Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to monitor and improve the performance of your website in Google search results. This tool is essential for any website owner who wants to increase their visibility, receive more traffic and improve the user experience.
In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about Google Search Console and how to make the most of it to optimize your website.
How to create an account in Google Search Console?
To start using Google Search Console, you must first create an account. Follow these steps to do it:
- Go to the main page (https://search.google.com/search-console/about).
- Click “Start Now.”
- Sign in with your Google account.
- Enter the URL of your website in the “URL prefix” field.
- Click “Continue.”
How to add your website to Google Search Console?
Once you’ve created your account, you need to add your website to Google Search Console. Follow these steps to do it:
- On the Google Search Console home page, select the website property you want to manage.
- Click “Add Property”.
- Enter the full URL of your website (for example, https://www.example.com).
- Click “Continue.”
- Verify that you are the owner of the website by following the instructions that will appear on the screen.
- Ready! Your website is now added.
The features of Google Search Console
Google Search Console offers a wide variety of features to help you optimize your website. Some of the most important are:
- Performance: The performance section allows you to see the keywords people are finding you for on Google and the number of clicks, impressions, and CTR (click-through-to-impressions rate) you’re getting for each keyword. You can also see the most popular pages of your website and the queries that lead to each of them.
- Coverage: The Coverage section shows you which pages of your website are being indexed by Google and if there are issues preventing other pages from being indexed. It also shows you if there are crawl errors on your website.
- URL Inspection: The URL Inspection section allows you to see how Google is viewing a specific URL on your website. You can see when the URL was last crawled, if there are any indexing issues on the page, and what keywords Google is using to display the URL in search results.
- Sitemaps: You can submit a sitemap so that Google knows which pages of your website you want to be indexed. Also, you can see if there are errors in your sitemap that are preventing certain pages from being indexed.
- Links: The Links section shows you who is linking to your website and which pages are getting the most links. It also shows you if there are problems with incoming links to your website.
- Security: The security section shows you if Google has detected any security issues on your website, such as malware or phishing. It also shows you if your website was hacked or if there are HTTPS connection issues.
How to use Google Search Console to improve your website?
Now that you know how to use it, it is important that you know how you can use this tool to improve your website. Some of the most popular ways to do this are:
- Identify the keywords that are giving you the most traffic and try to improve and create more content related to them.
- Fix indexing issues and crawling errors to make sure all the important pages on your website are getting indexed.
- Improving the loading speed of your website, as this can have a huge impact on the user experience and your position in search results.
- Get more links from high authority websites to improve your position in search results.
- Monitor and fix security issues to make sure your website is protected.
In short, this is an essential tool for any website owner who wants to improve their position in Google search results. By using the functionalities of this tool and taking action based on the results, you can improve the performance of your website and ensure that it is protected against security problems. With this guide, you’re ready to start using Google Search Console and improve your website’s online presence.