Spend five minutes in Performance → Search results. Compare clicks, impressions, CTR, and position with the previous equivalent period. Scan Queries and Pages separately, looking for changes isolated to a URL, folder, country, or device.
Use five minutes on queries: sort by impressions and flag position declines or CTR drops. Check search intent, title alignment, and possible URL cannibalization. Use regex to separate brand, non-brand, and key topic groups.
Use five minutes on indexing. Review Page indexing for new patterns, then inspect a sample of valuable URLs. Confirm the canonical, crawl status, and indexing eligibility in URL Inspection. An excluded URL is not automatically a problem.
Finish with five minutes on opportunities: pages just outside top results, high-impression queries with weak CTR, or falling clicks with stable impressions. Log one hypothesis and one next action.
The routine works when it produces one validated next step—not a folder full of screenshots.
Search Console Diary
@SearchConsoleDiary
The 20-minute Search Console routine that catches ranking drops before traffic follows
This post was published in the Telegram channel Search Console Diary. Subscribe here: @SearchConsoleDiary.