Google Search Console for SEOs

Google Search Console for SEOs

Google Search Console, a free service tool helpful for SEO professionals, is provided by Google for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshoot site’s presence in Google Search results.

Google Search Console is a free website analytics tool that Google provides. Google Search Console tracks your website’s performance in search results on Google.

With data-packed amenities, SEOs can scavenge through GSC to locate stashes of hidden nuggets such as clicks and impressions from search queries, Core Web Vitals and whatever other surprises lie within your website.

Among its many facets, GSC provides several valuable reports, including:

• Impressions and Clicks
• Indexation
• Links
• Manual Actions
• Core Web Vitals (CWV)

Verifying Site Ownership in GSC

Ownership verification refers to proving to Search Console that you own a specific website. A verified owner has the highest degree of permissions in Search Console.

• Either add a new property or choose an unverified property from your property selector.
• Choose one of the verification methods and follow the instructions. The verification page will list which methods are available and recommended for your site.
• If you are unable to verify site ownership for some reason, then ask a current owner to grant access to the property in Search Console.

The verification options page for your property allows you to specify more than one verification method. In case one of your current verification methods fails (for instance, if you checked using a Google Analytics tracking code and someone modified a template on your website that omits the tag), you might wish to add several verification methods.

Go to the property’s Settings page and select Ownership verification to add an extra verification method.

Using the same or different verification techniques, many parties can confirm who owns the same internet property. Just make sure not replace any other owners’ verification tokens if you employ the same verification technique.

Any child properties you create after a property has been validated would be automatically verified using the same verification process as the parent. In other words, any child properties you create (m.example.com or https://example.com/some/path)  would be automatically confirmed using the same HTML file upload method if you used it to verify ownership of example.com.

How to add a Sitemap in GSC

Adding a sitemap in GSC lets you inform Google about any updates or changes to your website content, enabling search results to display the most up-to-date information for users.

From identifying crawl errors to optimizing your website's indexing, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and best practices to leverage GSC for your website's success.

A sitemap is a file that provides a roadmap of your website's structure, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content. It is an essential aspect of SEO and helps improve your site's visibility online.

For adding a sitemap to GSC:

• Go to the sitemap you want to add and copy the URL.
• The syntax of most XML sitemaps is like “https://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml.” Sitemaps automatically generated by content management systems, like WordPress, may have this syntax instead: https://www.domain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
• In GSC, click on Sitemaps in the left column.
• Add your sitemap URL in the ‘Add a new sitemap’ field at the top of the page and click Submit.
• Repeat these steps for all additional sitemaps that are needed. Many sites will have separate sitemaps for videos, articles, product pages, and images.
• To see this comparison, click on the three vertical dots to the right of your sitemap and select “See page indexing.”

Setting Users, Owners, and Permissions

The permissions settings associated with user types limit who can access these parts of GSC.

• Owner – Two types of owners: either the user has verified their ownership via one of the verification steps listed above, or has had ownership delegated to them by an owner.

This level of user has full control over the property, up to complete removal from GSC.

• Full – The type of user has access to almost all the functions of the property Owner. However, if the Full user removes the property, it only removes the property from their list of sites, not from GSC entirely.
• Restricted – User can only view the data within GSC. They are unable to make any changes to the account.

Dimensions and Metrics

Dimensions and Metrics help in measuring your site’s performance, from page indexation to ranking and traffic.

Dimensions group data into meaningful segments, such as Pages, Queries, Countries, and Devices. Metrics include data, such as Impressions and Clicks.

The reasons why pages were not indexed would be included in a Dimension in the Pages report, while the number of pages impacted by that reason would be included in Metrics.

The dimensions for Core Web Vitals would be poor and need improvement, and good. The quantity of pages that fit into each category would be one of the metrics.

Uses of GSC for SEO in your daily activities include:-

1. Measuring Site Performance
2. Finding “Striking Distance” Keywords
3. Request Faster Indexation Of New Pages
4. Bulk Data Export
5. Bonus: Integration With Other SEO Tools

GSC is an Essential Tool for Site Optimization

Over the course of its nearly two-decade existence, Google Search Console has changed. Since its launch as Google Webmaster Tools, it has given site owners and SEO experts insightful information.

You would soon realize how crucial it is to make wise choices for your future site improvements if you haven’t already incorporated it into your everyday activities.