Google Search Console (GSC) is a tool offered by Google that allows you to view data on things like search performance and technical SEO health.
If you’ve not yet set up Google Search Console, we highly recommend doing so as you can access copious amounts of valuable data. Plus, since it’s free to use, there's almost no reason not to make the most of it.
If you are set up with GSC but haven’t yet used it, we recommend learning the basics of the platform before you begin. Considering the numerous benefits of using GSC, It's definitely worth investing some time into learning how it works.
So, here’s a rundown of what’s in Google Search Console and how to use it.
The URL inspection tool, as you’d expect, allows you to examine URLs. With it, you can look at any URL on your site and find out if the page has been indexed (and see why it couldn’t be indexed if it isn’t), request the indexing of a URL, view a version of your page from the eyes of a Googlebot, see how Google interprets canonicals after the last crawl, and troubleshoot any missing pages.
It will look something like this:
This is a great tool because if you have an important page that isn’t ranking as you’d hoped, you can verify whether or not it’s actually on Google and begin to resolve any problems if it isn’t.
The performance compartment is divided into two sections.
As the name suggests, the search results section provides data on your website’s performance in the search results.
This includes:
You can filter to look at different date ranges or compare dates and filter by search type to see web, image, video, or news and compare any of those search types.
You can also use filters to find information on specific URLs or pages.
For example, to look at data for all the URLs on our insights page, we would:
With this, we can now see data for pages on our insights page, giving us a deeper understanding of our blog performance.
Google Discover is a search-less feed of content that is unique to each user and consists of content that is recommended based on a user’s recent activity, search history, and general interests.
If you are making an appearance on the Google Discover feed, you can find data on your visibility here. It offers almost all the same information as the search results section, but is specific to the Google Discover feed. Optimising for Google Discover can be highly advantageous, so we highly recommend keeping an eye on this section.
Indexing is split into three segments: pages, sitemaps, and removals.
In this section, you will be shown data about indexed and unindexed pages - which is incredibly useful to keep an eye on. If you notice spikes or dips in certain groups of unindexed or indexed pages, it’s usually an indication that a change has occurred - we highly recommend you investigate this.
This is a highly valuable tool because if a URL isn’t indexed, it won’t appear in the search results. Even if you’ve worked incredibly hard to optimise a page and ensured it performs well in the search results, it won’t rank if it’s not indexed - no matter how good it is.
Using this section you can see any non indexed pages and find out why they haven't been indexed. For example, if the page is not found (404) or if it has been purposefully (or accidentally) excluded with a ‘noindex’ tag.
This gives you a chance to resolve any issues, confirm the right pages have been given a noindex tag, and identify any correct or incorrect use of canonical tags.
Using GSC, you can submit a sitemap of your website. A sitemap is essentially a list of URLs that help Google find, crawl, and index your site as well as point out any important pages.
You don’t have to create or submit a sitemap but we do recommend doing so as it ensures Google can find and crawl each page of your site. Providing a URL via sitemap is also a strong indicator that you want that URL to be indexed and how regularly it should be crawled.
The removals section gives you information on which URLs have been removed and gives you the chance to temporarily remove your own URLs quickly.
The removals section includes three tabs:
Experience contains two elements regarding your website’s user experience.
Core web vitals are an important aspect to keep an eye on as they can affect your user experience and therefore performance in the search results.
Core web vitals refers to three metrics:
The report groups your URLs into three categories: good, poor, and needs improvement. You should address any issues with poor URLs as soon as possible and then move onto resolving any improvements.
Google Search Console’s core web vitals report offers data on real world experience users have had when visiting the site. This makes it the best place to gather insights on page speed performance, as third party tools use testing environments which may be less accurate.
HTTPS gives you information on which of your pages are HTTPS or Non-HTTPS URLs.
HTTPS improves your website’s security so ideally you want your URLs to be HTTPS.
Since website security is a ranking factor, you want to verify that your website is secure.
The shopping component may differ from site to site. If you aren’t a traditional e-commerce website and have no products, you can ignore this tab.
If you do sell products, this section can offer valuable insights. However, in order to use this section, you need to set up and connect Google Merchant Centre to view products in GSC.
Ideally, you shouldn’t have anything in these sections, and all you’ll find is this:
You will receive a manual action if you are not compliant with Google’s spam policies. If you have an affected page, it may be ranked lower or removed completely from the search results.
Here, you will be able to see any affected pages and will be given more information as to why, so you can work on resolving it. You can also request reviews for affected pages.
Security issues include:
Hopefully, you won’t have any security issues, but if you do, they will appear here and you will be given more information on which pages are affected and how to fix it.
Internal links and backlinks are a vital element of SEO and we always recommend keeping an eye on these.
In the links section, you will find reports for external links, internal links, top linking sites, and top linking text (anchor text).
Backlinks are crucial for your SEO, as they hold a lot of weight with Google surrounding the authority of your site. In the external links section, you can see which of your pages are most linked to by other sites.
This is ideal for working out what content resonates well with your audience, and performs well within your industry. You can also take a deeper dive and look at which sites are pointing to you.
Internal links are great for helping Google navigate your website, give context to pages, and make it easier to identify which pages are most important on your site.
If you notice that an important page is lacking internal links, it’s a good idea to examine this and look for ways you can enhance your internal linking strategy for that page.
Top linking sites and top linking text shows which websites are pointing to you and what anchor text they are using. Anchor text is important because it provides context and relevancy to your link, so ideally you want anchor text that includes some of your main keywords.
GSC is simple to navigate and once you have a basic understanding of what it all means, from search performance reports to core web vitals, you can begin to create a data-led marketing plan for your business.
If you want expert help either setting up or using Google Search Console, feel free to get in touch with us today!
