Google Search Console is a free web service offered by Google that helps you monitor and improve your website’s performance in Google Search. It provides a variety of tools and reports that can help you identify and fix technical issues, track your website’s performance over time, and understand how users interact with your site.
Getting started
To get started with Google Search Console, you’ll need to create a Google account and add your website to your account. Once your website is added, you’ll need to verify ownership of your site. This can be done in a variety of ways, depending on your site’s hosting provider and content management system (CMS).
Once you’ve verified ownership of your site, you can start exploring the various features and reports that Google Search Console has to offer.
Performance report
The Performance report is one of the most important reports in Google Search Console. It provides a summary of your website’s performance in Google Search, including the number of impressions, clicks, and average position for your website’s pages.
You can use the Performance report to track your website’s performance over time and identify areas where you can improve. For example, if you see that a particular page has a high number of impressions but a low click-through rate (CTR), you may want to consider improving the title tag or meta description for that page.
Index Coverage report
The Index Coverage report shows you which pages on your website have been indexed by Google. It also shows you any errors or warnings that Google has encountered while trying to index your site’s pages.
You can use the Index Coverage report to identify any pages on your website that are not being indexed by Google. You can then fix any errors or warnings that Google has encountered, and resubmit the pages for indexing.
Enhancements report
The Enhancements report shows you how your website’s pages can be improved to appear in rich results on Google Search. Rich results are enhanced search results that include additional information, such as images, ratings, and prices.
You can use the Enhancements report to identify any structured data that is missing or incomplete on your website’s pages. You can then add or fix the structured data, so that your pages can appear in rich results on Google Search.
Mobile Usability report
The Mobile Usability report shows you any issues that Google has found with the mobile usability of your website’s pages. Mobile usability is important because more and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to access the internet.
You can use the Mobile Usability report to identify any issues that are making your website difficult to use on mobile devices. You can then fix those issues, so that your website is more mobile-friendly.
Other reports
In addition to the reports listed above, Google Search Console also offers a variety of other reports that can help you monitor and improve your website’s performance in Google Search. These reports include:
- Links report: Shows you which websites are linking to your website.
- Core Web Vitals report: Shows you how your website performs on the Core Web Vitals metrics.
- Page Experience report: Shows you how your website performs on the Page Experience metrics.
- Security Issues report: Shows you any security issues that Google has found on your website.
- Manual Actions report: Shows you any manual actions that Google has taken against your website.
