Google Search Console, inside your audit
Link your verified GSC property and MetricSpot shows the queries you rank for, the keywords just outside the top 10, the pages with bad CTR for their position, and the indexing health of the audited URL. All inside the audit report.
webmasters.readonly scope. Non-sensitive per Google's 2024 reclassification. Read-only.
No card needed. Results in 30 seconds.
What you see
GSC data turns the audit from 'here's what is technically wrong' into 'here's what is technically wrong AND what people are actually searching for'.
Top queries with clicks, impressions, CTR, position
The queries that drove the most clicks to the audited URL over the last 28 days. With impressions, CTR, and average position. Sortable. Exportable.
Striking-distance keywords
Queries where you rank positions 4 to 15 with meaningful impressions. The keywords one good optimization away from page one. Sorted by impressions descending.
Low-CTR opportunities
Pages and queries ranking position 1 to 5 where the actual CTR is below what their position should earn. Often a sign of a weak title or meta description. Quick wins, highlighted.
URL inspection
Live indexing status of the audited URL: indexed, crawled-not-indexed, discovered-not-indexed, blocked, or redirected. Surfaces the FAIL verdict on redirects with coverage detail. Pulled from Google's URL Inspection API.
The privacy posture
GSC data is your data. Six commitments, in plain language.
Read-only scope.
MetricSpot requests webmasters.readonly, the minimum scope to read GSC reports. We cannot submit sitemaps, request indexing, or change anything in your property.
Per-request use only.
Data is fetched at audit time, cached briefly (24 hours maximum), and used only to render the panels in your own audit report.
Never shared with third parties.
Your query data is yours. Not aggregated for benchmarking, not sold, not used to train anything.
Disconnect deletes tokens.
Hit Disconnect in Settings and we delete the stored OAuth refresh token immediately. Next audit, no GSC panels.
You pick the GSC property.
After OAuth, MetricSpot shows every GSC property visible to that Google account. Pick the one that owns the audited URL. We refuse to pull data if the property does not own the URL.
Your tokens are encrypted at rest.
OAuth refresh tokens live in our database encrypted with our application key. Never logged, never echoed, never emailed.
How to connect
Three steps. Two minutes. No CNAME change required (MetricSpot doesn't verify GSC for you; you verify with Google, we just read).
- 1
Settings → Integrations → Connect Google
MetricSpot opens Google's standard OAuth consent screen. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your GSC property.
- 2
Pick your GSC property
After consent, MetricSpot shows every GSC property on the account. Pick the one matching the domain you're auditing. Domain properties, URL-prefix properties, and HTTPS variants are all supported.
- 3
Run an audit
The audit fetches your GSC data alongside the 154-rule SEO findings. Re-run anytime. Schedule it on Pro and the panels refresh every week.
Google OAuth verification
webmasters.readonly was reclassified by Google in 2024 as a non-sensitive scope, so it does not require Google's per-scope verification. The MetricSpot app itself is still going through Google's OAuth app review for the analytics.readonly scope (see the GA4 page); the GSC integration ships alongside that submission.
Pricing
The GSC integration is included on every paid MetricSpot plan: Starter $29/mo and Pro $49/mo. Free tier accounts can audit without GSC connected and upgrade when they're ready.
Pair this with Google Analytics 4 to see how those queries convert into sessions, top landing pages, and audience splits.
FAQ
Do you write to my GSC property?
No. webmasters.readonly is read-only by definition. We cannot submit sitemaps, request indexing, mark issues fixed, or change any setting in your GSC property.
What if my GSC property is a Domain property vs URL-prefix property?
Both work. MetricSpot detects the property shape and pulls data accordingly. For Domain properties, we filter to the audited URL's path; for URL-prefix properties, we use the property root as the scope.
How recent is the data?
GSC has its own 2-3 day reporting delay (Google's, not ours). On top of that, MetricSpot caches GSC responses for up to 24 hours per audit. So fresh audits see GSC data that's roughly 2 to 4 days behind real-time.
What is a 'striking-distance' keyword?
A query where you rank positions 4 to 15 with meaningful impressions. Position 4-10 means you're on page 1 but not in the top 3 (the click magnets). Position 11-15 is page 2, one good optimization away from page 1. We sort these by impressions descending and cap at 10, so you see the highest-leverage opportunities first.
Why does the URL inspection sometimes say 'FAIL: redirect'?
If the URL you audited is a 301 or 302, Google's URL Inspection API reports a redirect verdict. MetricSpot surfaces this as a FAIL with the redirect target so you can decide if the redirect was intentional or accidental.
Is GSC data shown in the white-label PDF?
Yes. All four GSC panels render in the white-label PDF with your brand kit applied. Available on Starter $29/mo and above.
Stop writing SEO reports by hand.
Run an audit, brand the PDF, send to your client. In five minutes.
Start your first audit