If you have a website of any kind, you may have heard of Google Search Console. If you’re new to this tool or you’re curious how it can help your business, keep reading.
Google Search Console is a free service from Google that lets you learn about your website – overall performance, how the search engine views your site, and information about the people who visit it.
When you create an account, you get access to a dashboard that shows specific information about your website such as:
- Who is backlinking to your site
- Mobile performance
- Rich search results
- Highest-traffic pages and queries
You can use this information to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site. And all of this helps you build a better presence in Google search results.
Why You Should Set Up Google Search Console for Your Business
You don’t have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but doing so gives you an advantage – you can optimize how Google sees your site. This is why we recommend that all business owners add their site to Google Search Console.
In our experience as SEO consultants, the biggest benefit your business gets from setting up Google Search Console is this: You get access to all the search queries driving traffic to your site. One more time for the folks in the back—Google will tell you exactly which keywords are driving traffic and clicks to your site.
If you have clear SEO goals that you’re working towards, this is primo info for your business! For data nerds like us, this is gold, because insights like these can unlock game-changing tweaks to your SEO strategy.
Google Search Console lets you look under the hood of your website and see which parts need work:
- Once you have the tool set up, Google will alert you of any errors on your site
- You can also submit an XML sitemap (aka a roadmap for your site) via Search Console, making it easier for Google to find your most important pages and posts
- Adding your site to Google Search Console is like sending a formal invitation to crawl your site. This enables better, faster crawling and makes you more discoverable (which is especially helpful if your site is brand new)
- Historical data about your site performance over time
In summary, Google Search Console is one of the best tools to use if you want to make sure your SEO campaigns are thriving.
If you’re ready to get started, great! There are a few steps involved, but it’s not that complicated. And it’s worth it to get a hold of valuable information for your business.
If you have any questions about GSC or any other SEO-related topics, give us a shout!
