A Complete Guide to Google Search Console

Creating/Accessing a Google Search Console Account

 

To get started with Google Search Console, head to https://search.google.com/search-console/about and click ‘Start now’.

Sign in using your email address, or click ‘Create account’ if you need to create a new account.

Adding a Property

In Google Search Console, a website is referred to as a ‘property’. To add a new property to your Google Search Console account, after logging in/creating your account please follow the steps below.

Enter your domain in the field provided and click ‘Continue’.

google-search-console-add-property

Select your preferred verification method from the following:

  • HTML File – this method involves copying a file and uploading it to your website.
  • HTML Tag – this involves copying a small piece of code into the <head> section of your websites home page.
  • Google Analytics – this involves using an existing Google Analytics account to add a piece of tracking code to the <head> section of your page.
  • Google Tag Manager – this involves using your Google Tag Manager account to add a snippet of code to your page.
  • Domain Name Provider – this involves adding a TXT record to the DNS of your website, which is done by signing into your domain name provider e.g GoDaddy or 123-reg).

The full steps for each verification method can be found here.

Once you have completed one of the methods of verification, click ‘Verify’. This will then allow Google Search Console to check your verification and let you know whether it has been successful.

Giving Other Users Access to a Property

There are many situations where you may need to give another user access to your property in Google Search Console, such as to submit some pages for you or to take a look at the data available.

Log into your Google Search Console account, and ensure the property you wish to give another user access to is displaying in the top left corner. If it is not, use the arrow and dropdown menu to select the correct property.

Click ‘Settings’.

google-search-console-settings

Click ‘Users and permissions’.

google-search-console-users-and-permissions

Click ‘Add User’.

google-search-console-add-user

Enter the email address of the user you would like to give access to in the field provided, then click ‘Add’.

google-search-console-user

Viewing the Data Available in Google Search Console

Within Google Search Console, there is data available that can tell you a lot about the traffic your website receives. Within the report you are able to see:

  • Total clicks – this is the amount of clicks your website has received in the time scale you are looking at. How this is counted depends on the search type you have selected.
  • Total impressions – this is the amount of times your website has appeared in a user’s search results during the time period you are viewing. This is calculated differently for different types of search results.
  • Average CTR – this is the average click-through rate your website receives, which is the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.
  • Average position – this is the average position of your site in search results and it is based on its highest position whenever it appeared in a search.

To view the report, login to Google Search Console and ensure the property you wish to view data for is appearing in the top left corner. If it is not, use the arrow and dropdown menu to select the correct property.

In the ‘Performance’ section on the main screen, click ‘Open Report’.

google-search-console-performance

The report will then open up and show you the data for the past 3 months.

The report can be customised in a few different ways:

Clicking on ‘+ NEW’ opens up a few options.

  • Query – this allows you to see how much traffic your website received based on different keywords that users may use to search.
  • Page – this allows you to enter a specific page, and see the exact traffic for that page.
  • Country – this allows you to measure the amount of traffic your website has received from different countries.
  • Device – this allows you to refine the data you are shown to different devices.
  • Search appearance – this allows you to separate the date by the type of search results.

google-search-console-new

Search type allows you to change the type of search you are viewing data for – web, image or video.

google-search-console-search-type

Date allows you to change the date range of the report. You can also use this feature to compare two different time periods.

google-search-console-date

 

 

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