How to Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the most powerful free SEO tools that every website owner, blogger, and digital marketer must master.

Whether you’re looking to boost your Google rankings, fix website errors, understand your website’s performance, or improve user experience — GSC gives you all the insights you need.

This article is your complete guide on how to use Google Search Console effectively — from setup to advanced SEO insights.

🚀 What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free tool offered by Google that helps website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google Search results.

You don’t need to sign up for Search Console to appear in Google Search results, but using it can help you understand and improve how Google sees your site.

✅ Why Google Search Console is Important

Whether you’re a blogger, e-commerce seller, or SEO expert — GSC is crucial for:

• Monitoring website performance (clicks, impressions, CTR)
• Identifying technical SEO issues
• Tracking which keywords and pages drive traffic
• Submitting sitemaps for better indexing
• Analyzing backlinks and referring domains
• Resolving indexing or crawling problems

In short, Google Search Console gives you a clear window into your website’s search health and SEO performance.

🔧 How to Set Up Google Search Console

Step 1: Sign in

• Go to https://search.google.com/search-console
• Use your Google account to log in.

Step 2: Add a Property

• Click “Add Property”
• You’ll see two options:
  • Domain (Recommended): Covers all subdomains and protocols (e.g., https://, http://)
  • URL Prefix: Good if you’re only managing a specific section of a site

Step 3: Verify Ownership
Google gives you multiple ways to verify:

• DNS Verification (recommended for domain-level tracking)
• HTML File Upload
• HTML Meta Tag
• Google Analytics or Tag Manager

Once verified, GSC starts collecting data (may take a few days to populate).

🧭 Key Features of Google Search Console

Let’s dive into the important tabs and how you can use them to improve SEO.

1. 📈 Performance Report

Go to: Performance > Search results

Here’s what you get:

• Total Clicks: How many people clicked your site from Google
• Total Impressions: How many times your site appeared in search
• Average CTR (Click Through Rate): Clicks ÷ Impressions
• Average Position: Your average Google ranking

You can filter by:

• Date range
• Pages
• Countries
• Devices
• Search Queries (keywords)

📌 Use it for:

• Finding high-performing pages & keywords
• Optimizing low CTR content with high impressions
• Identifying which queries you rank for but aren’t getting traffic from

2. 🔍 URL Inspection Tool

This tool allows you to check how Google sees a specific URL.

Paste any page URL to get details on:

• Indexing status
• Last crawl date
• Mobile usability
• Canonical URL
• Coverage issues (e.g., noindex, blocked by robots.txt)

✅ Fix Tip: After updating a page, request Google to “Reindex” using this tool.

3. 🧱 Index Coverage Report

Go to: Pages > Indexing

This tells you:

• Which pages are indexed
• Which pages have errors or warnings
• Why pages are excluded (e.g., noindex, redirected, duplicate)

🛠️ Common Issues:

• Soft 404s
• Blocked by robots.txt
• Alternate page with canonical tag
• Crawled – currently not indexed

🔁 Regularly check this report and fix errors to ensure Google can index your valuable content.

4. 🗺️ Sitemaps

Go to: Sitemaps

Here, you can submit your sitemap file to help Google discover your pages faster.

👉 Example sitemap: https://vijayreddy.in/sitemap.xml

Make sure your sitemap is:

• Up-to-date
• Accessible (not blocked in robots.txt)
• Includes all important pages

✅ Submit once, and GSC will periodically fetch it automatically.

5. 📱 Mobile Usability

Go to: Experience > Mobile Usability

Since mobile-first indexing is now default, this section is vital.

It shows:

• Text too small to read
• Clickable elements too close
• Content wider than screen

💡 Mobile usability directly affects rankings and bounce rate. Always fix these.

6. 🌐 Core Web Vitals (Page Experience)

Go to: Experience > Core Web Vitals

Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor, focused on user experience.

Metrics include:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – Load speed
• FID (First Input Delay) – Interactivity
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – Visual stability

📌 Goal: Get all pages into “Good” status.

Use PageSpeed Insights for detailed suggestions to improve.

7. 🔗 Links (Backlink Analysis)

Go to: Links

This shows:

• Top linking sites
• Top linked pages
• Anchor text distribution
• Internal links

Even though GSC’s link data is basic, it’s useful for spotting high-authority links and checking if your important content is well-linked internally.

📌 Combine with Ahrefs or SEMrush for deeper analysis.

8. 🚫 Manual Actions & Security Issues

Go to: Security & Manual Actions

Google will notify you here if:

• Your site is penalized manually (e.g., unnatural links, thin content)
• There are hacking issues or malware

✅ Immediate action is required if any red flags show up here.

💡 Pro Tips to Use GSC Like an SEO Expert

Here are advanced tips to take full advantage of Google Search Console:

✅ Improve CTR with Query Data

• Filter by queries with high impressions but low CTR
• Rewrite title tags & meta descriptions for those pages
• Add FAQ schema to enhance snippets

✅ Boost Underperforming Pages

• Identify pages with average position 8–20
• Add more internal links to these pages
• Update content to target more LSI (related) keywords

✅ Track Content Decay

• Compare 3-month data vs previous period
• Find pages with decreasing clicks/impressions
• Refresh or repurpose declining content

✅ Check Indexing Issues in Real Time

• Use URL Inspection after publishing a new post
• Request indexing manually to speed up inclusion

✅ Monitor Backlink Growth

• Track changes in your linking domains
• Spot if key pages lost backlinks due to broken links

🔍 Google Search Console vs Google Analytics

📌 Use both tools together for a complete SEO + user behavior picture.

📉 Common Google Search Console Errors & Fixes

📈 Tools to Use Alongside GSC

• Google Analytics – For full traffic analysis
• Google Tag Manager – To manage tags without editing code
• PageSpeed Insights – To improve Core Web Vitals
• Ahrefs / SEMrush – For full backlink profiles
• Screaming Frog – For SEO audits & crawl simulation

🎯 Final Thoughts

Google Search Console is not just a data dashboard — it’s your SEO command center.

By learning how to use it effectively, you can:

• Improve your website’s rankings
• Discover powerful insights
• Monitor performance and visibility
• Solve technical SEO problems

Whether you’re running a personal blog or managing a big website, using GSC regularly can give you a huge SEO edge.

Stay consistent, analyze the reports, take action, and watch your site grow in Google search!