What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a free tool that gives you an overview of activity in the search results before the user clicks through to your website. It connects to your website and provides insights exclusively related to organic search. The insights from the tool can help you optimize your content, meta descriptions, as well as identify and eliminate keyword cannibalization.
Inside Google Search Console, you will find several practical features that, among other things, give you:
- Insights into organic traffic data (search traffic)
- Option to add sitemap
- Technical updates
- Indexing of pages
Why is Google Search Console useful for SEO?
Well, there are several advantages to using GSC in your work with søkeoptimalisering (SEO). Overall, it is particularly useful for on-page optimalisering, keyword optimization and identifying technical issues. The reason GSC is so valuable for these three areas is the insights you can extract from the tool. You can see which søkeord are driving traffic to your website, as well as which pages generate impressions and how the different keywords are ranking. In addition, Google Search Console helps you identify technical issues related to indexing that can negatively impact the user experience.
By using GSC correctly, you can identify and resolve issues that prevent your website from reaching its full SEO potential. Overall, you will not only increase visibility, but also improve your website’s performance and user experience!
How to add and verify Google Search Console?
To start using Google Search Console, you need to add your website and verify that you are authorized to access this information. This may seem complex, but we will guide you through the process step by step:
1. Go to Google Search Console and sign in to your Google account.
2. Click on “Add property” in the dropdown menu in the left corner.
Choose how you want to verify your website, either with “domain verification” or “URL prefix”. The main difference between these two is that with “domain verification” you get access to all URL variations and subdomains, while “URL prefix” only gives you access to that single variation.
4. Enter the correct URL and click continue.
5. A dialog box will now appear to verify that you own the website. Follow the instructions below.
For domain verification: Add a DNS record, that is, a text code, in your web hosting account. This gives you access to all URL variants and any subdomains, ensuring full control over any issues Google may have with URL variations.
For URL prefix: Add a code snippet to the HTML code via the CMS. You can also use your access in Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics to complete verification. This option is better if you don’t have access to the web host and server.
6. Once the verification is complete, you are ready to start using Google Search Console. It usually takes a few days before you can see statistics and other information about indexing.
Four key features in Google Search Console
As a beginner in Google Search Console, it’s not always easy to know where to start. That’s why it’s useful to get an overview of the tool and its various features. To help you get started, we’ll take a closer look at four key tasks we use GSC for:
- Identify keyword cannibalization
In Google Search Console, there is a feature called “Performance”, in Norwegian «Ytelse», which is the one we use most often. Here you can see a graph that tracks the development of your organic traffic, based on total clicks, total impressions, CTR, and average position/ranking in the search results.
If you go to the section below the graph, you can see an overview of the top 10 keywords and pages for the website, based on clicks and impressions.
If you click into a specific keyword and then on pages, you’ll see which pages receive clicks for that particular keyword. This way, you can, for example, identify internally competing content, if several pages appear for the same keyword.
Here we have clicked into the keyword “søkemotor” and can see that two pages are ranking for the same term. This is something you generally want to avoid!
- Identify indexing issues
Every day, Google crawls all the pages on your website to present the latest content in the search results. Under “Page indexing” in Google Search Console, you can find a status overview of how your website is being indexed.
Below the graph, you’ll find an indexing overview showing how Google indexes the content. This includes several different reasons why pages on the website are not being indexed.
A useful tip here is to focus on the pages in this overview to improve your rankings and your website’s performance.
Let’s take a closer look at two indexing issues. One example is “Crawled – currently not indexed” which indicates that Google has crawled the page, but that it is not sufficient to be shown. In our experience, this can be due to the content not providing value, being plagiarized, or overlapping with other content on the website.
The second example is “Not found (404)” which occurs when pages have been deleted without any kind of redirect. The goal is to keep the number of 404 pages as low as possible, since you don’t want to send a user to that type of page.
- Check the status of a specific URL
Another useful feature in Google Search Console is “URL Inspection”. Here you can check the status of how a specific page is indexed and displayed in Google’s search results.
This feature is very useful when you make on-page changes to individual pages. By requesting re-indexing of the page, you send a request to Google to visit the URL and update that specific page. This ensures that the URL is prioritized and revisited by Google to display the latest version in the search results. It is important to note that it may take some time before the search results are updated.
Other information you can find here includes when Google last crawled the specific URL, and the reason why the URL has not been indexed.
- Submit sitemap
A sitemap is an overview map of all the pages available on your website. The purpose of a sitemap is to help Google more easily understand the site structure of your website, so it can index pages faster and update the search engine.
With Google Search Console, you have the opportunity to submit a sitemap and see that a Googlebot crawls it regularly. This is absolutely essential when you have a new website that Google needs to review.
Summary
In this article, we have explored Google Search Console, a valuable tool for anyone working with websites. By leveraging its many features, you will not only improve your visibility in search results, but also create a better user experience on your site.
Do you have any questions about Google Search Console, SEO, or marketing in general?
