Quick answer: Google Search Console is Google’s free tool for seeing how your website performs in search. To set it up, sign in with a Google account, add your website as a property, verify that you own it (usually with an HTML file, a meta tag or your Google Analytics code), then submit an XML sitemap. Add every version of your domain, set your preferred one, and check the Search Analytics, Crawl Errors and Manual Actions reports regularly.
If you used Google Webmaster Tools in the past, this is the same product. Google renamed it Search Console in May 2015, partly because the people using it are not only webmasters. Business owners, marketers and developers all have good reasons to log in. This guide walks through the setup step by step and explains which reports deserve your attention first.
What Search Console does (and what it does not)
Search Console shows you how Google sees your site. It tells you:
- Which search queries show your pages, and how often people click
- Which pages Google has trouble crawling
- Whether Google has found security problems or applied a manual penalty
- Which sites link to you
- Whether your pages work well on mobile phones
- Whether your structured data is being read correctly
It does not replace Google Analytics. Analytics tells you what visitors do once they arrive. Search Console tells you what happens before the click, in Google’s results. The two work best side by side.
It is also not a ranking tool in the sense of moving you up. Nothing you set in Search Console will directly improve your position. What it does is show you problems early, so you can fix them before they cost you traffic.
Step 1: Add your website
Go to the Search Console home page and sign in with a Google account. Use an account the business controls, not a personal account belonging to one employee or a former agency. You can add other users later.
Click “Add a property” and enter your website address exactly as it appears in the browser, including the protocol. For example, http://www.example.com/.
Add every version of your domain
Search Console treats each version of your site as a separate property. If your site can be reached at more than one address, add all of them:
http://example.com/http://www.example.com/https://example.com/https://www.example.com/
This matters more than people expect. If you have moved to HTTPS, the data for your secure pages only appears in the HTTPS property. Many site owners log in, see traffic dropping in their old HTTP property, and panic, when in fact the traffic has simply moved. If you are planning that move, our HTTPS migration guide covers the steps in order.
Step 2: Verify that you own the site
Google needs proof that you control the site before it shows you any data. There are several methods. Pick the one that suits your setup.
HTML file upload
Google gives you a small file to download. You upload it to the root folder of your website using FTP or your hosting file manager, then click Verify. This is reliable, but the file must stay on the server. If someone deletes it during a clean up, verification can be lost.
HTML meta tag
Google gives you a line of code to paste into the <head> section of your home page. On WordPress, most SEO plugins, including Yoast SEO, have a field for this so you do not need to edit theme files. If you change themes, check that the tag is still in place.
Google Analytics
If your site already has the Google Analytics tracking code in the <head> and your Google account has edit permission on that Analytics property, you can verify in one click. This is often the quickest route.
Google Tag Manager
If you use Tag Manager and have publish permission on the container, you can verify through it.
Domain name provider
You can also add a TXT record to your domain’s DNS settings. This takes a little longer to work, because DNS changes need time to spread, but it does not depend on anything inside the website itself.
Our advice is to use two methods. If one breaks during a redesign, the other keeps you verified.
Step 3: Set your preferred domain
Once your properties are verified, choose which version of your domain you want Google to show. In the property you want to be your main one, open the gear menu, choose Site Settings, and set the preferred domain to either the www or non www version.
This setting only tells Google your preference. You should still set up proper 301 redirects on your server so that every visitor and every search engine ends up on one version. The setting and the redirects should agree with each other.
Step 4: Submit an XML sitemap
A sitemap is a file that lists the pages you want Google to find. Most content management systems can create one automatically. On WordPress, Yoast SEO and similar plugins generate a sitemap at an address such as /sitemap_index.xml.
In Search Console, go to Crawl, then Sitemaps, click “Add/Test Sitemap” and enter the sitemap path. Google will process it and report how many URLs were submitted and how many are indexed.
Do not worry if the indexed number is lower than the submitted number. Google does not promise to index every page. A large gap, though, is worth investigating. It can point to duplicate content, thin pages or pages blocked by mistake.
Step 5: Add users and connect Google Analytics
Under the gear menu, “Users and Property Owners” lets you give access to colleagues or your agency. Give full or restricted access rather than sharing your login. When someone leaves, remove them.
You can also associate the property with Google Analytics. This lets you see Search Console query data inside Analytics reports, which is handy when you want everything in one place.
The reports to check first
Search Console has a lot of menus. Here are the ones that matter most for a typical business site.
Search Analytics
Found under Search Traffic, this report replaced the old Search Queries report in 2015. It shows the queries your site appeared for, along with clicks, impressions, click through rate and average position. You can filter by page, country, device and date.
Useful things to look for:
- Queries with many impressions but few clicks. Your page is being seen but not chosen. Rewriting the page title and meta description can help.
- Pages ranking on page two. An average position between 11 and 20 often means a page is close. Improving the content or adding internal links can be enough to move it.
- Mobile versus desktop. Compare devices to spot pages that do well on desktop but poorly on phones.
The report keeps about 90 days of data, so export it regularly if you want a longer history.
Crawl Errors
This lists URLs Google tried to reach and could not. Pay most attention to 404 errors on pages that used to exist and still have links pointing to them. Redirect those to the most relevant live page. Server errors (the 5xx codes) are more urgent, because they can mean your hosting is struggling.
Manual Actions
If a Google reviewer has penalised your site for breaking the guidelines, it will show here. Most sites will see “No manual webspam actions found”, which is what you want. If you do get one, the message explains the type of problem, often unnatural links or thin content. Our guide to safe link building explains how to avoid the most common causes.
Security Issues
If Google detects malware or hacked content on your site, this report tells you. Search Console will usually send an email too, which is another reason to make sure the account email is one someone actually reads.
Mobile Usability
Since Google’s mobile friendly update in April 2015, this report has become more important. It lists pages with problems such as text too small to read, links too close together, or content wider than the screen.
Fetch as Google
Under Crawl, this tool lets you see a page the way Googlebot sees it. Choose “Fetch and Render” to check that your CSS and JavaScript are not blocked. After fixing an important page, you can also request indexing so Google looks at it sooner.
Links to Your Site
This shows which domains link to you and which pages they link to. It is not a complete list, but it is Google’s own view, which makes it a useful starting point.
A simple monthly routine
You do not need to log in every day. Once a month is enough for most small business sites:
- Check Manual Actions and Security Issues for anything new.
- Review Crawl Errors and fix or redirect the important ones.
- Look at Search Analytics for queries with high impressions and low click through rate.
- Check that your sitemap is still being read without errors.
- Glance at Mobile Usability for new problems.
Also turn on email notifications so urgent messages reach you between visits.
Common setup mistakes
- Only adding one version of the domain. You end up looking at the wrong data.
- Using a personal account. When that person leaves, access can be lost.
- Removing the verification file or tag. A redesign or plugin change can quietly break verification.
- Blocking CSS and JavaScript in robots.txt. Google needs these to render your pages properly. Check with the robots.txt Tester under Crawl.
- Ignoring messages. Search Console sends notices for real problems. Read them.
FAQ
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. There is no paid version.
How long until data appears?
Usually within a few days of verification, though some reports take longer to fill in. Set it up as early as you can so you have a history to compare against.
Is Search Console the same as Webmaster Tools?
Yes. Google renamed Webmaster Tools to Search Console in May 2015. The features carried over.
Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools as well?
It is worth setting up. It takes a few minutes and covers Bing and Yahoo search traffic.
Need a hand with search?
Setting up Search Console is the easy part. Making sense of the data and turning it into better rankings takes time. If you would like help with that, see how we help businesses get found.
