What’s this blog about?
Google Search Console is the free tool that tells you how Google sees your website. This guide takes you from “I know this exists but I’ve never opened it” through to how to check your stats monthly, giving Google a map of your website and understanding the slightly scarier bits like indexing issues and canonical tags. Grab a cuppa, this one’s a biggie.
What is Google Search Console and why do you even need it?
If you’ve ever signed up to a tool called Google Search Console, had a little poke around, felt completely baffled by what you see and then closed the tab never to return… hello, you’re welcome here.
As Julie Andrews once sang, let’s start at the very beginning….think of Google Search Console as Google’s way of talking directly to your website. It’s free, it’s run by Google themselves (and they bloody love it when you use their tools!) and it tells you things like:
- Whether Google can actually find and read your website
- Which keywords people are typing in when your website shows up
- How many people are clicking through to your site from Google
- Whether there are any tech issues stopping your website pages from being found
To use my favourite analogy – if your website is the gig, then Google Search Console is basically the venue manager telling you how many people walked past the building, how many came in, and whether the front door is actually working.
Google Search Console is one of those tools that everyone tells you that you NEED but nobody actually sits down and explains properly, so let’s do that. By the end of this blog you’ll know what it is, how to use it monthly, and what some of the scarier-sounding bits actually mean (spoiler alert: most of them are nothing to worry about).
Submitting your sitemap – You need it to tell Google your website exists
If you’ve never set up Google Search Console before, here’s the bit that feels the most “techy” but is actually pretty straightforward.
Head to Google Search Console and add your website as a property. Google will ask you to verify that you own it, usually by adding a small bit of code to your website or verifying through your domain provider. If you’re on WordPress, Squarespace or Wix, there’s usually a really simple way to do this through an SEO plugin like Yoast, or directly in your site settings.
Once verified, you’re in. Welcome to the clurrrbbbb.
You need it to show Google a map of your website
A sitemap is basically a list of every page on your website, all in one tidy file, that you hand to Google and say “here’s everything I’ve got, please come and have a look.”
To find your sitemap, it’s usually at yourwebsite.co.uk/sitemap.xml or yourwebsite.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml if you’re using Yoast on WordPress.
In Google Search Console, go to Sitemaps in the left hand menu, paste in your sitemap URL, and hit submit.
It’s likely your sitemap will look like this 👆
This is where you put in the link to your sitemap
How often do you need to submit this sitemap?
Here’s a little habit I do for every single one of my SEO clients whatever SEO package they choose: I submit the website sitemap every Monday. It only takes a few seconds and it’s a gentle nudge to Google saying “hey, come back and check what’s new.” If you’ve published a new blog post that week, this helps Google find it faster. (I also do this on Bing Webmasters which is like the cousin site but helpful in other ways and a blog will come out on that separately!)
But is it working though?
After setting the tool up, you have to check if it’s working. I call this the ‘But Is It Working Though?” pillar of the SEO work I do with my clients.
Once a month, head to the Performance report in the left hand menu on Google Search Console and look at three things:
- Clicks: how many people clicked through to your website from Google search results
- Impressions: how many times your website appeared in search results, whether someone clicked or not
- Search queries: the actual words and phrases people typed in to find you
This is where you find your Clicks and Impressions under Google Search Console
Why should I bother checking the stats on Google Search Console?
Because how else will you know if your efforts (however harsh you’re being on yourself for not doing ‘enough’ or perhaps a lot?) are actually paying off?
For example, if you wrote a blog post about “wedding photography Cornwall” and you can see it’s getting impressions for that phrase but very few clicks, that might mean the text that shows up in Google results aka the SEO title or meta description needs a rethink. If a phrase you didn’t even target is bringing in loads of impressions, that’s a brilliant sign for a future blog post.
For my clients I set up a template spreadsheet and start you off with the past 3 months (if you book Kickstart) or I do this for you if you’re a Shine retainer client and suggest tweaks to your SEO strategy to work with you every month.
The slightly scarier bits in Search Console (and why most of them are fine)
Thing is, Google doesn’t automatically see all the pages on your website. If you head to Pages in the left hand menu, you’ll see Indexed and Not Indexed
- Indexed means Google can see those pages (it counts blogs as pages, confusingly)
- Not indexed means it can’t see those pages and this is sometimes a much bigger number than the pages Google CAN see. This can cause alarm and panic. But no need! But WTF do you do about it?
Here are the reasons Google can’t see your pages and therefore doesn’t index them.
Crawled – currently not indexed
This means Google has looked at the page but decided not to add it to its index, usually because the content feels a bit thin or there isn’t much linking to it. The fix is usually to make the content more juicy and make sure other pages on your site link to it. Once you’ve worked on that page, skip to the part of this blog that says ‘Request indexing’ and job’s a good ‘un.
Priority? It depends what’s on the page. If you want to bring in more bookings via that page then yes!
Discovered – currently not indexed
So, Google knows the page exists but hasn’t got round to crawling it yet. This often sorts itself out over time, but you can help by linking to the page from elsewhere on your site and then skip to the part of this blog that says ‘Request indexing’.
Priority? Again, it depends what’s on the page – if it’s a sales page then yes!
Duplicate without user-selected canonical
This sounds terrifyingly complex but basically means Google has found two pages that look quite similar and isn’t sure which one you want to be the “main” one. Often seen if you have overlapping pages or pages that are too similar (I’m looking at you, folks who write the same page for all locations they want to focus on!) You can fix this by adding a canonical tag, which is a little bit of code that says “this is the one I want indexed, thanks.” If you’re on WordPress, most SEO plugins make this easy to add but if we work together LINK I can help you out here.
Priority? Usually at least one version that’s getting mixed up in this is a priority for you.
Excluded by noindex tag
This one is usually fine and often deliberate. Pages like your cart, login page or thank you pages often have a “noindex” tag because you don’t want them showing up in search results. If you’re seeing this on a page you DO want indexed, that’s when it’s worth investigating.
Priority? Nope! Move on. Unless something really weird has happened with your site, most websites usually noindex the unimportant pages.
Page with redirect
This just means the page redirects somewhere else, which Google has noted and is now indexing the destination page instead. Completely normal and not something to worry about.
Priority? Nope, move on.
Soft 404
This means Google has visited a page and decided it looks like an error page or has very little useful content on it, even if it’s technically “working.” Often the fix is a redirect to a more relevant page, or beefing up the content if the page should exist.
Priority? It depends what’s on the page. If you want to bring in more bookings via that page then yes!
Not found (404)
The page genuinely doesn’t exist. If it’s an old page that’s been removed, you generally don’t need to do anything unless other websites are linking to it, in which case a redirect to a relevant page is a good idea.
Priority? Yes, point to another page that is similar. If there is nothing similar then no action to be taken.
This very much forms part of the SEO work I do for clients so if you don’t have this set up, I do it for you, and then I monitor it all for you too!
What about where other pages or sites link to pages that aren’t being seen by Google?
If you’re doing a bit of a website spring clean and find old blog posts or pages linking to URLs that don’t exist anymore, here’s the general rule of thumb:
– If the page linking to the old link still exists and is live, go in and update or remove that link.
– If the page linking to it no longer exists either, you don’t need to do anything to that page (it’s gone) but it’s worth making sure the old destination URL redirects somewhere sensible, just in case Google or a user stumbles across it.
Requesting Google sees individual page updates
If you’ve published something new, or fixed up an old page, you can ask Google to come and have a look sooner rather than later. In GSC, use the URL Inspection tool at the top of the Google Search Console screen, paste in the specific page URL, and click “Request Indexing.”
This doesn’t guarantee instant results but it does tend to speed things up, especially for brand new content.
Patience, as ever with SEO, is the name of the game
Here’s the thing about Google Search Console and SEO in general tbh! A lot of what you see in there is information rather than urgent.
Google takes time to crawl, re-crawl, index and update things, and sometimes a “fix” you’ve made will show as “failed” in GSC for a while even though it’s actually working fine. This isn’t necessarily a sign you’ve done something wrong!
The most useful thing you can do wisn’t fixing every single thing on day one. It’s building the habit of checking in regularly, submitting your sitemap weekly, and tracking your stats monthly so you can see what’s working and do more of it.
If you’d love someone to handle all of this for you every month, that’s exactly what my Shine SEO retainer does. Or if you want to learn how to do it yourself, Kickstart gives you a full SEO strategy and step by step plan to work through.
Maddy x
Hello! I’m Maddy Shine – your blue haired SEO expert who loves working with women and queer owned businesses to help them get found online. Big fan of championing small businesses, having a pint in small pubs, and can usually be found petting your cat or dog.
Come work with me here
Come and say hi on Instagram here.
Common Questions about Google Search Console
Do I need to check Google Search Console every day?
I've found loads of errors in Google Search Console, should I panic?
Please don’t. Most of what shows up in the Not Indexed section is informational rather than urgent. Work through the list calmly, prioritise anything affecting pages you actually want people to find, and don’t lose sleep over the rest. If in doubt, come work with me
How long does it take for changes to show up in Google Search Console?
Google can take days or even weeks to re-crawl and update information, especially for less frequently visited pages. Patience really is a virtue here. If you’ve made a change and it’s not showing up yet, that doesn’t mean it isn’t working.
What's the difference between impressions and clicks?
Impressions are how many times your page appeared in Google search results. Clicks are how many people actually clicked through to your website. A page with lots of impressions but very few clicks usually means the SEO title or meta description needs a rethink, it’s showing up but not making people want to come in.
What's the difference between Google Search Console and Google Analytics?
Great question and a very common source of confusion! Search Console tells you how Google sees your website and how people find you in search results. Google Analytics tells you what people do once they actually land on your website. You need both and they measure slightly different things, which is why the numbers don’t always match up exactly.
Do I need a developer to fix the errors I find in Google Search Console?
Mostly no. Most fixes involve things like adding a canonical tag, setting up a redirect, or improving the content on a page, all of which can usually be done through your website platform or an SEO plugin like Yoast if you’re on WordPress. If you’re on a Shine retainer with me, I handle all of this for you anyway.
I submitted my sitemap but it still says pending, is that normal?
Yes, completely normal. Google doesn’t process sitemaps instantly. Give it a few days and check back. If it’s been over a week and still showing pending or erroring, that’s worth investigating but in most cases it sorts itself out.
