Google Search Console: Complete Guide 2024

In 2024, Google Search Console is still an indispensable tool for SEO specialists, webmasters, and content creators.

Personally, Search Console is in the top ten of my faithful allies, a companion during long days in search of the best SEO optimization.

Thanks to Search Console, for example, I discovered in the past that some pages of websites I owned, or worked on for third parties, had 404 errors. By resolving them, or reporting them to the responsible parties, I avoided serious penalties and slept soundly!

Over the years, Google Search Console has evolved, and with the introduction of new reports on Core Web Vitals and page experience analysis, it has become even more powerful.

I’m sure it’s the right time to publish the updated comprehensive guide, so you’ll discover how to use Search Console to:

• monitor your site’s performance
• identify and resolve indexing issues
• improve your ranking on Google.

Start making the most of Google Search Console!

What is Google Search Console (GSC)?

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google, essential for optimizing a website and improving its visibility.

In practice, the dashboard provides all the information and data needed to understand if the website is in excellent health and if it’s well visible to the search engine.

Why is GSC a fundamental tool for an SEO strategy in 2024?

In an SEO strategy, you must use GSC to know the number of clicks, impressions, CTR, and understand if your website achieves good performance. Thanks to Search Console, you’ll also know if each page is indexed or if there are 404 errors, incorrect redirects, or usability issues.

Do you understand why I’m talking about Google Search Console as a faithful ally? Thanks to this tool, you’ll improve your website “’s SEO optimization, because not only will you know what’s working and what’s not, but you’ll also get suggestions on what to improve to facilitate crawling and ” indexing.

Not to mention that among its main features, GSC also provides you with a report of internal and external links, fundamental for an effective link building strategy to increase your website’s authority.

Configuring Google Search Console

How to create a Google Search Console account

Let’s start with the very first step! Access the Google Search Console website, and if you already have a Google account, click on Start now and log in with your credentials. If you don’t have a Google account, create one before proceeding.

Adding a property

Access your GSC account and click on Add property.

Now choose between Domain (includes all subsections of the website) or URL prefix (monitors only one subsection of the site).

Verifying ownership

Google allows you to verify website ownership through:

• HTML file to be added in a specific position on the site.
• HTML tag: copy the provided meta tag and paste it into the HEAD section of your site.
• Google Analytics or Tag Manager: verify the site with one of these two methods if you have already installed these tools.
• Domain name provider: copy the provided TXT record and paste it into the domain’s DNS configuration.

After choosing and completing the procedure, click on Verify to confirm ownership. If you haven’t made any mistakes, you’ll see the green checkmark as in the image below. Great job!

Managing multiple properties in a single account

Fortunately, the dashboard allows you to add multiple properties to the same GSC account. You just need to repeat the process we’ve just seen together in the Adding a property paragraph for each website you want to keep track of.

General Search Console Settings

In the Google Search Console dashboard, at the bottom left, you’ll find the gear icon. From here, you can access the general settings to:

• Manage users and permissions: add new users and assign them specific roles (owner, administrator, full user or restricted).
• Associate a service: link GSC to other Google services such as Google Analytics and Google Ads.
• Inform Google of any changes: if you modify your site’s address, use the Change of Address tool to communicate the new URL to Google.
• Export data: download data on your site’s performance in various formats (CSV, Google Sheets).
• Verify the scanning status of the robots.txt file: check if there are any errors or warnings in your robots.txt file.
• View crawl statistics: monitor how often Googlebot crawls your site and identify any crawl issues.

How to navigate within the new GSC dashboard

URL Inspection

At the top and on the left of the GSC dashboard, you’ll find a search field Inspect any URL. Here you need to enter the website’s URL to know if it has been indexed by Google.

As you can see, in the check I’m showing you in the image below, everything is okay, but it’s not always like this. There might also be problem reports and suggestions for resolving and improving. Pay close attention in this case!

You can also test the published URL in real-time and get this information:

Overview with main data and potential errors

And here we are in the section that I assure you will become, if not an obsession, almost one. Especially if you’re an SEO specialist and deal with website optimization, you should check the Overview at least once a day.

Here you can view the main data related to search performance, coverage (indexed pages or with errors), and mobile usability improvements.

If there are indexing problems or critical errors such as 404 errors, GSC will immediately alert you to these issues and suggest how to resolve them.

Analysis of organic performance and traffic

In the Performance section, you have access to data that reports the website’s performance on Google. You can check the clicks, impressions, CTR (Click-through Rate) and average position of your site for the main search queries.

You can apply filters based on queries, pages, Countries and devices. Additionally, you can set the reference period you prefer.

Practical example:

Imagine you want to check the performance of a page on your website. In the Performance section, you can filter the data by Pages and select the page you’re interested in. This way, you’ll be able to view the clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position of the page for different search queries.

If you notice that the page has a low CTR, you can decide what to do, perhaps optimize the title and meta description to make them more appealing.

Page Indexing

Report on Indexed and Non-Indexed Pages

In the dashboard, go to the Indexing > Pages section, where you’ll find a report with the number of correctly indexed pages and those that are not.

You can also see the specific data of indexed pages and the date of the last scan, as well as the subsection showing why there are any non-indexed pages.

How to Solve Indexing Problems

If the data indicates pages with errors, you need to click on Reason and follow the instructions to proceed with resolving the problem.

The most common errors that can affect pages are 404 errors, which indicate that a page doesn’t exist or has been moved without a redirect.

Also, server error not responding to the crawler or the robots.txt file that might have a problem and block the scanning of some pages.

Indexing Pages with Videos

Does your website have pages with videos? Then GSC will provide you with a dedicated report in the Enhancements section. You’ll be able to see which pages containing videos have been correctly indexed, which videos haven’t been detected or have indexing problems.

TIPS: I highly recommend using structured data specific for videos (you can find them on schema.org) and make sure to optimize the loading of your videos!

Managing the Sitemap and Robots.txt File

The sitemap, or site map, is a file in XML format that contains all the pages of a website and information such as the date of the “last update, the frequency with which the content changes, and the” importance compared to other pages.

Without the sitemap, the search engine cannot scan and index the site’s pages, which is why it’s very important.

How to Create a Sitemap

You can use various methods to create your sitemap, for example, if you use WordPress, you have plugins like Yoast SEO that create it automatically and update it every time you add a new page.

Other tools you can use are, for example, XML-sitemaps.com with which you can generate a sitemap by entering your site’s URL.

How to Submit a Sitemap to Google Search Console

It’s very simple to submit your sitemap to GSC. You just need to click on Indexing – Sitemap in the left sidebar of the dashboard and enter your sitemap’s URL (e.g., www.sitename.com/sitemap.xml) in the text field.

If there are no errors, you’ll see a confirmation message and you’ll be able to monitor the indexing of the pages.

Monitoring the Indexing Status of the Sitemap

Now that you’ve correctly submitted the sitemap, you’ll receive indications such as the number of pages submitted, how many are indexed by Google and if any problems were encountered during the scan.

Among the most common errors, as I’ve already mentioned, are the infamous 404s (page not found), pages blocked by the robots.txt file, or incorrect canonical URLs.

It’s important that every time you resolve an error or make changes to the site, you re-submit the sitemap to Search Console. I strongly recommend not forgetting to do this!

Example:

You have an eCommerce and you’ve added a new product category. After creating the new product pages, you submitted the updated sitemap to Google Search Console.

Thanks to sitemap monitoring, you were able to verify that all new pages were correctly indexed by Google and that there were no scanning errors.

What is the robots.txt file and how does it work?

The robots.txt file is a text file located in the root directory of the website. It’s thanks to this file that you can indicate to search engine bots what to scan and what not to. For example, it’s essential if you don’t want pages like login, duplicate pages, or sensitive pages to be indexed.

In short, do you want to block “access to some parts of the site and prevent search engines from following links on certain pages? The” only tool that can help you is the robots.txt file.

How the robots.txt file works

To simplify it as much as possible, remember this:

• User-agent indicates the crawler, e.g., Googlebot, to which the rules apply.

• Disallow prevents the crawler from accessing a specific resource.

• Allow permits access to a page or part of the site even if the parent directory is blocked.

How to create, modify, and monitor the robots.txt file

You can create a text file with an editor, save it as robots.txt, and add it to the root directory of your website.

If you use a CMS like WordPress, you can use plugins like Yoast SEO to modify the robots.txt file, while to monitor it on Google Search Console, go to Settings and check if the robots.txt file blocks access to some pages or if there are errors or warnings.

Temporary removals, outdated content, and SafeSearch filter

Want to temporarily hide some pages on your site? You can ask GSC, which, in a very short time compared to natural scanning, will not display what you don’t want in the search results.

Think about how useful this option is if you need to temporarily remove outdated or deleted pages, or content that doesn’t respect privacy!

How to request a temporary removal?

In the Indexing section, click on Removals, New request and enter the URL you want to remove. Choose between Remove only this URL or Remove all URLs with this prefix.

Check and manage content with SafeSearch

Google Search Console has made this feature available to allow you to understand if some site content has been reported and filtered by SafeSearch.

If, for example, your website contains adult or violent content, you’ll likely see it filtered by SafeSearch, which you can find in the Removals section.

Do you feel you’re a victim of a misjudgment? Don’t worry, you can request a review directly from the Search Console dashboard and wait confidently.

Analysis of the Page Experience report

The Page Experience report is part of the updates related to the Page Experience Update of 2021 for “optimizing user” experience.

In this section, you’ll find metrics for Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, and HTTPS protocol. Always keep an eye on the Page Experience report, because you need to know if your site offers optimal navigation and respects Google’s ranking criteria related to user experience.

Optimization for user experience: Core Web Vitals

The Core Web Vitals report key information related to user experience, such as speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. These are metrics that Google uses as a ranking factor, so they are fundamental for proper SEO optimization of a website.

The main Core Web Vitals you should check are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) which indicates the time it takes for the main content of a page to load. A good LCP should be less than 2.5 seconds.
• First Input Delay (FID) indicates the page responsiveness when the user interacts for the first time. A good FID should be less than 100 ms.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability and should be less than 0.1.

How to improve Core Web Vitals?

First, you need to optimize images by reducing their size and using modern and lightweight formats like WebP. Minimize CSS and JavaScript code by removing empty spaces, comments, and unnecessary characters. There are tools capable of doing this operation, for example UglifyJS.

Use lazy loading – delayed loading – which loads images and videos only when they are actually visible to the user.

Reduce server response times and reserve specific space for page elements such as images and advertisements to prevent layout shifts during loading.

How to solve usability issues on mobile devices

If your site on mobile devices has issues such as font too small, buttons too close together, content larger than the screen, Google Search Console will report them in the Core Web Vitals subsection within Page Experience.

Here you’ll find a list of detected issues and a link to each page. What should you do? Proceed immediately to correct and eliminate usability errors!

HTTPS Report

To ensure that users browsing your website have secure data transmission between browsers and the site, you must make sure to use the HTTPS protocol, which is a ranking factor for Google.

Check in the HTTPS section of Google Search Console that every page on your site uses HTTPS, so Google will understand that the data on your site is secure and users can trust it.

Resolving HTTPS-related issues

If in the HTTPS report of Google Search Console you see pages with HTTP and not HTTPS, make sure you have installed a valid SSL certificate on the site. Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS using a 301 redirect and check that all resources (images, scripts, CSS) are loaded via HTTPS.

Enhancements Section: Breadcrumb and Sitelinks Searchbox

Breadcrumbs: what are they and why are they important?

In Google Search Console, you can monitor Breadcrumbs in the Enhancements section, see if there are errors and resolve them.

But what are breadcrumbs? They are navigation links that indicate the path from the homepage to the current page and contain the symbols / or >.

Example: in an eCommerce you will have: Home > Category > Subcategory > Product

Breadcrumbs improve user experience and clearly indicate the structure of a website facilitating its indexing. If GSC detects errors, proceed immediately to resolve them by implementing the specific markup for breadcrumbs.

Sitelinks Searchbox: what is it

The Sitelinks Searchbox is displayed only for sites that Google considers eligible, usually sites with many pages and significant traffic.

It is a search field that appears directly under the main result of a site in the SERP and that users can use to find specific content without having to visit the homepage or navigate.

Importance for SEO

The Sitelinks Searchbox improves users’ search experience and increases the site’s visibility in search results. As with breadcrumbs, the Sitelinks Searchbox requires the implementation of structured markup.

How to identify security issues and resolve them with manual actions

In the Security and Manual Actions > Security Issues section, GSC will alert you if your website is under attack from malware, phishing, or hacking attempts. Otherwise, you’ll see the reassuring message with a green checkmark No issues detected.

Have you encountered any issues? Take immediate action by implementing the following manual steps, and keep especially complex sites like universities, institutions, and large organizations that manage vast amounts of sensitive data safe:

• Remove harmful content.
• Restore the site with the help of a security expert.
• Update any vulnerable software.

After resolving the issues, use the Manual Actions section in Search Console to submit a review request to Google and remove any potential penalty or warning.

Internal and External Link Check

For an effective SEO strategy, internal and external links are crucial. Google Search Console allows you to monitor and optimize the link structure in a dedicated section.

Here you’ll find, for external links, information on which pages of your site receive the most links and the text of links on external pages that lead to your property. For internal links, GSC lists the total number.

Practical example:

Let’s say you’ve written an article on your blog that has received a good number of external links. Using the external links report in GSC, you can see which websites are linking to your article and analyze the anchor text used.

If you notice that many sites use generic anchor text like click here, you might contact them and ask to change it to more specific text relevant to your article.

AMP Tools and Reports

On Google Search Console, you can monitor and resolve any issues with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), which load faster on mobile devices, improving user experience and potentially search result rankings.

Thanks to the GSC report, you’ll see if there are errors such as incorrect markup or blocked resources and find suggestions to resolve them.

Experimental Features: Search Console Insights

Search Console Insights is an experimental feature and is not yet available for all sites.

In the Google Webmaster Guidelines, it states that: insights are based on strategic information derived from your site’s data that deserves your attention. Search Console provides insights only if there is something interesting and useful to show. Insights are updated regularly, which means they may expire and change over time.

These insights are optional and may concern issues, opportunities to improve traffic, and choices for better configuration.

At the end of this comprehensive and updated guide, I hope you’ll be able to leverage this incredible tool that is Google Search Console, essential for monitoring and improving your website’s visibility. I’m sure you won’t be able to do without it!

If you want to get the most out of its features and optimize your site to improve SEO performance, our Qreativa team is here to help you. Contact us today.