Believe it or not, Google Search Console (known as Google Webmaster Tools for almost a decade), can be used for pretty much anything like adjusting your URL parameters, the reports of links to your site, your crawl errors, etc.
Every year, Google has provided us with new tools, analytics, and data to track in Google Search Console.
GSC is a free platform for anyone with a website to monitor and track how Google views their site and optimizes its organic presence. This includes seeing your referred domains, mobile website performance, rich search engine results, highest-traffic queries and pages.
Ultimately, Google Search Console is a rank tracker, error identifier, and a backlink checker. If you don’t quite understand the significance of these things, nothing to worry! We’ll talk through them together.
To understand this, you first need to understand why keywords are so important.
Keywords are the words and phrases that are embedded in your content to help your website show up in Google for relevant searches. These keywords are like mini flags that hint to search engines that your content is worth making visible.
If you do not make use of keywords, your website may still rank for relevant searches, but intentional keyword integration in the content and meta content of your website is one of the basic and strong elements of a well-optimized website.
Once those keywords are in place it’s important to know how well they are performing; if they’re driving traffic and if your website is showing up for those keyword searches or not. Google Search Console contains all this important information.
You will be able to view what keywords your website ranks for, how many “impressions” your website got for any given search term, how many clicks or visits your site got from any keyword and also your current rank.
While this information may seem inconsequential at first glance, it is often the basis of any good SEO strategy.
There’s a good chance you might encounter times where your website breaks during the life of your website. There are possibilities that a page may go missing, a link may lead to a dead-end, or a mobile page may not show up on a tablet!
These errors are unfortunate but often easily fixed. What’s more difficult is realizing when these errors exist on your website. As a marketing agency, the last thing you want is for a potential customer to click away from your website because the page they were promised doesn’t exist anymore.
The good news is that GSC keeps a complete record of those errors on your website and they will let you know of any errors with a simple email. If you have a Google Search Console account set up and your website submitted, their bots will crawl your site systematically and regulate if any errors exist.
Without this feature, you are likely to go months without realizing a simple error existing that has been driving traffic away instead of promoting sales and conversions.
Backlinks are the links from other websites that connect to any page on your website and right now, they are one of the biggest ranking signals in the Google algorithm. Elementally, the more websites linked to your site, the better your site will do in search engines.
However, with backlinks, some practices can cause Google to de-rank and de-value your website. Spam websites and large-scale directories can often be used to link to your website without your knowledge. This could result in inflated traffic stats in Google Analytics, spurs in your bounce rate, and noticeable decreases in the amount of time spent on your site.
If you witness weird changes in your traffic, turn into the backlink checker in GSC and find out if any spam sites are linking to you. You can also have a look at the number of current backlinks you have, which of them are driving traffic to your website and what pages those websites are linking to.
Google Search Console is a major asset to any Online Marketing Agency with a passion to grow their business. With a few easy steps, you can easily verify your site and begin tracking your data. Very soon you will learn how both Google and your users view and interact with your site.
If you realize the power of Google Search Console, you are utilizing the best practices, and continually reviewing your content, then your website would start to see increased rankings, visits, and ultimately conversions.
There is no hard and fast rule for your keyword content- find the keywords your customers are using and market directly to them!
With SEO, knowledge is power. With the insight and knowledge GSC brings to the table, you will be able to increase your visibility and grow your organic reach.
We would love to hear about your experiences with Google Search Console in the comments below!
