Understand the metrics and readiness states Home actually shows
Scope before number
State before interpretation
Owner before action
Read Home metrics as links into owned evidence
Home does not create a universal SEO dataset. It projects a bounded selection of domain snapshots, keyword counters, list tracking, schedule tracking, competitor catalogue rows, opportunity evaluations, and Site Audit runs. Similar-looking figures can therefore differ in source, denominator, market, date, and update path.
Use a metric to choose an investigation, not to close one. The detailed feature owns filters, limits, missing states, history, costs, and the records behind the summary. If the decision needs a complete set or an externally defensible definition, open that owner before copying the number.
The keyword snapshot is split across several visible areas
There is no single keyword-metrics card on the current Home screen. Keywords collected in the domain band comes from the materialized workspace record counter. The average-position cell can use the selected list's tracking dashboard and fall back to the newest active schedule overview. What moved uses the selected list's winner and loser rows. The opportunity count is separately evaluated across the workspace.
Changing the list in What moved changes the primary list context used by the relevant list aggregation and tracking query. By default, Home chooses the largest list among the bounded list set it loaded. This can change movement rows, the strongest list loss, and list-based average-position context. It does not rewrite stored keywords or tracking history, and it does not change the workspace-wide opportunity denominator.
| Visible signal | Scope |
|---|---|
| Keywords collected | All normalized records represented by the workspace counter |
| Average position in the band | Latest known selected-list tracking average, with active-schedule fallback when needed |
| Biggest gains and losses | Up to five rows per side from the selected list tracking result |
| Opportunities | Critical and high priority results from the workspace opportunity evaluation |
| Your rankings | Newest active schedule, independent of the list selector in the movers panel |
Distinguish selected-list movers from the schedule chart
The movers panel and rankings panel can legitimately disagree because they do not promise the same cohort. Movers use the selected keyword-list dashboard. They show at most five strongest gains and five strongest losses, with previous rank, current rank, and delta. The setup state remains until comparable movement exists, usually requiring at least two measurements.
The rankings panel uses the newest active tracking schedule. It can represent another list or individually picked keywords. Its line uses measured average position over time and inverts the vertical meaning so a visually rising line represents a better, lower numerical rank. Its band shows the latest distribution across Top 3, Top 10, Top 20, Top 100, and not ranking.
Read schedule context before the rankings chart
The footer names the schedule or picked-keyword cohort, available keyword count, cadence, and how many additional active schedules exist. It also shows the latest run date and, where requested and fetched counts exist, the fetched share of that run. A coverage percentage is not a ranking score and does not say why some keywords lacked results.
No tracking active means Home found no active schedule for this panel. No trend yet means fewer than two usable average-position points. A zero-count distribution can remain hidden. None of these states proves that the domain has no organic rankings outside the configured measurement contract.
The competitor panel is a bounded catalogue view
The panel combines domains deliberately tracked by the workspace, confirmed competitor catalogue rows, and the strongest domains found in stored SERP evidence. Measured rows appear before unmeasured rows, and the final display is capped. A confirmed dot means a person selected or confirmed the domain. It does not prove commercial competition.
For each visible domain, Keywords counts distinct workspace terms where the domain ranks organically, Top 10 counts those with a best rank at or above position 10, and Avg. position is the mean of the per-keyword best positions. The small bar is Top 10 divided by measured keyword count. It is not the broader CTR-weighted Visibility metric.
- A dash means these catalogue measurements are unavailable, not measured zero.
- Tracked domains can appear without measurements because user curation and SERP materialization are separate.
- The visible head is not the full competitor universe or a complete export.
- Open Competitive Research to review overlap, gap fields, evidence date, market, and the complete supported set.
The Site Audit card uses the primary site and a usable completed run
Home reads one primary active Site Audit site. It looks for a recent completed run owned by the same workspace and organization, preferring the appropriate completed stage when available. Without that run, the card stays in setup even if a site record exists or another run is queued, running, partial, failed, or outside the bounded read.
The populated card shows the dashboard Site Health heuristic, error, warning, and notice groups, frequent issue series, and a crawl line with run date and crawled URL count. Errors combine critical and high findings, warnings use medium, and notices combine low and informational findings. A frequent-issue count can carry a lower-bound marker when the source series was capped.
Site Health and issue counts answer different questions
Issue counts state how many findings the completed crawl recorded under its configuration. Site Health applies a dashboard formula to severity counts per crawled URL. Critical, high, medium, and low findings receive different bounded penalty weights; informational findings receive no penalty. The result is rounded and clamped from 0 to 100.
A high score can coexist with an issue that matters to one important template. A lower score can come from a broader crawl, more discovered URLs, or changed classification. The score does not measure Google performance or business impact. Open the run, affected URLs, issue definition, and crawl settings before prioritizing a fix or comparing two scores.
There is no all-tool readiness matrix on the current Home screen
The consolidated Home query can derive ready or empty summaries for Domain Overview, the Keyword Database, Site Audit, Position Tracking, Competitive Research, Keyword Research, and Activity. The current interface does not render those seven summaries as seven cards. Most tools already have a visible owner area elsewhere on Home. The footer deliberately allow-lists only Activity as a compact tool link.
Backend ready means that the summary reader found the minimum stored result for that tool. Empty means no such result was found. A tool the role cannot access is omitted before it reaches the client. These states do not prove freshness, completeness, success, balance settlement, or availability of every subfeature.
| Tool summary | Minimum evidence behind ready |
|---|---|
| Domain Overview | A usable completed or partial snapshot carrying organic evidence |
| Keyword Database | A materialized workspace keyword total greater than zero |
| Site Audit | A primary site with a usable completed crawl and summary context |
| Position Tracking | At least one stored tracking run, even though active schedules are read separately |
| Competitive Research | At least one discovered, confirmed, or deliberately tracked domain |
| Keyword Research | At least one stored keyword-discovery run in the bounded scan |
| Activity | At least one keyword activity event; Home shows a date, not the event timeline |
Read unknown, zero, capped, and stale separately
Null values render as setup invitations or dashes where the interface supports them. Measured zero can be valid for an opportunity count, severity bucket, issue count, or distribution band. A plus marker on a summary count indicates a lower bound because the read reached its configured cap. An old date is still a stored observation, but it may no longer be suitable for the current decision.
Do not normalize these states into one spreadsheet zero. Keep a state field or note alongside the number. If Home does not expose enough context to distinguish them, the owning feature is the required next step.
Expect display and read limits
Home limits keyword lists, competitor candidates, displayed competitors, active schedules, Site Audit sites and runs, issue series, chart points, mover rows, and recommendations. Some reads use materialized counters, while others inspect a bounded newest-first window. A relevant older record can therefore sit outside the briefing even though it remains available in the owning feature.
The dashboard is optimized for frequent orientation, not exhaustive reporting. Never use a visible row count as proof of a total unless the field contract explicitly says it is a materialized total and no cap marker applies.