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Do you know how Important Google Search Console (GSC) is for your website? No? Let me help you. Imagine a blind person who relies on a help dog to travel around the market. Now, you know how important that dog is for that blind person, right? Now, what that dog is to the blind man, Google Search Console is, for a website. Still, having trouble?
Imagine Google as a giant library. Enticing? Now, Google Search Console is your pass to understanding how Google sees your website within this huge library. How does this pass benefit you tho? It’s like having a direct line to the librarian who can tell you what books (web pages) are on the shelves, where they’re placed, and if there are any issues preventing readers (searchers) from finding them.
In essence, Google Search Console empowers you to monitor, optimize, and troubleshoot your website’s search engine performance. While optional, I recommend, everybody who wishes to top the search rankings, head there, like IMMEDIATELY!!!
What are the Advantages of Using Google Search Console?
- Free: YES!!! It’s a free tool from Google.
- Direct Communication: It’s like communicating directly with Google about your website’s performance.
- Problem Solver: Yes, you heard it right, GSC helps identify & fix issues that prevent your website from getting indexed & ranked on SERPs.
- Performance Insights: GSC gives you a detailed analysis of how your website is performing in search results.
- Keyword Research: Gives you insights about what people are searching for related to your website.
Hot Tip: You may benefit from reading about the latest Google algorithm updates; a crackdown on spam content & poor backlinks.
What are the Limitations of Using Google Search Console?
- Steep Learning Curve: It takes time, my friend. It can be complex to understand at first.
- Data Delays: Sometimes, GSC takes time to update its data library.
- Limited Keyword Data: GSC doesn’t provide much information on keyword data like Semrush.
- Traffic Insights: GSC doesn’t show you the website’s overall traffic, only traffic from Google Search.
Ready to start? Now, let’s talk about how you can set up Google Search Console for your website & start taking actionable decisions that are in the best interest of your website.
How to Set Up Google Search Console?
Step 1: Sign in to Google Search Console
- Go to Google Search Console.
- Sign in with your Google account.
Step 2: Add Your Property
- Click on “Start now”
- Click on the “Add a new property” button in the upper left corner of the dashboard.
- Choose property type: Select either “Domain” (recommended for complete data across all subdomains) or “URL prefix” (for a specific URL).
Step 3: Verify Ownership
- Domain Verification:
- Select either TXT record or CNAME.
- Copy the TXT record/CNAME: You’ll be given a TXT record/CNAME to add to your domain’s DNS settings.
- Add the TXT record/CNAME to your domain: Login to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Hostinger) and add the TXT record/CNAME to your DNS settings.
- Return to Search Console and click the “Verify” button.
- URL Prefix Verification:
- HTML file upload: Download the HTML file provided and upload it to the root directory of your website.
- HTML tag: Add a meta tag to your site’s home page.
- Google Analytics: Use your existing Google Analytics account for verification.
- Google Tag Manager: Use your existing Google Tag Manager account for verification.
- Domain name provider: Add a TXT record/CNAME to your DNS settings.
- After completing one of the methods, click the “Verify” button.
Step 4: Submit Your Sitemap
- On the left-hand menu, click on “Sitemaps.”
- In the “Add a new sitemap” field, enter the URL of your sitemap (e.g.,
https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml). - Click “Submit.”
Step 5: Monitor and Optimize
- Check your dashboard: Review your site’s performance, coverage, and enhancement reports.
- Fix issues: Address any coverage issues or errors reported by Google.
- Use enhancement tools: Optimize your site using the various enhancement tools provided, such as Mobile Usability and Core Web Vitals.
Pretty easy, right? By following these few simple steps, you can set up Google Search Console to monitor and improve your website’s performance in Google Search results effectively.
Now, we know how to set up Google Search Console & submit a sitemap. BUT…What next? Now, let’s explore the different sections & features of the GSC.
A Deep Dive into Google Search Console Sections & Features
Performance
- Overview: This section provides a dynamic view of your website’s performance in the search results. It displays 4 metrics majorly; clicks, impressions, average position, and click-through rate (CTR) with a date & calendar filter.
- Clicks: The number of times people clicked on your website.
- Impressions: The number of times your website appeared in search results.
- Average Position: Your website’s average position in search results.
- Search Queries: Talks about what search terms & keywords led users to your website. You can even identify high-performing keywords, & pick up a long-tail SEO strategy in the process.
- Pages: Tell us which pages on the website are getting the most clicks and impressions, meaning, the most engagement & visibility. This helps identify popular content & potential areas for improvement.
- Countries: Shows the geographic locations or the origin of your search traffic.
- Devices: This tab shows how your website performs across different devices (desktop, mobile, tablet).
Indexing
- Overview: Provides detailed information about which pages Google has indexed and any issues preventing any of the pages from getting indexed.
- Pages: Shows the number of pages Google has indexed/not indexed.
- Removals: You can submit a request to remove URLs from the Google index if you have to.
- Sitemaps: Submit your website’s sitemap to Google for faster indexing.
Experience
- Core Web Vitals: Displays information about your website’s performance in terms of loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.
- HTTPS: Tells you which pages have HTTPS.
Additional Features
- Inspect any URL: This allows you to check the status of a specific URL in Google’s index.
- Test live URL: Checks the current status of the page.
- Breadcrumbs: Tells you which rich results Google found in your property, and whether or not they could be read.
- Manual Actions: Tells you if the website has any manual actions that might prevent it from getting indexed.
- Links: Shows you which sites have a backlink to yours, and what anchor text they use.
At the end of this section, now we are aware of what GSC is, how it works, the pros & cons of GSC, how to set it up & what are the different sections. Still, the question remains, How does it help SEO? That’s the goal, right? Let’s see;
How does Google Search Console boost SEO?
- Performance Monitoring:
- You can track clicks, impressions, & average position for target keywords & landing pages.
- You can find top-performing queries and pages to optimize further.
- It helps you understand search behaviour & user intent.
- Keyword Research:
- Shows actual search terms users are searching for.
- Helps you find long-tail keywords with huge potential.
- Provides insights into keyword analysis & research.
- Indexation:
- It helps you monitor website indexing status & identifies crawling errors.
- Allows sitemaps submission to expedite indexing.
- It helps you index URLs on priority.
- Technical SEO Troubleshooting:
- Detects & resolves crawl errors.
- Identifies & shows mobile-friendliness problems.
- Provides data to improve website speed and performance.
- User Experience Insights:
- Helps you track click-through rates (CTR) to assess relevance.
- It can tell you about the pages with high bounce rates.
- Provides accurate data like no other tool to enhance user experience & engagement.
- Rich Results & Schema:
- It monitors the performance of rich snippets & schema implementation.
- GSC improves visibility in search results.
- Manual Actions & Security Issues:
- Send you notifications about penalties & security breaches.
- Provides insights into corrective actions to regain search engine trust.
- Backlink Analysis:
- Provides a list of referring domains & top linking pages.
- Assesses backlink quality & potential issues.
- Allows you to manage link profiles & disavow toxic links.
A point just came up over here, “Backlink Analysis”, & reading about Parasite SEO; a link-building strategy might help you understand the intricacies of backlinks in a better way.
By effectively utilizing Google Search Console, SEO professionals can gain valuable insights, optimize website performance, and improve search engine visibility in no time. RUN! NOW!!
FAQs About Google Search Console
What is the role of Google Search Console in international SEO?
GSC helps you monitor performance across different countries & languages. Additionally, It helps identify hreflang issues & implement corrections as well. Based on geographical targeting analysis, you can make adjustments as needed.
How can Google Search Console help with voice search optimization?
It can help you analyze search queries to identify conversational language & optimize content for featured snippets & answer boxes.
How can Google Search Console be used to monitor local SEO performance?
GSC is not a dedicated local SEO tool, however, GSC offers a search query report that can reveal local search terms & the performance report can show how well local listings are doing.
Is Google Search Console free to use?
Yes, Google Search Console is a completely free tool available to any website owner. You only need a Google account to access and use it.
Final Words
You are here! What does that mean? You now know almost everything about GSC & why I call Google Search Console, a website’s best friend. GSC is not just another tool, but a powerhouse of insights, knowledge & data that, when used effectively, can ramp up your website traffic in the direction of your choosing. Right from website performance to core web vitals, it presents almost everything an SEO expert would need to plan an effective SEO strategy.
You tell us more about Google Search Console & brownie points for those who bring something nobody knows. Hit the comments section & bring it on. PS: Do not forget to subscribe to Brandbhasha.
