Google Search Console: How to use the tool to take advantage of its results

Do you know Google Search Console? Discover the rebranding of Google Webmaster Tools and learn how to use it with our ultimate guide!

It's almost impossible that you've never used any Google tools in the day-to-day life of your business. The resources it offers, both paid and free, help from creating a free blog to team management, there are excellent tools that contribute to Digital Marketing.

And in the middle of this ocean of options is Google Search Console. More than ten years ago, this tool is the right arm of Marketing professionals looking for more information about accesses, searches and SEO.

In this article, you will understand everything about this tool and how to use it to achieve better results in your Digital Marketing strategy.

What is Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a search giant platform made to help those who manage websites to accompany the visibility of their pages in the search engine.

In other words, it's Google's tool to help you ensure your site is found and indexed correctly and appears in your prospects' searches.

In the old times, Search Console was called Webmaster Tools. The change occurred to give the impression that the tool has a greater reach for users and not just for professional technicians.

How Google Search Console works

To really understand how Google Search Console works you need to go de more thoroughly in the tool. After all, Search Console is like a beautiful and complete toolbox, full of options and functions.

To summarize, Search Console has tools and reports that help you find problems on your website and quickly resolve them for the right people to find.

In practice, these improvements may include:

• faster page loading speed;
• full understanding of the origin of your traffic;
• quick identification and correction of defects in HTML code;
• significant improvement in backlinks strategy;
• impulse of internal bonding;
• important SEO changes, to improve the positioning of your pages.

Now that you understand the summary version, let's go to the denser content, starting with installation and configuration.

How to install and configure it

If you do a search, you will find many manuals showing the various ways to install Google Search Console. We'll be more practical and teach you only one way: the easiest.

1) Log in with your Gmail account. If you don't already have one, you can quickly create one.

2) Open the menu and select +Add Property.

3) Choose between Domain and URL Prefix and enter your website address in the desired option by following the installation instructions (in case you don't know which one to choose, click More Info to clarify your doubts).

4) Follow the property confirmation instructions. If you chose the Domain option in the previous step, you'll need to make an alteration to your website's DNS. If you opted for URL Prefix, we recommend selecting the HTML Tag option for easier and faster verification.

5) After performing the above procedure on your website, go back to Search Console and press the Verify button.

6) Ready! Your property was confirmed and everything is working.

What are the basic principles of Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a basic set of tools that inform the user:

• If there are problems with indexing pages by Google.
• If the website was hacked or has malware.
• If there is a need to improve tags.
• How's the traffic, generally.

With that in mind, we can understand some basic principles about using this important tool, which go beyond any design or functionality changes.

In short, Search Console, as well as all Google products, is never immune to renewals, which is good news for all of us. See below for some basic principles about the tool.

Be regular for clarity

Knowing exactly how your website is indexed and tracked by Google, as well as seeing other relevant information about page performance, is very important.

That gives clarity to your SEO efforts and allows you to see if the strategy drawn is still on track, with real chances of working or not.

Accompanying the information that is available in Search Console is critical to having that clarity and leveraging it to achieve better results.

Don't delay acting

Google Search Console reports are very useful and show, in a practical way, what problems your website faces, in addition to the alterations you need to make.

But what's the point of having all that information that's not right if you don't act quickly to correct the flaws?

It may seem too obvious, but the first thing you need to do after finding relevant data on the platform is to work on it. Either to solve a problem or replicate what works in other projects.

Don't stick too much to current tools

We've already mentioned this topic, but it's worth talking a little more about it: it's not worth sticking much to specific tools, as they can be discontinued from now on.

The most important thing is always to understand how the platform works in its essence and make good use of that. Search Console is used to measure and balance the health of your website in front of Google.

The more you and your team act in accordance with the platform's instructions, the greater the chances that they will perform well with SEO and, as a result, business.

What are the tools of Google Search Console

There are a number of Search Console tools and reports that help take care of website integrity and optimization for more visits, engagement, and conversions.

These tools and reports can be divided into two groups: current and legacies. Next, see what those resources are and how they are organized.

Current

These are tools and reports updated according to the latest version of Google Search Console. Among them are:

• Overview page : Displays a summary of the website condition in Search Console, primarily performance, coverage, and security issues.
• Performance Report :Lets you see how many people clicked on your website when searching google, which queries showed your website, and what average position it appears in.
• URL Inspection Tool: You just need to type an active URL from your website and see the detailed information search console gives you.
• Coverage Report :Shows which page on your website is or can be indexed and the reasons for each result.
• Sitemap Report: Shows which sitemaps were submitted, statistics, and possible errors about each sitemap.
• Mobile usability report :This report shows an assessment of the usability of each indexed page on mobile devices.
• AMP Report: Present which AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) pages on your website may or may not be indexed.
• Advanced Search Status Report : Reveals which advanced Google searches you may or may not track. This report only appears if Google identifies certain types of content on your website.
• Manual actions report :This is where you can view all the manual actions on your website.
• Security Issues Report: Shows you possible flaws that threaten your website's security and how to fix them.
• Link report :Through this tool it is possible to discover which websites link you, what texts and even check how your internal links are.
• AMP Test Tool: Allows you to test the validity of an AMP page.
• Mobile Compatibility Test Tool – This resource evaluates whether a page is compatible with mobile devices.
• Change of address: If you migrate your website to another domain, you should use this tool to notify Google.

Legacies

Legacy tools and reports are those where the Search Console team is still working to discover ways to create a definitive replacement. See what they are:

• URL Removal Tool: Used to temporarily remove a URL from search results. For a permanent effect it is necessary to use other resources.
• Tracking Statistics: It is used to accompany how often Google crawls your website. If it's elevated, you can ask for a reduction in tracking.
• Test robots.txt: Test the syntax of the robots.txs file and confirm if you have no problems.
• URL Parameters Tool: This resource allows you to report some parameters to Google on the URL that changes the content of your website. For example, the country parameter changes the language.
• International targeting: Through a specific tag (hreflang) it is possible to ensure proper Google tracking for each language or country in which it is available.
• Google Analytics Association: A tool used to import Search Console analytics data for Google Analytics.
• Data Marker Tool: Websites that have many pages with model data (such as event agenda and bus routes), but cannot use structured data, should use this tool to help Google extract the information.
• Message report: This is where you find messages sent to your properties (your websites).
• Crawl rate settings :Where you can reduce Google's crawl rate for your website, if it's overloaded.
• Email preferences :This is where you choose whether you want to receive informative or alert emails from the Search Console regarding your properties.
• Web tools: Various tools that can be useful to your website.

What metrics should be accompanied monthly in the Search Console

The Performance tab in Search Console shows 4 fairly relevant metrics that should be considered monthly.

Even if you're also with them in Google Analytics, you can analyze the Search Console to see how your organic strategy is doing. After all, the tool doesn't analyze Google Ads clicks or impressions.

Metrics are:

• Impressions– The number of times any URL on your website appeared in Google search results. It serves to see how much your content is being considered in Google's selection for user searches.
• Clicks– The number of clicks your site URLs received when they appeared in Google search results. It can reveal how much people are interested in the titles of the content you post.
• CTR: Click Through Rate is a relationship between the previous two metrics. Lets you know the percentage of impressions a click generates.
• Position: This is the average ranking of your website URLs in search results. If one URL appears as a 3rd result and another appears as 7th, your average position will be 5th, (3+7)/2.

But, at the end of the day, why accompany these basic metrics? Precisely because they provide important information about your digital strategy as a whole.

Few impressions may mean that Google does not consider your website relevant and/or reliable. Few clicks show that your titles and meta descriptions need to be improved. And the higher your middle position, google attributes more quality to your content.

In addition, these metrics show how Google Search Console is a relatively easy-to-use tool, even for novice users, even if it also contains more advanced resources.

One of its biggest merits is to detect problems automatically. Even if you can't solve them, the diagnosis is already done and allows you to generate a free form to give to a webmaster who can solve the problem for you.

How to optimize technical SEO with the Google Search Console

Google Search Console welcomes new users, but it's also very useful for those who master technical SEO. They may even benefit most from the tool.

But the question is: how to use Search Console to optimize technical SEO and get more in the highlights of searches?

Ironically, the first way to do that is to execute the basics with quality and attention. Google itself recommends that advanced users read and apply the information in the beginner's guide, as it contains a lot of useful information to get the most out of the platform.

Also, read carefully the webmaster guidelines that Search Console offers. There you will find many technical and strategic guidelines that include the right amount of links per page, instructions on specific tags and practices that you should follow and avoid.

Bonus: Advanced strategies with the Search Console

We also want to give you tips to create an advanced strategy in the tool. We're not going to detail them all, but we'll point you out the path that will help you explore new options to reach and attract the people you're looking for.

It is worth structuring your website following these practices to appear in searches:

• Highlights : A stretch of content stands out on the search page above the link. This gives a stimulus to the reader's curiosity and favors clicking.
• Perfected Search: Perfected search has visual effects, such as images, evaluation stars, or other graphic elements. It can appear as a single result or part of a carousel.
• Discover: It's not part of the search, but it can make your Page appear in Google's site display list for Android device users.
• Information panel : Panel with text, link and images on a certain subject. You can display data, such as dates, names, logos, website, etc.

It is worth exploring Search Console and gradually learn in practice how to use each tool to improve the performance of your website. If you want to learn all about the tool in an even more complete and easy-to-consult material at all times, Contact us today.