Google Search Console Guide: A Complete Guide for Bloggers and Content Creators
In the very beginning of my blogging journey, I made the most common mistake, that is, I just wrote the article and waited for several days to see it indexed by Google.
Sometimes it happened. But sometimes not.
And I found myself looking in Google search trying to understand why my article wasn't found while I put so much time and effort into it. And what was even more frustrating is that there was nothing wrong with the article itself, and the only thing missing is the proper check of how Google treats my website.
This is where the Google Search Console came to my help.
It's not a magic tool that makes your blog appear in Google search immediately. What it actually does is allows you to get more insights about how Google sees your website.
Being a blogger or content creator, you will be able to make fewer guesses if you learn how to use the Search Console basics.
In this introductory article, I explain the fundamentals of using Google Search Console, including its setup, indexing, search performance, errors, sitemaps, and SEO improvements.
What Is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console (GSC) is an entirely free tool provided by Google to help website owners to analyze how visible their websites are in Google Search.
With its help, you can find out the following things:
Which pages are indexed by Google
Which queries bring visitors to your website
The number of indexations for each of your pages
The number of clicks on your results
Your average position in search
Indexation issues
Sitemap information
Mobile and page experience information
Security and manual action issues
Discovered links
All this information is very helpful for bloggers.
Instead of making guesses like, "I believe that Google is ranking my article," you can check all the metrics.
Why Bloggers Should Utilize Google Search Console
There is no need to be an SEO specialist in order to make use of Search Console.
Suppose you have published 30 posts on your blog. After several weeks, you find out that Google indexed only 18 of those.
Without Search Console, you will keep publishing new posts and won't figure out what is happening.
Using Search Console, you will be able to analyze which of the URL's are indexed and which are not.
But there is also something else that it may tell you.
Sometimes you write an article for a specific keyword and suddenly you realize that it receives impressions from searches that are completely different from your initial expectations. This information can be useful to improve your post.
This is one of the most useful things about GSC – it shows you the searches of real Google users.
How to Create Google Search Console Setup
The process is relatively easy to undertake.
Step 1: Login into Google Search Console
Visit Google Search Console page and login into the account you would like to use for website management.
If you have a Blogger website, it will be more convenient to use Google account connected to your blog.
Step 2: Enter Your Website
There are property types offered by Google Search Console to add a website.
There are typically two options:
Domain property
It includes all domains and subdomains.
URL-prefix property
This allows verification of a certain path and may be more suitable for beginners with a specific website setup.
Step 3: Verify Ownership
Google must prove that you own the website.
The process used for verification varies according to the website platform.
Verification may be done by adding a DNS entry for some websites. There are other methods such as HTML file, HTML tag, and services associated with Google.
In the case of using Blogger, use the verification process provided by Google for your particular account and property.
After completing the process of verification, Search Console will start collecting information from your site.
Don’t worry if there is no much information at first glance. Your property needs time before you get useful reports.
Understanding the Search Console Dashboard
The Search Console interface can appear complicated on first opening.
The good news for bloggers is that they do not have to comprehend all reports right away.
These are some suggestions:
Performance
URL Inspection
Pages/ Indexing
Sitemaps
Links
Experience
Security and Manual Actions
Let's break down each one.
1. Performance Report
The Performance report is the report you will most likely find yourself looking at most often.
It gives you an indication of the performance of your website on Google Search.
Some key figures include:
Total Clicks
How many clicks have been achieved by your website from Google Search in the selected time period.
Total Impressions
An impression, by definition, is when the search result is viewed on Google Search.
Your impressions may go up even without an increase in clicks.
For instance, your article may get:
5,000 impressions
150 clicks
This means the article was visible but not receiving a high number of clicks from those searches.
Average CTR
CTR stands for click-through rate.
It is the percentage of impressions that were converted into clicks.
Low CTR does not mean that something is necessarily wrong. Intent, position, competition, type of query and look of search results are all factors.
Average Position
It allows you to get an idea about the positions of your site's results in searches.
Don’t focus on a precise position only.
Search results may depend on many variables like query itself, location, device, personalization, etc.
2. How to See Keywords Your Blog Has Already Ranked for
This is one of the most interesting strategies for a beginner.
Go to:
Search Console > Performance > Search Results
You’ll see the tabs or dimensions corresponding to queries, pages, countries, and devices.
Choose Queries.
Now you’ll see search phrases for which your website got impressions or clicks.
There may be some surprises for you.
Let's say you wrote an article under the title:
"Beginner’s Guide to Online Work"
You might find out that Google uses this article for searches like:
online work for beginners
online jobs from home
beginner online earning methods
guide to working from home
These search phrases may not belong to your initial target audience.
This information will help you to improve your article in a natural way.
For example, you can add a section about one of these topics instead of creating a new article.
3. URL Inspection Tool
The URL Inspection tool is incredibly helpful when you’re not sure about a particular page.
For instance, you've created:
yourwebsite.com/example-article
You can add this URL to the Search Console.
Google will be able to give you information regarding whether or not this URL is known by Google and whether or not it has any indexing problems.
When you've recently published or updated a page, you can also utilize the "request indexing" feature.
There's one thing I learned from experience though:
Requesting indexing doesn’t mean you’ll rank for anything.
All it means is asking Google to look at it.
Initially, I thought that requesting indexing was like pushing a "Rank This Page" button.
It’s not.
It's still going to need good content, proper technical configuration, and something that makes Google want to show it.
4.Checking if Your Article Is Indexed
One of the most common queries asked by beginners is:
"Is my article indexed on Google?"
Search Console is the tool for investigating it.
Launch the URL Inspection tool and type in the URL of your article.
If the URL of your article is marked as indexed on Google, it means that it is in good shape.
In case if it is not indexed, do not think that there is a penalty for your site.
There are plenty of possible causes for it, such as:
Your page is too fresh
It has not been crawled yet by Google
There is a problem with your page technically
This URL is blocked for indexing
Google has chosen other URL as canonical
Maybe this page does not bring any unique value
There might be duplicate or similar pages
5. Comprehending the Pages Report
Pages reports will assist you in understanding whether your website URLs are indexed by Google or whether they aren’t indexed by Google.
Pages reports are especially helpful for bigger blogs.
The report may contain categories like:
Indexed pages
Not indexed pages
Reasons why URLs were not indexed
You cannot consider all URLs that aren’t indexed as mistakes.
It is the fundamental concept that a beginner should learn about.
Some URLs simply do not have to be in Google’s index.
For instance, some duplicate URLs, redirects, utility pages, and deliberately excluded pages could be okay.
The task is not to make all URLs appear on Google’s search engine.
The main idea is to make sure that all your important pages are being indexed properly.
6. Submission of Sitemap
Sitemap assists search engines in finding URLs on your website.
In many cases, the sitemap will be created automatically for your website depending on the platform used by your website or SEO software.
In case your website offers a sitemap, you can submit your sitemap URL using:
Search Console Sitemaps
Here is an example of sitemap URL of any website:
https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Remember that your sitemap URL will depend on your platform.
Once you submit your sitemap URL, Search Console will tell you whether Google managed to read your sitemap.
Common error
You don’t need to submit the same sitemap over and over again because you fear that Google hasn’t indexed every article.
Sitemap is just a discovery tool.
7. Search Console for Blogger Websites
For blogger websites, Search Console can come handy too.
The typical process would be like the following:
Write article → Ensure accessibility of the article → Check Sitemap/Setup → Check URL → See Indexing → Check Performance data
You should not expect traffic from a new article immediately.
A new website/blog will need some time to build up its search visibility.
Moreover, do not make a blunder of writing dozens of articles in order to have more posts published.
It is better to have fewer, yet quality and useful articles rather than dozens of useless ones.
8. Improve Articles Through Search Console Data
Here is how you can improve your articles through Search Console data.
Assume that your article gets:
10,000 Impressions but only 100 Clicks
Rather than removing that article right away, try to analyze it first.
You should check out:
Search Queries
Average Position
Pages Receiving Impressions
Search Intent
Title
Description
Usefulness of the content
9. Using data for devices
Google Search Console may also help you analyze how your site performs on devices.
And this can uncover one of the most intriguing issues.
Perhaps your website is performing decently on desktops but doesn't attract much attention among mobile visitors.
For bloggers, mobile optimization is critical since there is a huge number of readers using mobile phones.
Load your site via a mobile phone and look at it:
Is the text readable?
Are any ads overlaying the content?
Is the navigation working?
Are any pictures too big?
Are the buttons clickable?
Is the page loading fast enough?
Are there any pop-ups?
Sometimes the most effective SEO fix won't be yet another keyword.
It will be improving the user experience.
10. Links Understanding
Links report may provide information about the links that Google has identified.
The information will usually include the following:
External links
Internal links
Most linked pages
Linking websites
Internal links are especially helpful for bloggers.
For instance, if you have one article about Google AdSense and another about creating blog posts, you can link between these articles if it makes sense.
This way, your readers will find more information, and the search engines will understand the connections between pages better.
It does not make sense to create dozens of irrelevant internal links.
Only use links where they will be useful for the reader.
11. Most Common Mistakes with Google Search Console
Mistake 1: Looking at statistics every hour
There is no change in the performance of searches within a few minutes.
Looking at it all the time will unnecessarily worry you.
Just look at the trends within a reasonable time frame.
Mistake 2: Considering indexing means ranking
An indexed webpage does not necessarily mean high-ranking.
They are two different things.
Mistake 3: Asking for indexing frequently
Requesting indexing of the same webpage five times does not help in getting ranked in Google.
Fix the problem.
Mistake 4: Indexing everything
Every URL does not require indexing.
Choose the pages wisely.
Mistake 5: Optimizing for each keyword
Finding a keyword in Search Console that is not expected does not mean you use that keyword ten times in your article.
Use the information wisely.
Mistake 6: Ignoring low-performing pages
Low-performing webpages are not necessarily useless pages.
These webpages may require:
Better intention match
More useful information
Better title
Better internal links
Up-to-date information
Better structure
Just look at the page before deciding.
Conclusion
Reflecting back to my early days of blog management, perhaps the greatest blunder was making assumptions of what Google was doing.
The Search Console eliminates some of that guessing.
It tells you what pages Google is aware of, what searches generate impressions, from where clicks are coming, and where there could be technical issues.
As a new blogger, you do not have to know everything about the Search Console reports in the first day.
Here are three main areas to focus:
Performance > URL Inspection > Pages/Indexing
And once you are confident with these, try others such as Sitemaps, Links, and so forth.
The most important point to take away is quite simple: do not use Search Console simply to see the traffic numbers. Use it to understand what your readers are searching for and how useful your website can actually be for them.
This is when the tool will turn into something very different than simply an SEO analytics panel.
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