5 Key Google Search Console Features You Should Be Using
Published 19 December 2024
Technologies
By Elite Digital Team
Google Search Console, or GSC, is a must for anyone managing a website. Whether you are a small business owner, a digital marketer, or a web developer, GSC provides valuable insights into how your website performs on Google Search. Such insights can help you optimize your site for better visibility, improve user experience, and resolve technical issues that could be affecting your search rankings.
1. Performance Report: Understanding Your Search Traffic
Key Metrics:
- Clicks: Number of clicks of the users on your site in search results.
- Impressions: The number of times your site appears in search results.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): Total number of impressions that involved a click.
- Average Position: The average ranking position of your website for search queries.
How to Use It:
- Analyze Top Queries: Identify the search queries that drive the most traffic to your site. This data helps you understand what users are searching for and allows you to optimize content around those terms.
- Track Page Performance: Compare each page’s performance to establish which pages are doing particularly well and which are lagging.
- Filter by Country or Device: Understand how your site performs in different regions or on specific devices (mobile vs. desktop).
2. URL Inspection Tool: Diagnose and Fix Page Issues
The URL Inspection Tool is the feature that allows you to check the status of the individual pages on your site. Using it, you will know more about how Google sees your page and identify possible errors.
Key Features:
- Indexing Status: Check whether Google indexed the page
- Last Crawl Date: See when Google crawled the page recently
- Coverage Issues: Identify if there are coverage issues that stopped the page from getting indexed
- Live Test: Live testing to see how Google fetches the page.
How to Use It:
- Diagnose Non-Indexed Pages: If a page isn’t indexed, use this tool to find out why. Common issues include crawl errors, blocked resources, or noindex tags.
- Test Changes: After updating a page, use the URL Inspection Tool to ensure Google can access and render the changes correctly.
- Request Indexing: For newly created or updated pages, request indexing to speed up the process of appearing in search results.
3. Coverage Report: Ensure Proper Indexing
The Coverage Report helps you understand the indexing status of your website’s pages. It categorizes pages into different statuses, such as Valid, Error, Valid with Warnings, and Excluded.
Key Insights:
- Errors: Identify pages that Google couldn’t index due to critical issues like server errors, 404 errors, or redirect issues.
- Valid with Warnings: Highlight pages that are indexed but may have potential issues, such as missing metadata.
- Excluded Pages: See which pages are intentionally or unintentionally excluded from Google’s index (e.g., pages with no index tags, duplicate content, or canonical tags).
How to Use It:
- Fix Errors Quickly: Address errors to ensure critical pages are accessible to search engines.
- Analyze Excluded Pages: Understand why certain pages are excluded and verify if the exclusions are intentional.
- Validate Fixes: After resolving an issue, use the “Validate Fix” option to let Google know you’ve addressed the problem.
4. Sitemap Submission: Guide Google’s Crawling
Submitting a sitemap is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to help Google crawl and index your website. A sitemap is essentially a map of your website, listing all the pages you want Google to know about.
Benefits of Submitting a Sitemap:
- Faster Indexing: Helps Google discover new or updated pages quickly.
- Improved Crawl Efficiency: Ensures that important pages are prioritized during crawling.
- Visibility for Large Sites: Essential for websites with complex structures or a large number of pages.
How to Use It:
- Generate a Sitemap: Use tools like Yoast SEO (for WordPress) or Screaming Frog to create an XML sitemap.
- Submit the Sitemap: In GSC, navigate to the Sitemaps section and enter the URL of your sitemap.
- Monitor Sitemap Status: Check for errors or warnings in the submitted sitemap, such as broken links or duplicate URLs.
5. Core Web Vitals: Optimize User Experience
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure the user experience of your website. These metrics focus on three critical areas:
- Loading Performance (Largest Contentful Paint – LCP): Measures how quickly the main content of a page loads.
- Interactivity (First Input Delay – FID): Evaluates the time it takes for a page to respond to user interaction.
- Visual Stability (Cumulative Layout Shift – CLS): Assesses the stability of visual elements on a page during loading.
Why It Matters:
Core Web Vitals are now a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm. Poor scores in these metrics can negatively impact your search rankings and user experience.
How to Use It:
- Monitor Core Web Vitals in GSC: The “Core Web Vitals” report highlights pages with poor performance and suggests areas for improvement.
- Fix Issues:
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- Optimize images and enable compression to improve LCP.
- Minimize JavaScript execution to reduce FID.
- Use stable dimensions for images and videos to avoid layout shifts (CLS).
- Validate Changes: After making improvements, use GSC to validate your fixes and track the impact on performance.
Conclusion
Google Search Console is a treasure trove of data and insights that can help you elevate your website’s performance. By leveraging the Performance Report, URL Inspection Tool, Coverage Report, Sitemap Submission, and Core Web Vitals, you can gain a deeper understanding of your website’s health and make informed decisions to improve its search visibility.
Make it a habit to regularly explore these features and address any issues flagged by GSC. Doing so will not only boost your search rankings but also ensure a better experience for your users. Start using these features today and unlock your website’s full potential!
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