New Keywords
New Keywords surfaces queries that Google saw for your site for the first time within the selected window. New queries are the leading indicator of expanding topical authority — when your site starts ranking for terms it never did before, that's Google's algorithm forming a new mental model of what your domain covers. This report makes that expansion visible week over week.
What it measures
- Query — the search string.
- First-seen date — the earliest day the query produced any impression for your site.
- Impressions / Clicks (in window) — totals accumulated since first-seen.
How we compute it
- For every query Search Console has ever attributed to your site, we determine the earliest day it produced an impression — its first-seen date.
- We keep only queries whose first-seen date falls within the selected reporting window.
- For those queries we then sum the impressions and clicks accumulated within the window.
- Results are sorted descending by impressions so the most impactful new queries surface first.
Scenarios you'll see
A burst of new queries clustered around a topic, all first-seen within days of a new article you published. Google is forming an initial picture of what the page is about. Expect rankings to firm up over the following 4–8 weeks.
Queries about a real-world event (product launch, news, viral moment). Often spiky — first-seen this week, will fade by next quarter. Capture short-term traffic; don't over-invest editorially.
A new spelling, mistype, or non-English variant of a query you already rank for. Useful intelligence about audience language, but don't optimise for misspellings — Google handles those.
A new long-tail question on an existing topic. Add it as an FAQ block on the most relevant page; cheap topical authority gain.
Queries that hint at customer needs you don't yet serve. A clear editorial expansion signal — these are content briefs writing themselves.
"is X a scam", "X complaints", "X alternative". A signal worth acting on outside SEO — talk to support / product / brand teams.
What to do with it
- Skim the top 20 every week or two. Most rows will be expected; the surprises are the intelligence.
- Cluster related new queries — a wave of similar terms usually means Google has decided your site is now relevant to a new theme.
- For high-impression rows, identify which page Google ranks and decide whether to expand it, link to it more, or build a dedicated supporting page.
- Use as a feedback signal for content launches: a launched page that doesn't generate new queries within 2–4 weeks needs attention.
Caveats & limits
- "First-seen" is bounded by your historical Search Console data — if your account was connected only recently, every query will look "new" until enough history accumulates.
- Anonymised queries (Google's privacy threshold) appear as "first-seen" only when they cross that threshold; a query may have existed below the bar long before it surfaces here.
- Brand-new sites will see hundreds of new queries per week initially; signal sharpens once a baseline is established.
Related reports
- Top Queries — your established query base.
- Questions Report — many new queries are questions.
- Long-tail Keywords — many new queries are long-tail.
- Striking Distance — new queries that already rank near page one.