Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, is a free tool provided by Google that helps website owners, webmasters, and digital marketers monitor and optimize their website’s performance in Google search results. It allows users to track website traffic, identify search queries that led to their website, monitor website errors and alerts, and access valuable data to improve their website’s search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience.
Google Search Console provides a range of features, including:
- Search Analytics: This feature provides website owners with insights into how their website is performing in Google search results. It shows the top search queries that led to clicks on the website, the pages that receive the most clicks, and the average position of the website’s pages in Google search results.
- Site Health: This feature allows users to monitor their website’s health and detect any issues that might affect their website’s performance in Google search results. It alerts users to any errors, such as broken links or missing pages, and provides suggestions for fixing them.
- Index Coverage: This feature provides information on how Google crawls and indexes the website’s pages. It shows the number of pages that are indexed, the pages that are not indexed, and any errors that might prevent Google from indexing the website’s pages.
- URL Inspection: This feature allows users to check the status of a specific URL on their website. It provides information on whether the URL is indexed in Google, whether it is blocked by robots.txt or other crawling restrictions, and any issues that might affect its visibility in Google search results.
This guide aims to provide you with the necessary information to effectively use Google Search Console for enhancing your website’s SEO.
Without further ado, let’s begin.
How to Set Up Google Search Console
To begin, access Search Console by signing in with your Google account. Once you log in, a pop-up will prompt you to add a property, which refers to your website, if it’s your first time accessing the platform.
You have two options here: add a domain or a URL prefix.
Add a Domain Property
For a more comprehensive overview of your website’s data, it’s recommended to add a domain property. This includes all URLs under your domain name, including subdomains and paths across all protocols.
To add a domain property, you’ll need to verify it through your DNS provider. The following steps outline the process:
- Select the “Domain” option and add your domain name without the “http/https” and “www” prefixes.
- For instance, if your domain is “https://www.yoursite.com,” enter “yoursite.com” in the provided field and click “CONTINUE.”
Then, copy the TXT record from the instructions dialog box. In a new tab, sign in to your account with your domain registrar and add this new record in the DNS Records section.
Go back to Search Console and click “Verify.”
Initially, you might encounter a message indicating that the ownership verification process has failed. In such cases, do not fret as it may take some time for DNS record changes to take effect.
It can take anywhere from a few hours to 48 hours for DNS changes to propagate. Therefore, wait for at least an hour and try to verify your ownership again by selecting your website from the properties list.
Once the verification is successful, you’ll receive a confirmation message that looks something like this:
Or Add a URL Prefix Property
Adding your site through the “URL prefix” option is useful when you want to view data for a specific section of your website, such as your blog.
To begin, enter your URL under the “URL prefix” option, then click “CONTINUE.” Let’s assume that your blog is located at “https://www.yoursite.com/blog/,” so you can use this URL.
Google allows multiple verification methods for a URL prefix:
- HTML file (recommended)
- HTML tag
- Google Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
- Domain name provider
Choose the most suitable or convenient option for you and perform all the necessary actions.
Once you complete this step, click “VERIFY” in Search Console.
Just like adding a domain property, there might be a waiting period for changes to take effect when adding a site via the “URL prefix” option.
If you are unable to verify your site immediately, you can try again later.
In Search Console, there are two roles available: owner and user. The permissions you have and the access you can get depend on your role.
Owners, Users, and Permissions
Let’s explore the different types of owners and users, as well as their corresponding permissions:
Owner: An owner has complete control over the property in Search Console. They can add or remove users, view all data, configure settings, and use all tools available in Search Console.
There are two types of owners who share the same permissions:
- Verified owner: This is a person who has verified ownership of the property through a verification token (such as an HTML file or tag).
- Delegated owner: This is a person who has been granted access to Search Console by a verified owner.
User: A user still has access to Search Console, but their permissions are more limited compared to owners.
- Full user: A full user has view rights to all data for a property and can take certain actions.
- Restricted user: A restricted user has limited access and may not be able to view all available data in an account.
In addition, associates are people who cannot open or view your Search Console account or data directly, but they can perform other tasks depending on the type of association.
If you’re the property owner, you have the authority to add new users and grant permissions accordingly.
To add a new user, navigate to “Settings” > “Users and permissions”.
And click “ADD USER”.
Enter the new user’s email address and select the access type. Then, click “ADD”.
The newly added user can now gain access to your property through Google Search Console.
How to Add a Sitemap to Google Search Console
A sitemap file contains all the URLs on your website that you want Google to crawl and index. This is crucial because Google needs to crawl and index your pages to rank them.
While Google will eventually crawl and index your site, submitting an XML sitemap directly through Google Search Console can expedite the process.
To submit your sitemap, navigate to “Sitemaps” on the sidebar and enter the sitemap URL in the designated field. Then click “Submit”.
After Google processes your sitemap, you’ll receive a message similar to this:
Google Search Console Reports and Features
Now that you have enabled Search Console for your website, added users, and submitted a sitemap to Google, it’s time to explore the various Search Console reports and features available to you.
Performance Report
To view data on how your website is performing on Google, you can use the “Performance” report. This report presents four metrics:
- Total clicks: The total number of times users clicked on your website from search results.
- Total impressions: The number of times your website appeared in search results.
- Average CTR (click-through rate): The percentage of impressions that led to a click.
- Average position: The average position of your website in search results.
To access this report, click on “Search results” under “Performance” in the sidebar navigation.
After the chart, there is a table displaying the queries, pages, countries, and devices that are generating traffic for your site. Additionally, there is information on page experience, and the number of clicks your site received by date.
The “Discover” and “Google News” reports are available in Search Console if your website is receiving traffic from these sources. These reports provide specific insights and data for these two segments.
URL Inspection Tool
The “URL inspection” tool is a helpful feature that allows you to verify the index status of a specific page on your website and resolve any issues that might be preventing the page from appearing in Google’s search results.
You can access the tool by clicking “URL inspection” on the navigation bar or from the top bar.
To check the index status of a page, enter the full URL in the inspect search box and click enter. The results will show the following information:
- Index status: whether or not the page is indexed by Google.
- Last crawl date: the date and time when Google last crawled the page.
- Mobile usability: whether the page meets Google’s mobile-friendly criteria.
- Structured data: whether the page includes structured data and any related issues.
You can also use the tool to test live URLs to see how the page appears to Googlebot. Click “TEST LIVE URL” at the top-right of the screen to use this feature.
Moreover, the URL inspection tool enables you to request indexing for new pages on your site, which can accelerate the indexing process. To do this, enter the full URL in the inspect search box, and click “REQUEST INDEXING“.
Page Indexing Report
Under the “Indexing” section, you can find the “Page indexing” report that displays which pages on your website are indexed by Google and any associated issues. It’s essential to ensure that your pages are indexed correctly to show up in search results.
To access the report, go to “Indexing” > “Pages” on the sidebar. The report consists of two tabs, one showing the number of indexed pages, and the other displaying the non-indexed ones.
If any of your pages aren’t indexed, you can check why by scrolling down the page.
There can be various reasons for pages not getting indexed, but the report can help you identify the cause. You can click on an entry from the “Reason” column to get a list of affected pages and a link to learn how to fix the issue.
Once you’ve implemented the fixes, you can click “VALIDATE FIX” to notify Google of the changes made and, hopefully, index the pages that weren’t indexed previously.
Sitemaps Report
To review the history of your sitemap submissions and any issues, go to the “Sitemaps” report from the sidebar.
The report shows you the URL, type, submission date, last crawl date, crawl status, and discovered pages of your sitemap.
Ensure that the “Status” column reads “Success” to confirm that your sitemap was processed successfully without errors.
If the status is “Has errors,” review the listed errors and follow Google’s guide to fix them.
If the status is “Couldn’t fetch,” use the “URL inspection” tool to perform a live URL test and investigate the errors.
Click on a specific sitemap submission to access a detailed report for that sitemap.
You can also click the “SEE PAGE INDEXING” button to check if all your sitemap pages are indexed.
Page Experience Report
The “Page Experience” report provides insights on a website’s user experience performance based on specific criteria, including Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, and HTTPS security.
To access the report, navigate to the “Page Experience” section in the sidebar. The results are categorized by mobile and desktop.
The percentage of “Good URLs” indicates the number of URLs that provide an optimal page experience for users. Check each report to identify any shortcomings.
For a detailed issues report, click on the numbers provided. I recommend to seek assistance from a developer to fix technical issues. (Unless you’re highly experienced in technical SEO.)
Once the issue has been resolved, click on “VALIDATE FIX” at the top of the error report to inform Google of the changes made.
Enhancements Report
The “Enhancements” report in Google Search Console provides information on any structured data detected on your website and identifies any issues that may be present. Structured data is an important tool that helps Google better understand the content on your page and can improve your page’s appearance in search results.
To access the “Enhancements” report, navigate to the “Enhancements” section in the sidebar. Here, you’ll find a list of the types of structured data detected by Google.
Clicking on a specific type will take you to the full report.
The report displays any “Invalid” items that may be present, and ideally, the number of invalid items should be zero. If any issues are identified, it’s important to fix them as soon as possible to ensure that the affected pages appear as rich results in search results.
Manual Actions Report
Google may issue a manual action to websites that violate its spam policies. Websites that receive manual actions, or penalties, may experience a significant drop in search engine rankings or may not appear in search results at all. This can result in a substantial loss of traffic.
To determine whether Google has imposed a manual action on your website, go to the “Manual actions” report in Search Console.
If the report indicates “No issues detected,” you do not need to take any further action. However, if the report shows “Issues detected,” you have a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
Links Report
In the “Links” report, you can monitor your website’s backlinks or external links. Backlinks refer to links from other domains that direct to your domain, and they significantly impact your Google rankings.
To access this report, go to “Links” in the sidebar menu.
The top section of the report displays the total number of backlinks to your site. Below that, you can view your most linked pages, along with the domains that link to your site and the most common anchor text used in the links.
Moreover, the “Links” report provides information on internal links, which are links from pages within your domain. Internal links are essential for SEO because they improve navigation and distribute authority among your pages, which can improve their ranking.
You can find details on your internal links on the right side of the report, including the total number of internal links and your most linked pages.
Shopping Report
The “Shopping” report is designed for online stores and product review websites that have implemented product markup on their webpages. It provides information on any issues related to your product-related structured data.
Depending on what type of structured data Google identifies on your site, you may see a combination of the following reports:
- Product snippets: detects structured data issues for product snippets in search results.
- Merchant listings: detects structured data issues for free listings across Google.
- Shopping tab listings: detects structured data issues for items that appear in the Shopping tab in Google Search results.
To access a specific report, simply click on it from the sidebar.
If there are “Invalid” items in the report, the affected pages won’t appear as rich results on Google. Therefore, it’s crucial to review the “Invalid” items to identify the errors present.
Once you’ve fixed the issues, use Google’s Rich Results Test to verify your structured data code. This tool will let you know if your new code is working and if your entry is eligible for a rich result.
AMP Report
The AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) framework is a tool that developers use to create fast-loading webpages with minimal HTML. If your website uses AMP, Google will generate a report in Search Console that lists any issues preventing Google from indexing your AMP pages.
To access the report, navigate to “AMP” in the sidebar. The report is divided into two categories: “Valid pages” and “Invalid pages.” Valid pages are free from AMP-related issues and can appear in search results. Invalid pages have issues that prevent them from appearing in search results.
You can view the list of issues with your AMP pages by scrolling down the report. Fix each issue to make your AMP pages eligible to appear in search results. If you’re not experienced in this area, we suggest seeking help from a developer.
Once you’ve resolved the issues, click “VALIDATE FIX” to request that Google confirms your fixes.