Google Search Console, step by step

Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website performs in Google Search: which searches show your pages, how often people click and whether Google can find and read your pages. This lesson takes you through it step by step, from adding your site to a ten-minute monthly check.

What Search Console is for

Google describes Search Console as a tool that can help anyone with a website understand how they are performing on Google Search. It reports on how Google crawls, indexes and serves your site. In plain words, Google sends a program to visit your pages, adds what it finds to its index, and then decides which pages to show for each search. Search Console shows you what happened at each of those steps.

It answers questions that no other tool can. Which searches brought people to your site? Are my important pages in Google at all? Did Google find a problem? Is there a message from Google I should read?

Search Console and Google Analytics are different tools

Search Console reports what happens before the click, inside Google Search. Google Analytics, from lesson 10-1, reports what people do after they arrive on your site. You need both to see the whole path: Search Console shows how people find you, and Analytics shows what they do next. Their numbers will not match exactly, because they count different things.

How to start in nine steps

1. Sign in with a Google account you will keep. Use a business account that you control. If the person who set it up leaves, you do not want to lose the history.
2. Add your site as a property. You will choose between a Domain property and a URL-prefix property. The next section explains the difference.
3. Verify that you own the site. Google asks for proof before it shows you any data. The options are below.
4. Leave the verification in place. Do not remove it after it works.
5. Consider submitting a sitemap. It is optional, and it is explained later in this lesson.
6. Open the Page indexing report. Check that your important pages are in Google.
7. Inspect one page. Use the URL Inspection tool on your home page and one service page.
8. Open the Performance report. Look at your queries and your pages.
9. Set a monthly check. Google suggests looking around once a month, and also after you change your content.

Search Console needs some time to fill with data after you verify. Google does not give a fixed timeframe, so come back in a few days.

Domain property or URL-prefix property

When you add a site, Search Console offers two kinds of property.

• Domain property. You enter only the domain, for example your business name followed by .com. It includes the data for every protocol (http and https) and every subdomain of your site. Google says the only way to verify a Domain property is with a record at your domain name provider.
• URL-prefix property. You enter one complete address, including the https at the start. It covers only addresses that begin exactly that way. It can be verified in several ways.

If you can reach the settings at your domain name provider, or someone can do it for you, the Domain property gives you the fullest picture. If you cannot, a URL-prefix property is a good way to start.

The ways to verify ownership

Google lists these options in its help pages. For a Domain property, only the first applies. For a URL-prefix property, all of them do.

• Domain name provider (DNS record). You add a TXT or CNAME record in your domain provider's settings. For some providers Google can add it for you automatically.
• HTML file upload. You download a file from Search Console and upload it to the root of your site, where anyone can open it without logging in.
• HTML tag. You add a short meta tag, which Search Console gives you, to the head section of your public home page.
• Google Analytics tracking code. If the Analytics code is already on your home page, you can use it, provided you have edit rights on that Analytics account and you use the same Google account in both tools.
• Google Tag Manager container snippet. The same idea, for people who already use Tag Manager, with publish or admin permission on the container.

Verification lasts as long as Search Console can confirm that your token is still there. If you remove the tag, the file or the DNS record, Google will notify you, and if the problem is not fixed, your permissions on that property expire after a grace period. If every verified owner loses access, everyone loses access to the property. Write down which method you used, and tell the people who manage your site not to remove it.

The reports to know

Search Console has many reports. These are the ones a small business needs.

Performance report

This report shows how much traffic you get from Google Search, with breakdowns by queries, pages, countries and devices. It has four numbers.

• Clicks. How many times people clicked from Google to your site.
• Impressions. How many times your pages appeared in results, whether or not anyone clicked.
• CTR. The click-through rate: clicks divided by impressions.
• Average position. Roughly where your pages appeared in the results. A lower number is closer to the top, and it varies from search to search, so watch the trend and not a single day.

Google keeps about sixteen months of Performance history, so you can compare this season with the same season last year. Here is an invented example. A page appeared 2,000 times and was clicked 60 times, which is a CTR of 3 percent. If another page appeared 2,000 times and was clicked only 10 times, the second page is being seen and not chosen, and its title may need work.

Queries tab

Queries are the words people typed. Read them like a customer survey that you did not have to run. Look for the searches that include your name, and for the ones about what you sell. Look also for questions. A question that appears often is a good topic for a short page or an answer in your FAQ.

Pages tab

Pages shows which of your pages appear in Google and how they perform. Compare it with the pages report in Analytics. A page that appears often but is rarely clicked may need a clearer title. A page that is clicked but does not lead to actions may need a clearer next step. A page with a specific subject, such as one river section or one service, is easier for Google to match with a search.

Page indexing report

This report sorts the pages Google knows about into groups, depending on whether they are in Google's index, and it explains why the rest are not. Google suggests checking it regularly for jumps in errors or drops in indexed pages, because they can signal a crawling problem. A page listed as not indexed is not always a problem, so read the reason before you act.

URL Inspection tool

Paste one address into the search bar at the top. The tool shows the current index status of that page, lets you test the live version, and lets you ask Google to crawl it. Use it after you publish an important page or fix a problem.

Sitemaps report

A sitemap is a file that lists the pages of your site. Google can find pages without one, and submitting one is optional. It can still help Google discover your pages, and the Sitemaps report shows the result of Google's latest attempt to read it and any errors it found. Listing a page in a sitemap does not guarantee that Google will crawl or index it. The address of your sitemap depends on your platform, so ask whoever manages your site.

Core Web Vitals report

It shows how your pages perform, based on real-world usage data. If it lists problems, show the report to whoever manages your site.

Manual actions and Security issues

The Manual actions report shows any issues Google found, in which section of your site, and where to learn more. The Security issues report shows warnings when Google finds that a site might have been hacked. If either one lists something, read the details and act quickly.

Tools you should use with care

• Removals tool. It hides content from Google results quickly, and a successful request lasts only about six months. Use it only when you really need to hide something.
• Change of Address tool. It helps move your Google Search results from an old site to a new one when your domain changes. Lesson 10-7 covers redesigns and moves.

A ten-minute monthly check

1. Performance. Compare the last three months with the three before. Write down your top five queries and your top five pages.
2. Page indexing. Check for new problems and for a drop in indexed pages.
3. Sitemaps. Confirm that the sitemap was read without errors.
4. Manual actions and Security issues. Confirm that both are empty.
5. One note. Write the one thing you will fix or improve next month.

Mistakes to avoid

• Removing the verification. A redesign can delete a tag or a file along with the old pages. Check that the verification survives.
• Panicking over every warning. Read the reason first.
• Expecting instant data. New properties need time.
• Mixing up clicks and visits. A click in Search Console and a session in Analytics are different measurements.
• Chasing position alone. Clicks and actions matter more than a single average.

A clear site is easier for Google to read

Search Console works best on a site with clear pages that each answer one question. Every site we build includes SEO setup, a mobile version and texts written for you, and the page counts of our packages, up to 15 pages in Basic, 15 to 30 in Pro and more than 30 in Large, leave room for a page for each service or topic. Search Console itself is a separate Google account that belongs to you. You can see how real sites organize their pages in our designs.

Questions people ask