How to Use Google Search Console to Improve SEO?

Written By
Joe Smith
Published On
November 19, 2024
Read Time
10 minutes read

Have you ever wondered what kind of content your audience likes? Or how they will find your website? Using Google Search Console for SEO is the answer to your questions. It is an effective tool that offers valuable insights into your traffic and rankings.

Another question is why businesses often overlook it when developing their SEO Strategy. A key reason for neglecting is the interface marketers usually prefer to avoid interacting with. That is not a reasonable explanation for you to miss, mainly when you aim to improve your SEO Strategy. This article will explore GSC, including how to use Google Search Console to improve SEO, find keywords, fix errors, and monitor your website performance.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free Google service for website owners that enables them to monitor your website performance and troubleshoot errors to improve Google’s SEO. It is a powerful tool for locating flaws in your website and solving them to accomplish higher rankings in search engines.

How To Get Started with GSC?

To drive maximum benefits from GSC, you need to know how to use it properly. The first step for using the search console requires you to verify the site map ownership. Google has numerous ways to complete this verification, depending on what you verify. 

These include:

  • A blogger-hosted site
  • A domain
  • Google hosted site 

While others will rely on the four methods 

  1. Google Tag Manager
  2. Meta Tag 
  3. Google Analytics Tracking code 
  4. HTML File upload 

If you use a Google-registered domain, you will automatically find it in the Search console.

Easy Steps to Set up GSC

Easy-Steps-to-Set-up-GSC

Setting up your search console account for the first time? No worries, its a simple and sweet process. We are here to help you with a step-by-step process.

Step Description
Sign-in to Google Start by signing in to your Google account, which is the first step to getting started.
  If you have separate business and personal accounts, connect the one used for your website.
Open GSC Navigate to Google Search Console (GSC) and click on the “Start now” button to begin.
Add your website Once in GSC, click on “Add property” from the drop-down menu.
Include your domain Select the property type and enter your site’s URL. Ensure it’s the exact URL to avoid issues.
  After adding your domain, proceed by clicking the “Continue” button.
Account Verification The final step is to verify your account to complete

Using Google Search Console to Improve SEO

So far, we have learned about different ways to set up a Google search console. Now is the time you can use it to improve your website performance.

Finding the right Keywords 

Keywords are phrases that a user types into a search engine while looking for his desired product or services. These phrases are crucial for marketers to know about user behavior and buying preferences. The good news is, that you can utilize GSC to find top-performing keywords and include them into your content. 

You can do this by evaluating Google Analytics data. Below is a step-by-step process for a better understanding.

  • Access Google search analytics in the Search Console 
  • Check out the keyword’s audience is using to find out your website 
  • Closely monitor how many times your website appeared in search engines against particular keywords. If you are seeing high impressions, it means your website is getting noticed by a huge portion of the traffic.
  • Check the impression percentage displayed in the result of clicks. A high click rate demonstrates your website is meeting the customer demands.
  • The search console also displays the average position of your website. Examine it carefully to find out whether your website is standing in a low or a higher position. 
  • Mark the keywords driving more traffic as compared to others. In addition, check for those keywords with high impressions but low click-through rates.
  • Now you have both high and low-performing keywords, use them to form a solid SEO strategy.

Keyword optimization

Finding the top-performing keywords requires evaluating the data provided by Google Search Console. It helps you to check which phrase is bringing a high number of visitors and, vice versa, target keywords with high impressions and low clicks.

These keywords are close to ranking on the first page. You have to optimize them further to accomplish your goals. A bonus tip for you is to spy on your competitor and see the keywords on which his website is rare.

Content Optimization 

So, you have found the high-performing keywords, right? The next step is to incorporate them into your content. This will enhance your SEO optimization with Google Search Console, resulting in a wider audience reach.

Whether writing a short post or a comprehensive blog, make these keywords. It will allow Search engines to understand the relevance and purpose of your written content. Moreover, your chances of getting a higher rank in SERP (Search engine rank page) will increase.

Work on Completing the Sales Funnel 

Work on completing your sales funnel when finding the right one for your website. Usually, we have four types of keywords

  1. Navigational
  2. Informational 
  3. Investigational 
  4. Transactional 

Informational keywords help users find data regarding any niche, such as education, fitness, healing, etc. They intend to provide information, but making things easy for users offers you an excellent opportunity to increase your sales. 

In addition, you must look for investigational and transactional keywords such as product reviews and feedback in Google Search Console. Website owners must pick these keywords out to increase their sales.

For instance, if you are a water bottle company, your informational keyword is “how to use a bottle, “and your investigational keyword can be “types of water bottles. “Similarly, your transactional keyword will be “best water bottle.

Strengthen backlink profile 

You can quickly improve your SEO Strategy through reports from the search console. You share lots of helpful information that you can use to optimize your pages by looking at its internal links. Moreover, you can check all the pages with most internal links.

There, you will find the number of links your target page carries. Comparing the number of links on the website and all other pages will help you find more backlinking opportunities.

Fixing Sitemap Problems 

Problems in your sitemap may need to be clarified by confusing the Google crawlers. In addition, it wastes your time and leads to indexing the wrong URLs instead. To resolve these problems, go to the sitemap report and click on the icon next to it.

The tabs show the total errors, warnings, and valid URLs there. Fix them individually and move a step further to improve your overall SEO performance.

Analyzing your website Health with Google Search Console 

Analyzing-your-website-Health-withGoogle-Search-Console

Those wondering how to improve SEO on Google must realize how Google crawls your website and why your pages are not indexing.

Enter the index coverage report, which will inform you what issues Google is having when optimizing your website pages. After logging in, you will see that the number of indexed pages has changed in the past month.

Below are some common errors that prevent your website content from indexing. These include: 

  • URL Not Found: When a page is not accessible and when someone tries to open it, he receives an error 404
  • Redirect Error: You may encounter a redirect error when the website page fails. Chains and redirect loops are both examples of a redirect error.
  • Soft 404:  In case of a soft 404 error, you may not find the required page. That means your website has a bug that restricts the pages from appearing in front of users.

URL has a crawl issue: Sometimes, crawlers block a particular page in your Robots.txt. However, this is only sometimes a reason. Therefore, we have to go on the page and investigate the issue.

How to Fix Errors 

404 is an error when a particular URL of your website is not accessible. The common reason is when a page no longer exists. However, a 404 error often appears when a URL changes. Here is how you can quickly fix the problem and improve the SEO of your website.

Go to index and coverage. Over there, you will find a list of problems on your site. You will see all the affected URLs by clicking on them.

Google search console displays all 404 pages on your website. Sometimes, the corrected 404 errors contain a consistent search console. Therefore, fix the cause of the 404 error directly to ensure it does not display again.

Do it by redirecting the page and pointing it to the content on your website that resembles the page already removed. You can use 301 permanent redirects, an excellent solution for users to access an alternative page.

Google Analytics VS Search Console 

Newbies often mix Google Analytics with Google Search Console. At the same time, there is a vast difference in their roles and functionalities. Google Analytics is a reporting tool that shares insights about how users interact and behave on your website.

Google’s Chrome console tracks your website performance and shows your website’s clicks and impressions. Moreover, it also shares information about pages, including indexed and non-indexed ones.

In other words, Google Analytics tells you how many people visit. Moreover, it also explains the source from which they are coming, such as social media, organic search, or direct. While you can use GSC for 

  • Fixing usability problems
  • Seeing backlinks from other websites pointing towards yours
  • Keywords that visitors are using to search about your business 
  • Spotting your top organic pages 
  • Site map submission 
  • Ensuring structure data functioning 
  • Checking core web vitals success 

Old vs New Google Search Console

Google launched a new search console back in 2018. WhereMostures from the old version were shifted to the latest. Some version changes have also been made, such as a performance report and an index coverage report that replaces crawl errors.

In addition, a feature named URL inspection replaced the older one named fetch as Google. Below is a detail of the replaced features 

The new version of the search console does not have the latest features. Somehem is updated or replaced.

  • Site map reports
  • AMP Status: Accelerated Mobile Pages
  • Mobile usability is similar
  • Security issues report

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Google Search Console is an excellent tool for explaining your website’s performance. These include the impressions and clicks your website has. Moreover, it displays information about your pages, such as how many are indexed and nonindexed.

Some individuals confuse Google Analytics with Google Search Console. At the same time, both tools differ in their functions. Above, we have explained everything from improving SEO Strategy using a search console to setting it up in simple steps. Use it regularly to check and fix errors and maximize your website to accomplish top ranks in Google.

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FAQs

How to get the most out of Google Search Console?

Making the most out of this Google tool helps you to remain ahead of your competition. You do it by

  • Identifying higher traffic pages
  • Queries with Higher CTR
  • CTR Overtime
  • Check Average position
  • Low ranking keywords

Does Google Search Console Help Improve SEO Strategy?

Google Search Console is a free Google tool designed to help you optimize your website by checking the site errors and fixing them when required.

Can I USE GSC for any website?

You can use it to enhance any site’s overall performance. How. However, you must test and prove the site to the search console before connecting it.

Can I use Google Search Console without using Google Analytics?

Search consoles and analytics are trial tools for helping website owners grow, while Analytics tells you the source of your website traffic. Therefore using, using analytics will not be beneficial.

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