What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that assists you in keeping track of, maintaining, and troubleshooting the visibility of your website in Google Search results. In addition to other things, you can use it to upload and check a sitemap, see which keywords are ranking, and get comprehensive reports on how your page shows in search results.
Sections of Google Search Console
Google Search Console is divided into several sections. The main sections are:
Overview
The Overview section of this tool provides information on clicks, impressions, average position, and click-through rate in addition to providing an overview of the indexing state of your website.
Performance
You can examine information on your website’s historical performance in Google’s search results in the Performance section of this tool. Data on click-through rate, impressions, and location are also available.
Media
You can view errors and cautions pertaining to the indexability of your website in the Coverage area. Additionally, it displays the number of valid and excluded sites as well as the quantity of pages that contain errors or warnings.
Website Verification
You can check each URL on your website to see if it has been indexed using the URL Inspection area of this tool.
Enhancement Reports
The Enhancement Reports section provides data on structured data, AMP pages, and other optimizations.
Setting Up an Account
You must register for an account in order to use Google Search Dashboard. You must first confirm that your website is actually yours to do this. You can accomplish this by adding a meta tag to your website, connecting to your Google Analytics account, or uploading an HTML file. You will have access to Google Search Console’s major features once you have proved that you are the rightful owner of your website.
Add to Yoast SEO
You can include your Google Search Console account in the Yoast SEO tool if you use WordPress. You’ll be able to do this to examine Google Search Console data right in your WordPress dashboard.
Features in Google Search Console
Performance Tab
Website owners can monitor their website’s performance in Google searches with the assistance of the Performance tab in Google Search Console. It offers information on impressions, clicks, average CTR, average location, and other things. This information can be used to spot patterns in both the frequency with which your website shows in search results and the effectiveness of those appearances. This can assist website proprietors in determining areas for enhancement and in content optimization for improved Google search results.
Indexing
Website proprietors can get useful information from Google Search Console about how their website is being indexed. The Index Coverage report reveals to website owners which of their sites have and have not been indexed by Google. Pages with errors, names and descriptions that are identical, and pages that are prevented from being indexed are all things to watch out for.
URL Inspection
Website owners can check the status of specific URLs on their websites’ indexing with the assistance of the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. They can use it to find mistakes, such as pages that are blocked from indexing, and to offer ideas for how to make indexing better.
Experience
Moreover, Google Search Console offers information on how users interact with a website. Information about mobile friendliness, website performance, and secure browsing is included. With the aid of this information, website owners may pinpoint areas for enhancement and improve user experience.
Mobile Usability
The Google Search Console’s Mobile Usability report aids website owners in locating problems that may hinder their site’s usability on mobile devices. Text that is difficult to see, touch elements that are too close together, and material that is wider than the screen are examples of this.
Enhancements: Rich Results
Rich results are search results with extra information like ratings, photos, and videos. You may use Google Search Console to find problems that could keep your website from qualifying for rich results. This covers issues including missing or incorrect structured data characteristics and non-indexable material.
Sitemaps
The sitemaps that website owners upload to Google using Google Search Console are indexed more quickly by Google. Also, it offers information on the amount of indexed URLs, sitemap issues, and other things.
Shopping
Product feeds can be submitted to Google Shopping via Google Search Console. The ability to display their products in Google Shopping search results is made possible by this.
Links
Owners of websites can analyse the links pointing to them with the use of Google Search Console. This includes information on the amount of links, the websites that link to it the most, and any links that are deemed to be suspicious or out of the ordinary.
Manual Actions
Website owners can locate any manual actions Google has performed against their site by looking at the Manual Actions report in Google Search Console. Unnatural linkages, cloaking, and concealed text are examples of this.
Security Issues
A website’s security vulnerabilities can be tracked using Google Search Console. Malware, Phishing, and unwanted downloads are examples of this. Moreover, it can be used to spot compromised pages.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Google Search Console is a crucial tool for website owners since it gives them information and insights on how well their website performs in Google searches and offers advice on how to do so. No website owner should be without this tool.
