Add annotations and events

What appears in Events

The Events timeline combines manual notes with Google updates and opportunity milestones. When Annotations are enabled above a chart, events inside the active date range appear as markers. Select Events to review the full timeline.

Note

A manual event created by you, such as a content update, migration, campaign, technical change, or experiment.

Google update

A system-provided Google update marker that helps line up known updates with your data.

Opportunity

A milestone associated with the opportunity workflow.

Add a note

1. 1

   Open Events

   From a Search performance or GA4 chart, select Events.
2. 2

   Select Add note

   The timeline switches to a short event form.
3. 3

   Enter a clear title

   Use the thing that changed, such as “Rewrote pricing page title” rather than “SEO update”.
4. 4

   Choose the date

   Add an optional end date for migrations, campaigns, or experiments that span several days.
5. 5

   Choose a category and add details

   Explain why the change was made and what pages or assumptions were involved.
6. 6

   Save

   The note appears in the timeline and on charts whose date range includes it.

Edit, delete, or hide annotations

• Select Edit beside one of your notes to change its title, dates, category, or details.
• Select the trash icon and confirm Delete to remove a manual note.
• Only a manual note you created offers edit and delete controls. System events and another user’s notes are read-only.
• Turn Annotations off above the chart to hide markers without deleting any events.
• Changing the chart date range changes which markers are visible, but the full event remains saved.

Use events to explain a change

1. Open an unfiltered 90-day Search performance view and locate the date movement began.
2. Open Events and check for a note, Google update, or opportunity milestone near that date.
3. Add a Page filter for the URL affected by the event.
4. Compare the page’s Queries before deciding that the event caused the movement.
5. If GA4 is linked, check sessions and key events for the same page and period.