Google Search Console provides a wealth of information that helps website owners, marketers, and SEO professionals understand and improve their site’s performance on Google Search. Listed below, is an overview of the key information and insights provided by the Search Console.
Search Performance
Clicks: The number of times your site was clicked on in Google search results.
Impressions: The number of times your site appeared in search results.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.
Average Position: The average ranking position of your site’s pages in search results for specific queries.
Index Coverage
Index Status: Information about which pages of your site are indexed by Google and which aren’t.
Errors: Notifications of issues that prevent your pages from being indexed, such as 404 errors, server errors, or redirects.
Warnings: Alerts for potential issues, like pages being indexed with warnings (e.g., blocked by robots.txt).
Valid Pages: A count of pages that have been successfully indexed by Google.
URL Inspection
Live URL Test: The ability to test how Google sees a specific page on your site.
Indexing Status: Information on whether a specific URL is indexed and any issues related to indexing.
Coverage Details: Detailed information about why a URL might not be indexed or any issues with its coverage.
Mobile Usability
Mobile-Friendly Pages: Insights into how well your site performs on mobile devices, including any issues that might affect the user experience.
Mobile Usability Errors: Information on specific issues like text that is too small, clickable elements too close together, or content wider than the screen.
Sitemaps
Sitemap Submission: The ability to submit sitemaps to help Google crawl your site more effectively.
Sitemap Status: Information on the status of submitted sitemaps, including any errors or warnings.
Core Web Vitals
Page Experience Metrics: Data on your site’s performance in terms of loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability, which are key factors in Google’s ranking algorithms.
Field Data: Real-world data on how users experience your site in terms of these metrics.
Security Issues
Security Alerts: Notifications about any security issues found on your site, such as malware, hacking attempts, or phishing attacks.
Manual Actions: Information on any manual penalties imposed on your site by Google due to policy violations.
Links
Internal Links: Information on how your site’s pages are linked internally, helping you understand your site’s internal linking structure.
External Links (Backlinks): Data on which sites link to your site, including the most linked pages and the anchor text used.
Top Linking Sites: A list of domains that link most frequently to your site.
Enhancements
Structured Data: Insights into how Google understands your structured data (e.g., schema.org) and any issues with it.
Rich Results: Data on how your pages perform as rich results (e.g., recipes, reviews) in search.
Crawl Stats
Crawl Data: Information about Googlebot’s activity on your site, including the number of requests, the response time of your server, and any issues encountered during crawling.
Manual Actions
Penalty Notices: If your site violates Google’s guidelines, you’ll receive notifications about any manual penalties applied, with details on how to fix them.
International Targeting
Geographic Targeting: Allows you to specify the country you want to target with your website (useful for sites that target specific regions).
Language Settings: Information on how Google interprets your site’s language targeting.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs Reporting: Insights into how well your breadcrumb navigation is understood by Google, which can enhance your site’s appearance in search results.
Google’s Search Console is a powerful tool for monitoring and optimizing your website’s performance in Google Search, helping you identify issues, track progress, and make informed decisions to improve your site’s visibility and effectiveness.