New Node for Querying Google Search Console Data

Hi KNIME Community :wave:

We are two students excited to share a project we’ve been working on: Inspired by Vitus’s Bachelor Thesis, we developed an extension that allows you to seamlessly retrieve data from the Google Search Console, opening the door to streamlined web analytics directly within KNIME AP.

The Google Search Console is a vital cornerstone for analyzing SEO performance, and using it within your workflows just got a lot easier. Say goodbye to Google’s web interface’s 1,000-row limit: our extension lets you fetch up to 100,000 rows in one go!

The extension currently includes two nodes:

  • Authenticator Node: Takes care of all the credential setup
  • Query Node : Fetches the actual data from the Google Search Console

And there’s more to come! We’re working on a URL Inspection Node , which is almost ready to roll out.

We’d love for you to try it and share your thoughts! You can learn more about the extension and how to install it at https://searchanalyticsnode.com/

Why didn’t we use KNIME’s Google Authenticator node?
We started with KNIME’s integrated Google Authenticator node during our initial tests. However, we quickly realized that using it for our extension required users to go through a rather complex setup:
Specifically, the necessary scopes for accessing the Google Search Console API are not enabled for KNIME’s Google account within the Google Cloud Console. This would mean users would have to enable the API manually, set up OAuth, download a client secrets file, and add it themselves—something we felt was too complicated and not user-friendly. We aimed to simplify the process by creating our own lightweight Authenticator node.

Why didn’t we release the extension to the KNIME Community Hub?
We recognize the benefits of releasing our extension to the KNIME Community Hub but chose a different path for the initial release. This way, we have more control over the release cycle and can roll out fixes and new features faster. Also, according to the docs, Python-based extensions are only released to the nightly experimental update site (which is off by default). In the future, we may add it to the Hub if time permits.

Let’s take the SEO game to the next level!
Vitus & Lorenz

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