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

Tier	Detection	Available Commands
0 (API Key)	api_key present	pagespeed, crux, crux-history, youtube, nlp
1 (OAuth/SA)	+ OAuth token or service account	Tier 0 + gsc, inspect, sitemaps, index
2 (Full)	+ ga4_property_id configured	Tier 1 + ga4, ga4-pages
3 (Ads)	+ ads_developer_token + ads_customer_id	Tier 2 + keywords, volume

Always communicate the detected tier before running commands.

Quick Reference

Command	What it does	Tier
/seo google setup	Check/configure API credentials	--
/seo google pagespeed <url>	PSI Lighthouse + CrUX field data	0
/seo google crux <url>	CrUX field data only (p75 metrics)	0
/seo google crux-history <url>	25-week CWV trend analysis	0
/seo google gsc <property>	Search Console: clicks, impressions, CTR, position	1
/seo google inspect <url>	URL Inspection: index status, canonical, crawl info	1
/seo google inspect-batch <file>	Batch URL Inspection from file	1
/seo google sitemaps <property>	GSC sitemap status	1
/seo google index <url>	Submit URL to Indexing API	1
/seo google index-batch <file>	Batch submit up to 200 URLs	1
/seo google ga4 [property-id]	GA4 organic traffic report	2
/seo google ga4-pages [property-id]	Top organic landing pages	2
/seo google youtube <query>	YouTube video search (views, likes, duration)	0
/seo google youtube-video <id>	YouTube video details + top comments	0
/seo google nlp <url-or-text>	NLP entity extraction + sentiment + classification	0
/seo google entities <url-or-text>	Entity analysis only (for E-E-A-T)	0
/seo google keywords <seed>	Keyword ideas from Google Ads Keyword Planner	3
/seo google volume <keywords>	Search volume lookup from Keyword Planner	3
/seo google entity <query>	Knowledge Graph entity check	0
/seo google safety <url>	Web Risk URL safety check	0
/seo google quotas	Show rate limits for all APIs	--

---

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.

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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

Type	Input	Output
cwv-audit	PSI + CrUX + CrUX History data	Core Web Vitals audit with gauges, timelines, distributions
gsc-performance	GSC query data	Search Console report with query tables, quick wins
indexation	Batch inspection data	Indexation status with coverage donut chart
full	All data combined	Comprehensive Google SEO report (all sections)

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

API	Per-Minute	Per-Day	Auth
PSI v5	240 QPM	25,000 QPD	API Key
CrUX + History	150 QPM (shared)	Unlimited	API Key
GSC Search Analytics	1,200 QPM/site	30M QPD	Service Account
GSC URL Inspection	600 QPM	2,000 QPD/site	Service Account
Indexing API	380 RPM	200 publish/day	Service Account
GA4 Data API	10 concurrent	~25K tokens/day	Service Account

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

Scenario	Action
No credentials configured	Run /seo google setup. List Tier 0 commands that work with just an API key.
Service account lacks GSC access	Report error. Instruct: add client_email to GSC > Settings > Users > Add.
CrUX data unavailable (404)	Report insufficient Chrome traffic. Suggest PSI lab data as fallback.
GA4 property not found	Report error. Show how to find property ID in GA4 Admin > Property Details.
Indexing API quota exceeded	Report 200/day limit. Suggest prioritizing most important URLs.
Rate limit (429)	Wait and retry with exponential backoff. Report which API hit the limit.