Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a collection of tools and resources to help website owners, webmasters, marketers, and SEO professionals improve their websites. This powerful platform allows users to monitor website performance in the Google search index, providing invaluable insights and actionable data.
An essential tool for anyone serious about improving search performance and visibility, Google Search Console offers a unique window into how Google perceives and interacts with your site, providing data that can’t be found anywhere else. That’s why we’re committed to keeping you informed fast about Google Search Console news.
Key features
Google Search Console offers a huge variety of features that include:
- Search Appearance Information: Gain insights into how your site appears in search results.
- Search Traffic Analysis: Understand your audience better by analyzing your overall search performance.
- Technical Status Updates: Receive notifications about critical issues affecting your site’s performance in search results.
- Crawl Data and Indexing Insights: Monitor how Google crawls and indexes your site.
- Performance Reports: Access detailed data on your site’s search performance. Core Web Vitals reports provide crucial information about your site’s user experience.
- URL Inspection Tool: Examine specific URLs to understand how Google views and indexes them and troubleshoot any issues.
- Links Analysis: Explore internal and external links to your site.
Leveraging Google Search Console effectively can lead to significant improvements in your site’s search performance. For example:
- The Performance Report can help identify underperforming pages that might benefit from content optimization.
- The Mobile Usability Report can guide improvements in your site’s mobile experience, which is crucial in today’s mobile-first indexing environment.
- The Links Report can inform your link-building strategy by revealing the most linked content and the top linking sites.
The evolution
Originally launched as Google Webmaster Tools, the platform was significantly rebranded in 2015 to become Google Search Console. This change reflected its broader utility for various marketing professionals beyond webmasters.
The evolution of Google Search Console mirrors the changing landscape of SEO and digital marketing in general. As search algorithms become more sophisticated and UX takes center stage, the platform has adapted to provide more insights and actionable data.
Maximizing your Google Search Console experience
We invite you to read our guides and tips for using Google Search Console, along with the latest news and feature updates. The goal of our content is to help you make the most of Google Search Console.
For example, you can learn how to use Google Search Console to get easy SEO wins. You can also explore our comprehensive SEO’s guide on the platform, as it offers an in-depth look at techniques and best practices for seasoned professionals.
Stay tuned to Search Engine Land to ensure you’re always up-to-date with the latest features and best practices of Google Search Console, helping you maintain a competitive edge in the ever-evolving world of SEO.
Hiring an SEO? Why a technical SEO audit shouldn’t be part of the proposal process
Experienced SEOs share what to expect from an initial audit and why Google’s hiring video misses the mark.
Google’s ‘Interesting finds’ SERP feature: The ‘interesting’ reason why mobile organic search traffic remained strong while desktop dropped
The “Interesting finds” module in mobile search results is tough to track, but could be driving a lot of search traffic to your site so use these tips to better understand how it's impacting your site.
Google to switch completely over to mobile-first indexing by September 2020
Google has said currently 70% of sites shown in search have already been switched over.
Google mobile-first indexing to be applied to all sites within a year
Google is sending notices to sites that have mobile-first indexing issues.
Google Search Console now lets you export more data
Use your exported Search Console data to join datasets, import it into other tools or visualize the data as you see fit.
How to use the AMP status report to identify page errors, validate fixes
Google’s latest Search Console training video explains how to troubleshoot your AMP pages.
A quick guide to understanding Google’s quality rater guidelines
Jennifer Slegg explains the most important themes for brands.
Google Search Console Change of Address tool adds redirect validation & reminder
Google has some new features in Search Console to help you move your site.
Google Search Console adds review snippets performance, enhancement and testing reports
If you have implemented reviews on your pages, you won't want to miss out on these new tools and reports from Google.
Google Search Console fixed a bug with Google Tag Manager verification
Check to see if your properties are still verified in Google Search Console.
Google Search Console launches new removals tool
The new tool temporarily block URLs from showing in Google, it shows outdated content and content filtered by SafeSearch.
Bridging SEO and web development: How to get developers on your side
Autodesk’s Jenny Jiang shares her approach to fostering a healthy, productive environment between SEOs and web developers.
Google Dataset Search is out of beta and adds new features
If you want to capitalize on this speciality search engine, make sure to add datasets schema where applicable.
Google will drop support for data-vocabulary.org structured data on April 6
Site owners will have to switch to schema.org markup to be eligible for rich results.
Google Search Console unparsable structured data report data issue
No need to panic, the errors you may be seeing in Google Search Console might be related to a bug with Google and not an issue with your web site.
Google handles reconsideration requests in batches
John Mueller said that the Google team goes through reconsideration requests in batches, so sometimes it can feel like there is a backlog.
Google working on fixing data in URL parameter tool
The legacy URL parameter tool in Google Search Console is having some issues, Google is aware and working on it.
Google Search Console Coverage report improves accuracy on indexed pages
"Index Coverage report can more accurately report on indexed pages," Google said.
Discover Performance reports in Google Search Console just got fresher data
Publishers can now see Discover data that’s less than a day old.
Bug in Google Search Console performance reports impact Google Discover reporting
The bug affected reporting between December 8 and December 13, 2019.
Google Search Console messages can now be viewed without leaving reports
Messages are also categorized by type.
Google Search Console adds Product results filters to performance report
Google announced you can now drill deeper into how your product rich results are doing in search.
Image search click data dropped by Google Search Console
Between November 14 and 19th, Google said it lost image click data in the Search Console performance reports.
2020 SEO trends that will influence your work
Google is aiming to be the end destination of their users' journeys. This, more than anything, defines major SEO trends for 2020.
Misquoted and misunderstood: Why many in the search community don’t believe the WSJ about Google search
Search is complicated. The WSJ appeared set on seeing that complexity through a conspiratorial lens.
A framework for SEO success with structured data
Aleyda Solis and Chris Long share their approaches to using Schema to increase organic search visibility.
Google starts new Search Console training series on YouTube
Daniel Waisberg from Google has started a new video series to help you learn how to get the most out of Search Console.
SEO myths busted by an ex-Googler
Google doesn't hate your website, AdWords don't impact SEO and 'freshness' and keywords are not as important as you think.
A deep dive into BERT: How BERT launched a rocket into natural language understanding
Get the full backstory of the algorithm's evolution and how BERT has improved human language understanding for machines.
5 tips and trends from Google Webmaster Conference
The Google Webmaster Conference was filled with fun information. Here are the more important topics covered.
Google Search Console begins rolling out Speed report
Check out your new Speed report under the Enhancements tab within Google Search Console.
Google launches Site Kit plugin for WordPress
WordPress users can see data pulled from various Google products.
SMX Advanced Overtime: Your questions answered about webspam and penalties
Bing's Frédéric Dubut and ex-Googler Fili Wiese covered a wide range of questions in Seattle and will be sharing more insights at SMX East.
A deeper look at Google Search Console Speed Reports
We got access to the experimental speed reports in Google Search Console.
Google Search Console adds Video Enhancement, Video Appearances Performance reports
Google has new reports to help you with your videos in Google Search and Discover.
Google Search Console adds Change of Address tool to new interface
The change of address tool should be around for the foreseeable future.
Google Search Console speeds up data in performance reports
Google also updated the export to let you choose the timeframe of the export.
Breadcrumb structured data reports now available in Google Search Console
The new report can help you debug issues with breadcrumbs displaying in the search results.
Google Search Console adds Datasets to enhancement reports section
Check out this new report within Google Search Console and if you don't see it, do not panic.
SMX Overtime: Your questions answered about Google penalties and their impact on websites
SMX London attendees asked SEO expert Fili Wiese a wide-ranging number of questions about penalties, indexing, crawling and more.
