When it comes to your website, the more information you have, the better. In this video youâll learn:
- what Search Console is, and how it can help
- some of its useful features
- how to set it up.
Visit Google Webmasters and set up Google Search Console for your website. If youâve already done that, review your reports to do a check-up on your websiteâs health and visibility in Google Search.
View Transcript
Hey! Want a great tool to get your website more traffic? Then this is the video for you. Weâre going to tell you all about a free Google service called Search Console. And show how it can help you, and how you can get it set up. So what exactly is Google Search Console? Well, itâs a service that gives you feedback about how your website is doing in Google search results.
It has two primary functions. It monitors your performance in Google Search results. And it also shows you how Google âseesâ your site.
Say you own a coffee shop, and your website needs some updating. Letâs take a closer look at a few ways Search Console might be able to help you out. One way is through its âSearch Analyticsâ reports. This can help you answer a few important questions like which searches bring people to your site. Or tell you when searchers click on your links. They can even let you know which other sites link to yours.
Why is this important?
Well, the âSearch Analyticsâ report shows lots of things, including the most common searches bringing people to your site. Ideally youâd see words and phrases relevant to your business, like:
âCoffee shop Cotswoldsâ, âCoffeehouse near meâ, âPastries near Cotswoldsâ, or âFair trade coffee near meâ.
If you review the report and see unrelated or irrelevant words and phrases, itâs a hint that the text on your website needs some attention.
Another thing to look for is the number of clicks. Youâll want to know how often your site appears but gets no clicksâthatâs a sign your content doesnât match what people are looking for.
The âLinks to your siteâ report shows websites that link to your site. Think of these as âreferrals.â The list should include websites relevant to coffee. More and more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, so while youâre in Google Search Console you should also check out the âMobile Usability Reportâ. Thisâll point out pages on your site that donât work well on mobile phones, which you can then fix to improve your website performance when people search on mobile. There are two more really handy features within Search Console to know about: âCrawlâ reports, and âGoogle Indexâ reports.
âCrawlâ reports let you monitor whether Google can visit your web pages. This is important because if Google canât access your web pages, your content canât be included in Googleâs search results.
The âGoogle Indexâ reports show what information Google recorded about your site and tells you if your pages are accessible. Itâs easy to get started with Search Console.
Go to www.google.com/webmasters.
Once signed in, add your website and complete the verification to prove you own the website.
Now Search Console can generate reports for your siteâfor free! It might take a few days before you see useful information because it must first gather and process the data. If you see a âNo data yetâ message, check back later. Now that your siteâs set up in Google Search Console, you can use the reports to figure out how to improve your presence on Google. Using the reports, you can make changes to help Google better understand your web pages and as a result make your website perform better.