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.
How to avoid international SEO mistakes
International SEO is an important piece of any global marketing strategy. In a recent webinar, international marketing experts showed how to optimize for new markets.
Google crawl stats report is missing a chunk of data
This seems to be just a reporting issue, as everyone seems to be impacted by this Google Search Console bug.
The benefits of dynamic rendering for SEO
Google is getting better at crawling JavaScript, but there are still limitations. At SMX Next, Nati Elimelich explained how dynamic rendering can overcome those limitations while avoiding potential cloaking issues.
How to create a multi-site indexing monitoring system using the URL Inspection API and Analytics Edge
In this tutorial, you'll learn a step-by-step process you can use to create a multisite URL Inspection monitoring system.
Expect more messages in Google Search Console
Google said it finished the migration of all the messages into the new Search Console interface.
Google Search Console performance reports data issue may impact analytics
This issue was between February 1st through February 3rd and did not impact your rankings.
Google says Shopify sites are in a good crawling state after reports of stalled crawling
Google Search Console's crawl stats report showed Google stopped crawling many Shopify sites last week.
8 SEO tools to get Google Search Console URL Inspection API insights
Discover some free tools, SEO crawler integrations, and scripts to leverage with Google Search Console URL Inspection API insights.
Shopify SEO Guide: How to increase organic traffic to your store
SEO tips to fully optimize your Shopify site for higher rankings and more sales.
Google Search Console snapshot in search results now can show domain properties
You may start seeing this snapshot show up more often because Google now supports more verification methods.
Google Search Console error reporting for Breadcrumbs and HowTo structured data changed
This change may result in seeing more or less errors in your Breadcrumbs and HowTo structured data Search Console enhancement and error reports.
Google releases URL Inspection Tool API
You can now programmatically access the data you'd request from the URL Inspection Tool within Google Search Console.
Google Search Console logging issue may cause drop in image search performance data
The issue started on January 24 and is still ongoing, so please note this in your reports.
Google Search Console launches desktop page experience report
We now have a tool from Google to see how well our desktop URLs do with page experience.
Shopify chat bug leads to titles with (1) in Google’s search results
The issue is resolved but it might take time for your titles to be reprocessed.
Google’s page experience update coming to desktop next month
This won't be a big update, but do expect new Search Console reports soon as well.
Why server logs matter for SEO
Server log analysis can provide unparalleled insights into crawl prioritization, enabling SEO teams to finetune their crawl budget management for better rankings.
3 ways to check technical SEO health issues on your website
Technical SEO is vital to keep your website healthy. At SMX Next, Ashley Berman Hale shows how marketers can review their site's crawl stats, rendering and indexing.
Google fixes user and permissions issue with Search Console
Full user permissions no longer shows as delegated owners for some - this is now resolved.
Google Search Console products rich result report error handling updated
On December 28, 2021 Google made a change to how it evaluates and reports errors in product structured data, so you may see a change in errors in that report going forward.
Google Search Console testing announcement bar
Google looks to be testing a new announcement section at the top of the Search Console interace.
SEO 2021 in review: Endless updates, title rewrites, GMB becomes GBP and more
Despite facing a still-raging pandemic and a slew of updates, SEOs rose to the challenge. Here’s our recap of the year’s most important SEO stories and news.
Messy SEO: Fixing site structure while a Google title change sinks clickthroughs
In Part 5 of our Messy SEO series, we look at the results from Google's title tag changes and other SERP issues affecting MarTech.
Google Search Console accessibility issues fully resolved five days later
Although, it seems most of us have been able to access this tool for the past few days.
How to optimize your site for better findability
An optimized site structure serves as the foundation for SEO success. At SMX Create, Niki Mosier shared how to strengthen those foundations and identify opportunities for greater search visibility.
Google Search Console inaccessible for some users
Many SEOs have reported being unable to access Google Search Console.
Google confirmed serving issue with Google Search results
If you see your content not showing up in Google Search this morning, you are not alone - it is a confirmed Google bug.
You can now link Google Analytics 4 to Google Search Console
The ability to associate GA4 and GSC properties gives SEOs more time to assess GA4’s capabilities ahead of the eventual deprecation of Universal Analytics.
Google Review Snippets rich results report updated
You may see a reduction in the number of review objects in this report starting on December 14, 2021.
Google News performance report updated for accuracy, expect impression reductions
This is not a ranking change, this is just a change in how Google reports on your rankings.
How expired landing pages kill your Google rankings
Soft 404s can lead to a poor user experience, fewer conversions and impact your site's visibility more than the loss in PageRank from maintaining them. Here's how to properly deal with expired landing pages.
Seismic event or overblown rebrand: Local search experts weigh in on ‘death’ of Google My Business
Google’s recent rebranding and new profile management options may be a sign that it’s improving features for multi-location brands, while driving adoption with SMBs via profile controls in Search and Maps.
Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended
Google said because of some difficulties that some sites may have moving to mobile-first indexing, it has decided to not move those sites over yet..
Google had a crawling issues that impacted some sites
Between November 11th and November 17th, Googlebot slowed crawling on some websites.
6 tactics to rank better in Google Discover
While you can’t target users or interests, you can increase your chances of ranking better in Google Discover. At SMX Next, John Shehata shared the tactics he uses to up the odds and analyze what works.
Google Search Console rolls out new design
Google has rolled out a new look for Google Search Console aimed at improving accessibility and user experience.
SiteGround Google’s crawling and indexing issues fixed
After numerous days where sites hosted on SiteGround were blocking Google from indexing, the issue has been resolved this morning.
Google to add page experience ranking signals to desktop search in February 2022
The rollout will be complete by the end of March 2022.
Google Search Console overcounted mobile page experience data since June 29th
For over four months, Google has been overcounting some of this data - make sure you communicate this to your clients when you send them your next batch of reports.
How Google’s continuous scroll can affect impressions and CTR
Reporting remains the same in Search Console, but eliminating the line between pages may result in new user behaviors, which can create winners and losers.