Documentation
Query Analysis
Query Analysis sorts Search Console queries by shape, separating conversational and machine-made searches from ordinary keywords, with a monthly trend.
Conversations with AI, in Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews or in assistants that search on someone's behalf, leave odd traces in Search Console: a bare "yes", a "what about the cheaper one", a full instruction logged as a single query. Query Analysis sorts each query of the period by its shape rather than its topic, so those traces stop hiding in your long tail. It shows how many impressions and clicks they bring, lists the conversational ones with the page that ranks for each, and charts their share month by month.
The eight shapes
Each query is tested against the shapes in this order and takes the first one it fits:
| Shape | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Reply artefacts | A bare reply that only makes sense as the second turn of a chat, such as "yes", "show me" or "try again" |
| Pivot follow-ups | A turn that redirects an earlier answer, such as "what about gemini" |
| Conversational questions | A question addressed to a listener rather than typed into a search box |
| LLM tracker probes | Prompts sent by AI-visibility tools, usually ending in a location or a language |
| Agent harnesses | A whole machine instruction recorded as one query |
| Pasted strings | Error messages, spreadsheet headers and other text pasted as it was |
| Long uncategorised | Ten words or more with no clearer marker, left for you to read |
| Conventional keywords | Ordinary search demand |
Every shape except the last counts as AI-shaped, and the first three are the conversational ones. The patterns cover English and 26 other languages, among them French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew.
Running it
Open Query Analysis (Beta) under Queries in the sidebar, or the Query analysis badge at the top of the Queries report. Set the date range and any filters, then press the play button in the panel; nothing is fetched until you do. AutoPSEO reads up to 25,000 queries of the period, together with the pages they led to, and classifies them on its servers.
What you get
- Four cards: AI-shaped queries, Their impressions, Their clicks and Zero-click share, the share of AI-shaped queries that earned no click.
- Impressions by query shape, and Share of queries, which counts queries rather than impressions because conversational shapes tend to be many small queries.
- A table of the shapes with queries, impressions, clicks, CTR, zero-click rate, average ranking, impression share and a description of each.
- Potential AI Mode / AI Overviews follow-ups: the three conversational shapes together, each query with the signals that matched and the page that ranks for it, up to 500 rows.
- Full classification: every query with its shape, up to 5,000 rows. Pick a tab before exporting to export a single shape.
The trend
Impressions by query shape over time splits each month into AI-shaped and conventional impressions and draws the AI-shaped share as a line. Choose 3, 6, 12 or 16 months, then press the load button, which names the length you chose. Each month is fetched and classified separately from its own queries, so a 12-month trend makes 12 requests; that is why it waits for you. The current month is marked as partial.
Reading the results
Treat the shapes as evidence rather than proof. The classifier judges how a query looks, not what the person meant, so a short query typed on purpose can land in a conversational shape. Google also withholds rare queries from Search Console (Google's explanation), and conversational fragments are often rare, so you see only the visible part of this traffic.
- LLM tracker probes and agent harnesses come from machines. Keep them out of keyword research and CTR work.
- Conversational questions are often genuine questions worth answering. The content engine plans topics from Search Console searches and checks each against what your site already covers.
- A growing AI-shaped share while clicks stay flat suggests more of your impressions come from AI-driven searches that seldom click through. GA4's LLM Traffic report shows the visits those assistants do send.
The shapes build on Suganthan Mohanadasan's research into AI conversations in Search Console.