Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free Google tool that helps website owners monitor, maintain and troubleshoot how their site appears in Google Search. Your site can show up on Google without it, but Search Console is how you find out what Google actually sees.

What is Google Search Console used for?

Search Console helps you (Search Console Help, About Search Console, accessed October 2026):

• Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.
• Fix indexing problems and request reindexing of new or updated pages.
• See how often your site appears on Google, for which queries, and how many people click.
• Get alerts when Google runs into indexing, spam or other issues.
• See which sites link to yours, in other words your backlinks.

When a new issue comes up, Search Console emails you. Google suggests checking in about once a month (Google Search Central, Get started with Search Console, accessed October 2026).

How to get started with Google Search Console

1. Add a property. A Domain property (such as example.com) covers every subdomain and both http and https. A URL-prefix property only includes URLs that start with exactly what you entered, protocol included (Search Console Help, Add a website property, accessed October 2026).
2. Verify ownership. A Domain property can only be verified with a DNS record. A URL-prefix property has more options: upload an HTML file to the root folder, add a meta tag to the head of your homepage, or use an existing Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager snippet. WordPress sites can use Site Kit, the only plugin officially sponsored by Google (Search Console Help, Verify your site ownership, accessed October 2026).
3. Submit a sitemap if you need one, in the Sitemaps report.
4. Wait a few days after adding the property for data to show up.

4 reports to check first

Performance. Four metrics: clicks, impressions, CTR (clicks divided by impressions) and average position. By default it shows the last 3 months, broken down by query, page, country and device (Search Console Help, Performance report, accessed October 2026). Appearances in AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted within the Web search type (Google Search Central, AI features and your website, accessed October 2026).

Page indexing. How many URLs are and are not indexed, with the reason. Not indexed is not always a problem: duplicates, noindex pages and deleted pages returning 404 are all valid reasons. Google says a site under 500 pages probably does not need this report; a site:yourdomain.com search on Google is enough (Search Console Help, Page indexing report, accessed October 2026).

URL Inspection. See Google’s indexed version of a single URL, run a live test and request indexing. “URL is on Google” means the page is eligible to appear, not that it is guaranteed to (Search Console Help, URL Inspection tool, accessed October 2026).

Sitemaps. “Submitting” a sitemap only tells Google where the file lives. A site of about 500 pages or fewer, where every page can be reached by links from the homepage, probably does not need a sitemap. A successfully read sitemap also does not mean every URL in it will be crawled (Search Console Help, Sitemaps report, accessed October 2026).

Example: reading the Performance report (hypothetical)

A category page gets 20,000 impressions over 3 months at a 1.5% CTR, which is 300 clicks. You rewrite the title and meta description to state the price and delivery area. The next quarter CTR rises to 3%: the same 20,000 impressions now bring 600 clicks.

Buying those extra 300 clicks on Google Ads at a CPC of VND 4,000 would cost VND 1.2 million a quarter. That is what the title fix is worth, priced at ad rates.

Frequently asked questions

How is Search Console different from Google Analytics?

Search Console tells you what happens on Google’s results page: impressions, clicks, queries and indexing errors. Google Analytics measures what visitors do after they land on your site.

Does Search Console help my site rank higher?

Not directly. Google states that adding a property does not change how your site appears in Google Search. The tool gives you the data to do SEO where it matters.

If you need Search Console data combined with your ad data, see Adtek’s SEO solution.