Guide
Google Search Console for beginners: set it up and read it
Search Console is Google’s free tool for site owners. This guide takes you from no property at all to the first reports worth reading, with notes for WordPress sites.
What Search Console shows you
Google Search Console shows how your site appears in Google Search: which searches show your pages, how often people click, which pages Google has indexed, which it hasn’t, and why. It is free, and it shows data only for sites whose ownership you have verified.
It doesn’t change your rankings by itself. It tells you what Google sees, so you can fix what stands in the way.
Set up Search Console in four steps
1. Choose a property type
Open Search Console and add a property. A Domain property covers every address of your site: http and https, with and without www, and every subdomain. A URL prefix property covers only the addresses that start with exactly what you enter, such as https://www.example.com/.
Choose Domain if you can edit your domain’s DNS records. Otherwise, URL prefix works well.
2. Verify that the site is yours
For a Domain property, Google gives you a TXT record to add in your domain provider’s DNS settings. A DNS change can take a while to apply. For a URL prefix property you can also upload an HTML file or add a meta tag to your home page.
Leave the record, file or tag in place after verification: removing it can cost you the verified ownership.
3. Submit your sitemap
In the Sitemaps report, enter the address of your sitemap and submit it. WordPress 5.5 and later creates one at /wp-sitemap.xml. If you use Yoast SEO, its sitemap is at /sitemap_index.xml.
A sitemap helps Google find your pages. It doesn’t guarantee that they will be indexed.
4. Add users when someone needs access
Open Settings, then Users and permissions, and press Add user. A Full user can see all data and take some actions; a Restricted user can see most data. Only owners can add or remove users.
To connect GO BEST SEO, you add our service address as a Full user. Our connection only reads, and you can remove it at any time.
The reports to read first
Performance
Clicks, impressions, average click-through rate and average position in Google Search. Filter by query, page, country or device, and compare two date ranges. The data is usually a couple of days behind, and the report keeps 16 months of history.
Pages (indexing)
Which pages are indexed, which aren’t, and the reason for each group, such as a noindex tag, a redirect, or a page Google crawled but hasn’t indexed.
URL Inspection
Enter one address to see whether it is indexed, when Google last crawled it and how Google sees it. You can ask Google to crawl a changed page from here; Google decides whether and when.
Average position is not a promise
The average position is an average over every search that showed your page. A page can rank high for some searches and low for others, so read it next to clicks and impressions.
Search Console questions
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. Google provides it free to site owners. You need a Google account and a site whose ownership you can verify.
Domain or URL prefix: which should I choose?
A Domain property is the most complete, because it covers every version of your site, but it needs a DNS change. A URL prefix property is quicker to verify with a file or a tag. You can have both for the same site.
Is it safe to add a tool as a user?
Users can see your search data, and Full users can also take some actions in Search Console. Add only tools and people you trust, and remove access you no longer need. GO BEST SEO only reads.
Let your Search Console data work for you
GO BEST SEO reads your Search Console data, scans your WordPress site on a schedule and reports every Monday.