The Google Search Console is an invaluable tool for enhancing the performance of your website and improving your online profitability – you can use the tool to gain all the insights you need to improve your website performance in Google search rankings.

But if you are unfamiliar with how to use this tool to improve your performance in the search results, you may be feeling uncertain about how to use this tool on your site and wondering – is Google Search Console worth your time?

Below we will take you through everything you need to know about Google Search Console and how you’ll be able to use it to enhance your website rankings in the Google Search results.

Read below to discover the answer to questions such as:

• What is a Google Search Console? 
• What are the Benefits of using the Search Console? 
• How do you use Google Search Console? 
• How to Verify Site Ownership on Google Search Console? 
• How Does the Google Search Console Work? 
• How you can use the Google Index Coverage Report and Search Console to improve your Google search performance. 
• How Can You Use the Tool to Improve the Performance of Your Pages? 
• What is an Average Position and How Can You Assess the number of times searchers click the link to your site?

What is Google Search Console?

A Google Search Console is a free platform that you can use to monitor and assess how your website is performing against Google criteria and what you can do to optimize your organic search engine results. In Google search console, you will be able to view the performance of your website on mobile devices, the high-traffic queries which lead to your domain, and the keyword search results which are performing best for you.

What are the Benefits of using the Search Console? 

So why would you want to add to your workload by using a new website tool? Well, simply put – using this console you can see exactly what you need to improve if you want to see how to improve the performance of your pages and start showing at the top of Google results pages. With this tool you can quickly check the following:

• You can see the performance of each page of your website.
• Use the tool to see the number of indexed pages and the pages which need to be indexed.
• See the top-performing pages and search terms for your site.
• Assess the internal links to your site.
• See which pages need to be indexed and what is stopping crawlers when they make visits to your site.
• Submit a map to your site to improve the number of indexed pages.
• Access a list of errors and the number of internal links which need to be corrected.

If you want to improve the performance of your website in search results – this free Google tool will provide you with a list of everything to do so you can start enjoying higher online visibility. You will be able to identify what is the most pressing issue to fix on your website and improve your overall average position in search rankings.

How To Use Google Search Console

As soon as you add your business website to Google Search console. You will be able to use Google Search tools such as the performance report, the index coverage report, and other data to show you how you can improve site performance.

1. To get started using the Google search console, you will first of all need to make sure that you are logged into your Google business account (if you are running a business website.)
2. You can then select Google Webmaster Tools
3. Then click “Add a Property” and choose “Website” in the drop-down list.
4. You can then enter the URL of your business website and click continue. (If your website address covers both HTTP:// and HTTPS:// you should add both the URLs to make sure Google doesn’t treat them as separate websites and split the URL data.)
5. You will then be asked to verify your website ownership. You can do this with an HTML file upload, HTML tag, GA tracking code, or proof from your domain name provider.

You can access information on the Google Search Console on your website, even if you haven’t completed the verification process yet!

How to Use the Google Search Console Verification Process

To verify ownership to Google Search Console of your website, you will need to upload proof of domain ownership. You will need at least one form of proof of your website ownership. If you have a Google Hosted site this will automatically be verified.

This is because you will be using the tools in Google Search Console to access confidential information about the site. Here is how you can prove ownership and start to use Google Search Console.

• Upload a HTML File detailing the specific location of your website.
• Add a HTML meta tag to the <HEAD> of a HTML page code.
• Copy the Google Analytics Code you use for tracking your website.
• Sign into your website domain provider and use Google search console to directly verify your site ownership.
• Copy the Google Tag Manager Snippet Code for your website.

Who Can Use Google Search Console?

Once you have set up your Google Search Console and verified ownership, you can begin using the tools. You can get started by setting up the controls to Google Search Console in terms of who can access data.

There are two levels of data available in Google search console – Owner and User.

• Owner – In Google search console, as an owner, you can control all the properties of the Google search console. You can control all the settings of the reports and access all the data in the search results tool. You will also be able to add Users in the console who will also be able to use the tool with fewer capabilities.
• User – A user in Google Search Console can access that data in the tool based on the access levels you have set. You can set up a restricted user who will only be able to access certain data or a full user who has wider access and more control.

So, make sure you think carefully about the level of access of your employees and what information they need to do their job properly. Their access to Google Search Console should be what they need and no more. If you want to change the access levels of your employees later, you can log in to the Google search console to do so.

How to Access Google Analytics Reports in Google Search Console.

You can add an associate to your Google Analytics Log in using the Google Search console. This is a way you can start adding Google search console data to the Google Analytics reports. You can also then access Google Analytics data in your Google search console.

Only one Google search console log in can be attached to one Google Analytics account.

How to Use the Index Coverage Report?

Once you have verified your ownership, added extra users, and linked your Google Analytics, you can get started using the search console to improve your google search results and access a list of the issues there are to be fixed.

You can get started with the Index coverage report. You can use this tool to discover the pages on the website which have been indexed by Google and those that have not. You’ll be shown how to improve pages so they can be indexed and ways to improve your website page user experience.

The Index Coverage report will show you the following in the summary page:

• You can see which website pages haven’t been indexed by Google search crawlers.
• How to Improve page experiences which will improve the ability of Google crawlers to understand your page and index it correctly.
• You can see which pages have been indexed by Google Search and which need to be indexed.
• Spot duplications of the website pages which could be harming your overall google search performance, so you can improve internal links and crawler assessments.

Your ultimate goal when it comes to using this tool in Google Search Console will be working out how to get every page on your website indexed correctly, so you will show up in search results that are related to the website topics.

Use Google Search Console to Assess Website Performance on Mobile Devices

As more and more people access websites using their smartphones, you will need to make sure that your website is suited for mobile use. The Google Mobile Usability Report will help you to work out how to do this.

Your website mobile usability report will detail any usability problems on the summary page of your Google Search Console. You can click on specific issues in the usability issues list to see a more detailed breakdown of the issue.

To improve your Google search performance, you should make your way from top to bottom of the list. Addressing each issue and working out how to optimize the page for mobile use as well as desktop. Use the search console to look at the detailed breakdown pages and work out how to address the issues cited.

Submit a SiteMap of Your Website to the Search Console

You can increase the Goole performance of your website and enhance discovery levels if you submit a site map of your website through the search console.

Once you have submitted a search map to the search console, you will allow Google crawlers to get a better idea of your website and improve performance in the search rankings as a result. You can use the console to access the sitemaps report to learn how to monitor and make improvements to the sitemap of your website over time.

Why Should You Submit a Sitemap of Your Website?

Whether you want to submit a sitemap to google search console is dependent upon how many pages there are on the site. The more of your pages that there are on the website – the more complicated the process of indexing those pages.

if you have a large website, you may want to submit a sitemap of your pages to improve your chances of the site appearing at the top of the search rankings in the future.

When You Don’t Need a Sitemap on Your Website

There may be some circumstances when you’ll be able to skip this step without having it reflected in the search results.

• If you are using a website hosting service – they may have automatically generated a sitemap on your site already. If you are unsure about this you’ll be able to contact your provider directly to see if your sitemap exists already.
• Do you have a small website of fewer than 100 pages? 
• If you have less than 100 pages on your website, and you can easily reach any page on your site by clicking on one or two links – you don’t need to submit a sitemap on your site. Instead, you need to simply request indexing on your site.

What Information Do You Need to Access in the Performance report of your Sitemap?

In the search console, the performance report is where you can look at the performance of the sitemap and how to improve it. You should note that you can only access sitemaps that have been uploaded in the console.

If the performance report shows errors, you can make adjustments and then resubmit your sitemap of the website to the search console.

If Google search cannot read your sitemap, it will only try a certain amount of times before it gives up. So you should use the performance report to work out how to improve the map of your website and improve your google search rankings as a result.

How to Monitor Your Website Performance in Google Search Console.

Once you have followed the steps above, you can then regularly use the search console and analytics performance report to improve the Google rankings on your website pages. You can see on the summary pages which work needs to be done to your site and how to use Google to improve your online visibility.

To make the most of your website performance and ensure the best return on your website investments – you need to start regularly using Google Search Console and Google Analytics to assess how you can improve and what is holding your website back from appearing higher on the reach results listings.

You can use Google Search Console to get a Better Understanding of the Performance of Your Website

You can use the search console to quickly and easily work out how your website is performing in the Google search results and how it appears to the search engine crawlers. The console is easy to understand and use for the website beginner as well as for the more practiced website owner – making it a great free tool for all business website owners.

However, if you are worried that the tool will take a big part out of your day – you can relax. After you have set up the page and made yourself familiar with the details of the reports available – you just need to wait for the next Google alert which let you know if you have to make any changes to the pages of the site.

However, to make the most of the tools available in the search console, you should schedule time each month to log in and check if you can spot any instability in the reports of the site.

You will also get email alerts if any of the content of the site violates any of the terms in the google search quality guidelines.

What Should You Check When You Go To The Search Console Each Month?

If you log in to the search console on a monthly basis, there are certain checks you should undertake. If you access the overview of the site, on the page you will be able to spot any changes you need to make to the pages on your site.

Look at the breakdown of Google data on the overview page and assess the data on the page to look for any increases in indexing errors in the site. You can see if there is any difference in the click rates on your website and if you need to make any changes.

What Terms Do You Need to Make Sure to Understand in Search Console Analytics?

There are certain terms you need to make sure that you understand so you can make the most of the information to improve your site and to see how you can increase Google traffic to your site with improved search results. If you don’t know what an average position or Click Through rate is – you won’t know what you have to improve!

What is a Google Search Query?

A Search term is a phrase or term which has been input into the search engine and has led a searcher to your site to create an impression on Google search results. This is a form of data you will only find with the console and is not available on analytics.

What is an Impression?

An impression is created each time the URL of your site appears in the search results. A searcher doesn’t need to click the link for an impression to be counted. This is a collation of the number of times the URL has been exposed to a Google searcher.

What is a Click? 

You can use the console to see the number of times someone has pushed to click the link to your site. Even if the user clicks the link, leaves the page, and then returns to your site with the same link – this will count as two different times that a searcher has chosen to click the link on a Google search.

To improve your website sales, you will want to do everything you can to appear at the top of search rankings and convince searchers to click the link to your page.

What is The Average Position?

This is the Google ranking of the URL in search query results. The average position will give you the mean ranking position of each page of your website for keywords. For example, if you have the URL with the most success for the keyword “Florida Lawyer” with a ranking of one and a position of the top ten for the keyword “Lawyer Services in Miami” – the average position will be 5.

What is a Click Through rate?

The Click Through Rate (or CTR) is the number of times people click the link to the URL of your site which is then divided by the number of impressions and then multiplied by 100.

So, if the URL shows in 60 search results creating 100 impressions, and 30 people click the link – then the click-through rate is 50.

If the rate that people click the link from the search results to your site is very low, you need to check what to do to make your website seem more attractive to browsers.

Summary: A Complete Google Search Console Guide

This Google tool is one of the best ways out there to assess the way your site appears to Google crawlers. You have all the information needed so you can start to do the work needed to make sure your site is improved from a Google search standpoint.

There are a number of reports available with the tools so you see the most effective ways to improve traffic to the URL of your site and get the most return for the time and money invested in your online presence.

Once you have addressed the most important issues, you can relax – secure in the knowledge that you will be alerted to any issues with the automated email alert Google sends out.

This is a free and non-time-consuming tool that will help you make sure that your Google website performance is as successful as it can be and improve the number of visitors to your site. And that should lead to improved sales conversions and larger profits!