Google Search Console is a free tool, designed to show website owners insights about the performance of their domain in search engines. The platform can highlight issues in the way Google understands your content, and it can also pinpoint opportunities to improve your current performance. Ultimately, Google Search Console is here to help you to enhance the way that Google sees your site, and displays your content in its results pages.
How do I connect my website to Google Search Console?
If you have a grasp of your CMS, or if you’re a SEO professional, then there are ways that you can connect your website to GSC independently. Otherwise, it may be helpful to ask an expert to help you to configure this. We’ve summarised some of the most common configuration options below:
First – create a property for your domain
To get started, you’ll need to head over to Google Search Console and create a property. A property simply describes the view that you’ll have for the domain you’re connecting, and there are two types to choose from:
URL prefix property
This property type Includes only URLs with the specified prefix, including the protocol (i.e whether you have entered a http/https URL). If you want your property to match any protocol or subdomain that you may have (http/https/www./m/www2 and so on), you should create a Domain property instead. When you choose this type of property, you’ll have a couple of options for verifying ownership.
Domain property
A domain property Includes all subdomains (m, www, and so on) and multiple protocols (http, https, ftp). If you have different path segments (e.g, website/es/, website/en/) and need to limit your data to show results for these versions of your website, then choose a URL prefix property. To verify ownership for a domain property, you need to add your unique tracking code to your website DNS records.
Once you have chosen the right type of property, you will need to verify ownership of the domain you’re connecting to, using the options specified.
If you’re connecting a URL prefix property to GSC
These instructions apply to WordPress – get in touch with us if you need guidance for any other CMS options and we’ll be happy to advise!
- Add GSC script to the head and body code of your website
If you’re going to add the script manually, you will need to navigate to the ‘appearance’ menu in your WP dashboard. From here, if you are using a compatible child theme, you’ll have the option to choose ‘file editor’, and here you’ll find your header.php. Paste the GSC tracking code as high up in the <head> tag as you can, and immediately after the opening <body> tag.
It’s worth noting that the above option requires coding skills, so we would proceed with caution if you aren’t comfortable with making these types of amends. The results can be a bit painstaking to fix, so it’s always a good idea to ask an expert, and connect your site without creating any issues.
- Use a plugin to add the GSC script to the head and body code of your website
If you don’t feel comfortable inserting the code directly, or if your CMS doesn’t allow you to edit your header.php file directly, then you may be able to use a plugin as an alternative approach. Our go-to suggestion is the Google Site Kit, where you can simply paste the tracking ID for your GSC property. From here, test your site to ensure that the connection has been established.
If you’re connecting a domain property to GSC
- Edit your DNS records
To connect a domain property, you’ll need to add your tracking code to your DNS records. If you use a hosting company or SEO provider, you could ask them to do this on your behalf as it requires a level of technical expertise. It could take up to 24 hours for your DNS records to update, so keep an eye out for this.
You can test your domain connection in GSC from this point regardless of the verification method you have used.
How to *really* benefit from Google Search Console
Now, how do you benefit from the various things that GSC can show you about your website? We’ve compiled some of our top hacks below, explaining why they’re important.
Submitting your sitemap
While submitting your sitemap to Google isn’t essential, you have the option to do so in GSC, and it can encourage some positive developments in terms of organic coverage. Submitting your sitemap doesn’t mean Google crawler agents will jump straight to it, but it does make it easier for these systems to understand your content – and this will inform the way it is displayed to users. If you have a .xml sitemap file, you can simply add this URL path to the GSC feature, and your sitemap will be uploaded from here. You’ll see a ‘success’ status update once you have uploaded your file.
Viewing data about indexed and unindexed pages
Any website owner ought to know how their website is (or isn’t) being shown in search engines, and in GSC, you can find a page-by-page coverage breakdown of this. Data about indexed pages basically tells you about the content from your website that Google is choosing to serve to its users in search results; whereas unindexed pages are instances where for some reason, your content is being omitted from SERPs.
There are a few different reasons for having unindexed pages, and some of them require a degree of technical proficiency to correct – but others can be rooted in the quality of the content on the page. However, sometimes there’s no real rhyme or reason for pages being unindexed, and it can be extra frustrating if your latest content marketing campaign is an example of this. We’d always suggest reviewing your content from a user perspective, as we continue to shift towards creation for people over algorithms.
By having this information, you’ll know exactly what content is and isn’t being shown to users, and you’ll have insights for reevaluating any unindexed pages. However, by nature, there are some pages that can have a no-index status and cause no issues – for example, the ‘cart’ page for e-commerce brands.
Page-by-page performance metrics
The beauty of GSC is that you have page-by-page performance metrics at your fingertips. You’ll be able to see all of the following measurements for pages on your website:
- Impressions – the number of times your website is shown to users in SERPs.
- Clicks – the number of times pages from your website are clicked by users in SERPs.
- CTR – the percentage of users that actually click through to your site from SERPs.
- Average ranking position – the average SERP ranking position for any given page from your website.
On top of this, you’ll also be able to view performance over a broad time period, and you can also see the metrics above for individual search queries that the page ranks for. You can add custom regex parameters to the URL view filter, giving you opportunities to get granular.
There’s plenty of ways that you can interpret this data, but one might be to assess pages that have a high impression count and a disproportionate number of clicks. You might find that your meta content for the page reads quite flat, or the actual content on the page could be extremely irrelevant to the title of the page.
You could also look at your rankings to identify any ‘low hanging fruit’ opportunities; here, we’re referring to keywords that are ranking between positions 10-20 (page 2 and 3). These pages could be optimised for their top search queries to serve more user value, boosting their position in turn.
Checking for the impact of a Google Update
Google cites GSC as one of the main places to look when you’re assessing the impact of a core/algorithm update. Google releases its updates periodically (upon writing this post, we’ve seen the November 2024 update rollout), and the changes that they encompass are designed to enhance the user experience in search. When a rollout has completed, you can navigate to your GSC dashboard and view any fluctuations for specific pages, or for your website as a whole.
We’d suggest using GSC as a starting point in this regard, rather than solely relying on it to make significant changes to your website in the aftermath of an update.
Make the most of free insights with Google Search Console
Google Search Console is our ultimate ‘no brainer’ for website owners, as it gives you quick, easy access to a whole host of invaluable insights about your domain. Get started by focusing on the checklist that we have summarised above, or simply contact us if you’d like any support in configuring or utilising your GSC property.