Google Search Console

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google to help website owners and administrators understand how their website performs in Google search results. It provides a centralized platform for viewing key information about how a website is seen, indexed, and ranked in Google. Search Console is also known as Google Webmaster Tools.

Through Search Console, users can:

• View website visibility data in Google search.
• Monitor website indexing status.
• Discover and diagnose issues that affect a website’s performance in search, such as mobile device compatibility issues, crawl errors, security vulnerabilities, low-quality pages, etc.
• Analyze how users interact with search results, such as click-through rate (CTR).
• Submit sitemaps and specific URLs to help Google discover and index content faster.
• Receive notifications from Google about important events that may affect website visibility.

Key Features of Google Search Console

Google Search Console provides several core features that enable website administrators to better manage their website’s image and performance in Google search:

1. Performance:

   • Provides detailed reports showing website performance in Google search, including search queries, clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), average ranking, and more.
   • Users can filter and view data by query, date, country/region, device, and search type (Web, image, video, etc.).
   • Analyze which queries bring the most clicks and rankings, and identify underperforming queries for optimization.
   • Monitor the website’s organic search traffic trends.

2. Index:

   • Shows which pages have been indexed by Google and which have not.
   • Identify and resolve issues that prevent pages from being indexed, such as invalid URLs, server errors (e.g., 4xx and 5xx errors), blocked by mobile device issues, rejected by robots.txt, etc.
   • Submit a Sitemap to help Google better discover and index website content.
   • Monitor the indexing status of specific URLs.

3. Mobile Usability:

   • Analyze website usability on mobile devices, checking for issues that may cause a poor mobile user experience.
   • Common issues include: clickable elements too close, text too small, requires fixed-width layout, cannot use mouse, etc.
   • Resolving these issues helps improve the website’s ranking in mobile search.

4. Crawling:

   • Provides information about how Google’s crawler interacts with your website.
   • You can submit a new sitemap or update an existing one here to help the crawler discover new pages or updated content more efficiently.

5. Links:

   • Shows pages that Google has found that point to your website (external links).
   • This helps to understand which websites are linking to your site and the quality of those links, which is valuable for external link strategy and assessing website reputation.

6. Security:

   • Receive notifications about potential security issues, such as malware or hacking attacks detected.
   • If a website is attacked or has security risks, information is provided here to help website administrators understand the situation and take steps to fix it to protect user data and website integrity.

7. Troubleshooting:

   • Allows users to view the version of a web page that Google’s crawler “sees” and compare it with the version that actual users see in a browser.
   • Helps debug issues to ensure that web pages load correctly and that important content that blocks crawlers from accessing is removed.

How to Use Google Search Console to Improve Website Visibility?

Google Search Console is a valuable resource for website administrators and SEO personnel, and can help improve website visibility and search performance in the following ways:

• Submit a Sitemap: Creating and submitting a sitemap ensures that the Google crawler discovers all important pages, especially for large or new websites, which helps speed up indexing.
• Monitor and Fix Indexing Errors: Regularly check the “Index” section to resolve server errors, redirection issues, etc., to ensure that as many pages as possible are correctly indexed. Fix 404 errors, 301 redirection errors, etc.
• Optimize Mobile Device Experience: The mobile usability report points out mobile issues. The “Mobile Usability” report will show issues affecting mobile users. Optimize based on the report to improve mobile friendliness.
• Analyze Search Performance Data:
  • View which queries brought traffic and rankings in the “Performance” report.
  • Pay attention to low-ranking or zero-click queries and think about optimization opportunities.
  • Analyze CTR. If the CTR is low, it may mean that the title or description is not attractive enough, or that the page content does not match the query.
• Handle Security Issues: Respond immediately to security reports, follow the instructions to fix the issues, and request Google to re-review.
• Use the URL Inspection Tool: Retrieve whether a specific page has been indexed or submit a new page for the crawler to crawl.
• Track Ranking Changes for Important Queries: Combine with other SEO tools to track ranking changes for core keywords.
• Understand User Intent: Understand the interest and intent of users in your website content by viewing the queries they search for.
• Get Direct Suggestions from Google: Sometimes you will receive specific suggestions for improving website structure, content, or mobile experience.

Conclusion

Google Search Console is a basic tool that every website administrator and SEO professional who values their online visibility should use. It can help diagnose issues, optimize performance, ensure security, and ultimately improve a website’s ranking and traffic in Google search results. By continuously monitoring and utilizing the functions of Search Console, a website can achieve better search performance.