Google Search Console will soon assign all search data for a single piece of content to the canonical URL.
Currently, if a website has multiple properties, users have to view data for each property in different performance reports.
Page metrics are credited to the exact URL a user is referred to by Google Search.
Search Console will soon combine data from multiple properties, such as mobile and desktop versions, into a single URL.
That means page metrics will be credited to a Google-selected canonical URL, rather than the URL referred to by Google Search.
Here’s a visual example:
This change will allow site owners to see all data for a single piece of content in one place.
The change also applies to sites with separate mobile and AMP pages. Data from AMP and mobile-friendly reports will be shown in the same property.
This transition will occur at the end of March
Google’s plan is to have all performance data transitioned to one property by the end of next month.
Search Console users will still have the option to view both old and new reports for a few weeks during the transition.
Unified data will date back to January 2018.
Users will notice the following changes:
- At an individual URL level, users will see traffic shift from any non-canonical (duplicate) URLs to the canonical URL.
- At the property level, users will see data from the alternate property shifted to the “canonical property”.
- AMP property traffic will drop to zero in most cases.
- Users will still be able to filter data by device, search appearance, country, and other dimensions without losing any information.
In order to prepare for the change, Google advises users to modify any custom traffic reports that have been created.
Lastly, if you’re not sure what Google considers the canonical URL for a particular page, you can find out with the URL inspection tool.