Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website appears in Google Search: which searches show your pages, how many people click, which pages are indexed and what problems Google finds. If you run a business website and do not use it yet, it is the first thing to set up. This guide explains how.
Why Search Console matters
- It is the only place where you see the real searches people use to find you.
- It tells you when Google cannot index a page, and why.
- It warns you about security issues and manual actions.
- It lets you submit your sitemap and ask Google to recrawl a page after you update it.
How to set it up
- Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
- Add a property. A Domain property covers every version of your site (with and without www, http and https) and is verified with a DNS record at your domain provider. A URL prefix property covers one address and can be verified with an HTML tag, a file or Google Analytics.
- Once verified, open Sitemaps and submit your sitemap address, usually /sitemap_index.xml on WordPress sites with an SEO plugin.
Data starts to appear within a few days. Google keeps up to 16 months of history.
The reports worth checking
Performance
Shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, by search query, page, country and device. Useful checks:
- Queries on positions 5–20: these pages are close to the top. Improving their content and internal links often moves them up.
- Pages with many impressions and few clicks: the title or description may not match what people want. Rewrite them.
- Compare periods: spot a drop early and find which page or query caused it.
Page indexing
Lists which pages are in Google’s index and why others are not. Common reasons:
- Crawled – currently not indexed: Google read the page but did not think it was worth indexing. Usually thin or generic content. Improve it or merge it with a stronger page.
- Alternate page with proper canonical tag: normal for duplicates that point to the main version.
- Not found (404): check whether the page should redirect somewhere.
- Page with redirect: normal for old addresses that now redirect.
URL Inspection
Paste any address from your site to see whether it is indexed, which canonical Google chose and when it was last crawled. After updating an important page, use Request indexing.
Core Web Vitals
Shows how fast and stable your pages are for real visitors on mobile and desktop. Small sites with little traffic may see “no data”; in that case test pages with PageSpeed Insights.
Security and manual actions
Should both say “no issues detected”. If not, act straight away: a hacked site or a manual penalty can remove you from results.
A simple monthly routine
- Open Performance for the last 3 months and compare with the previous period.
- Note the top five queries on positions 5–20 and improve the matching pages.
- Check Page indexing for new errors.
- Request indexing for pages you changed.
Search Console inside WordPress
On the websites we build, the PWD SEO plugin can show Search Console data directly in WordPress: clicks, positions, top searches and quick wins, plus the Google data for each page inside the editor. That makes the monthly check a two-minute job.
Want us to set it up and review your results? See our SEO services or contact us.