In the last text of our blog you learned how to read and optimize all the data from your website withGoogle Analytics. Today we will deepen the knowledge acquired, explaining you, in a simple way, what isGoogle Search Consolewhich is also a free tool, can help you make sure that your site is found and indexed correctly in search engines. So, shall we go for it?
What is Google Search Console and how does it work?
O Google Search Console is ideal for you who are looking for more information about access, search and SEO of your site. It brings together tools and reports that help the administrator find problems on the page and fix them quickly so that the right people find you in the top positions on Google search engines.
Overall, this tool suggests the following improvements:
- Improve the loading speed of your site by identifying which images should be compressed and which pages are overloaded with heavy files;
- Provide metrics to monitor the performance of your site’s traffic in Google searches and on mobile devices;
- Make decisions when creating strategies for improving backlinks and tweaking HTML code;
- Suggest changes in SEO strategy, checking the indexing and ranking status of pages;
- –Internal link boosting.
So in practice, by using Search Console, you get it:
- Find out what content is most attractive;
- Avoid outages, loading and server errors, malicious intrusions;
- Maximize the efficiency of other tools such as Google Analytics, Google Trends, and Google AdWords;
- Metrics analysis to monitor your site’s traffic performance in Google searches and on mobile devices;
- Accurate and individual reports.
In addition, the Search Console also tells you if there are problems with Google indexing your page, whether there is a need for tag enhancements, and how traffic is doing in general.
How do I set up Google Search Console on my site?
Now that we have clarified the concept of Google Search Console, let’s get to practice. To enjoy the benefits of the tool, you need to configure it on your site. So follow the step-by-step instructions below:
Step 1
Sign in with your Gmail account, open the dropdown menu and select + Add Property.
Step 2
Choose Between Domain e URL Prefix and enter your site address in the desired option, following the installation instructions.
Step 3
Follow the property’s confirmation guidelines. If you have chosen the Domain in the previous step, you will need to make a change in the site’s DNS. If you chose URL Prefixprefix, we recommend that you select the HTML Tag option for easier and faster checking.
Step 4
After performing the above procedure on your site, go back to the Search Console and press the button Check.
Step 5
Finished! Everything is already working.
How to use Google Search Console?
Now, after setting it up on your website, let’s get to the most important point of this text: how to use Google Search Console? Below we explain some of the main functionalities of this complete tool:
Overview
Here you can check your site’s performance report, choose a custom time period for analysis (pre-determined date or specific date), and filters such as web, image, or video.
In addition to making comparisons between filters, both of search type and dates.
Performance
Already here, Search Console delivers comprehensive data such as click-through rate, CTR, and total impressions. Therefore, these metrics are important to drive your marketing strategy.
In this tab you can also evaluate other features, such as: finding out where people come to your site (or keywords), the indexed pages that are shown most in searches, countries where your site is popular, mobile device performance, and search aspects.
This is where you will extract all the reports with important metrics, which we explain a bit later.
Index
In the “Index” column you have access to two items, as seen in the following image: coverage and sitemaps.
Under coverage, you will see errors from pages of your site that are indexed by indexed by Google, those that have been removed and blocked.
In sitemaps, on the other hand, we find the site map – the favorite item for search engines. In short, the Sitemap is a file that clarifies to Google or another search engine, for example, the structure of a site, as well as its updates and the main pages to be indexed.
One simple way to create a sitemap, is with the Yoast SEO tool. So in this sense, when you enable the XML sitemap function in Yoast, it automatically generates a sitemap and updates it when you add a new comment, notifying search engines when you add new content.
Improvements
In the column below we have items that correspond to improvements. There you can evaluate, for example, the site’s performance on mobile devices and check whether everything is working as it should.
Links
Now, finally, pay attention to this important tip: links! In Google Search Console you have access to your external links and internal links.
The external links are those that are outside your site, but that lead to a certain page on your property/domain. On the other hand internal linksInternal links are those that are inside your site.
In this tab, you can also report on these links, which indicate duplicate content links, as well as recent links indicated to your site. You will find the following information in this report:
- Linked domains – the sites that point to yours;
- Linked pages from other sites;
- Your site’s pages appear in search engine searches;
- Link texts that lead to your site;
- External links from specific sites that point to your page;
- Sites with external links from your site.
How can Google Search Console help optimize your website?
Google Search Console uses a number of techniques and reports that help with page optimization. The goal is to generate more visits, engagement, and conversions.
In the tool’s “Performance” tab, you see four important metrics for you to consider on a monthly basis to help optimize your page. Keep an eye on them:
- impressions: number of times the URL of your site or pages appeared in Google search engines. As such, it is important to see how well your content is being considered in Google’s selection for users’ searches;
- Clicks: the number of clicks your site has gained when it has become relevant in Google search results. Then you can reveal how interested people are in the content titles of your publications;
- CTR: is a relationship between the two previous metrics. So with it, you get to know the percentage of impressions that a click generates;
- Position: is the average ranking of your site’s URLs in search results.
Finally, it is worth noting that like any Google tool, it is important to always explore and understand its services to constantly improve your digital marketing strategy.
So if you want to become relevant in searches and make your site an important sales tool, you can count on the support of a digital marketing agency. Make contact right now! Click here and talk to one of our specialists.
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