SEO guide · Chapter 1 of 6 · 6 min read
See where you stand
Before you change your website, work out which stage is failing: Google not finding the page, Google not showing it, people not clicking, or visitors not getting in touch. Search Console answers the first three for free. Your inbox answers the last.
Updated
You leave with: A dated baseline table, and a first idea of which stage is failing.
The five stages every page goes through
Google does not promise to crawl, index or show any page (how Google Search works). Each stage below can fail on its own, and each has a different fix.
Crawled
Google's crawler has fetched the page. It usually finds pages through links and sitemaps.
Indexed
Google has stored the page and can show it. A crawled page is not always indexed.
Shown
The page appeared in someone's results. Search Console counts this as an impression.
Clicked
Someone chose your result over the others on the page.
Contacted
The visitor called, messaged or filled in a form. Search Console cannot see this stage. You have to count it.
What the four numbers mean
Search Console's Performance report gives four totals. Impressions count how often a link to your site appeared in results. Clicks count how often someone clicked it. CTR is clicks divided by impressions. Average position is where your highest result sat, averaged across every search you appeared in.
That last one misleads more than any other. A page at position 2 for one search and position 60 for another averages 31, which describes neither. Averages across a whole site hide even more, so always look at single pages and single searches too.
Three filters change the picture for a Singapore business. Country: set it to Singapore, or overseas searches you cannot serve will inflate impressions. Device: mobile and desktop often rank differently. Branded searches: people typing your name already know you, so their clicks say nothing about whether new customers can find you. Keep them on a separate row.
Google also leaves very rare searches out of the query list to protect privacy, so the rows will not add up to the total. That is normal.
Record your baseline
Add your site as a Domain property
It covers every version of your address in one report. Whoever manages your domain adds one DNS record to verify it (Google's steps).
Open Performance, then Search results
Switch on all four totals, set the date to the last 3 months, and add a country filter for Singapore.
Split branded from non-branded
Search Console has a built-in filter for branded and non-branded searches (dimensions and filters). If it is not offered for your site, add a query filter that excludes your business name and its misspellings instead. Record both rows.
Record your main service pages
In the Pages tab, note the numbers for the two or three pages that sell your main services. These are the pages you will work on.
Count enquiries from search
Ask new enquiries how they found you, or check where your form and WhatsApp messages came from. Write the monthly count.
Write down the context
A redesign, a paused ads campaign, a busy season or a sale will move your numbers. Note them now so you do not credit SEO for them later.
Your baseline table
Copy this into a spreadsheet. Keep the same country, device and date window every time you compare.
| Date | Country | Device | Page or site | Searches | Impressions | Clicks | CTR | Avg position | Search enquiries | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Oct 2026 | Singapore | All | Whole site | Non-branded | Ads paused in September | |||||
| 8 Oct 2026 | Singapore | All | Whole site | Branded | ||||||
| 8 Oct 2026 | Singapore | Mobile | Main service page | All | New photos added 1 Oct |
What the numbers point to
| What you see | Check this first | Do not assume |
|---|---|---|
| The page is not indexed | Whether Google can reach and read it (chapter 5) | That more content will fix it |
| Impressions rise, position stays low | Whether the page answers the search, and how strong the sites above you are | That the title alone is the problem |
| Position is good, clicks are low | How your result looks next to the others: title, description, the extras around it | That the page needs rewriting |
| Clicks rise, enquiries do not | Whether the page answers a buyer and makes the next step obvious | That SEO is paying for itself |
| Most clicks are branded | Whether anyone who does not know your name can find you | That branded clicks show your SEO is working |
Worked example · bpforum.org, Google Search Console ·
B&P Forum: the site total hid a second copy of the site
When we started, B&P Forum's click rate across the domain was 0.8%. The real cause only showed up page by page: a test copy of the whole site, staging.bpforum.org, was in Google and took 21,457 impressions in August, about 78% of everything Google showed for the forum, while almost nobody clicked it. We blocked it and had Google remove it. The full case study.
What this does not prove
- The domain's click rate rose from 0.8% to 2.3% in September, mostly because the copy left the count. The real site's own clicks rose 32%, counted page by page.
- One site, one month. A staging copy is one cause of a low average among several.
Worked example · rankrhq.com, Google Search Console, 28 days ·
Our own homepage: every click was branded
Our homepage had 7 clicks from Google in the 28 days to 4 October 2026, and all 7 came from people searching for our name. Without the branded split, those clicks would have looked like the homepage was winning new searches. It was not.
What this does not prove
- Seven clicks is a tiny sample. It shows the method, and says nothing about a typical site.
Common mistakes
- Comparing a 28-day window with a 3-month one, or Singapore with all countries.
- Reading only the whole-site average.
- Counting branded clicks as progress.
- Using Search Console clicks as your enquiry count.
- Changing the site before writing the baseline down.
Your 20-minute task
Fill in four rows of the baseline table: the whole site branded, the whole site non-branded, and your two main service pages. Add last month's enquiry count. If you have no Search Console yet, setting it up is the whole task.
Sources
- Google:In-depth guide to how Google Search works
- Google:Performance report (Search results)
- Google:Add a website property to Search Console
- rankr:B&P Forum case study
Ahrefs sells an SEO tool. We cite it for practical methods and check its numbers against the live results.