How to Set Up Google Search Console and Optimise Your Site For The Search Engines

Reviewed by: Em Boston

Fact checked by: Vanda Eldridge

How to Set Up Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a great tool that all websites need to optimise their site and content for the search engines. It’s an essential tool for anyone who wants to give users the best experience, bringing them directly to what they are looking for. Search Console is an analytics tool for sites related to search engine optimisation (SEO). It allows you to monitor your site’s visibility, track the performance of your site, troubleshoot issues with crawling and indexing, and much more. If you have a Google My Business page, you can also manage your listings from this hub. Here are some tips on how to set up Google Search Console and optimise your site for search engines.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free and essential tool for any website owner who wants to track and improve their website’s performance. It’s an analytics tool for sites related to search engine optimisation (SEO). It allows you to monitor your site’s visibility, track the performance of your site, troubleshoot issues with crawling and indexing, and much more. Search Console is an essential tool for anyone who wants to give users the best experience, bringing them directly to what they are looking for. It helps you understand what people are searching for, where they are located, how they’re finding your content, and how they’re engaging with your site. This information will help you optimise your site to show up higher in search engine results.

How to Set Up Google Search Console

Google Search ConsoleHere are the steps to setting up your Google Search Console account:

  1. To start, log in to your Google account.
  2. On the right-hand side of your screen, click the “Webmaster Tools” icon also known as “Search Console”. Next, click “Add a new site”. For the “Site URL”, enter your website’s full, correct URL. For example https://www.yourdomain.com.
  3. To submit your websites sitemap, select “Sitemaps” within the “Index” area and add your sitemap
  4. After completing these steps, Google will review your site and confirm its presence in its index. From there, you can track your site’s performance with Google Search Console, view your site’s Google indexing information, and more.

If using WordPress, your sitemap URL will be: www.yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Add your site to Google’s index

When you add your site to Google Search Console, you’re adding it to their index. This is the first step in optimising and improving your site. When you add your site to the index, it allows Google to crawl and analyse your content, bringing your site higher in search results. For example, let’s say you own a bakery in Gloucester called “Baker’s Bay”. If you’re baking delicious cakes, cookies, and other pastries, you want people to find you online. You want to be the first thing they see when they search for “bakery near me” or “best desserts in Gloucester”. When people search for these foods, you’re hoping the first thing they see is “Baker’s Bay”.

Monitor your site with Google Search Console

Once you’ve added your site to Google Search Console, you can monitor your site’s visibility and performance. This will help you identify any issues that might prevent your site from being fully indexed. Log in to your Google Search Console account and click “Manage site”. Here, you’ll find a list of your verified sites. Next, click “Crawl” to see a list of URLs that Google has attempted to crawl. These are the pages that Google has found and is currently analysing. You’ll also see the status of each URL and whether or not Google has found any issues crawling or indexing your site.

Track Your Rankings and Keywords

By tracking your keywords and rankings, you’ll be able to identify what works and what doesn’t. This will allow you to create content that resonates with users and improves your site’s performance. In your Google Search Console account, click “Rankings” to see your site’s current rankings for various keywords. You can also click “Keywords” to see your most-searched keywords. You’ll also be able to see average monthly searches per keyword, click-through rate, average position, and more.

Conclusion

The Google Search Console is a free and essential tool for any website owner who wants to track and improve their site’s performance – especially via Local SEO. Once you’ve added your site to Google’s index, you can monitor your site’s visibility and performance, track your rankings and keywords, and troubleshoot issues with crawling and indexing. By tracking your keywords and rankings, you’ll be able to identify what works and what doesn’t. This will allow you to create content that resonates with users and improves your site’s performance.


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