There are some great SEO tools for a variety of uses. These tools can help you check backlinks, conduct keyword analysis, find brand mentions, and generate article ideas. You can even perform complex SEO audits. But whether you're an agency, a small business, or a large corporation, these tools won't meet all your needs. Search Console helps you fill these gaps.
If you are not familiar with this tool, we invite you to discover this GSC tutorial for beginners before continuing your reading.
If you're doing SEO optimization on your own, you'll likely be using Search Console and other tools frequently. Not entirely comfortable with Search Console? Don't worry. Today, I'll teach you how to use Search Console's core features .
Since 2019, the improved Search Console has been an exceptional tool you can't do without to track your website's rankings and understand the key improvements you can make to improve your SEO. Let's take a look at seven steps to properly use the new Search Console, as well as the differences between the old and new versions of the GSC.
Here we go!
Quick read: How to use Google Search Console in 7 steps?Install GSC on your website;
Set your domain name;
Link Google Analytics;
Add your sitemap;
Use the coverage report;
Update your content;
Boost the pages of your choice.
Want to know how to improve your SEO using Google Search Console? Just read on!
Step 1. Add and verify your websiteBefore you can take advantage of Search Console's features, you'll need to add and verify your website. Open the dropdown list in the top left corner of your dashboard and select " Add a property ."
To “validate ownership”, I let you refer to our complete article which explains step by step how to install the Google Search Console .
Step 2: Set a preferred domainBy setting a preferred domain, you tell Google which version of your URL you want to appear in search results ( https://www.example.com or https://example.com ). Choosing one or the other will not give you any SEO benefits.
Select your property on the Search Console homepage . Then click the gear icon in the top right corner of your dashboard and select “Site Settings.”
In the " Preferred Domain " section , you'll see the option to choose between www.example.com and example.com. There's also a "Don't set preferred domain" option. Selecting this option may cause Google to treat the www and non-www versions of the domain as separate references to separate pages. This could negatively impact link juice and organic search visibility. By choosing a preferred domain, you're telling Google to treat all domains equally.
Step 3: Connect Google Analytics to Google Search ConsoleGoogle Analytics provides you with general traffic and conversion data, while Search Console gives you insight into the factors behind that data. Connecting the two tools will allow you to get more value from the reports.
To link Google Analytics to your Google Search Console account, click the " Administration " button at the bottom of the Google Analytics homepage. In the PROPERTY column, click "Property Settings."
Attention
If you don't have bahrain phone number data access to Property Settings, this means you don't have permission to make changes. In this case, you will need to acquire permission from another owner.
Scroll down to Search Console Settings. You should see your website URL, confirming that it's verified in Search Console and that you have permission to make changes. In the Search Console section, select the reporting view(s) in which you want to display Search Console data.
You'll now see a Search Console report in the "Visitors" tab of your Google Analytics dashboard. With this report, you can now verify that pre-click data (queries, impressions, etc.) matches post-click data (bounce rate, goal completions, etc.). The Landing Pages report contains search data for each URL on your website that appears in search results. You can use this report to check the effect of changes on traffic. This is to analyze the cause-and-effect relationships between updates or changes to settings on content performance.
For example, you can learn more about how click-through rates change over time. Or how a piece of content's average position on a search results page affects average time spent on page. Connecting Search Console and Google Analytics allows you to analyze all of these unique relationships between ranking factors. You can also use the country, device, and query reports to analyze these same relationships across countries, devices, and search queries.
Unfortunately, Search Console won't start collecting data about your site until it's installed. The new Search Console offers 16 months of data, compared to 3 months with the old Search Console. If you've just connected Google Analytics to Search Console, you'll have to wait before you can take advantage of this improvement.
