What Is Google Search Console and How Do You Use It?

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google that shows you exactly how your website is performing in search results. It tells you which queries people use to find your site, how many impressions and clicks you’re getting, which pages Google has indexed, and whether there are any errors or issues preventing your content from appearing in search.

Despite being one of the most valuable free tools available to website owners, many people either don’t use Search Console at all or log in occasionally without knowing what to look for. This guide introduces the key features and explains how to use them to make practical improvements to your SEO.

Setting up and verifying your site

To use Google Search Console, you need a Google account and you need to verify that you own the website you’re adding. Visit search.google.com/search-console and click “Add property”. You’ll be given the option to add a domain property (which covers all subdomains and both HTTP and HTTPS) or a URL prefix property (which covers a specific URL pattern). The domain property gives you a more complete picture and is recommended for most users.

Verification can be done via a DNS TXT record (the most reliable method, done through your domain registrar or DNS provider), an HTML file uploaded to your server, an HTML meta tag added to your homepage, or through an existing Google Analytics or Tag Manager connection. Once verified, data starts populating within a few days, though the full 16-month historic dataset builds up over time.

If someone else manages your website’s technical side, you can grant them access under Settings > Users and permissions. Search Console allows multiple users with different permission levels, so your developer, SEO agency, and web designer can all access the data they need.

The reports you should check regularly

The Performance report is where most site owners spend the most time. It shows your total clicks, impressions, average click-through rate (CTR), and average position in Google search, filterable by date range, query, page, country, and device. This is invaluable for spotting which pages are getting impressions but few clicks (opportunities to improve title tags and meta descriptions) and which queries you’re ranking for that you didn’t expect.

The Coverage (or Indexing) report shows you which pages Google has indexed and which it hasn’t, along with the reasons for any exclusions. “Valid with warnings” and “Excluded” pages deserve attention — pages marked as “Discovered but not indexed” or “Crawled but not indexed” may indicate quality issues Google wants you to address. The Enhancements section shows the status of any schema markup, Core Web Vitals, and mobile usability.

The Links report shows which pages have the most internal links and which external sites link to you. This is useful for understanding your link profile without paying for a third-party tool. The URL Inspection tool lets you check the status of any individual page — whether it’s indexed, when it was last crawled, and how Google rendered it.

Practical ways to act on what you find

One of the quickest wins from Search Console is identifying pages with high impressions but low CTR. These pages are appearing in Google results but not compelling people to click. Review the title tags and meta descriptions for these pages — are they clear, relevant, and enticing? Small copy improvements here can produce noticeable traffic gains without any change to rankings.

Use the Coverage report to find pages that should be indexed but aren’t. “Submitted URL not indexed” and “Crawled but not indexed” statuses often indicate content quality issues — pages too thin, too similar to others, or not considered sufficiently useful by Google. Improving the content on these pages and requesting reindexing via the URL Inspection tool is the right course of action.

Check Core Web Vitals regularly, especially after making changes to your website design or adding new scripts and plugins. Poor LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), high CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), or slow INP (Interaction to Next Paint) scores are highlighted in the Experience section and can be drilled into at page level to prioritise where improvements will have the most impact.