# Search Console Insights Report and Query Groups for Marketers

> Use the Search Console Insights report and AI query groups to spot trending pages and topics, plus branded traffic and other Google sources.

Source: https://mentionx.ai/learn/search-console/search-console-insights-query-groups  
Author: Dipuck Jones, founder of MentionX  
Updated: 4 November 2026  
Level: Practitioner

**The Insights report is Search Console's plain-English summary: top and trending pages, the searches that bring people, branded traffic and other Google sources, with AI query groups that cluster similar searches together.** It is the quickest way for a content team to see what is moving without building filters.

*Checked 4 November 2026 (CET) against Search Console Help and Google Search Central documentation. Search Console reports and rollouts change often, and some features only appear for eligible properties, so confirm in your own property. "Our view" marks MentionX opinion. Ledgerline is a fictional company used for illustration.*

> **Key takeaways**
>
> - Insights sits inside Search Console and replaces the standalone beta.
> - It has six cards: clicks and impressions, your content, queries leading to your site, top countries, branded and non-branded traffic, and additional traffic sources.
> - Query groups cluster queries with the same intent, such as misspellings and rephrasings, using AI.
> - Groups appear only for properties with a large volume of queries and are recalculated as data changes.
> - Insights is a starting point. Confirm anything important in the Performance report.

## What does each card show?

From Google's [Insights report help page](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16308503):

| Card | Shows | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks and impressions | Totals for the selected period | Check direction of travel |
| Your content | Pages split into top, trending up and trending down | Find refresh candidates and winners |
| Queries leading to your site | Queries and query groups, top, trending up and trending down | Find topics growing or fading |
| Top countries | Where clicking users are | Spot new markets |
| Branded and non-branded traffic | The brand split (lesson 5) | Separate brand demand from SEO reach |
| Additional traffic sources | Clicks from Image, Video, News and Discover | See whether other Google surfaces matter |

The data comes from Google's Web Search results, apart from the additional sources card.

## What are query groups?

Google [introduced query groups](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/10/search-console-query-groups) on 27 October 2025. They solve a familiar problem: dozens of variants of the same question, such as misspellings, synonyms and word order, spread across hundreds of rows. Query groups use AI to cluster queries with similar meaning and show their combined performance as Top, Trending up and Trending down.

Important limits:

- Groups are computed by AI and can be imperfect.
- They are only available for properties with a large volume of queries.
- They are recalculated as your data changes, so group names and members can shift.
- They're a reporting view only and have nothing to do with ranking.

## How should marketers use Insights?

| Signal | What it suggests | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Page trending down, query group stable | The topic still has demand, your page is losing share | Check position and competitors; refresh |
| Page and its group both trending down | Demand is falling or AI features answer it | Check Google Trends and the generative AI report |
| New query group trending up | A new question your audience asks | Brief new content or extend a page |
| Non-branded share rising | SEO reaching new people | Keep doing what works; note it for reporting |
| Discover or News appearing in sources | You've earned other Google surfaces | Look at those Performance reports |

*Our view:* Insights is the right report to share with non-SEO stakeholders. It gives them trends without the risk of misreading average position.

> **Pro move:** use query groups to find **prompts** to test in AI assistants. A group of question-style searches is a ready-made list of things buyers ask, which you can check in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity (lesson 20).

## Insights versus the Performance report

| | Insights | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Quick reads by content and marketing teams | Detailed analysis |
| Queries | Grouped into query groups, plus top and trending | Individual queries, up to 1,000 rows |
| Filters | Date range | All filters, regex, comparisons |
| Brand split | Branded and non-branded card | Branded filter |
| Other Google traffic | Additional traffic sources card | Separate reports per source |
| Export | Limited | Full export |

Use Insights for the weekly glance and the Performance report when you need to explain something.

## Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No Insights report | Still rolling out to your property | Check again later; use Performance meanwhile |
| No query groups | Your property doesn't have enough queries | Use regex groupings in Performance (lesson 4) |
| A group contains unrelated queries | AI grouping misread intent | Treat groups as a starting point; check individual queries |
| Group names change between visits | Groups are recalculated as data changes | Track groups by theme in your notes, not by exact name |
| Branded card missing | Sub-property or low volume | Use the Domain property |

## Turning query groups into content work

A trending-up group with no page that answers it directly is a content brief. A trending-down group tied to one page is a refresh candidate. Paste the group's queries into Claude or ChatGPT and ask for the common question behind them, then check the result against the page before you write anything.

## A weekly Insights review, in detail

1. **Open with the totals card**, then switch to the last 28 days vs the previous period in your head: direction only.
2. **Your content, Trending down.** For each page, ask: did we change it, is the topic seasonal, or did competitors publish? Open it in Performance with a Compare filter.
3. **Your content, Trending up.** Find out why. If a page you didn't promote is rising, it may be getting cited somewhere new. Check its generative AI impressions (lesson 7).
4. **Query groups, Trending up.** Copy each group's queries into your topic sheet.
5. **Top countries.** Look for any country new to the list.
6. **Additional sources.** If Discover or Video appears, schedule a look at those reports.

The whole review should take 15 minutes. If it takes longer, you're investigating; move that work to the Performance report.

## Edge cases

- **New sites** may see Insights with very little in each card. It fills as data grows.
- **Seasonal businesses** see big Trending down lists every off-season. Compare with the same period last year in Performance before acting.
- **Site migrations** make trending lists unreliable for a few weeks, because new URLs appear as "trending up" and old ones as "trending down".

## Ledgerline walkthrough: from query group to brief

1. The content lead opened the trending-up "three-way matching" group and copied its queries.
2. In Performance, a regex filter for `(three|3).?way.?match` confirmed the trend and showed which page received the clicks.
3. The lead wrote a brief: add a setup section, a worked example and a link to the product page.

## Worked example: Ledgerline's trend scan

*Ledgerline is a fictional accounts-payable software company. Details and numbers are illustrative.*

Ledgerline's weekly Insights check showed a query group about "three-way matching" trending up while the matching guide sat in Trending down. The group contained misspellings and "3 way match" variants. The content lead found the guide answered the definition but not "how to set it up", which several queries in the group asked. The team added a setup section and annotated the date in the Performance chart. They also added three of the group's questions to the AI prompt set they test monthly.

### Walkthrough

1. Click **Insights** in the left menu and set the date range to the last 28 days.
2. Read the **Clicks and impressions** card and note the direction of change.
3. In **Your content**, switch between Top, Trending up and Trending down. Note two pages from each.
4. In **Queries leading to your site**, look at the query groups. Open one to see the queries inside it.
5. Read the **Branded and non-branded traffic** card.
6. Read **Additional traffic sources** to see whether Image, Video, News or Discover matter for you.
7. Pick one trending-down page and open it in the Performance report to investigate (lesson 3).

## Try it yourself

Run a 15-minute weekly Insights check for the next four weeks:

1. Note the top trending-up and trending-down page each week.
2. Note one query group that grew and one that shrank.
3. After four weeks, list the pages that appeared as trending down more than once. These are your refresh shortlist.

## Quick quiz

**1. Do query groups affect ranking?**

*Answer:* No. They are an internal Search Console view.

**2. Which properties get query groups?**

*Answer:* Properties with a large volume of queries.

**3. What does the Additional traffic sources card show?**

*Answer:* Clicks from Google sources other than Web Search, such as Image, Video, News and Discover.

**4. Which version of Insights does the report replace?**

*Answer:* The standalone beta Search Console Insights.

## What should you check before the next lesson?

- You know whether your property has Insights and query groups.
- You noted two trending-up and two trending-down pages.
- You turned one query group into a content or refresh idea.
- Read [Prompt research: find the questions buyers ask](https://mentionx.ai/learn/foundations/prompt-research-find-questions-buyers-ask) to turn query groups into prompt sets.

Next: [The generative AI performance report](https://mentionx.ai/learn/search-console/search-console-generative-ai-performance-report). Or return to the [Search Console for Marketers track](https://mentionx.ai/learn/search-console/search-console-for-marketers).

## Common questions

**Is Search Console Insights the same as the old standalone tool?** No. The Insights report inside Search Console replaces the standalone beta version and offers similar summaries.

**Can I export query groups?** The Insights report is built for reading, not export. Use the Performance report and regex for exports.

**How often are query groups updated?** Google computes them dynamically as your data changes, so groups and their names can shift.

## Sources

- Search Console Help, [Insights report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16308503)
- Google Search Central, [Introducing Query groups in Search Console Insights](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/10/search-console-query-groups)
- Google Search Central, [Introducing the branded queries filter in Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/11/search-console-branded-filter)
- All accessed 4 Nov 2026.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Search Console Insights the same as the old standalone tool?

No. The Insights report inside Search Console replaces the standalone beta version and offers similar summaries.

### Can I export query groups?

The Insights report is built for reading, not export. Use the Performance report and regex for exports.

### How often are query groups updated?

Google computes them dynamically as your data changes, so groups and their names can shift.

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Written and reviewed by Dipuck Jones for MentionX Learn. The HTML version of this page: https://mentionx.ai/learn/search-console/search-console-insights-query-groups