The first step, if you haven’t already, is to register your website with Google Search Console.
To do so, go to the Search Console website and sign in with your Google Account – preferably the same one you use for Google Analytics.
When you click the Add Property button in the upper left corner, you’ll see the following dialogue box:
Choose the URL prefix because it gives you more verification options.
Following that, you must validate this site as your own.
Previously, this required embedding code into your website header or uploading an HTML file to your web server.
If you already have Google Analytics, it will automatically verify your site and you will see the following:
If this does not work for you, try one of the following alternatives for verification.
Once your site has been verified, you should submit a sitemap if you have one.
This is a simple XML file that informs Google Search Console about the pages on your website.
If you already have one, you can usually find it in your browser by typing http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
If you don’t already have one, you can use online tools like XML Sitemaps to create one.
If you use WordPress to run a website on your own domain, you can install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.
After you’ve activated the plugin, go to your WordPress dashboard’s Settings and click on XML-Sitemap.
There should be nothing else you need to do because the plugin should have already generated your sitemap.
Your URL can be found at the very top of the page.
Return to Google Search Console and paste the link address under “Add a new site map” in GSC.
It may take a few days for Search Console to begin collecting data about your website.
Wait a moment, then continue reading to find out what else you can learn from Google Search Console!
What Information Can You Get From Google Search Console?
After you’ve added and verified your website, you’ll be able to see a wealth of data about its performance in GSC.
Remember, this is a powerful tool; these are just the highlights of new types of data and important data you should check on a regular basis.
Overview of Google Search Console
When you go to your website in GSC, the first thing you’ll see is your Overview.
This is a summary of the most important data in Google Search Console. By clicking on the relevant links, you can navigate to specific areas such as your Crawl Errors, Search Analytics, and Sitemaps from this screen.
You can also use the menu in the left sidebar to navigate to these areas.
Results of a Search Console
Search Results can be found in the left sidebar.
Report on Index Coverage
This report contains information about the URLs that Google attempted to index on your chosen property, as well as any issues that Google encountered.
As Googlebot crawls the Internet, it processes each page it encounters in order to compile an index of every word it encounters on each page.
It also considers content tags and attributes such as titles and alt texts.
Sitemaps
I mentioned sitemaps earlier, so I’ll go over them briefly again.
Under “Sitemaps” in GSC, you’ll find information about your sitemap, such as whether you have one and when it was last updated.
If you notice that the last time your sitemap was downloaded was a while ago, you should submit it again to refresh the number of URLs submitted.
Otherwise, this allows you to keep track of how Google is reading your sitemap and whether or not all of your pages are being viewed correctly.
Removals
If you need to temporarily remove a page from Google’s search results, go to removals.
You can hide a page for about 90 days before it expires.
You must do this on your actual website if you want to permanently remove a page from Google’s crawling.