
The one look that always pays off: sort the search terms by impressions and find the rows with a position between 5 and 15. The demand is already there, all that is missing is the jump to the first page. Anyone who knows those terms knows what to work on for the next few weeks.
First things first: connect Google Search Console
Most of this report pulls its data straight from your Google Search Console, GSC for short. That is Google's free tool. It is the only place that records what visitors actually typed before they landed on your site. Nobody else knows those words, not even Trustlytics. Which is exactly why the connection exists.
How the connection is set up step by step, and how you disconnect it later, is described in the articl Google Search Console.
What works without the connection
Two boxes need no Google, because they come from your own Trustlytics tracking:
- Search engines (which search engine sends you visitors)
- AI bots (which AI bots visit your site)
You see those two right away, with no Google at all.
What the connection does for you: your real Google numbers sit directly in Trustlytics, next to your visitor data, for the same period. No more constant back and forth between two tools.
SEO trend (needs Google)
This box is your Google cockpit. It sums up your visibility at Google in four numbers and shows in a chart where things are headed.
The four metrics
| Metric | What it shows | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Current Ø position | Your average position in the Google results in the selected period. | Smaller is better. Position 1 is at the very top. If the number drops, you are moving up in search. For context: the first Google page holds about ten results. So position 11 means page 2, and hardly anybody clicks there. |
| Clicks during the period | How often visitors clicked through to your site from Google search. | That is real traffic from Google. Your direct payoff. |
| Impressions during the period | How often your site was shown in the Google results, including without a click. | Shows how visible you are at all. Lots of impressions, few clicks? Then a better title or description text pays off. |
| Ø CTR during the period | The click rate, meaning the share of times you were shown that turned into a click. | Reveals how appealing your Google listing is. Higher means your title and text are pulling. An example: 1,000 impressions and 30 clicks come out to 3 percent. |
The chart
In the top right of the box sits a toggle with two buttons. It controls what the chart below shows:
- Position (default): the chart shows your average Google position over time. The axis is inverted, so position 1 is at the top. If the line goes up, you are moving up in search.
- Impressions: the chart shows how often you were shown at Google over time. Here, up means more visibility.
Hover over the line with your mouse, and you see the exact value for each day.
The period being analyzed always follows the date selection at the top. Set a different period there, and the entire report adjusts immediately.
What you can set in the boxes
The boxes that follow show the same data in different ways. In the top right you switch between the views using icon buttons:
| Icon | View | What you see with it |
|---|---|---|
| Table | the simple list with the most important numbers (default). | |
| Detailed table | the same list, but with every detail column. | |
| / | Column chart / bar chart | the top entries as columns or bars, good for a quick comparison (20 at most). |
| Pie chart | the breakdown as a pie, good for spotting shares (20 at most). |
Plus a few moves that work the same way in every table in this report:
- Sorting: click a column heading ("Visits" for example) to sort ascending or descending.
- Entries per page: at the bottom you choose how many rows are shown (10, 25, 50 or All).
- Paging: with long lists you page through at the bottom.
Search terms (needs Google)
The search terms answer the core question of all search engine optimization: which words do people find you with at Google?
Four views are available:
Table (simple)
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Search term | The word or phrase somebody typed into Google. |
| Clicks | How often that term led to a click on your site. |
Extended table
| Column | What it means | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Search term | The Google search query. | |
| Clicks | Clicks for this term. | Your actual payoff per term. |
| Impressions | How often you were shown for this term. | Shows the demand. This is what people are searching for. |
| CTR | Click rate, clicks divided by impressions. | Low despite many impressions? Sharpen the title and text for this term. |
| Position | Your Ø position for this term (smaller is better). | Terms in positions 5 to 15 are your biggest opportunity: a small push, a big effect. |
Bar chart
The top search terms as bars, sorted by clicks (20 terms at most). Ideal for seeing at a glance which handful of terms brings the lion's share of your clicks. The longer the bar, the more clicks.
Pie chart
The click share per search term as a slice (20 terms at most). What counts here is not the absolute number but the share of the whole. You see right away whether your clicks are dominated by a single term (one big slice, so a concentration risk) or spread healthily across many terms.
What this does for you: you see immediately which terms Google already likes you for. And you see where a little polishing gets you the most. A better title, a bit more content, and a term in position 8 makes the jump forward.
Search engines
The Search engines box comes from your own Trustlytics tracking. It shows which search engine brought you real visitors. Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and the rest.
The difference from the search terms above: there it is about Google and the words people typed. Here it is about all search engines and the visitors that came out of them. Which is why this box works without a Google connection.
Four views are available:
Table (simple)
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Search engine | Name of the search engine. |
| Visits | How many visits came from this search engine. |
Extended table
| Column | What it means | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Search engine | Name of the search engine. | |
| Visits | Number of visits from here. | Your volume per search engine. |
| Actions | The sum of all actions (page views, clicks) from these visitors. | More actions means more active visitors. |
| Actions per visit | Actions divided by visits. | Shows how deep these visitors dive in. |
| Visit duration | Average time spent. | Longer means the visitors from this source find what they are looking for. |
| Bounce rate | The share that leaves again right after one page. | High means the source brings rather unsuitable visitors. |
Column chart
The top search engines as columns, sorted by visits (20 at most). Good for a quick comparison: the longer the column, the more visits come from that search engine. That way you see at a glance whether Google brings almost everything or whether Bing, Ecosia, and the rest are noticeably in the mix.
Pie chart
The visit share per search engine as a slice (20 at most). Here it is about the share of the whole. You see right away how much you depend on a single search engine (one big slice) or how broadly your visitors are spread across several.
What this does for you: Google is not everything. Maybe Bing or Ecosia sends you more or better visitors than you thought. That is exactly what you check here in black and white.
By the way: if names like "ChatGPT" or "Perplexity" turn up here, that is not an error. Those are visitors who clicked through to your site from an AI answer. For us, that behaves like a search engine, so it belongs here. It has nothing to do with the AI bots further down.
Search term to page (needs Google)
Search term to page connects two things that usually come separately: which search term leads to which of your pages?
There are no charts here, only the two table views:
Table (simple)
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Search term | The Google search query. |
| Landing page | The exact page of your site that showed up for it at Google. |
| Clicks | Clicks for this combination of term and page. |
Extended table
On top of search term, landing page, and clicks, you see impressions, CTR and position, each per combination of term and page.
What this does for you: this is how you optimize with precision. You do not just know "this term brings clicks", you know "and it brings them to this page". If the term does not fit the page, you know right away where to sharpen the text.
AI bots
Looking ahead, AI bots may be the most interesting box of all. It shows which AI bots visit your website. Meaning the programs behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and others.
There are no charts here, only the two table views:
Table (simple)
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Bot | Name of the AI bot (GPTBot or ClaudeBot, for example). |
| Provider | The company behind it (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, for example). |
| Visits | How often this bot stopped by. |
Extended table
| Column | What it means | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Bot | Name of the AI bot. | |
| Provider | The company behind it. | |
| Visits | Number of crawl visits. | More often means your content is relevant to the AI. |
| Page views | How many pages the bot read while it was there. | Shows how thoroughly it goes through the site. |
| Unique pages | How many different pages it visited. | Broad coverage means more of you potentially ends up in AI answers. |
| Last seen | Date and time of the most recent visit. | Shows whether the AI is still actively following you. |
| First seen | Date and time of the first visit. | How long the AI has known about you. |
What this does for you: more and more people ask an AI instead of Google. The more often these bots read your site, the more likely your content shows up in AI answers. AI bots is your early warning system for the search of tomorrow.
Important, do not mix these up: AI bots are not the same thing as AI clicks.
This is about bots, meaning the automated programs of the AI providers (GPTBot from OpenAI or ClaudeBot from Anthropic, for example) that go through your pages in the background and read along. It is not about people who click through to your site from an AI answer. Those human clicks, through ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, for example, we treat like a search engine. So you find them further up under "Search engines", not here. It can easily happen that you see names like "ChatGPT" or "Perplexity" under "Search engines" while AI bots is empty anyway. That is not an error, they are two different things.
And if you would rather not have that? These bots respect the robots.txt file on your website. You can lock individual bots out there. But think twice. Lock the AI bots out today and you no longer show up in their answers tomorrow. For most websites, a visit from an AI bot is good news, not a nuisance..
Aha moments you will recognize
The Visibility report is often the moment when you see in black and white for the first time how people really find you at Google. Not how you think people search for you, but how it actually happens. A few patterns you will recognize quickly:
- The term in position 8. In the search terms, you discover a word with lots of impressions but position 8 and thin clicks. A better title or a bit more content, and "almost visible" turns into real visitors.
- The underestimated search engine. In the search engine list you notice that Bing or Ecosia delivers longer staying visitors than you thought. Suddenly a second look beyond Google pays off.
- The wrong landing page. In "Search term to page" an important term leads to a page that does not fit. Now you know exactly which page to sharpen.
- The words you would never have used yourself. You call it "wealth management", your visitors type "tips for investing money". Terms like that never occur to you at your desk because you are too close to it. Here they are. And they belong in your texts, in exactly that wording.
- The first AI bot. Under AI bots, "GPTBot" suddenly shows up. A sign that your content is making the jump into the AI world.
What is in it for me?
The Visibility report is your control room for the question "how well do people find me?". It answers what actually matters:
- Which words do people find me with? The search terms show it, including the opportunity terms just behind the first page.
- Where does polishing pay off? Lots of impressions with few clicks means your title and text are not pulling yet. You see that at a glance.
- Am I only dependent on Google? You see right away who else sends you visitors.
- Am I showing up in AI yet? Under AI bots you see which AI is already reading your content.
The real value is that you stop guessing. Most websites get optimized by gut feeling: people write about what they personally consider important and hope for the best. Here, by contrast, you see what is actually being searched for, in your visitors' own words. That is the difference between a hunch and proof.
If you take only one single thing from this report: take the three terms with many impressions and a position between 5 and 15. Check which page they lead to. And make that page better. That is the shortest route from a number to more visitors.
In short: what you learn here is not just how many visitors come. You learn which route they take and where there is still room to grow. That is what turns numbers into specific next steps.
Common questions
Why are three boxes empty?
Because your Google Search Console is not connected yet. Click "Connect now" in one of the empty boxes or in the notice banner at the top. The setup is described in the article Google Search Console. You see Search engines and AI bots even without the connection
What is Google Search Console anyway, and does it cost anything?
It is Google's free tool for website owners. Google records in it which search queries your site appeared for, how often it was clicked, and what position you held. You pay nothing for it. You only have to prove to Google once that the website is yours
Why are the last day or two missing from the Google numbers?
Google delivers its data with a delay of two to three days. That is normal and affects every tool, not just Trustlytics.
Why do the numbers not match my Search Console exactly?
Small deviations are normal. For one thing, Google counts in its own time zone while Trustlytics uses the time zone you set. For another, Google does not show every search term for privacy reasons. Very rare queries that would allow conclusions about individual people are simply left out. That is why the sum of the listed terms is almost always smaller than the total number of clicks. It is not a counting error, it is deliberate.
My Ø position is 12, but I find myself on page 1. How does that work?
Because it is an average across all search terms, all devices, and all locations. For one term you sit in position 3, for five others in position 20. In the end that comes out to 12. On top of that, Google searches differently for you personally than for a stranger because it knows your site. So rely on the numbers in the report, not on your own Google search.
Can Trustlytics change anything through the Google connection?
No. We only ask Google for read-only access. Your Google data and settings stay untouched. The numbers we retrieve are used for your account alone and are not passed on to third parties.
Can I disconnect it again?
Yes, at any time. How that works is described in the article Google Search Console. On top of that, you can revoke the permission directly in the security settings of your Google account, with no Trustlytics involved. After that the three Google boxes stay empty again, and your own visitor data is not affected.
I see lots of impressions but hardly any clicks. What does that mean?
Google is already showing you often, but your entry is not convincing enough to get clicked. Usually it comes down to the title or the description text. Sharpen both, and the clicks often come on their own. One note on patience: Google does not pick up a new title right away. Count on a few days to a couple of weeks before it shows up in the numbers.
I hardly have any search terms even though I have visitors. What is going on?
Most likely your visitors are currently coming directly or through other channels rather than through Google search. A look at the search engines box and at the All channels report shows you where else your visitors come from.
"ChatGPT" is listed under "Search engines", but AI bots is empty. Is that an error?
No, those are two different things. Under "Search engines" you find people who clicked through to you from an AI answer. Under "AI bots" you find the programs that read your pages in the background. One can happen without the other.
Are AI bots dangerous for my site?
No. These bots only read, they do no damage. Quite the opposite: the more often they stop by, the more likely your content lands in the answers from ChatGPT and the rest.
How often should I look at this report?
Once a month is enough for most people. Search engine optimization moves slowly, and checking daily only leads to you mistaking normal noise for a trend. The exception: you just changed something bigger. Then a weekly look at the position in the SEO trend pays off.