A Guide to Google Search Console for SEOs

 Want to discover how your SEO efforts are paying off?


Google offers a free tool called Google Search Console that delivers a tonne of granular information about the functionality, security, mistakes, and other aspects of your site.


How does it function? That's what we'll talk about today.


Google Search Console: What is it?

The Google Search Console is a collection of tools that enables you to monitor the operation of your website, identify problems, and improve its Google ranking. It is a strong but difficult tool.


We published a full introduction to Google Webmaster Tools back in 2010. Since then, Google Webmaster Tools has undergone a number of important modifications, including a name change to Google Search Console.


This guide has been updated to include information on how to use Google Search Console, what information you'll find about your website, important information you might have overlooked, and how to continuously check for problems that could harm your search engine rankings.


Setup Instructions for Google Search Console


The first thing you must do, if you haven't already, is register your website with Google Search Console.




Visit the Search Console website and login in using your Google Account, preferably the one you use for Google Analytics, to complete this.

The DNS CNAME verification option, one of the newest verification methods, was formerly available through Google Webmaster Tools but has now been reintroduced through Google Search Console.


If you have a sitemap, you should send it once your website has been confirmed.


This straightforward XML file will inform Google Search Console of the pages that are present on your website.


If you already have one, you can usually access it in your browser by typing http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.


If you don't currently have one, you can make one using internet tools like XML Sitemaps.



Installing the Google XML Sitemaps plugin will allow you to use WordPress to manage a website under your own domain.


When the plugin is active, go to your Settings in the WordPress dashboard and select XML-Sitemap.


There is nothing else you need to do because the plugin ought to have already created your sitemap.


Your URL can be seen at the top of the page:

Your Overview will be the first thing you see when you access your website in GSC.


This is a summary of the key information in Google Search Console. By clicking on the relevant links, you can get to certain areas from this screen, including your crawl errors, search analytics, and sitemaps.


Using the navigation in the left sidebar, you can also access these places.

This section provides you with a summary of how your website appears in the SERPs, including total clicks, impressions, position, click-through rate, and the queries it appears for.


You can sort the data using the filters at the top in a variety of ways, including location, date, search type, and more. Understanding the effects of your SEO efforts depends on this data.


Report on Index Coverage

This report provides information on the URLs Google has attempted to index on your chosen site, as well as any issues it may have encountered.


Googlebot processes each website it encounters while browsing the internet in order to create an index of every word it finds.


The URLs on your website that Google has indexed and are therefore able to display in search results are depicted in this graph.


This graph will adjust as you add and remove pages.


If you have less indexed pages than you believe you should, don't worry too much. Googlebot excludes URLs that it determines to be duplicates, are not canonical, or have the no index meta tag.


Additionally, you'll see a lot of URLs that your robots.txt file forbids indexing.


Sitemaps

Sitemaps were briefly discussed earlier, so I won't go into them again.


You may see information about your sitemap in GSC under Sitemaps, including whether one exists and when it was most recently updated.


You may want to submit your sitemap if you observe that the date it was last downloaded is no longer recent in order to update the number of URLs supplied.


Otherwise, this aids in monitoring how Google is interpreting your sitemap and whether all of your pages are being viewed as you intend.


Basic Web Vitals

A set of measures called Core Web Vitals has an effect on how you rank in searches. Speed, usefulness, and visual stability are some of them. You should take note of these since they are now ranking indications.


Optimized Mobile Pages (AMP)

An open-source project called Accelerated Mobile Pages aims to offer quick-loading mobile websites that function on sluggish connections.


If you don't already have one, you may go here to begin building your first page.


References to Your Site

I'm interested in your backlinks.


In addition to displaying the pages on your website with the most links, GSC also displays the domains that link to you the most. Up until you see Links in the left sidebar, scroll down. This is likely the most thorough list of your backlinks (including internal links!) you will find, at least for free. Click and you'll see a full report of links to your site.


Knowing where your material is being used online and what works well in Google's eyes is a powerful tool.


Manual Procedures

You may determine which of your pages do not adhere to Google's webmaster quality standards by visiting the Manual Actions tab.


It's one of the measures Google has implemented to combat web spam.


Usability on Mobile

You may check to see if every page of your website adheres to Google's recommended best practises on the Mobile Usability tab.

As you can see, there may be problems with font size, viewport preferences, or even the distance between your clickable elements.


Any of these issues, along with other mistakes, might hurt your mobile site's rankings and make you appear lower on the results page. Your user experience and results will improve if you find and correct these mistakes.

I advise you to verify your site's mobile speed as you peruse this information. I do this by using Ubersuggest.


Entering your URL and pressing Search should be your first two actions.


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