# Google Search Console

**First-party position data** — what Google actually rendered for the verified site. Estimates from Semrush/Ahrefs/DataForSEO are modelled; GSC is observed.

Two entry points:

1. **`our research search-console` CLI** — primary, cached, scriptable.
2. **Ahrefs `gsc-*`** — only when an Ahrefs project is connected to the GSC property.

## CLI commands

```bash
our research search-console queries --site sc-domain:<domain> --days 28
our research search-console pages --site sc-domain:<domain> --days 28
our research search-console combined --site sc-domain:<domain> --days 28
```

`sc-domain:` prefix for Domain-verified properties. URL-prefix properties use the plain URL.

## Ahrefs GSC tools

```
mcp__ahrefs__gsc-keywords(project_id="<id>", limit=100)
mcp__ahrefs__gsc-keyword-history(project_id="<id>", keyword="<kw>")
mcp__ahrefs__gsc-positions-history(project_id="<id>")
mcp__ahrefs__gsc-performance-by-position(project_id="<id>")
```

## Strengths

- **Ground truth** — only first-party position source.
- Includes impressions and CTR per query — useful for visibility weighting beyond raw position.
- Anonymous-query data via `mcp__ahrefs__gsc-anonymous-queries`.

## Not for this skill when

- **Net-new keyword discovery** — GSC only shows queries the site already ranked for. Pair with Semrush/Ahrefs for discovery.
- **Competitor positions** — GSC is single-site.

Gotcha: `our-claude-skills/custom-skills/15-seo-search-console/code/gotcha/gsc-cli-integration.md`.
