Google Search Console is a bundle of tools designed to help web developers, owners, designers, marketers, and SEOs to monitor their site performance in search results. It is a free tool that gives an idea of how Google views your website. If necessary, you can optimize your site's organic presence.
Google bots view your target search results, responsive site performance, referring domains, and webpages with the highest traffic. SEO experts even check website performance at a micro and macro level. Google suggests that everyone including a content strategist, SEO expert, business owner, web/app developer, or site administrator must use Search Console, as it is handy.
When you open Google Search Console, there are loads of labels, confusing graphs, and hidden filters, which can be overwhelming. Fortunately, in this beginner's guide, let’s get to know Google Search Console [GSC] in detail.
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Add your website to GSC
If you have a business website, then ensure to sign in to your Google account using it and not the personal one.
- Sign in to your Google account
- On Google Webmaster Tools, click on ‘Add a Property.’
- From the drop-down menu, choose ‘Website.’ Enter your website’s URL - double-check it.
- Click on ‘Continue.’
- Confirm that the website URL belongs to you. Choose a way from the following - domain name provider, HTML file upload, GA tracking code, HRML Tag, or the GTM container snippet.
- If your website supports both versions http:// and https://, then add both as separate websites. Add each one's domain.
As soon as you add your website to GSC, Google will start tracking data for your asset even before it verifies you are the website owner.
Important Note: Mastering Google search console is important to become good at search engine optimization.
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Why and how to verify your site or app ownership on GSC?
GSC offers access to a website’s or app’s confidential information associated with its performance. So, it is necessary to confirm your app or site ownership. It offers exceptional user control across a particular property. Remember, not verifying will not impact your Google search performance or PageRank. Nevertheless, GSC data can be used to strategize how to rank top on SERPs.
GSC owners, users, and permissions
- The owner has total control over the apps or sites they added in GSC. There is a verified owner and a delegated owner [added by verified one]. The owners can add or remove users, see every data, change the setting, and gain access to every tool.
- Users can view all the data but cannot add new users. There are full users with permission to take some actions and restricted users who can view data only.
Consider giving permissions or accessibility to anyone cautiously. You don’t desire to experience an accidental change in crucial settings. Give team members the authority they need!
Is a sitemap necessary?
The sitemap doesn’t show up in the SERPs, but in certain conditions, a sitemap helps the Google bots crawl easily.
- When your site has many web pages or is big.
- A webpage with few inbound links is hard to discover.
- New websites have few backlinks, so they are less discoverable.
- Your site uses rich media content, so a sitemap makes it easy for the bots to read and display in SERPs.
GSC terminology
- The query is a search term responsible for generating impressions of a webpage on Google SERP.
- An impression occurs every time a URL appears in SERP.
- Click is counted when seekers click on a website URL that directs them outside Google Search. Even if the user hit the back button and clicks the same link again, it is counted as a single click.
- The average position is the mean webpage ranking for search query/s.
- Click-through-rate or CTR is equivalent to clicks/impressionsX100. For example, if content shows 30 searches and generates ten clicks then CTR 10/30x100 = 33%
Filtering GSC features
- Search type - web, image & video.
- Data range - Currently offers 16 months of data.
- New data filter - Query, Page, Country, Search appearance, and Device.
- Index coverage report - Shows every page’s index status with statuses like error, warning, excluded, and if it is indexed, there is no mention of issues in the report.
- Submitted sitemap - It is an area where you submitted your sitemap to Google, and now you can monitor its status.
How to properly use Google Search Console?
Google Search Console can be used in many ways, so let’s get to know them better.
Identify the highest traffic pages
- Click on Performance.
- Click on Page [beside Queries] tab.
- Change the date range by clicking on ‘Last 12 months.’
- Ensure to choose ‘Total Clicks.’
- Click the downward arrow to refine the search from the dropdown menu from highest to lowest.
Identify the highest CTR queries
- Click on Performance.
- Click on Page [beside Queries] tab
- Change the date range by clicking on ‘Last 12 months.’
- Ensure to choose ‘Average CTR.’
- Click the downward arrow to refine the search from the dropdown menu from highest to lowest.
Check CTR and Impressions in tandem because the CTR can be high but impression low and vice versa. You need both data points to gain the entire picture.
Regular CTR monitoring
CTR monitoring is highly recommended. Any movement is crucial. For example, if there is a drop in average CTR, but impressions have risen, you are just ranking for keywords
On the other hand, if your average CTR has intensified and impressions have declined, then you are losing keywords. If both impressions and CTR have escalated, then you are doing right.
Identify the highest ranking page
- Click on Performance.
- Click on Page [beside Queries] tab.
- Change the date range by clicking on ‘Last 28 days.’
- Ensure to choose ‘Average Position.’
- Click the downward arrow to refine the search from the dropdown menu from smallest to highest.
Again –
- Click on Performance.
- Click on Page [beside Queries] tab.
- Change the date range by clicking on ‘Last 28 days.’
- Ensure to choose ‘Average Position.’
- Click the downward arrow to refine the search from the dropdown menu from highest to lowest.
Remember not to judge the failure or success of a webpage only by ‘average position’.
Identify ranking increase & decrease
- Click on Performance.
- Click on the Query tab.
- Change dates on ‘Date Range’ and choose the ‘Compare’ tab.
- Choose two equivalent dates, then click ‘Apply’.
Export this GSC data for in-depth analysis to Google Sheets by clicking on the down arrow under ‘Search Appearance.’ After having the data on the spreadsheet, add a column for position difference and sort by size. A positive difference means the site has surged for that query and vice versa.
Compare site performance across countries
- Click on Performance.
- Go to ‘Countries’.
- Ensure to choose ‘Total impressions’, ‘Total clicks,’ ‘Average Position’, and ‘Average CTR.’
- Compare the site performance across different countries.
Compare site performance across different devices.
- Click on Performance.
- Go to ‘Device’.
- Compare the site performance across mobile, desktop, and tablet.
Index coverage
- Visit ‘Overview.’
- Scroll down to ‘Index coverage summary.’
- Change dates on ‘Date Range’ and choose the ‘Compare’ tab.
- Check the ‘Valid Pages’ count.
To check which pages are not indexed and for what reason –
- Overview > Index Coverage.
- Scroll to ‘Details Box’ and learn about errors causing indexing dilemmas.
- Double click on ‘Error type’ to check the URLs not indexed, why, and how frequently.
Create alerts for index page monitoring
- Overview > Index Coverage.
- Ensure to choose ‘Error,’ ‘Valid,’ ‘Valid with Warning,’ and ‘Excluded’ options.
If indexing errors significantly increase, then a tweak in the site template may be the issue. You may have submitted a website sitemap, so Google finds it hard to crawl.
If index pages' total number declines without any increase in errors, then the hindrance to accessing a webpage is from your website. Try to find the problem in the excluded pages to fix it!
Identify mobile usability problemse
- Click on ‘Mobile Usability.’
- Ensure to choose ‘Error.’
- Scroll down to the Details box and learn the Error type causing mobile usability problems.
Total website backlinks
- Click on Links.
- Open ‘Top Linked Pages report.’
- Check the box ‘Total External links.’
Create alerts for index page monitoring
- Overview > Index Coverage.
- Ensure to choose ‘Error,’ ‘Valid,’ ‘Valid with Warning,’ and ‘Excluded’ options.
- Click on the downward arrow beside ‘Incoming links’ and sort from the ‘highest to lowest.’
Backlinks can be assumed as a confidence vote, which Google previews that your website content is valuable and credible. Remembers, more links are better, but even the quality of those links matters. A single link from an authorized and established website is more valuable than five links from low-authority domains. Double-click on the URL to see which sites are linking.
Find & fix AMP errors
- Click on AMP.
- Ensure to choose ‘Error.’
- Scroll down to “details’ and see the error type.
Fix it before you check web pages in the ‘Valid with warning’ option. Errors get ranked by frequency, severity, and if they are fixed, not by default.
Until now, you got an idea about the potential of the Google Search Console tool and how to use it. Even if there is a website security issue, the tool sends an alert!
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