Search Console guide
How to split brand vs non-brand search traffic in Search Console
Direct answer
To split brand and non-brand traffic in Search Console, filter the Queries report with a custom regex that matches your brand name and its spelling variants, then repeat with the opposite filter. Compare clicks and CTR between the two. Brand queries click at a far higher rate, so mixing them hides how you rank for everything else. Rankgaroo can run both filters and add up the results.
Updated
On this page
Do it by handAsk your AI insteadWorked exampleLimits to knowQuestionsRelated guidesClicks are up, and you can't tell whether people searched for you by name or found you cold. Brand traffic and non-brand traffic point to different problems, but Search Console reports them together.
Searchers also spell a name in several ways, so one exact-match filter misses a lot.
Do it by hand in Search Console
- Go to Performance → Search results and set the date range.
- Click + Add filter, choose Query, then pick Custom (regex).
- Enter your brand pattern, using ? after a character that is optional, for example: acme ?app|app ?acme|acmeapp|appacme. Apply, then note clicks, impressions and CTR.
- Edit the same filter and switch it to the option that doesn't match the regex. Note the same three numbers for non-brand queries.
- Remove the filter and note the whole-site totals.
- Subtract brand and non-brand from the total. What remains is traffic from queries Search Console doesn't show.
You re-enter the regex every time you change the date range, and seeing brand and non-brand side by side across months means copying numbers into a spreadsheet.
Ask your AI instead
With Rankgaroo connected to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, paste a question like this:
Split example.com Search Console traffic for 2026-09-25 to 2026-10-22 into brand and non-brand. Brand regex: acme ?app|app ?acme|acmeapp|appacme. Give clicks, impressions and CTR for brand, non-brand and the whole site, and tell me what share of clicks comes from queries Search Console doesn't show.
What the AI calls
gsc_search_analytics(siteUrl: "sc-domain:example.com", startDate: "2026-09-25", endDate: "2026-10-22", dimensions: ["device"])gives whole-site totals, including queries Search Console hides. The AI adds up the rows.
gsc_search_analytics(..., dimensions: ["device"], filters: [{dimension: "query", operator: "includingRegex", expression: "acme ?app|app ?acme|acmeapp|appacme"}])for brand, then the same call with operator "excludingRegex" for non-brand. The AI subtracts both from the total to size the hidden part.
Worked example
| Segment | Clicks | Impressions | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| All traffic (no query filter) | 14,820 | 912,400 | 1.6% |
| Brand queries (regex match) | 2,050 | 4,900 | 41.8% |
| Non-brand queries (shown) | 6,100 | 515,500 | 1.2% |
| Queries Search Console doesn't show | 6,670 | 392,000 | 1.7% |
| Brand: "acme app" (exact query) | 1,480 | 3,300 | 44.8% |
| Brand: "app acme" (exact query) | 260 | 680 | 38.2% |
| Brand: "acmeapp" (exact query) | 170 | 410 | 41.5% |
What the answer says
Brand queries drove 2,050 clicks at a 41.8% CTR from only 4,900 impressions. Non-brand queries that Search Console shows drove 6,100 clicks from 515,500 impressions (1.2%). The biggest block is neither: 6,670 of the 14,820 clicks, about 45%, came from queries Search Console doesn't show, so brand against non-brand explains only about 55% of the traffic here.
Limits to know
- Search Console leaves out rare, anonymized queries from any query-level view. In the example data that is about 45% of clicks, so brand share of the visible queries is not brand share of all traffic.
- The split is only as good as your regex. A misspelling or variant you didn't list, such as "acme invoice" here, counts as non-brand.
- Regex filters follow Search Console's RE2 syntax, which has no lookaheads or backreferences.
- Whole-site totals come from a call without a query dimension. Listing individual queries is capped at 1,000 rows per call.
Questions
What counts as a brand query in Search Console?
A brand query contains your brand name, product name or domain, including common misspellings and spacing variants. For the example site that covers "acme app", "app acme", "acmeapp" and "appacme". A loose pattern also catches unrelated queries that contain "acme", so check the matches before trusting the split.
Why separate brand and non-brand traffic?
Brand clicks come from people who already know you. Non-brand clicks show how well you rank when they don't. Reported together, a rise in brand searches can hide a drop in everything else, or the reverse.
How do I write a regex for my brand?
Join each variant with a | and mark optional spaces with ? after the space, as in acme ?app. Search Console uses RE2 syntax, so skip lookaheads. Start with the variants you see in your top queries and add misspellings as they show up.
Why don't brand and non-brand clicks add up to my total clicks?
Search Console hides queries that very few people searched, to protect privacy. Those clicks count in the site total but not in any query-level view. In the example above the gap is 6,670 of 14,820 clicks.