Google Search Console, SEO, Website Performance, Monitoring, Tutorial

How to Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a powerful tool for managing and optimizing your website’s presence in Google search results. It provides a wealth of information about your site’s performance, from the number of times your pages have appeared in search results, to the keywords people use when searching for your content. With GSC you can identify issues that could be preventing your pages from being indexed by Google, and you can make sure that any changes you make to your site are properly communicated to the search engine.

Steps to Take Before Using GSC:

• Make sure your website is Google-friendly. Ensure that all your webpages are indexable by the search engine, have valid markups such as structured data, and meet all the other technical SEO requirements.
• Sign up for an account with GSC. You'll need to input the address of your website and verify it.
• Connect Google Analytics with GSC to access more data about your site’s performance.

What You Can Do with GSC:

Once you’ve set up your GSC account, you’ll be able to access a variety of information about your site. The data available includes:

• Search queries: See which queries people typed into Google to get to your site.
• Clicks and impressions: Get an overview of how many times your pages were clicked on in search results and how often they were seen.
• Indexed pages: See a list of all the pages on your site that have been indexed by Google.
• Sitemaps: View all the sitemaps that have been submitted to Google, as well as any errors associated with them.
• Links: Get an overview of external websites linking to your pages.
• Robots.txt: Access and edit your robots.txt file, if needed.
• HTML Improvement & Security Issues: Identify any potential issues related to structured data or other HTML tags.
• Notice of manual action: If your site has received a manual penalty, GSC will inform you of it.

Conclusion

Google Search Console is a valuable tool for website owners, allowing them to view and optimize their sites’ performance in search results. So take the time to set up your account and get familiar with GSC so you can make sure your website is as visible as possible in search results.