What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console shows what's happening on Google

If you have a website and you want it ranked on Google, then you should definitely be using Google Search Console. Whereas Google Analytics shows you what is happening on your website, Search Console shows you how your website is performing on Google. Better still, not only does it show how your site is performing, but it also acts as your gateway with Google; so before we get into the reports etc you can get, let's discuss this important function.

Google Analytics & Search Console Explained for Beginners

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0:00 Do you track analytics on your website? Our experience shows that most small business owners don't actually have—they have a website, but they have no way of knowing what's happening on that website.

0:08 So, with two main ways to track a website, you would have heard, you possibly would have heard, **Google Analytics**. So, Google Analytics is a free tool put out by Google.

0:15 You put a bit of code on the website and it will tell you everything that happens when someone comes to your website: it'll let you know how many came on, how many bounced off, how many pages they clicked at, whether they filled in a web form, whether they made a call if you put call tracking or something like that, do they click on certain buttons, all that sort of stuff.

0:32 So, where did they come from, what their demographic is, all those sorts of things. So, it's a very, very powerful thing, and the best part is it's free.

0:40 So, if you don't have access to Google Analytics, I fully suggest you look at getting that attached to your website.

0:46 The other platform that we use quite a lot is **Google Search Console**—yet again another free platform by Google.

0:53 The difference between Search Analytics and Google Analytics—Search Console, I should say—is Search Console basically shows what's happened with your website on Google.

1:03 So whereas Google Analytics will show you what happens when someone clicks on your website, how they got there, and what they did once they got to your website, Search Console is the other side of it.

1:11 So it'll show how many times your website was shown by Google, what the keywords were that it got shown, how many times people clicked through to your website, whereabouts you ranked.

1:20 So, it's, and it'll also give you how your website is showing **Core Web Vitals**.

1:25 Search Console is the other side of it, so it'll show how many times your website was shown by Google, what the keywords were that it got shown, how many times people clicked through to your website, whereabouts you ranked.

1:35 So, basically, how fast your website is loading and how well it is loading for user experience.

1:41 It'll let you know if there's any issues with your website that Google's found. It'll let you know what pages have been indexed by Google and all that sort of information.

1:49 So, once again, once you've got Google Analytics, you can actually set up your Search Console quite straightforward, or you can just have Search Console with a bit of script you put on there.

1:58 So, two areas of analytics that you really, really should have; if you haven't got them, I fully recommend you have a go putting on, look up Google Analytics and Search Console, or talk to your web guy and get them to put it on there and give you access to it.

2:09 Hope it all makes sense and look forward to speaking to you soon.

Google Search Console as a Google gateway

When you decide to start digital marketing , one of the first steps you should take is to set up Google Search Console . This involves adding a verification script to your website to show that you have ownership of it. If you've already set up Google Analytics then you can generally use this tag to verify ownership, so no need for an additional tag.

Once you've got a website, you can easily submit your website's sitemap. A sitemap is list of all the pages on your website that you want indexed and makes it very easy for Google to crawl your website to start indexing and ranking the pages. Whilst submitting a sitemap isn't critical for SEO, it definitely helps to get your website crawled and indexed.

Now your website is indexed on Google, Search Console will show you any issues or errors with it. These may be a page showing an error, a page with broken schema or even a page that isn't responsive for mobile devices. It will even show you pages that Google decided not to index and the general reason why. You can use these lists to fix these errors and ensure your website is displaying the best it can. Once you're happy with the page, you can even resubmit this with Google for indexing.

Googe Search Console Reports

Whilst there are quite a few different reports, let's just focus on a few of the key ones.

Performance on Search Results

This report shows what searches your website was shown for, how many searches there were, how many people clicked through to view your website and where it ranked for that search.

Page Experience

This report shows the percentage of pages on your site have a good page experience. Here it is looking at page responsiveness and load times.

Coverage

The last report we are going to look at is the coverage report. This is where Google shows you what pages are indexed, which ones have errors and which ones aren't indexed and why. A stated above, you should go through these and fix any errors and try re-submitting any pages that aren't indexed and are important (after fixing the reason why).

There is a lot more information you can get from Google Search Console, but these are the main reports you should at the very leats be paying attention to.

So if you're serious about Digital Marketing and you don't have Google Analytics and Search Console installed; you should have.