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Want to know how your SEO efforts are paying off? Then, you’ll want to learn
how to use Google Search Console (GSC).
About Neil Patel
Chances are, you already know what GSC is and that it offers detailed He is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall
information about your site’s performance, security issues, errors, and more. Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the
web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10
marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he
But did you also know it’s a powerful tool for increasing your site’s search traffic created one of the 100 most brilliant companies.
Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and
and it’s super helpful for finding data efficiently, and it’s got a couple of
was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur
underused features? under the age of 30 by President Obama and a
top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by
the United Nations.
Today, we’ll dive into some more specific use cases and how to get the most
out of GSC. And, of course, we’ll also highlight its limitations, too.
LEARN MORE

Ready to learn more? Then let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways
Discover 1000s of
Google Search Console (GSC) offers a lot of detailed information about Keywords Instantly
your site’s performance, security issues, errors, and more.

GSC is a powerful tool for increasing your site’s search traffic and
efficiently finding data.

Two underused features of GSC include change of address and crawl

stats, which you can find in Settings. Enter a keyword and get
insights and suggestions
Limitations of GSC include sampled data, only 16 months of data, and
only 1000 rows of data. Enter a keyword
 You can use Google Search Console to improve organic visibility, Free keyword research tool
monitor search performance, and see what pages Google is indexing.

What Is Google Search Console and How Is It Used?

Google Search Console is a suite of tools from Google that helps you track your
site’s performance, find issues, and help your site rank higher in Google. It is a
powerful but complex tool.

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I consider Google Search Console a must-have tool for any site owner, but it’s
often overlooked. That’s a shame because, when used correctly, GSC can Guides Agency
deliver amazing results.

Here are just a few of the benefits of using GSC: Digital Marketing

Online Marketing

Ensure Google can access your site’s content Google AdWords

Facebook Advertising
Submit new URLs for crawling
SEO
Monitor search performance and Core Web Vitals Content Marketing

Monitor and resolve spam issues Blogging

Growth Hacking
Discover how Google sees your site and analyze metrics
Social Media Marketing

Continually monitor for issues that might affect your search engine Affiliate Marketing
rankings Conversion Optimization

Improve your traffic levels and organic visibility Marketing Automation

Handle technical issues and see which pages Google is indexing

It also has some underused benefits. For instance, you can change your domain
address by going to settings. Tools

As Rob Tindula, SEO Director at NP Digital, explains:

SEO Analyzer

AnswerThePublic
“When you do a migration or change a website’s domain, this tool allows you to
A/B Testing Calculator
alert Google of the change which helps with indexation of the new domain and
the falling off of the old domain”. Ubersuggest

Ads Grader

It’s one of the most comprehensive free SEO tools out there. In fact, it rivals Mail Grader

many paid tools on the market. It’s not a replacement for all of them, but it’s an Backlinks Checker

outstanding supplement you can use alongside other tools. AI Writer

AI SEO Meta Tags

 AI Social

How To Set Up Google Search Console AI Paid Ads

Website Traffic Checker

If you haven’t already, the first thing you will need to do is set up your website Chrome Extension

with Google Search Console. Open Graph Generator

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Setting it up is simple.

Go to the Search Console website and sign up using your Google Account
details. Ideally, you’ll want to use the same account where you access Google
Analytics 4.

Go to the blue “Start now” button, click it, and a dialogue box appears:

Select the URL prefix, as it gives you more options for verification.

Next, you will have to verify this site as yours.

Now, if you already have Google Analytics, it automatically verifies your site for
you, and you will see this:
If this doesn’t work for you, use one of these other options for verification.

Once you’ve got your site verified, you will want to submit a sitemap. If you
don’t already have a sitemap, you can create one using online tools like XML
Sitemaps. WordPress users can install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.

Owners, Users, and Permissions

Not sure about the roles of owners, users, and permissions? Then let me
explain.

Owners are in charge of Google Search Console. They have the power to add
or remove users, access all the data and tools, and tweak settings.

Users: Owners can add users to Google Search Console and grant them full or
limited permissions according to their role. Full users can access most data and
take limited actions, while restricted users have limited access to data/tools.

Permissions: As the owner, you decide what actions users can take and what
data they can access.

You can easily add delegated owners or users. Just head to Settings, find “Users
and Permissions,” click on “Add user,” and set their permission levels. All users
need a Google account.

What Data Can You Pull From Google Search Console?

Once you’ve added and verified your website, you’ll be able to see tons of
information about your site’s performance in GSC.
Below, I’ll break down how to use Google Search Console and detail all of the
data and reports you can pull from it.

Google Search Console Overview

When you visit your website in GSC, you will first see your Overview.

This is an overview of the important data within Google Search Console. By

clicking on the applicable links, you can visit specific areas, such as Crawl Errors,
Performance Reports, and Sitemaps, from this screen.

You can also navigate to these areas using the menu in the left sidebar.

Performance Search Results

In the left sidebar, you’ll see Performance Search Results.

This section gives you an overview of how your site appears in Search Engine
Results Pages, including total clicks, impressions, position, click-through rate, and
what queries your site shows up for.

The filters at the top allow you to sort data based on location, date, type of
search, and much more. This data is crucial to understanding the impact of your
SEO efforts.

Here’s what each of them does:

The Clicks filter shows you how many clicks you’ve gotten from the
SERPs.

The Impressions filter shows you how many SERP results people viewed.
Google counts these impressions differently based on certain factors,
 but that’s really all you need to know.

The CTR (click-through rate) is probably a metric you’re familiar with.

Google has a standardized formula for this: the click count divided by
the impression count.

The Position filter gives you the average position of the topmost result of
your site.

Together, these four filters give you a wide range of data.

The options in the next box allow you to refine your results further. These are
grouping options that categorize the data for you.

I’ll briefly go over each of them.

The Queries option returns a list of search terms that drove users to your
site.

The Page option shows you which pages on your site appeared in
search results.

The Country option shows you where all of these searches came from.

The Device option shows you which devices were used to search.

The Search Type option shows you if users used web search, video
search, image search, or another type.

The Search Appearance option lets you use special filters. You might not
always see this option since it requires you to have impressions for at
least one of the other features.

Finally, the Date option lets you choose the timeframe.

Index Coverage Report

This report gives you data about the URLs Google has tried to index on your
selected property and any problems Google has had.

As Googlebot crawls the internet, it processes each page it comes across to

compile an index of every word it sees on every page.
It also looks at content tags and attributes like your titles or alt texts.

This graph shows a breakdown of the URLs on your site that Google has
indexed and that can thus appear in search results.

As you add and remove pages, this graph will change.

Don’t worry too much if you have fewer indexed pages than you think you
should. Googlebot filters out the URLs it sees as duplicate, non-canonical, or
those with a noindex meta tag.

You’ll also notice a number of URLs your robots.txt file has disallowed from
crawling.

And you can also check how many URLs you’ve removed with the Removal
Tool. This will most likely always be a low value.

Sitemaps

A sitemap acts as a guide for your website. It shows all the URLs on your site
and helps search engines understand your website’s structure and content.
Once you’ve added a sitemap, Google search engines can crawl and index it
more easily.

In GSC, under Sitemaps, you can add a new sitemap or find information about
previously submitted sitemaps.
If you notice the last date your sitemap was downloaded is not recent, you
might want to submit your sitemap to refresh the number of URLs submitted.

Otherwise, this helps you track how Google is reading your sitemap and
whether all your pages are viewed as you want them to be.

Removals

If you need to temporarily block a page from Google’s search results for some
reason, head to Removals.

You can hide a page for approximately 90 days before this wears off.

If you want to remove a page from Google’s crawling permanently, you’ll have
to do it on your actual website.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that impact your search ranking. They
include speed, usability, and visual stability. These are now ranking signals, so
you’ll want to pay attention to them.

Some of the key metrics that comprise Core Web Vitals include:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This is the time that a page takes to load. A good
score is 2.5 seconds or less. Note this includes large items like images or
headers.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures a site’s visual stability, particularly
how much the layout changes after it loads.

Interaction to Next Paint: This metric measures page responsiveness by using

data from the Event Timing API. Basically, the lower your INP is, the more
responsive your site is. A good score is below 200 milliseconds.

Links To Your Site

Curious about your backlinks?

GSC shows you the domains that link to you the most, as well as the pages on
your website with the most links. Scroll down in the left sidebar until you see
Links. Click, and you’ll see a full report of links to your site:
This is probably the most comprehensive listing of your backlinks (and internal
links!) you will find, for free at least.

It’s a powerful tool for understanding where your content is being leveraged on
the web and what performs best in Google’s eyes.

Manual Actions

The Manual Actions tab shows you if any of your pages do not comply with
Google’s webmaster quality guidelines.

Recently, Google has taken action against scaled content abuse and domain
abuse.

That means if your content is generated solely by AI, or if you’re creating articles
just to game search engines (scaled content abuse), you might get a manual
action.

The image below shows other examples of scaled content abuse:

You could also land a manual action for domain abuse. This includes things like
spam, defamatory content, or anything that’s inappropriate. Google has a
domain abuse policy for users to follow, so ensure you stay on the right side of
it.

Crawl Stats

For a more in-depth analysis of how often Googlebot is looking at your site, you
can use the Crawl Stats report under Settings > Crawl stats.

As Rob TIndula, SEO Director, NP Digital, explains:

“This report shows how Google crawls your website, which can be helpful for
technical SEO to find crawling and indexation issues. For example, Googlebot
crawls a large percentage of URLs that result in errors or redirect status codes”.

Here, you’ll see how often Google crawls your site’s pages, downloaded
kilobytes per day, and your site’s download times.

According to Google, there is no “good” crawl number, but they do have

advice for any sudden spikes or drops in your crawl rates.

URL Inspection

This tool is helpful as it lets you do a test run of how Google crawls and renders
a specific URL on your site.

It’s a simple way to make sure that Googlebot can access a page that you might
otherwise leave to guesswork.

If you’re successful, the page renders, and you can see if Googlebot blocks any
resources.

If you want access to your site’s code, click View Tested Page to see the HTML,
a screenshot, and any crawl errors. (Note: Crawl errors used to be its own
report; now, they’re located in URL inspection under Coverage.)

When you get to the debugging point of web development, you can’t beat this
free tool.

Robots.txt Tester

If you’re using a robots.txt file to block Google’s crawlers from a specific

resource, this tool allows you to double-check that everything is working.
For instance, if you have an image you don’t want to appear in a Google Image
Search, you can test your robots.txt here to make sure that your image isn’t
popping up where you don’t want it.

When you test, you’ll either receive an Accepted or Blocked message, and you
can edit accordingly.

How to Use Google Search Console to Increase Your Traffic

You should be pretty well versed in how to use Google Search Console by
now. But did you know you can leverage the Performance Search Results
reports on the platform to drive more traffic to your website? Here’s how:

Optimize Results That Don’t Get Clicks

This is one of my favorite features of GSC.

The idea here is to look for keywords with lots of impressions but few clicks and
a low CTR. Try to find 5-10 keywords that meet these criteria.

First, you have to run a simple report.

Start by clicking all four filters: Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Position.

Next, select the Queries option.

Below the graph, you should see a list of keywords.

Those four filters you applied are available for each keyword:

This will give you a great idea of how each keyword is performing.

Next, run a search. Either open Google in a new tab or window, use an
incognito window in Google Chrome, or change your IP address for broader
results.

Search each keyword and look at the SERP result.

If a listing has low views, the most common causes are a bad title tag or a bad
meta description.

Try:

Tweaking your title tags: This is the biggest and most obvious part of your result,
so you need to make them SEO-friendly but also compelling.

Maximize your meta descriptions: After seeing the title tag, the meta description
gives your readers essential details. Keep them short and clear, and make the
reader curious.

Find Your Mobile Keywords

If you’re serious about enhancing your SEO, I recommend putting some time
into mobile keyword research.

Performance Search Results can show you which keywords mobile searchers
are using.

To see this in action, look at the Devices option:

Above the graph, click “new” and choose “device.”

You should see options for Desktop, Mobile, or Tablet. Select Mobile.

Now, you’ll see all of the keywords that mobile users are searching to find your
site in the SERPs.

Once you know these keywords, you can implement them into your mobile
SEO.

Find Performance Drops

Here’s something about Performance Search Results that’s not obvious: It’s got
its limitations.

By default, a Performance Search Results report covers the last 3 months, and
the furthest back in time Performance Search Results can go is 16 months.

This can hide some issues.

For example, if one of your keywords is at position 11, you’d probably think it’s
doing well.

But that keyword could have been at position eight a few months ago. You can
get around this, though, by adjusting dates.

Right now, you can see that it says “Last 3 months.”

You can take a look at older dates, but what I really like to do is compare date
ranges. This is one of SA’s handiest tools.

Click on the “Last 3 Months” text. You’ll see a box pop up:
Click on “Compare.” Then you’ll see this:
Rather than using one of the preset options, you can click the “Custom…” option
to specify exact date ranges.

I like this option because it’s super flexible.

Once you’ve set your date range, you should see something like this:

In the first section, you can see how all of your metrics have changed, but here’s
the really cool thing about the Dates feature.
When you change a date, you can change anything else you want, and the
dates will stay the same.

You can use all of this information by running a Google search yourself and
seeing if you’ve been pushed down a few positions.

If you have, you know you need to recover your ranking.

You can use the Dates function to find any sort of drop in performance. That
way, you’ll know where to start fixing it.

Analyze Your Backlink Profile

In Google Search Console, you can check out who’s linking to your site.

Just head over to the Links section and you’ll see a list of external sites linking to
yours and the pages on your site with the most links.

This info comes in handy for spotting link-building opportunities and tracking
the quality and relevance of current links. Plus, you can use it to uncover
spammy links and disavow them.

And there’s more! You can use the links report to see:

Top linking sites

Top linking text

Backlinks for a specific site to a specific page

Top linking sites for a given page

The backlink feature shows internal links, too, including:

Top linked pages within your own site

Which pages link to a given page

Check For Indexing Issues

Google’s Search Console page indexing report tells you which pages Google
has crawled and indexed.

By going to the Summary page, you’ll see a list of indexed and non-indexed
pages, along with tables detailing why Google couldn’t index a URL or other
indexing improvement suggestions.

There may be a lot of data there, so focus on these three areas:

The “Why pages aren’t indexed” table, to find details of issues that
stopped a URL from getting indexed. You can use this information to
decide whether you can fix the issue.

The “Page experience” table to see suggested areas of improvement.

“View data about indexed pages” for historical information.

Common reasons that Google doesn’t index a URL include 404 errors, having a
noindex tag, or that your URL is blocked by a robots.txt file.

FAQs

Does Google Search Console include paid?

Google Search Console shows organic data only.

What is Google Search Console?

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’s a free online tool Google offers with details about your
website and the users who visit it.

How Do I Use Google Search Console?

When learning how to use Google Search Console, first add your website
to Google Search Console. Then, set up operations you want to look to
optimize consistently. Next, submit a sitemap, and finally, learn metrics for
refining and reporting purposes after putting the Google Search Console
to work.
 How to Set Up Google Search Console

Start by signing into your Google Account, opening Google Search

Console, and adding your site. Finally, add your domain or URL prefix to
verify your account and begin taking advantage of the features.

What is GSC?

GSC stands for Google Search Console, a free tool provided by Google
that lets users check the search health of their websites.

How do I add users to Google Search Console?

A Google Search Console property can have a maximum of 100 users. To

add a new property, head to Settings, click on Users & permissions, click
Add user, enter their Google Account email, and choose their permission
level.

What does GSC do?

Google Search Console is Google’s free tool that lets you see how well
your site is indexed and performing on Google.

Conclusion

Google Search Console gives you powerful insights into how your site
performs, as well as what you can do to keep Google’s attention.

Once you learn how to use Google Search Console more efficiently, you can
start to get the most out of it. You’ll soon be able to uncover performance
search results, add a site map, and see how your Core Web Vitals measure up.
And that’s just for a start.

By analyzing the data provided by GSC, you can also identify issues with your
website, such as crawl errors, broken links,

Google Console also helps you maximize your traffic and optimize your site’s
performance. The best part? It’s free!
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