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.
News filter added to Google Search Console performance report
You can now filter your News traffic in Google's performance report.
Does Google respect the URL parameters tool?
E-commerce sites should not make assumptions about Google’s crawling parameter - check the log files to confirm activity.
Search engines penalize websites – but why?
Penalties must be seen for what they truly are: stopgap measures.
Video: Christi Olson of Microsoft on audience targeting, syncing with Google and Promote IQ
Christi Olson is the head of Evangelism for Search and Advertising at Microsoft.
Regular expression filter support coming to Google Search Console performance reports
This new support is mentioned in the Google help documents but does not seem to be live yet.
Google updated guidelines to say spam reports are not for manual actions
Google only uses spam reports to improve its spam prevention algorithms.
Top 5 free backlink checkers you should be using
Backlink checkers cost a lot? Not necessarily. Check out these 5 free tools that do the job no worse than their paid alternatives.
How in-house SEO teams and enterprise tech can boost organizational efficiency
SEO shouldn’t be a solo endeavor — how to break down silos and make SEO a part of every team’s toolkit.
Google tests showing Analytics data in Search Console with ‘Insights’
With deeper integration with Google Analytics, Search Console can show you beyond the search results page how users are interacting with your web site.
Free Google product listings expand to knowledge panels in Search results
Plus, some early stats on the effect of free listings in Google Shopping.
How to diagnose and fix a search rankings dip
SEO tools and a process to determine what was hit and how to fix it.
Web Vitals come to Google’s Test My Site tool
The tool gives mobile speed and user experience recommendations.
Video: Daniel Waisberg from Google on Search Console and the Search Relations Team
Daniel has a rich history in the search industry, even writing here at Search Engine Land for years before working at Google.
Google webspam report: Cracking down on renegade linking practices, auto-generated content
“More than 25 billion pages we discover each day are spammy,” the company revealed.
Google Search Console performance report gets recipe filters
Use these new reports to see how well your recipe markup is performing in Google Search.
SEMRush drops paid guest blogging service after Google policy scrutiny
Google said selling paid links on blogs is against its webmaster guidelines and that Google can take action against those using the service.
Bing Webmaster Tools now gives you competitive link data
You do not need to have the site verified to see the site's link profile in Bing Webmaster Tools.
The Google Page Experience Update: User experience to become a Google ranking factor
Core Web Vitals metrics will start to impact rankings in 2021. Here is what you need to know.
The Ultimate Google Disavow Guide
Here's a blueprint for anyone considering using the Disavow Tool in order to improve their website signals.
Core Web Vitals report replaces Speed report in Google Search Console: What you need to know
If you are looking for the speed report in Google Search Console, it is no longer named that.
Google Search Console adds new guided recipes reports
Get your recipe markup in order with these new Google tools.
Google Discover performance reports data issue
You may see a significant decline in your Google Discover traffic in Google Search Console, this may be a reporting bug.
Google Search Console API to stop supporting HTTP and JSON-RPC requests
Many SEOs are still using these methods, so please check your implementations so they do not break.
Pro Tip: How to find and fix 404 errors that really matter to win your traffic back
External sources link to your website with the wrong URLs, here’s how you can fix that.
Oops, LinkedIn temporarily drops out of Google Search
Even the biggest sites on the internet can have problems with their SEO and Google.
Google Search Console now supports SpecialAnnouncement schema
The Rich Results Test tool now also supports SpecialAnnouncement markup.
Mixed Directives: A reminder that robots.txt files are handled by subdomain and protocol, including www/non-www and http/https [Case Study]
Since robots.txt files impact crawling, it’s important for site owners to understand how they are treated by search engines. Columnist Glenn Gabe covers two cases involving multiple robots.txt files (by subdomain and protocol).
Google Search Console reports may have changed
Google's AMP, Mobile Usability, Speed, all rich result reports have been updated.
Google not indexing new content again
Google is aware of these reports and is investigating the issue.
Schema.org vs. what Google supports: Know the difference [Video]
And, expert SEOs discuss a Google Search Console feature that would ease their anxieties in this clip from Live with Search Engine Land.
Adapting your SEO strategy to soften the impact of COVID-19 on organic traffic
Test and identify problem areas to better amplify your value proposition while staying relevant to the trends people are searching for.
The White House wants us to use Schema for COVID-19 announcements
Private sector businesses are also urged to use the new “SpecialAnnouncement” and “eventAttendanceMode” tags when appropriate.
FAQ: Google’s Popular Products and how to increase your organic product visibility
How to get your products eligible, make your listings more competitive and measure traffic from Popular Products.
Some Featured Snippets may not appear as the top organic result
Google Featured Snippets are changing fast and now there’s an extra layer of complexity.
Google ends support for data-vocabulary.org structured data in rich results
A last reminder to switch to schema.org markup before April 6 to maintain rich result eligibility.
Coding for SEO: Using JavaScript to track COVID-19
An explanation of asynchronous JavaScript using Fetch API for getting JSON data to the screen.
Google Search Console adds performance report and email preferences
Google added new controls for Search Console. The SEO community will welcome these new preferences.
Reducing digital marketing due to COVID-19? Read this first
Here's some advice about being hands-on with paid search accounts and mindful of your content during this time of uncertainty.
9 of the best SEO tools you can try for free
Free trial is a great way to get acquainted with pricey SEO software. So here's a list of SEO tools you can try out before spending money.
Google’s right-sidebar featured snippets are no more
The featured snippet variant now appears in Google’s main results column, as the company announced in January.