Explore the Google Bubble Chart as an innovative tool for SEO and growth strategists to analyze and optimize website performance. It provides a detailed overview of the chart’s functionality, including its ability to display data based on device type, query, and country, and its usefulness in identifying trends and areas for improvement. The article also offers guidance on customizing and interpreting the chart to make informed decisions about SEO strategies.
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So you’re an SEO strategist/growth strategist and you are putting your heart and soul into getting your website – or your client’s website – the best possible page rank and traffic. And while you see results and traction, there is always room to improve. To take a step back, analyse what’s not working, what is working, and capitalise on it.
But to strategize effectively, you need to be able to see your data from more than just one angle. You need to look at CTR, geographies, total clicks, devices and more, so that you have a holistic picture.
Analysts like you would have to take separate data points, compile them into a format which would be easy to understand and access, and then get to work on analysis and strategy. Phew!
But the folks at Google are all about organising the world’s information better…and that includes your website performance information too!
Google has rolled out a great new feature: the templated, easy to load Bubble Chart, which presents data in a cohesive manner which gives you a broad overview and allows you to dig into finer details.
The Google Bubble Chart
A bubble chart is a data visualisation tool, much like graphs, bar charts and pie charts. It is especially helpful when you have multiple metrics and dimensions to account for/keep track of, because it helps you see relationships and patterns in your data more effectively.
The Google Bubble Chart gives you search data and website performance data based on device (desktop, mobile, tablet) along with query and country, plotted along an X and Y axis. (X axis = site CTR, Y axis = Average position).
And Google has given users a really sweet deal: they’ve made their bubble chart in a ready to use format for all users of the Google Search Console. Simply head over to the template they have created, add your data, and voila! You’ve got a data-rich bubble chart.
(Google has a detailed blog post on how to connect Search Console to Data Studio to build a data visualisation that works for you, along with tips on how to enhance that data. You can read it here.)
The Bubble Chart Key
Since you may be new to this, we thought we’ll break down what you see. Here’s a little guide or “map key” of sorts to the elements in the Google Bubble Chart.
X axis at the bottom = site CTR.
Y axis along the side/length = Average position.
Bubbles/dots = search queries
Colour of the bubbles/dots = type of device. Green for desktop, blue for mobile, pink for tablet.
Size of the bubbles/dots = total no. of clicks
Red line = average for each axis
Quadrants = the four types of query performance (high and low CTR, position).
Customization Options and Filters
Once you have loaded your data into the chart, Google makes it easy for you to find what you are looking for. The data can be filtered based on the following:
Data control: Which Search console property do you want to analyse?
Date range: The default setting shows the previous 28 days, but you can set it to the dates you like.
Query: Add or remove queries you would like to focus on.
Country: Add or remove countries from the analysis.
Device: Add or remove device categories from your chart.
Analyzing the Data
The red lines dissect the chart into 4 sections or quadrants. These four sections can be used to analyse and help you decide where to invest your time when you optimise query performance.
Section 1, aka top position and high CTR: This shows up on the top right of the chart. This is your sweet spot. These queries are optimised and performing well!
Section 2, aka low position and high CTR: This shows up on the bottom right side. These queries hold opportunities. They are relevant to users and get a high CTR even though they rank lower than other queries on your page. Optimise and you shall reap the rewards and drive traffic!
Section 3, aka low position and low CTR: Showing up on the bottom left of the chart, these queries may look like a waste of time but there is room for improvement. First look at related queries: if the query is important to you, it might be a good idea to prioritise them over queries that don’t appear in Search results. Then take a look at any unrelated queries. This may be an indication that your content needs some fine-tuning or refining.
Section 4, aka top position and low CTR: This appears on the top left of the chart. You are ranking well for these queries but need to step it up to ensure a better CTR. Maybe your competitors have a better structured data markup. Maybe you are ranking for a query that is unrelated to your site. Or maybe users found that information elsewhere (like your company’s address or phone number).
The Next Steps
So, what next? Once you study the bubble chart and identify the queries and terms that will be worth investing in to boost your site performance, you further optimise them by ensuring that your titles, description meta tags and alt attributes are specific and accurate.
The data gathered will also help you incorporate the right queries to structure your page better, making it easier for users to navigate the page. Adding and modifying structured data markup to describe your content to search engines will help display your content in useful and attention-grabbing ways in search results.
How the Bubble Chart Will Help Analysts
For one, it’s an easy to follow visual representation of your website performance and search data that gives you a broad view of who’s clicking on what (and from which device!) at a glance.
Google also offers tips on how to use the bubble chart template to separate or isolate your critical data points.
You get to uncover multiple dimensions/metrics in one easy graph, which loads automatically (thanks to the template) once you connect your Search Console to Data Studio. Prior to the launch of the Bubble Chart feature, web and SEO analysts had to rely on third-party tools to create and plot such a graph.
Why it Matters
SEO is not dead — and in our opinion, will likely not become obsolete. For as long as there is Google search, businesses, creators and publishers will have to optimise their sites to make their content easy to find on the web.
The Google Bubble Chart will now make it easier for analysts and SEO specialists to check in and measure the effectiveness of their strategies and uncover better insights into user behaviour – and use those learning to course-correct and pivot if necessary.
Watch: Using the Google Bubble Chart to Analyse & Optimise Website Performance
For Curious Minds
The Google Bubble Chart offers a multi-dimensional view of performance, visualizing the complex interplay between different key metrics simultaneously. It plots your search queries on a graph where the X-axis represents site CTR and the Y-axis shows average position, instantly revealing relationships that a simple table cannot. Furthermore, visual elements add critical context: the bubble's size indicates the total number of clicks, while its color differentiates performance by device. This integrated approach, powered by Google Search Console, allows you to stop analyzing metrics in isolation and start making holistic strategic decisions based on how they influence one another. Discover how to interpret these combined data points by reading the full analysis.
The four quadrants provide an immediate strategic framework for categorizing and prioritizing your search queries, transforming raw data into a clear action plan. This segmentation from Google is essential for focusing your efforts where they will have the most impact. The quadrants are:
Top-Right (High Position, High CTR): Your star performers. These queries require monitoring and defense.
Bottom-Right (Low Position, High CTR): Your biggest opportunities. Users are highly interested, so improving rank can yield significant traffic gains.
Bottom-Left (Low Position, Low CTR): Underperforming queries that may need content re-evaluation or de-prioritization.
Top-Left (High Position, Low CTR): These rank well but fail to attract clicks, signaling a need to optimize titles and meta descriptions.
This system allows you to allocate resources efficiently based on proven performance data. Learn the specific tactics for each quadrant in our detailed guide.
The chart’s filtering capabilities allow you to move from a general overview to a highly specific, targeted analysis for international or device-specific campaigns. By isolating data for a particular country, you can uncover regional search behaviors and identify content gaps that a global view would obscure. For example, you can see which queries have a high site CTR in one market but not another. Similarly, filtering by device reveals whether your mobile and desktop audiences have different needs, helping you decide if a device-specific optimization strategy is required. This level of granular analysis, available in the Google Data Studio template, ensures your strategy is tailored to the unique characteristics of each audience segment. Explore the complete article for advanced filtering techniques.
A frequent mistake is concentrating exclusively on defending top-ranking terms, thereby ignoring queries with immense growth potential. The 'low position, high CTR' quadrant (bottom-right) directly addresses this by highlighting search queries that are highly relevant to users but lack visibility. The high site CTR is hard evidence of strong user intent and interest; your content resonates when it is seen. These are your quick wins. By focusing optimization efforts here, you are not guessing at what might work, you are instead capitalizing on proven user demand. Google's visualization makes these opportunities impossible to miss, shifting your strategy from purely defensive to proactively opportunistic. Our full post details how to effectively act on these findings.
The device color-coding provides instant visual cues for performance disparities that justify a dedicated mobile strategy. Instead of looking at aggregate data, you can compare the position, site CTR, and click volume for the same query across platforms. Look for patterns such as a query appearing in the high-opportunity quadrant for mobile (blue) but in the low-performance quadrant for desktop (green). Another key indicator is a significant difference in bubble size, representing total clicks, which shows where your audience is most active. When Google's chart reveals such clear divergences, it's a strong signal that a generic approach is insufficient and that tailoring content, titles, or user experience for mobile users is essential for growth. Dive deeper into device-specific analysis in the main article.
An e-commerce company can use the Bubble Chart to pinpoint lucrative but under-optimized keywords by focusing on the bottom-right quadrant ('low position, high CTR'). They should filter for product or category terms and look for bubbles in this section. A high site CTR for a product query, despite a low average position, is a powerful signal of commercial intent and product-market fit. This data from Google Search Console reveals a critical gap: your product is desirable, but its corresponding page is not optimized well enough to rank competitively. This insight provides clear direction to prioritize on-page SEO, improve internal linking, and enhance content for these specific product pages to capture existing demand. Read our guide for a step-by-step walkthrough for e-commerce sites.
This tool automates what was once a laborious, manual process of data consolidation, fundamentally upgrading the analyst's workflow. Previously, you had to export separate reports for clicks, impressions, site CTR, and position from Google Search Console and then merge them in a spreadsheet. The Bubble Chart presents all this information in a cohesive, interactive dashboard instantly. This efficiency gain is transformative, as it frees up your time and mental energy to focus on higher-value tasks. Your role shifts from being a data wrangler to a strategic analyst, concentrating on interpreting the 'why' behind the data and formulating actionable recommendations. Learn how to leverage this new efficiency in the full article.
The bubble size and color add essential depth, allowing for rapid and accurate prioritization of SEO tasks. While the axes show the relationship between average position and site CTR, the bubble's size directly corresponds to the total no. of clicks. This lets you immediately distinguish a high-potential query with significant traffic volume from a niche one. The color code (e.g., green for desktop, blue for mobile) highlights device-specific user behavior. A large blue bubble in the opportunity quadrant instantly tells you to prioritize a high-traffic mobile query. These visual layers from Google help you make smarter, faster decisions by focusing on the metrics that drive the most business impact. The complete guide explores how to combine these visual elements for maximum insight.
The Bubble Chart's quadrant system is a powerful antidote to analysis paralysis because it imposes a simple, strategic framework onto a complex dataset. Instead of being overwhelmed by thousands of rows in a spreadsheet, every query is automatically sorted into one of four intuitive categories, each with a clear, implied action. This structure, provided by Google's template, turns a daunting analytical task into a straightforward prioritization exercise. You can immediately see which queries to defend (top-right), which to optimize for quick wins (bottom-right), which need a content refresh (top-left), and which to de-prioritize (bottom-left). This transforms overwhelming data into a decisive roadmap, ensuring your team can act with confidence and clarity. Discover how to build this framework into your regular reporting in the full post.
A B2B strategist can use the chart for a highly targeted approach to improving content ROI. The process involves several focused steps. First, use the query filter to isolate terms that signal high commercial intent, such as those including 'software,' 'platform,' 'alternative,' or 'pricing.' Next, concentrate your analysis on bubbles appearing in the 'low position, high site CTR' quadrant, as this indicates strong audience interest. For these identified queries, the final step is to analyze their corresponding landing pages and aggressively optimize the content to better match the searcher's intent. This methodical process using the Google Search Console data ensures that your content marketing efforts are focused on opportunities with proven lead-generation potential. The full article provides more examples of high-intent B2B keywords.
This visualization tool is exceptionally valuable for global publishers seeking to understand regional audience differences. By using the country filter, an editorial team can directly compare the performance of a specific topic or query across multiple markets. For instance, a query about a global event might appear in the top-right quadrant (high performance) in Canada but languish in the bottom-left (low performance) in Australia. This data from Google provides concrete evidence of a content gap or a misalignment with local search intent. It signals that a simple translation is not enough and that creating localized content is necessary to capture the Australian audience, thereby guiding a more effective global content strategy. Find more strategies for regional content analysis in our complete guide.
The rise of accessible and powerful visualization tools marks a significant shift in the core competencies required for SEO and growth roles. As tools from companies like Google automate complex data aggregation, technical skills in spreadsheet management become less of a differentiator. The most valuable skill becomes strategic interpretation: the ability to look at a complex visualization, derive a compelling business insight, and communicate an action plan. The emphasis moves away from data gathering towards data-driven storytelling. Future-focused professionals must excel at translating visual patterns in metrics like average position and CTR into clear, strategic directives that drive business growth. Our article explores how you can begin developing these crucial analytical skills today.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
Growth Strategy and Planning
