Google Search Console is a free tool that Google provides to website owners – alongside its Analytics service – to help them better understand how the website is performing. Unlike Analytics, Search Console gives you insight on the organic search and technical performance of your website.
If one of your marketing goals is increasing organic search rankings and traffic, Search Console is an indispensable tool. Any website management or SEO consultant worth their salt should be using this tool to gauge and improve the organic performance of a website.
Whether website management is handled in house, or you use a UK SEO agency to manage your search ranking performance, here are a few reasons to set up Search Console as soon as possible.
Book a FREE 1-2-1 Training & Webinars Let’s Chat
Find Keywords That Bring Results
One of the biggest problems with optimising your website for keywords is that you need to foresee which keywords your target audience are actually using for it to be effective. From the moment Google Search Console is set up, it begins to log every single search term users input that have resulted in impressions or clicks on your website.
You can find this information logged in Performance > Search Results. This page in Search Console lets you see the impressions, average ranking and click throughs in a set period of time.
Our SEO consultants find this is the most invaluable feature Google Search Console brings to the table. Through this feature, you can find out which keywords you’re using are working, and you can even find new, effective keywords that never crossed your mind.
Diagnose Indexing Issues on Your Website
Google scans every page of your website, but doesn’t list every single one of them online. Pages that are not indexed never get seen, at least by the average Google user. Sometimes you want this to happen, for example a page that shows a coupon code, or a page that doesn’t exist anymore.
But what if one of your major service pages aren’t being indexed? Search Console will tell you the reason it chose not to index a page in Indexing > Pages. Once your website management expert has resolved the issue it flagged, you can ask Search Console to have the page reassessed and finally indexed.
Improve Your “Core Web Vitals” Score
Core Web Vitals is a collection of website metrics that Google introduced back in 2021. It measures web pages by their page load speed, responsiveness (ability to shift from desktop to mobile layout), and visual stability. Through Experience > Core Web Vitals you can see the general score of the website and any issues that need to be addressed.
Why is this important? Google (and other major search engines) are shifting towards promoting websites that are fast and user-friendly. Websites that have higher Core Web Vitals scores are more likely to rank higher.
Our UK SEO agency experts all recommend considering this in your approach to website management. If you want your website to rank high, you should pay attention to the actions Google Search Console recommends improving on your website pages.
Help Google Find Your Sitemap
Your website’s sitemap is a very useful tool that helps search engine crawlers discover all the active pages of your website, no matter how many pages you have to jump through to find it. The problem is, Google can’t always find this on your website automatically.
Indexing > Sitemaps is a feature that lets you direct Google’s crawlers to the location of the sitemap of your website directly. This feature will also let you know the last time the sitemap was read and if there were any issues reading it.
Book a FREE 1-2-1 Training & Webinars Let’s Chat
Diagnose Critical Issues Preventing Your Website From Ranking
Alongside the functions mentioned above, Google Search Console has additional tools found in Security & Manual Actions that help you diagnose issues preventing your website from ranking. Don’t dismiss these just because you’re following best SEO practices, they’re more useful than you think!
It’s not always easy to tell when your website has been compromised. Some hackers create spam pages or hidden redirects not immediately visible on your website. These tools can act as warning signals, especially if you enable alerts to send you emails. Once you have resolved issues flagged by this tool, you can submit an appeal to recover your website rankings.
Maximise Your Search Console With a Skilled UK SEO Agency
These are just a few of the many features and abilities that Google Search Console can offer to your website and marketing efforts. If you need help, whether that is setting up Google Search Console, understanding its functionality, or having someone take care of it for you – InSynch is on hand to help. We have Aberystyth, Swansea, Shrewsbury, and Bristol SEO experts ready to train your team, or carry out website management and optimisation services on your behalf. Click one of the links below to get started.
