In the constantly evolving world of digital marketing, it's essential for website owners and administrators to understand and make the most of the tools available to optimize their online presence. One of the most powerful and valuable tools in this area is Google Search Console (GSC). In this blog, we'll explore what Google Search Console is, how to install it, what it's for, and how to make the most of its capabilities, including indexing and user experience reports.
Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, is a free platform provided by Google to help website owners monitor and improve their site's performance in Google search results. It provides key data and tools that allow administrators to understand how Google crawls, indexes and displays their website in search results.
Very easy... just follow the steps below.
Google Search Console is a multifunctional tool that offers several useful capabilities:
GSC allows you to see how Google is indexing your website. You can check how many of your pages are indexed and receive alerts if there are indexing problems.
Get detailed information about how your website performs in search results. You can see what search queries bring users to your site, which pages are most popular, and how your traffic evolves over time.
GSC provides reports on the user experience on your site, including usability issues on mobile devices and the loading speed of your pages.
Find out if there are problems that prevent Google from crawling and indexing certain pages on your site. It will let you know about errors, excluded pages, and more.
You can submit a sitemap to Google and adjust how Google crawls your site using the robots.txt file.
Check if Google can correctly understand the structure of your site and show rich snippets in search results.
Explore who is linking to your site and make sure there are no unwanted or harmful links.
Index monitoring through Google Search Console helps you understand how Google is crawling and indexing your website. This allows you to identify indexing problems, adjust your SEO strategy, and ensure that your most important pages are correctly indexed and displayed in search results.
In the “Coverage” section of Google Search Console, you can see how many pages of your website are indexed by Google and how many have been excluded. If you notice that the number of indexed pages is lower than expected or if you see an increase in excluded pages, this could indicate problems with the internal link structure, duplicate content issues, or errors in the robots.txt file.
Google Search Console lets you see how Googlebot, Google's crawling robot, explores and crawls the pages on your site. You can see the date and time of the last time Googlebot visited each page. If you find that important pages aren't being crawled as often as expected, you might need to adjust the link structure or improve the accessibility of those pages.
This report details any indexing problems Google has found on your website. You can see if there are crawl errors, excluded pages, pages with redirects, and more. For example, if you see an important page with a “not indexable” error, you'll need to investigate and fix the problem so that Google can index it properly.
You can submit a sitemap to Google Search Console to help Google better understand the structure of your website. A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your site in an organized manner. If you add new pages or make changes to the site, an updated sitemap can speed up the indexing process.
In the performance report, you can compare the number of pages indexed in a specific period with a previous period. This can help you identify significant indexing changes and take action accordingly.
If you don't want certain pages to be indexed, you can use the URL exclusion tool in Google Search Console to block those pages from search results. This is useful if you have private content or test pages that you don't want to be visible online.
Using the performance report, you can explore which search queries are leading users to your website and which pages are getting the most clicks. This provides you with valuable information about what content is most popular and what search terms are relevant to your audience.
The Google Search Console performance report is an invaluable tool that provides a detailed view of how your website is performing in Google search results. This report provides you with essential information about search queries, the pages that receive clicks, the impression of your results, and the click through rate (CTR). Here's a more detailed explanation of the key aspects of the performance report:
In the “Search Queries” section, you can see the keywords or phrases that users have used on Google to find your website. This helps you understand how users relate to your content and which terms are most relevant to your audience. You can get information such as the total number of impressions (times your results appeared in search results), clicks (times that users clicked on your results) and the click through rate (CTR), which is the percentage of clicks in relation to impressions.
In the “Pages” section, you can see which pages on your website are getting the most clicks from search results. This allows you to identify the most popular pages and understand what type of content resonates best with users. In addition, you can view data such as impressions, clicks and CTR for each specific page.
The report also shows you the countries from which users are accessing your website. This is useful for understanding the geography of your audience and adapting your strategy based on their location.
The “Devices” report shows you how users are accessing your website, whether from desktop computers, tablets or mobile devices. This is crucial because the user experience can vary depending on the device, and you can adjust your design and content to provide the best possible experience.
In this section, you can see if Google is showing rich results (such as featured snippets, FAQs, reviews, etc.) for your website in search results. This can provide a competitive advantage, as rich results often attract more attention and clicks.
In addition to these aspects, the performance report allows you to apply various filters and comparisons to obtain more specific information. You can filter by dates, type of search (web, images, videos), properties (for example, if you have mobile and desktop versions), and more.
Using the Google Search Console performance report is essential to evaluate the success of your SEO strategy, identify opportunities for improvement, and adjust your content and approach based on search trends and user behavior. By understanding how users interact with your site in search results, you can make informed decisions to optimize your online presence.
Improving the user experience is essential for the success of your website, since a good experience not only benefits visitors, but can also have a positive impact on search results. Google Search Console provides useful tools and data to improve the user experience of your site. Here are a few ways you can do this:
Use the “Performance” report in Google Search Console to analyze pages with a high CTR and those with a low CTR. This will give you an idea of what content is most attractive to users and what areas need improvement. Make sure that the meta tags and descriptions on your pages are attractive and relevant to search queries.
The loading speed of your website is a key factor in the user experience. Use the “Speed” report in Google Search Console to check how your site is performing in terms of speed on mobile and desktop devices. Google also provides specific recommendations to improve the loading speed of your site.
Since a significant number of users access the internet from mobile devices, it's crucial that your site is mobile-friendly. Use the “Mobile Usability” report in Google Search Console to identify problems that may hinder the user experience on mobile devices, such as links that are too close, content that is not visible, and so on.
Structured data helps Google better understand the content of your website. Use Google Search Console to check for errors in your structured data and to make sure it's showing up correctly in search results. Rich snippets, such as reviews, pricing, and FAQs, can improve visibility and user experience in search results.
Broken or non-existent links can frustrate users and damage the browsing experience. Use the “Links” report in Google Search Console to identify broken internal and external links on your website. Please correct these links to ensure that users can navigate without problems.
Avoid using intrusive ads that may negatively affect the user experience, such as full-size interstitials that make it difficult to access main content. Google penalizes sites that use these types of intrusive ads, which can affect your ranking in search results.
Google Search Console allows you to perform usability tests on your pages to identify common problems and errors that users may face. These tests provide you with specific recommendations for solving problems and improving the user experience.
Core Web Vitals are a set of user experience metrics related to the speed, responsiveness and visual stability of web pages. These metrics are used by Google to evaluate and improve the quality of the user experience on websites. Core Web Vitals have become an important factor for positioning in search results, since Google believes that a good user experience is essential to provide relevant and useful results to users.
Core Web Vitals are divided into three main metrics:
This metric measures the time it takes for the largest and most visible content element to load in the graphics window. An optimal LCP is less than 2.5 seconds. A poor LCP could indicate load problems that can affect the user experience.
The FID measures the response time between user interaction (such as clicking on a link) and the website's response. An optimal FID is less than 100 milliseconds. A high FID may indicate that the website is slow to respond to user interactions.
This metric evaluates the visual stability of the page by measuring the number of unexpected design changes that occur while the page loads. An optimal CLS is less than 0.1. A high CLS can be frustrating for users, as page elements can move while trying to interact with them.
These three metrics are used to evaluate the user experience of a web page based on loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability. Google classifies websites into three categories based on how they meet these metrics: “Good”, “Needs improvement” and “Poor”. Websites that comply with Core Web Vitals and provide a better user experience are more likely to rank higher in search results.
You can get detailed information about how your website performs on Core Web Vitals using the corresponding report in Google Search Console. This report provides you with specific metric data and helps you identify areas where you need to make improvements to provide an optimal user experience.
The “Security & Manual Actions” section in Google Search Console focuses on providing information about security issues that may affect your website, as well as manual actions taken by Google in response to potential violations of Google's quality guidelines and policies.
Here's a description of the two main areas within this section:
Google Search Console monitors your website for potential security issues, such as malware, hacked pages, misleading content, and other threats. If any security issues are detected on your site, they will be displayed in this section along with recommendations for resolving them. It's important to address these issues quickly to protect users who visit your site and to avoid potential search penalties.
This feature allows Google to crawl your site for malicious content and provides reports on any suspicious content found. This can include malware, phishing, or other malicious activities. If malicious content is found, Google can show warnings to users who try to access your site from search results.
When Google's quality review team finds that a website violates Google's quality guidelines or policies, they may take manual actions to reduce its visibility in search results. This section reports the manual actions that have been taken in relation to your website. These actions may include temporary penalties or restrictions on your site's visibility in search results.
It's important to monitor this section to be aware of any manual actions taken by Google. If your site has been affected by manual action, Google will provide details about the reason and the steps you should take to fix the problems and request a review. If you correct the problems and follow the guidelines, your site may be able to regain its visibility in search results.
In short, the “Security & Manual Actions” section in Google Search Console helps you maintain the security of your website and address any manual actions taken by Google due to potential violations of policies and guidelines. Monitoring this section regularly and addressing any security issues or manual action is essential to maintaining the integrity of your website and its visibility in search results.
Finally, Google Search Console stands as an essential tool for any website owner or administrator who aspires to stand out in Google search results. Beyond being a monitoring platform, this tool offers a window into understanding how search engines view and value your site. From tracking indexing and optimizing the user experience to detecting security issues and correcting manual actions, Google Search Console provides a range of possibilities to improve the visibility, usability and security of your site. In a landscape where competition is fierce, taking advantage of Google Search Console features is not just an option, but an imperative strategy for successfully navigating the online world and ensuring that your website is in line with user expectations and Google's quality standards.
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