Google SEO APIs

Direct access to Google's own SEO data. Bridges the gap between crawl-based analysis (existing claude-seo skills) and Google's real-time field data: actual Chrome user metrics, real indexation status, search performance, and organic traffic.

All APIs are free. Setup requires a Google Cloud project with API key and/or service account -- run /seo google setup for step-by-step instructions.

Prerequisites

Before executing any command, check credentials:

claude-seo run google_auth.py --check --json

Config file: ~/.config/claude-seo/google-api.json

{
  "service_account_path": "/path/to/service_account.json",
  "api_key": "<GOOGLE_API_KEY>",
  "default_property": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "ga4_property_id": "properties/123456789"
}

If missing, read references/auth-setup.md and walk the user through setup.

Credential Tiers

Always communicate the detected tier before running commands.

Quick Reference

---

PageSpeed + CrUX

/seo google pagespeed <url>

Combined Lighthouse lab data + CrUX field data.

Script: claude-seo run pagespeed_check.py <url> --json Reference: references/pagespeed-crux-api.md Default: Both mobile + desktop strategies, all Lighthouse categories.

Output merges lab scores (point-in-time Lighthouse) with field data (28-day Chrome user metrics). CrUX tries URL-level first, falls back to origin-level.

/seo google crux <url>

CrUX field data only (no Lighthouse run). Faster.

Script: claude-seo run pagespeed_check.py <url> --crux-only --json

/seo google crux-history <url>

25-week CrUX History trends. Shows whether CWV metrics are improving, stable, or degrading.

Script: claude-seo run crux_history.py <url> --json Reference: references/pagespeed-crux-api.md

Output includes per-metric trend direction, percentage change, and weekly p75 values.

---

Search Console

/seo google gsc <property>

Search Analytics: clicks, impressions, CTR, position for last 28 days.

Script: claude-seo run gsc_query.py --property <property> --json Reference: references/search-console-api.md Default: 28 days, dimensions=query,page, type=web, limit=1000.

Includes quick-win detection: queries at position 4-10 with high impressions. The totals block comes from a separate dimensionless aggregate query because query-level rows can omit anonymized low-volume traffic. Treat totals as site-wide only when totals_complete is true. --limit caps total returned dimension rows, not the size of every pagination request.

AI surfaces in GSC (2026):

• Generative AI performance report (launched 2026-06-03), a dedicated view of AI Overviews + AI Mode visibility. Impressions only (no clicks/CTR/position/query); dimensions Pages/Countries/Devices/Dates (Pacific Time); 1,000-row limit; newest data preliminary; a separate Discover gen-AI report also exists. Rolling out to a subset of properties.
• AI Mode already rolls into standard Performance totals (Web search type), clicks (external-link clicks in AI Mode) and impressions are counted in the normal report, so you cannot cleanly split "classic" vs "AI" traffic from totals. Use the Generative AI report for impressions-only AI visibility.
• Data-reliability caveat: a GSC logging error made impressions, CTR, and average position unreliable from 2025-05-13 to 2026-04-27 (clicks unaffected; fixed forward-only, no backfill). Treat impression/CTR/position trends spanning that window with caution; expect an apparent impressions drop after the fix.

/seo google inspect <url>

URL Inspection: real indexation status from Google.

Script: claude-seo run gsc_inspect.py <url> --json

Returns: verdict (PASS/FAIL), coverage state, robots.txt status, indexing state, page fetch state, canonical selection, mobile usability, rich results.

/seo google inspect-batch <file>

Batch inspection from a file (one URL per line). Rate limited to 2,000/day per site.

Script: claude-seo run gsc_inspect.py --batch <file> --json

/seo google sitemaps <property>

List submitted sitemaps with status, errors, warnings. Sitemap contents report submitted counts only; URL Inspection API is the indexation truth for whether specific URLs are indexed.

Script: claude-seo run gsc_query.py sitemaps --property <property> --json

---

Indexing API

/seo google index <url>

Notify Google of a URL update.

Script: claude-seo run indexing_notify.py <url> --json Reference: references/indexing-api.md

The Indexing API is officially for JobPosting and BroadcastEvent/VideoObject pages. Always inform the user of this restriction. Daily quota: 200 publish requests.

/seo google index-batch <file>

Batch submit URLs from a file. Tracks quota usage.

Script: claude-seo run indexing_notify.py --batch <file> --json

---

GA4 Traffic

/seo google ga4 [property-id]

Organic traffic report: daily sessions, users, pageviews, bounce rate, engagement.

Script: claude-seo run ga4_report.py --property <id> --json Reference: references/ga4-data-api.md Default: 28 days, filtered to Organic Search channel group.

GA4 "AI Assistants" channel (live ~2026-05-13): GA4 added a native AI Assistants Default Channel Group. Sessions referred by a recognized AI assistant get medium=ai-assistant. Google's recognized sources are ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Deepseek, Copilot, Grok and the channel excludes Google AI Overviews / AI Mode. Verify Perplexity separately if needed; unsupported sources may stay in Referral, and most AI sessions arrive referrer-less and fall into Direct, so this channel undercounts AI traffic. Forward-only, no backfill.

/seo google ga4-pages [property-id]

Top organic landing pages ranked by sessions.

Script: claude-seo run ga4_report.py --property <id> --report top-pages --json

---

YouTube (Video SEO)

Some third-party studies report a 0.737 correlation between YouTube mentions and AI visibility. Treat it as a methodology-dependent signal. Free, API key only.

/seo google youtube <query>

Search YouTube for videos. Returns title, channel, views, likes, duration.

Script: claude-seo run youtube_search.py search "<query>" --json Reference: references/youtube-api.md Quota: 100 units per search (10,000 units/day free).

/seo google youtube-video <video_id>

Detailed video info + tags + top 10 comments.

Script: claude-seo run youtube_search.py video <video_id> --json Quota: 2 units (video details + comments).

---

NLP Content Analysis

Google NLP entity/sentiment output for internal content-quality checks. Do not treat it as Google E-E-A-T scoring.

/seo google nlp <url-or-text>

Full NLP analysis: entities, sentiment, content classification.

Script: claude-seo run nlp_analyze.py --url <url> --json or --text "..." Reference: references/nlp-api.md Free tier: 5,000 units/month. Requires billing enabled on GCP project.

/seo google entities <url-or-text>

Entity extraction only (faster, less quota).

Script: claude-seo run nlp_analyze.py --url <url> --features entities --json

---

Keyword Research (Google Ads)

Gold-standard keyword volume data. Requires Google Ads account.

/seo google keywords <seed>

Generate keyword ideas from seed terms.

Script: claude-seo run keyword_planner.py ideas "<seed>" --json Reference: references/keyword-planner-api.md Requires: Ads developer token + customer ID in config (Tier 3).

/seo google volume <keywords>

Search volume for specific keywords (comma-separated).

Script: claude-seo run keyword_planner.py volume "<kw1>,<kw2>" --json

---

Supplementary

/seo google entity <query>

Knowledge Graph entity check. Verifies brand presence.

Reference: references/supplementary-apis.md Uses Knowledge Graph Search API with API key.

/seo google safety <url>

Web Risk API check for malware/social engineering flags.

Reference: references/supplementary-apis.md

/seo google quotas

Display rate limits table. Read references/rate-limits-quotas.md.

---

Reports

After any analysis command, offer to generate a PDF/HTML report.

/seo google report <type>

Generate a professional PDF report with charts and analytics.

Script: claude-seo run google_report.py --type <type> --data <json> --domain <domain> --format pdf

Workflow:

1. Run data collection commands (pagespeed, gsc, inspect-batch, etc.)
2. Save JSON output to file: claude-seo run pagespeed_check.py <url> --json > data.json
3. Generate report: claude-seo run google_report.py --type cwv-audit --data data.json --domain <domain>

Convention: After completing analysis, suggest: "Generate a report? Use /seo google report <type>"

---

Rate Limits

Cross-Skill Integration

• seo-audit: Spawns seo-google agent for live CWV + indexation data (conditional)
• seo-technical: Uses pagespeed_check.py for real CWV field data
• seo-performance: CrUX field data supplements Lighthouse lab data
• seo-sitemap: GSC sitemap status shows submitted counts, errors, and warnings; use URL Inspection for indexation truth
• seo-content: GSC query data informs keyword targeting
• seo-geo: Use GSC Generative AI performance reports and AI Overviews/AI Mode/Discover gen-AI include/exclude controls where available

Output Format

• CWV metrics: traffic-light rating (Good / Needs Improvement / Poor)
• Performance reports: tables with sortable columns
• Always include data freshness note
• Save reports as GOOGLE-API-REPORT-{domain}.md
• Markdown/LLM templates in assets/templates/: cwv-audit-report.md, gsc-performance-report.md, indexation-status-report.md; distinct from google_report.py's PDF pipeline

Technical Notes

• INP replaced FID on March 12, 2024. Never reference FID.
• CLS values from CrUX are string-encoded (e.g., "0.05"). Scripts handle parsing.
• CrUX 404 = insufficient traffic, not an auth error.
• Search Analytics data has 2-3 day lag.
• round_trip_time replaced effectiveConnectionType in CrUX (Feb 2025).
• Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers (2025).

Error Handling

---

Supporting file: assets/templates/cwv-audit-report.md

Core Web Vitals Audit

URL/Origin: {target} Strategy: {strategy}

CrUX Field Data (28-day rolling average)

Real Chrome user experience data from the Chrome UX Report.

Collection Period: {collection_start} to {collection_end}

Lighthouse Lab Scores

CrUX History Trends (25-week)

Top Opportunities

Recommendations

{recommendations}

---

CrUX data updated daily ~04:00 UTC. 28-day rolling average. INP replaced FID as the responsiveness Core Web Vital on March 12, 2024. Generated {timestamp}.

---

Supporting file: assets/templates/gsc-performance-report.md

Google Search Console Performance Report

Property: {property} Date Range: {start_date} — {end_date} Search Type: {search_type}

Summary

Top Queries

Top Pages

Quick Wins (Position 4-10, High Impressions)

These queries rank on page 1 but below position 3. A small ranking improvement could yield significant traffic gains.

Device Breakdown

---

Data freshness: Search Analytics has a 2-3 day lag. Data available for ~16 months. If this report overlaps 2025-05-13 to 2026-04-27, impressions, CTR, and average position require caution due to the confirmed GSC impressions logging error. Clicks were not affected and affected metrics were not backfilled. Generated {timestamp} via Google Search Console API.

---

Supporting file: assets/templates/indexation-status-report.md

URL Indexation Status Report

Property: {property} URLs Inspected: {total_urls}

Summary

Detailed Results

Canonical Mismatches

URLs where Google selected a different canonical than declared:

Common Issues

Rich Results Detected

---

URL Inspection API: 2,000 inspections/day per site, 600/min. Generated {timestamp} via Google Search Console URL Inspection API.

---

Supporting file: LICENSE.txt

MIT License - see repository root LICENSE file for complete terms.

Copyright (c) 2026 AgriciDaniel
https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo

---

Supporting file: references/auth-setup.md

Google API Authentication Setup

Overview

Three credential types serve different APIs:

Step 1: Create a Google Cloud Project

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com (https://console.cloud.google.com)
2. Click Select a project > New Project
3. Name it (e.g., "Claude SEO") and note the project ID
4. Select the project after creation

Step 2: Enable APIs

Navigate to APIs & Services > Library and enable:

Step 3: Create an API Key

1. APIs & Services > Credentials > Create Credentials > API key
2. Click Restrict key:
   • Under API restrictions, select: PageSpeed Insights API, Chrome UX Report API, Knowledge Graph Search API
3. Copy the generated API key and store it securely

Step 4: Create a Service Account

1. IAM & Admin > Service Accounts > Create Service Account
2. Name: claude-seo (or similar)
3. Skip optional permissions steps
4. Click on the created service account > Keys > Add Key > Create new key > JSON
5. Download the JSON file and store it securely (e.g., ~/.config/claude-seo/service_account.json)

The JSON file looks like:

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "your-project-id",
  "private_key_id": "...",
  "private_key": "<service-account-private-key>",
  "client_email": "<service-account-identifier>",
  "client_id": "...",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token"
}

The client_email field is what you add to GSC and GA4.

Step 5: Grant Search Console Access

1. Go to Google Search Console (https://search.google.com/search-console)
2. Select your property
3. Settings > Users and permissions > Add user
4. Paste the service account client_email
5. Set permission level:
   • Full for read-only (Search Analytics, URL Inspection, Sitemaps)
   • Owner if you also need the Indexing API

Step 6: Grant GA4 Access

1. Go to Google Analytics (https://analytics.google.com)
2. Admin > Property Access Management > Add users (the + icon)
3. Paste the service account client_email
4. Set role: Viewer (minimum for read-only reporting)
5. Note the numeric property ID from Admin > Property Details (e.g., 123456789)

Step 7: Create Config File

mkdir -p ~/.config/claude-seo

Save to ~/.config/claude-seo/google-api.json:

{
  "service_account_path": "~/.config/claude-seo/service_account.json",
  "api_key": "<GOOGLE_API_KEY>",
  "default_property": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "ga4_property_id": "properties/123456789"
}

Property URL Formats

Step 8: Verify Setup

claude-seo run google_auth.py --check

Expected output at Tier 2 (full):

Credential Tier: 2 -- Full (API key + Service Account + GA4)

  [OK] PageSpeed Insights v5
  [OK] Chrome UX Report (CrUX) API
  [OK] CrUX History API
  [OK] Google Search Console API
       Service account: configured
  [OK] Google Indexing API v3
  [OK] GA4 Data API v1beta

Environment Variable Alternatives

Instead of (or in addition to) the config file:

OAuth Scopes Used

Troubleshooting

---

Supporting file: references/dma-consent-mode-v2.md

DMA + Consent Mode v2 — click-through impact diagnostic

EU traffic flowing through Google Search has been subject to the Digital Markets Act since 2024-03-07. The DMA limits how Google can use behavioural data and forces consent-mode v2 compliance for GA4 + Ads in EU. The operational effect for SEO audits:

• EU click-through-rate (CTR) data from Search Console is materially noisier after the DMA enforcement date. Year-over-year CTR comparisons across that boundary are not apples-to-apples.
• GA4 organic-traffic reports for EU users show systematic under-reporting when consent-mode v2 is configured as "denied for ad_storage, granted for analytics_storage" (the typical EU default). Conversion modelling fills the gap, but the raw counts are lower than pre-2024.

What the seo-google skill should do

1. When pulling GSC search analytics for an EU-targeted property, note: "EU CTR comparisons before/after 2024-03-07 are not apples-to-apples (DMA + consent-mode v2 took effect)."
2. When pulling GA4 organic traffic, surface the consent-mode configuration if the GA4 admin API exposes it. If the property has eu_data_collection_disabled or denies ad_storage by default, note "EU traffic counts are conservative; conversion-modelled uplift may apply."
3. Do not lecture the user on cookie consent UX — that's a legal team / engineering concern outside SEO scope. Just attach the diagnostic note.

Required GA4 / Consent Mode setup the audit should check for

• GA4 4.x consent-mode v2 wired up (gtag('consent', 'default', ...) before any pageview).
• ads_data_redaction flag set on EU traffic.
• Server-side tagging at consent transitions (recommended pattern; not legally required).

Softening cookieless-attribution warnings

Google abandoned third-party cookie deprecation in July 2024 and confirmed in April 2025 that Chrome will not ship a standalone cookie prompt. The "cookieless future" framing is no longer urgent.

For audits as of May 2026:

• Do NOT recommend "switch to cookieless attribution" as a priority.
• DO recommend "implement consent-mode v2 + server-side tagging" for EU compliance + signal-loss recovery.
• Privacy Sandbox APIs are still available, but optional. Mention only if the audit subject is consumer-facing and has heavy retargeting dependence.

Primary sources

• DMA enforcement: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/
• Google's third-party cookie reversal: https://privacysandbox.com/news/privacy-sandbox-update/
• Consent Mode v2, EEA consent updates: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13695607

Last verified: 2026-05-17.

---

Supporting file: references/ga4-data-api.md

GA4 Data API v1beta Reference

Overview

The Google Analytics Data API v1beta provides programmatic access to GA4 report data. For SEO, the primary use case is organic traffic analysis.

Base URL: https://analyticsdata.googleapis.com/v1beta

Key Methods

runReport Request

{
  "property": "properties/123456789",
  "dimensions": [
    { "name": "date" },
    { "name": "landingPage" }
  ],
  "metrics": [
    { "name": "sessions" },
    { "name": "totalUsers" }
  ],
  "dateRanges": [
    { "startDate": "28daysAgo", "endDate": "yesterday" }
  ],
  "dimensionFilter": {
    "filter": {
      "fieldName": "sessionDefaultChannelGroup",
      "stringFilter": {
        "matchType": "EXACT",
        "value": "Organic Search"
      }
    }
  },
  "orderBys": [
    { "metric": { "metricName": "sessions" }, "desc": true }
  ],
  "limit": 100,
  "returnPropertyQuota": true
}

SEO-Relevant Dimensions

SEO-Relevant Metrics

Filter Expressions

String Filter

{
  "filter": {
    "fieldName": "sessionDefaultChannelGroup",
    "stringFilter": {
      "matchType": "EXACT",
      "value": "Organic Search"
    }
  }
}

Match types: EXACT, BEGINS_WITH, ENDS_WITH, CONTAINS, FULL_REGEXP, PARTIAL_REGEXP

Combining Filters

{
  "andGroup": {
    "expressions": [
      { "filter": { "fieldName": "country", "stringFilter": { "matchType": "EXACT", "value": "US" }}},
      { "filter": { "fieldName": "deviceCategory", "stringFilter": { "matchType": "EXACT", "value": "mobile" }}}
    ]
  }
}

Also supports orGroup and notExpression.

Date Range Shortcuts

Up to 4 date ranges per request (for period-over-period comparison).

Token-Based Quotas

Set returnPropertyQuota: true to monitor consumption. Simple reports cost ~1-10 tokens; complex ones up to ~100.

Python Example

from google.analytics.data_v1beta import BetaAnalyticsDataClient
from google.analytics.data_v1beta.types import (
    DateRange, Dimension, Filter, FilterExpression,
    Metric, OrderBy, RunReportRequest,
)
from google.oauth2 import service_account

credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
    "service_account.json",
    scopes=["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly"],
)

client = BetaAnalyticsDataClient(credentials=credentials)

request = RunReportRequest(
    property="properties/123456789",
    dimensions=[Dimension(name="landingPage")],
    metrics=[Metric(name="sessions"), Metric(name="totalUsers")],
    date_ranges=[DateRange(start_date="28daysAgo", end_date="yesterday")],
    dimension_filter=FilterExpression(
        filter=Filter(
            field_name="sessionDefaultChannelGroup",
            string_filter=Filter.StringFilter(
                match_type=Filter.StringFilter.MatchType.EXACT,
                value="Organic Search",
            ),
        )
    ),
    order_bys=[OrderBy(metric=OrderBy.MetricOrderBy(metric_name="sessions"), desc=True)],
    limit=50,
    return_property_quota=True,
)

response = client.run_report(request)
for row in response.rows:
    print(f"{row.dimension_values[0].value}: {row.metric_values[0].value} sessions")

Authentication

• Scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly
• Service account must have Viewer role in GA4 property
• Add via GA4 Admin > Property Access Management

---

Supporting file: references/indexing-api.md

Google Indexing API v3 Reference

Overview

The Indexing API allows you to notify Google when pages are added or removed.

IMPORTANT: Use the Indexing API only for eligible URLs with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in VideoObject structured data. For a few ordinary URLs, use URL Inspection; for many ordinary URLs, use sitemaps. A URL_UPDATED notification only means Google may recrawl soon and gives no indexing benefit for other page types.

Endpoints

Publish Notification

POST https://indexing.googleapis.com/v3/urlNotifications:publish

{
  "url": "https://example.com/jobs/software-engineer",
  "type": "URL_UPDATED"
}

Response:

{
  "urlNotificationMetadata": {
    "url": "https://example.com/jobs/software-engineer",
    "latestUpdate": {
      "url": "https://example.com/jobs/software-engineer",
      "type": "URL_UPDATED",
      "notifyTime": "2026-03-27T10:00:00Z"
    }
  }
}

Get Notification Metadata

GET https://indexing.googleapis.com/v3/urlNotifications/metadata?url={ENCODED_URL}

Returns latestUpdate and latestRemove timestamps for the URL.

Batch Requests

POST https://indexing.googleapis.com/batch

Up to 100 URLs per batch request using multipart/mixed format:

POST /batch HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=batch_boundary

--batch_boundary
Content-Type: application/http
Content-ID: <item1>

POST /v3/urlNotifications:publish HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{"url": "https://example.com/jobs/1", "type": "URL_UPDATED"}
--batch_boundary
Content-Type: application/http
Content-ID: <item2>

POST /v3/urlNotifications:publish HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{"url": "https://example.com/jobs/2", "type": "URL_UPDATED"}
--batch_boundary--

Authentication

• Scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/indexing
• Auth type: Service account (OAuth 2.0)
• The service account must be Owner in Google Search Console for the target domain

Quotas

Request a quota increase: Indexing API Quota Increase Form (https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/quota)

Error Codes

Best Practices

1. Submit only URLs with actual content changes (don't spam updates)
2. Use URL_DELETED only when a page is permanently removed (returns 404/410)
3. Track daily quota usage -- the 200/day limit resets at midnight Pacific Time
4. For large-scale indexing, use XML sitemaps + Search Console instead
5. Batch requests count individually against the daily quota (100 batch = 100 quota)

---

Supporting file: references/keyword-planner-api.md

Google Ads API - Keyword Planner Reference

Gold-standard source for keyword search volume. DataForSEO gets its volume data from Google Ads -- this cuts out the middleman.

Prerequisites (More Complex Than Other Google APIs)

1. Google Ads Manager Account -- create at ads.google.com (free to create)
2. Developer Token -- apply at Google Ads API Center (requires Basic access approval)
3. OAuth 2.0 credentials -- reuse existing OAuth client from seo-google config
4. For exact volumes: Run a minimal campaign (~$5-10/day). Without spend, volumes are bucketed ranges ("1K-10K")

Key Methods

GenerateKeywordIdeas

Generate keyword suggestions from seed terms.

Returns per keyword:

• text: Keyword string
• avg_monthly_searches: Average monthly volume (exact if spending, bucketed if not)
• competition: LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH (for ads, not organic)
• competition_index: 0-100 competition score
• low_top_of_page_bid_micros: ~20th percentile CPC in micros
• high_top_of_page_bid_micros: ~80th percentile CPC in micros
• monthly_search_volumes[]: Per-month volume for last 12 months

GenerateKeywordHistoricalMetrics

Get volume data for specific keywords.

Same return fields as above but for exact keyword list instead of suggestions.

GenerateKeywordForecastMetrics

Predict clicks, impressions, and cost for keywords.

Configuration

Add to ~/.config/claude-seo/google-api.json:

{
  "ads_developer_token": "YOUR_DEV_TOKEN",
  "ads_customer_id": "123-456-7890",
  "ads_login_customer_id": "123-456-7890"
}

Rate Limits

• Keyword Planning requests are more strictly rate-limited than other Ads API services
• Exact QPM/QPS not publicly documented
• Google recommends caching results

Python Library

pip install google-ads

Uses google-ads library (separate from google-api-python-client).

Important Notes

• Volume accuracy: Without active ad spend, Google returns bucketed ranges ("1K-10K", "10K-100K") instead of exact numbers like "14,800"
• Competition score: Measures advertiser competition for ads, NOT organic ranking difficulty
• CPC bids: Reflect what advertisers pay, useful for estimating keyword commercial value
• Location targeting: Use location IDs (2840 = United States, 2826 = United Kingdom)
• Language targeting: Use language IDs (1000 = English, 1003 = Spanish)

---

Supporting file: references/nlp-api.md

Google Cloud Natural Language API Reference

Use NLP analysis as an internal diagnostic for entity coverage, content sentiment, and topic classification. Do not present it as Google's E-E-A-T score, a ranking factor, or a proxy for numeric E-E-A-T weights.

Endpoint

Entities use POST https://language.googleapis.com/v1/documents:analyzeEntities. Sentiment, classification, and moderation use POST https://language.googleapis.com/v2/documents:annotateText.

Send the API key in the X-Goog-Api-Key header, not in the URL.

Features

Entity Types

PERSON, LOCATION, ORGANIZATION, EVENT, WORK_OF_ART, CONSUMER_GOOD, OTHER, PHONE_NUMBER, ADDRESS, DATE, NUMBER, PRICE

Each entity includes:

• name: Entity text
• type: Entity type
• salience: Importance score (0-1, higher = more relevant)
• sentiment: Per-entity sentiment (score + magnitude)
• metadata: Wikipedia URL, MID (Knowledge Graph ID)
• mentions: Occurrences in the text

Sentiment Scoring

• Score: -1.0 (negative) to +1.0 (positive)
• Magnitude: 0 to infinity (emotional intensity, higher = more emotional)
• Neutral content: score ~0, low magnitude
• Mixed content: score ~0, HIGH magnitude (both positive and negative)

Pricing

One "unit" = 1,000 characters. Free tier resets monthly.

Enable the API

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com/apis/library (https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library)
2. Search for "Cloud Natural Language API"
3. Click Enable
4. Billing must be enabled on the project (free tier still applies)

Uses the same API key as PSI/CrUX.

---

Supporting file: references/pagespeed-crux-api.md

PageSpeed Insights v5 + CrUX API Reference

Table of Contents

1. PageSpeed Insights v5 (#pagespeed-insights-v5)
2. CrUX API (Daily) (#crux-api-daily)
3. CrUX History API (Weekly) (#crux-history-api-weekly)
4. Core Web Vitals Thresholds (#core-web-vitals-thresholds)

---

PageSpeed Insights v5

Endpoint: GET https://www.googleapis.com/pagespeedonline/v5/runPagespeed

Parameters

Response Structure

{
  "id": "https://example.com/",
  "loadingExperience": { ... },        // URL-level CrUX data
  "originLoadingExperience": { ... },  // Origin-level CrUX data
  "lighthouseResult": {
    "categories": {
      "performance": { "score": 0.85 },
      "accessibility": { "score": 0.92 },
      "best-practices": { "score": 0.88 },
      "seo": { "score": 0.95 }
    },
    "audits": { ... }                  // Individual audit results
  },
  "analysisUTCTimestamp": "2026-03-27T..."
}

Field Data Metrics (in loadingExperience)

Each metric contains: percentile (p75), distributions[] ({min, max, proportion}), category (FAST/AVERAGE/SLOW/NONE).

Key Lighthouse Audit IDs

first-contentful-paint, largest-contentful-paint, total-blocking-time, cumulative-layout-shift, speed-index, interactive

Rate Limits

• 25,000 QPD with API key
• 240 QPM
• Free, no billing required

Note on Field Data Migration

Google is migrating CrUX field data out of PSI. For field data, prefer the CrUX API directly. Use PSI primarily for Lighthouse lab data.

---

CrUX API (Daily)

Endpoint: POST https://chromeuxreport.googleapis.com/v1/records:queryRecord

Send the API key in the X-Goog-Api-Key header, not in the URL.

Request

{
  "origin": "https://example.com",
  "formFactor": "PHONE",
  "metrics": ["largest_contentful_paint", "interaction_to_next_paint", "cumulative_layout_shift"]
}

Available Metrics

Response

{
  "record": {
    "key": { "origin": "https://example.com" },
    "metrics": {
      "largest_contentful_paint": {
        "histogram": [
          { "start": 0, "end": 2500, "density": 0.72 },
          { "start": 2500, "end": 4000, "density": 0.18 },
          { "start": 4000, "density": 0.10 }
        ],
        "percentiles": { "p75": 2100 }
      },
      "cumulative_layout_shift": {
        "percentiles": { "p75": "0.05" }
      }
    },
    "collectionPeriod": {
      "firstDate": { "year": 2026, "month": 2, "day": 27 },
      "lastDate": { "year": 2026, "month": 3, "day": 26 }
    }
  }
}

Important

• CLS p75 is a string (e.g., "0.05" not 0.05). Always parse as float from string.
• Last histogram bin has no end (extends to infinity).
• Densities sum to approximately 1.0.
• 404 = no data (insufficient Chrome traffic). Not an auth error.
• Updated daily ~04:00 UTC with ~2 day lag.

Rate Limits

• 150 QPM shared between CrUX and CrUX History APIs
• Free, no paid increase available

---

CrUX History API (Weekly)

Endpoint: POST https://chromeuxreport.googleapis.com/v1/records:queryHistoryRecord

Send the API key in the X-Goog-Api-Key header, not in the URL.

Same request format as CrUX API. Returns up to 25 weekly collection periods.

Response Differences from CrUX API

Instead of single values, returns timeseries:

{
  "record": {
    "metrics": {
      "largest_contentful_paint": {
        "histogramTimeseries": [
          { "start": 0, "end": 2500, "densities": [0.70, 0.71, 0.72, ...] },
          { "start": 2500, "end": 4000, "densities": [0.19, 0.18, 0.18, ...] },
          { "start": 4000, "densities": [0.11, 0.11, 0.10, ...] }
        ],
        "percentilesTimeseries": {
          "p75s": [2200, 2150, 2100, ...]
        }
      }
    },
    "collectionPeriods": [
      {
        "firstDate": { "year": 2025, "month": 9, "day": 29 },
        "lastDate": { "year": 2025, "month": 10, "day": 26 }
      },
      ...
    ]
  }
}

NaN Handling

• "NaN" string for densities in ineligible periods
• null for percentile values in ineligible periods
• Always check for these before numeric operations

Update Schedule

• Updated Mondays ~04:00 UTC
• Each period = 28-day rolling average ending on a Sunday

---

Core Web Vitals Thresholds

Current as of 2026-07-09; no threshold changes were announced. INP replaced FID on March 12, 2024.

FID was removed from Chrome's field-data tools (CrUX, PSI) on September 9, 2024. Never reference FID in outputs.

---

Supporting file: references/rate-limits-quotas.md

Google API Rate Limits & Quotas

Consolidated Quota Table

Key distinction: "Per site" quotas are scoped to a specific GSC property. "Per project" quotas are shared across all properties in a GCP project. "Per user" quotas are per authenticated user (service account).

Exponential Backoff Strategy

When receiving 429 or 5xx errors:

Attempt 1: wait 1 second
Attempt 2: wait 2 seconds
Attempt 3: wait 4 seconds
Attempt 4: wait 8 seconds
Attempt 5: wait 16 seconds
Max: give up after 5 retries

Add random jitter (0-500ms) to each wait to avoid thundering herd.

Common Error Codes

Retry-After Header

Some Google APIs return a Retry-After header with 429 responses. When present, use this value (in seconds) instead of exponential backoff.

GA4 Token Budgeting

GA4 uses a token system rather than simple request counts:

• Simple 1-dimension, 1-metric report: ~1-5 tokens
• Complex multi-dimension, multi-metric: ~10-100 tokens
• Set returnPropertyQuota: true to monitor consumption
• Daily limit: 25,000 tokens per property per project
• Hourly limit: 5,000 tokens per property per project
• Concurrent: max 10 simultaneous requests

CrUX Shared Quota

The CrUX API and CrUX History API share the same 150 QPM quota per project. Plan accordingly if querying both APIs in the same workflow.

Cost Summary

All APIs used by seo-google are free at normal usage levels. No billing is required for:

• PSI, CrUX, CrUX History (API key, unlimited free)
• GSC (service account, 30M QPD)
• Indexing API (service account, 200 publish/day)
• GA4 Data API (service account, 25K tokens/day)
• Knowledge Graph (API key, 100K QPD)

Only Custom Search and Web Risk have paid tiers at high volumes.

---

Supporting file: references/search-console-api.md

Google Search Console API Reference

Table of Contents

1. Search Analytics API (#search-analytics-api)
2. URL Inspection API (#url-inspection-api)
3. Sitemaps API (#sitemaps-api)
4. Sites API (#sites-api)

---

Search Analytics API

Endpoint: POST https://www.googleapis.com/webmasters/v3/sites/{siteUrl}/searchAnalytics/query

Request Body

Dimension Filters

{
  "dimensionFilterGroups": [{
    "filters": [{
      "dimension": "query",
      "operator": "contains",
      "expression": "seo"
    }]
  }]
}

Operators: contains, equals, notContains, notEquals, includingRegex, excludingRegex

• Regex uses RE2 syntax, max 4096 characters

Response

{
  "rows": [
    {
      "keys": ["seo tools", "https://example.com/tools"],
      "clicks": 150,
      "impressions": 5000,
      "ctr": 0.03,
      "position": 4.2
    }
  ],
  "responseAggregationType": "byPage"
}

Important Notes

• Data has a 2-3 day lag. Available for approximately 16 months.
• If a date range overlaps 2025-05-13 to 2026-04-27, clicks remain usable but impressions, CTR, and average position require caution due to the confirmed GSC impressions logging error.
• discover and googleNews types do not support query dimension or position metric.
• Country codes are ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 (e.g., USA, GBR, DEU).
• Pagination: increment startRow by rowLimit until fewer rows returned.
• rowLimit is per API request. The claude-seo --limit option is a total result cap and requests are paged internally at up to 25,000 rows.
• For accurate site totals, omit query and page dimensions. Query rows can omit anonymized low-volume traffic and must not be summed as site totals.
• Only present totals as authoritative when the script returns "totals_complete": true.

Rate Limits

• 1,200 QPM per user
• 1,200 QPM per site
• 40,000 QPM / 30,000,000 QPD per project

---

URL Inspection API

Endpoint: POST https://searchconsole.googleapis.com/v1/urlInspection/index:inspect

Request

{
  "inspectionUrl": "https://example.com/page",
  "siteUrl": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "languageCode": "en"
}

Response Fields

indexStatusResult:

richResultsResult: Verdict + detected rich result types (e.g. Product, Breadcrumb, Review snippet, Event). Note: FAQPage and HowTo no longer produce rich results (FAQ retired 2026-05-07; HowTo retired 2023), so don't expect them as current rich-result types.

Rate Limits

• 2,000 QPD / 600 QPM per site
• 10,000,000 QPD / 15,000 QPM per project

---

Sitemaps API

Base: https://www.googleapis.com/webmasters/v3/sites/{siteUrl}/sitemaps

Sitemap Resource

---

Sites API

Base: https://www.googleapis.com/webmasters/v3/sites

Property Resource

---

Supporting file: references/supplementary-apis.md

Supplementary Google APIs for SEO

Knowledge Graph Search API

Verify brand/entity presence in Google's Knowledge Graph.

Endpoint: GET https://kgsearch.googleapis.com/v1/entities:search

Response:

{
  "itemListElement": [{
    "result": {
      "@id": "kg:/m/0d6lp",
      "name": "Google",
      "@type": ["Organization", "Corporation"],
      "description": "Technology company",
      "detailedDescription": {
        "articleBody": "Google LLC is an American...",
        "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google"
      },
      "image": { "url": "..." },
      "url": "https://www.google.com"
    },
    "resultScore": 4892.5
  }]
}

Use for SEO: Verify if a brand has a Knowledge Panel, check entity disambiguation, find related entities.

Quota: 100,000 reads/day. Free. API key only.

---

Custom Search JSON API

Programmatic Google search results (limited).

Endpoint: GET https://customsearch.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1

Limitations:

• Max 100 total results per query (10 pages x 10 results)
• CLOSED to new customers as of 2025. Existing customers must migrate by January 2027.
• 100 queries/day free, $5 per 1,000 up to 10,000/day

For SERP data, prefer DataForSEO (/seo dataforseo serp) which has no such limitations.

---

Web Risk API

Check if URLs are flagged as unsafe by Google Safe Browsing.

Endpoint: GET https://webrisk.googleapis.com/v1/uris:search

Response (clean URL): Empty threat object.

Response (flagged URL):

{
  "threat": {
    "threatTypes": ["MALWARE"],
    "expireTime": "2026-04-01T00:00:00Z"
  }
}

Use for SEO: Check if pages are flagged (could explain deindexing), verify competitor safety, audit outbound links.

Quota: 6,000 QPM. 100,000/month free tier. Requires billing enabled on GCP project.

---

Supporting file: references/youtube-api.md

YouTube Data API v3 Reference

YouTube mentions may correlate with AI visibility in some GEO research, but this file does not include a Google-owned source or methodology for a numeric benchmark. This API provides authoritative YouTube data directly from Google.

Endpoints Used

Daily Quota

Default: 10,000 units/day (free). This allows:

• ~100 searches per day, OR
• ~10,000 video/channel lookups per day

Data Available

Video Search

• Title, channel, channel ID, published date
• Description (first 300 chars), thumbnail URL
• Views, likes, comments count, duration

Video Details

• Full description, tags, category ID
• Duration, definition (HD/SD), has captions
• Topic categories (Wikipedia URLs)
• Views, likes, comments, favorites
• Top 10 relevant comments with likes

Channel Info

• Title, description, custom URL
• Subscriber count, video count, total views
• Country, published date, thumbnail

Authentication

API key only (read-only public data). No OAuth needed.

Enable the API

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com/apis/library (https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library)
2. Search for "YouTube Data API v3"
3. Click Enable

No billing required. The API key you already have for PSI/CrUX works.