Do you have your own website, or are you managing a company’s website? Of course, to do this right, you need to closely monitor your website’s performance. Google offers various tools to collect and analyze data from your site. You’ve probably heard of Google Analytics and Google Search Console before. These tools are free for anyone managing a website and can provide you with very valuable insights about your site. In this article, we’ll explain how to use Google Search Console for SEO.
Features in Google Search Console
Now that you’ve set up your account, what’s next? Well, it’s time to look at some of your data! In the rest of this article, we’ll review some of the reports and information you can find.
Performance Tab
In the Performance tab, you can see which pages and keywords on your website rank in Google search results. While the old version of GSC showed data for up to 90 days, the current version allows you to view data for up to 16 months. Keep in mind that data is available starting from when you created your account.
By regularly checking the Performance tab, you can quickly identify which keywords or pages need more attention and optimization.
Clicks
This shows how often people clicked your website in Google search results. This number can tell you how well your page titles and meta descriptions are performing. If only a few people click your listing, it might not stand out in the search results. It can be helpful to check what other results appear around yours to see how to optimize your snippet.Impressions
Impressions show how often your website or a specific page appeared in search results. For example, in our own website’s GSC account, “Yoast SEO” is one of the keywords our site ranks for. The number of impressions following this keyword shows how often our site appears in Google search results for that keyword. At this point, you might not yet know which page ranks for that keyword.Average CTR (Click-Through Rate)
CTR tells you what percentage of people who saw your site in search results actually clicked on it. You probably know that higher rankings usually lead to higher CTRs.Average Position
Last in this list is “Average Position.” This indicates the average ranking position of a specific keyword or page during the selected time period. Of course, this position isn’t always reliable because more people see different search results. Google seems to get better at understanding which results are most relevant to each visitor. However, this metric still gives you a sense of whether your clicks, impressions, and average CTR make sense.
a. Index Coverage
A more technical but very valuable tab in Google Search Console is the Index Coverage tab. This section shows how many pages Google has indexed since the last update, how many pages are not indexed, and which errors or warnings are causing issues in properly indexing your pages.
b. URL Inspection
The URL Inspection tool helps you analyze specific URLs. It fetches the page from Google’s index and compares it with the current version on your site to spot differences. You’ll also find more technical details like when and how Google last crawled the page and how it currently appears. Sometimes, you’ll spot errors that indicate Google can’t crawl your page properly. This tool also provides info about structured data on the URL.
c. Enhancements Tabs
Below “Index Coverage,” you’ll find the Enhancements tabs. Here, you get insights on everything you need to improve your site’s performance. It includes suggestions related to site speed, mobile usability, AMP usage, and structured data improvements that can lead to rich results in SERPs.
d. Speed
The new Speed report is still experimental but already invaluable. This report gives you a good idea of how fast your site loads on both mobile and desktop.
e. AMP
One of the tabs is AMP, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. If you have AMP set up for your site, you can check for errors related to AMP in Google Search Console.
f. Sitemaps
An XML sitemap is like a roadmap to all important pages and posts on your website. Every website benefits from having one. If you use our Yoast SEO plugin, you automatically have an XML sitemap. If not, we recommend creating one so Google can easily find your most important pages and posts.
g. Links
In the Links section of your site, you can see how many links from other sites point to your website.
h. Mobile Usability
The Mobile Usability section shows any usability issues with your mobile site or specific mobile pages.
i. Manual Actions
The Manual Actions tab is one you don’t want to see anything in. If your site has been penalized by Google, you’ll find details here. You’ll also receive an email notification if your site is affected by manual actions.
j. Security Issues
Finally, the Security Issues tab alerts you if Google detects a security problem with your site.